Chapter 5
"I need gauze!" Gabby demanded as she tried to stem the bleeding with her hands now covered in Leo's blood. Angelo rushed over and shoved the sparse first aid equipment into her hands. Leo was grunting in pain but not as much as before.
"Is he going to be ok?" Angelo anxiously asked. Gabby ignored Angelo and kept trying to stem the source of the bleeding.
"I don't know what damage has been done internally," Gabby muttered anxiously "He needs a hospital!" Gabby demanded for the tenth time.
"No hospitals!