Chapter 4
"I take it that was your boyfriend?" Leo asked after an awkward silence between him and Gabby as they sat down to eat.
"Not anymore." Gabby muttered while twirling her fork round in her hand. Leo smirked and Gabby looked up to see his expression just in time.
"Stop it!" Gabby said in annoyance.
"What?" Leo replied in mock innocence with widened eyes.
"He wasn't good enough for you anyway." Leo said seriously after a moment of silence. Gabby covered a small smile with hand over her mouth for a second.
"You say that about every one of my boyfriends." Gabby replied with a raised eyebrow.
"Because it's the truth." Leo retorted while taking another big mouthful of food. Gabby smiled as she watched her brother enjoy the food she made.
"That is the one thing you and Antonio both agree with." Gabby commented with a taste of bitterness.
"I don't want to talk about Antonio." Leo quietly commented while avoiding eye contact with Gabby. Gabby paused and took a look at how tense Leo became over Antonio's name and decided to drop the unspoken subject for now.
"Alright, want to talk about what you have been eating lately as you are demolishing this food!" Gabby said with a joking tone. Leo smirked while stuffing another pile into his mouth.
"Not a lot, no one cooks for me like you Gabby," Leo said while reaching a hand out over the table to grab Gabby's hand and give it a grateful squeeze of appreciation. "I do have a serious case of the munchies too." Leo added with a wink which Gabby huffed a laugh at.
They soon finished their dinner and Gabby collected the plates to put them in the sink for washing up later and they then moved to sit in the living room, turning the tv on to watch some unrecognisable drama program.
"Is something wrong Leo?" Gabby asked after they sat in silence for 10 minutes while they watched the tv together.
"No." Leo answered bluntly, trying not to look at Gabby with her searching eyes.
"Don't lie to me." Gabby retorted softly while trying to catch Leo's eye. Leo sighed before turning to look at his older sister.
"Can't I just want to see my sister who is a goddess at cooking?" Leo asked with a raised eyebrow. Gabby in similar fashion raised an eyebrow back not believing Leo at all. She noted how tense he had been since stepping into her apartment and she couldn't miss how he looked around the block's corridor before entering.
Gabby got up from the couch and went to her window and peered down below to the road where she could see Leo's car with Angelo inside waiting. There was another black SUV behind with blacked out windows but Gabby was able to make out movement behind the tint of the vehicle being occupied.
"Then why is Angelo waiting in your car with a SUV full of men behind him? That's not normal." Gabby asked with concern while stepping away from the window to face Leo.
Leo didn't take his eyes off the tv and stayed silent, not wanting to answer Gabby's questions. Gabby huffed and stepped in front of Leo, blocking the tv with crossed arms.
"Don't worry about it Gabby." Leo said with a weak smile.
"I'm not going to let this go Leo. Talk to me." Gabby demanded not budging an inch. Leo huffed and slouched further on the couch. He forgot how demanding and assertive his sister is.
"I can't but don't worry I have everything handled." Leo told his sister who still frowned making the little 'v' mark on her forehead which he adored. Leo pulled his sister into a hug in reassurance, his 6 foot height towering over his sister's small stature. Gabby continued to frown but hugged her younger brother back.
"I've got to go." Leo told her breaking the silence before pulling back from her arms. Gabby tried to read his face but couldn't see much emotion at all. Gabby hated when Leo did this. He never let her in fully to what was going on in this life. Gabby was normally grateful for it, not wanting to be caught up in gang related business but it was times like this that she wanted to take more of an interest.
"Ok, I'll walk you down." Gabby told him, making a plan in her mind. Leo nodded in acknowledgement before they began gathering their coats to go outside. They were silent as they walked down the apartment blocks stairs together.
When the SUV men saw Leo and Gabby coming out of the building, the man in the passenger seat of the black SUV wound down his window to nod at Leo in acknowledgement, Angelo got out of the driver's seat of Leo's car and smiled at Gabby's appearance.
"Hi Chica, I'm heartbroken you never invited me in for dinner." Angelo acted wounded with a hand to his chest where his heart rested. Gabby smirked as she walked up to Angelo.
"I didn't know you were here until I looked out of my window to see you rocking out in Leo's car." Gabby pointedly said with suspicion deep in her voice. Angelo paused and his smile dropped slightly as he took a quick look to her left where Leo stood slightly behind her. Gabby resisted the urge to look behind at Leo but could make out a faint nod shake which raised her ire even more.
"What's going on Angelo?" Gabby cut straight to the point ignoring Leo to her left. Gabby has known Angelo since he was 5 and he always caved way before Leo ever did.
"Urrr Gabs you know…. the usual." Angelo hesitated in answering and frankly not even convincing enough to fool a baby. Angelo rubbed the back of his neck nervously.
"Uh huh," Gabby nodded unconvincingly. "Why won't you two talk to me?" Gabby demanded quietly enough for them to hear but not enough for the men in the SUV to hear, she didn't know them or trust them. She could tell by the tattoos they were Latin Kings too.
Leo grabbed Gabby's arm forcefully pulling her into his chest so he could talk in her ear.
"Shit is going down and I don't want you involved, ok? Leave it. I'm taking care of it." Leo harshly whispered into her ear. Gabby's frowned deepened and she went to open her mouth again but seeing both Leo and Angelo's serious faces, she closed her mouth again.
"Are you two at least safe?" Gabby asked worriedly while side glancing at the black SUV with armed men in it. Angelo and Leo shared a look between them that Gabby didn't catch before Angelo and Leo nodded.
"Yeah, we will be fine. Those men over there are going to protect us, ok?" Leo tried to reassure his sister. Gabby gave him an unconvinced look but nodded in acceptance. She couldn't meddle in gang activity, Antonio might actually kill her.
"Alright if you say so but if you need anything you let me know, ok?" Gabby protectively told him while also looking at Angelo, who she had a soft spot for. Leo and Angelo had been best friends since they were still in diapers. Leo nodded and brought his sister back into another hug.
It was at that moment that the squeal of tires were heard as a pimped out dark blue SUV swerved round the corner at speed with music blaring from inside. It was going too fast for Leo's men to get out of their black SUV and the sound of automatic gunfire soon took over the quiet night air. Angelo ducked behind Leo's car, covering his head with his hand while fumbling to get his handgun out from the back of his pants. Leo pushed Gabby to the floor and followed after her. It all happened in slow motion for Gabby who was panting in panic and happened to lock eyes with Angelo who held out his arm motioning for her to stay down even with Leo's full weight on top of her trying to protect her from the flying bullets.
After the car finished its drive through pass and swerved round the corner out of sight, Gabby tried to push Leo's weight off of her as it was making it hard to breath. Leo groaned and rolled over reluctantly. Gabby looked down to see blood soaking her coat and she quickly patted herself down in a panic but couldn't feel any pain from a bullet wound. Leo groaned again from her left and she realised in horror that Leo was wounded. Gabby as quickly as she could, crawled over to Leo with tears already falling from her eyes.
"Leo," Gabby shrieked, her hands reaching for him and trying to find out where he was hit. "Where are you hit?" Gabby asked him but didn't receive much of a response as he continued to groan in pain. Gabby then quickly decided to unzip his coat and found the source of the bleeding quickly pouring from his left shoulder.
"It's not that bad, it's not that bad Leo." Gabby repeated to Leo, reassuring Leo when she didn't even know the full extent of his wound. Angelo was standing behind the now damaged car pointing his gun to where the shooting vehicle disappeared to encase it came back around.
"Angelo, help me," Gabby grabbed Angelo's attention away from the street. Gabby was putting as much pressure as she could on Leo's shoulder with her hands that were now covered in blood. "I need your sweatshirt; I need to put pressure on his shoulder to stop the bleeding!" Angelo took one last look at the street in wary before kneeling beside Leo and Gabby. He stripped himself of his sweatshirt and passed it over to Gabby who quickly pushed it onto Leo's shoulder forcefully causing Leo to let out a yelp in pain. Angelo winced at his friend's pain and turned around to warily watch the street again.
"We need to go." Angelo told Gabby and Leo a second before suddenly the distant sound of police sirens filled the air.
"We need to go now!" Angelo demanded while Gabby was still scrambling to stance the bleeding.
"He needs a hospital." Gabby told Angelo, her tears drying and her paramedic side kicking in.
"You know he can't go to a hospital," Angelo told her shaking his head rapidly "Even if he did, he would be a sitting duck and it wouldn't take long for them to know he's there and take him out." Angelo told her, looking years older than he was.
"Who wants to take him out?" Gabby questioned, feeling lost and scared for her younger brother. Angelo shook his head frantically as the police sirens were heard closer to their position.
"We don't have time for this; we need to get him in the car vamos!" Angelo told her, already making his way to the car to fold down the front seat to get Leo in the back.
Angelo came back for Leo and half pulled him up with Leo groaning in pain. Gabby protested and tried to weakly stop Angelo but he was determined and he quickly lifted Leo into the back as softly as he could.
"He needs a doctor!" Gabby protested while helplessly wringing her blood covered hands together in fear.
"Go home Gabby, I've got him." Angelo told her with a weak smile. Gabby shook her head while looking at her brother groaning in agony. Leo muttered something and Gabby climbed in the back of the car to hear him better.
"What is it Leo?" Gabby asked him while trying to get him to look at her, caressing his face.
"You need to come with us, they may have seen you." Leo weakly said loud enough for Angelo to hear also, Leo nodded at Angelo who shut the car door before he ran over to get in the driver's side. Angelo signalled to the men in the black SUV who got back in their vehicle also.
"You need to tell me what's going on." Gabby told Leo after they peeled away from her building, tires squealing in protest. The black SUV followed them as they whizzed through Chicago's streets a minute before the police showed up to an empty sidewalk with a moderate sized blood pool and multiple used bullet casings.
-Line Break-
Antonio was sitting at this desk typing up a report on the last arrest he made when Voight made his way over to him after he spoke to a detective he knew in passing around the Precinct.
"Antonio," Voight's raspy voice gained his attention and his grave face didn't inspire confidence that this conversation was going to be pleasant. "I've got something you are going to want to see." Voight told him. Antonio raised an eyebrow in confusion but got up to follow Voight to the tech room where Jay was already waiting, standing behind the tech assistant who looked very hesitant and nervous. Jay didn't look much better and kept biting his lip.
"What's going on?" Antonio questioned with dread after looking at everyone's faces.
"There was a report of gunfire last night and a couple of squads responded to the call but only found a pool of blood and bullet casings when they got there, we just got the camera footage from the apartment block now." Voight explained and then nodded for the tech to pull up the footage onto the big screen.
Antonio immediately recognised the street in the video and looked at Voight.
"That's outside Gabby's building." Antonio commented, all of a sudden dreading what he was going to see.
Antonio watched as Gabby and Leo came out of the building and met with Angelo at the car talking. Gabby didn't look very happy and Antonio suddenly wished the camera had audio.
Then he saw the moment everyone's faces changed as they ducked for cover as a dark SUV whizzed past spraying bullets where Leo, Gabby and Angelo were. Antonio gulped nervously as he didn't see any of them get up for a minute from the angle of the camera.
Suddenly he saw movement and saw Gabby's head crouching over someone and she had blood on the front of her top and around her neck. Antonio then saw Angelo yanking up Leo who was clearly wounded and out of reality into the car before Gabby followed after and the car then raced off with a black SUV following behind. The screen then cut to black although Antonio continued to stare at the screen thinking about what he just saw.
"Antonio." Voight called, trying to get his attention. Antonio didn't respond.
Fucking hell Gabby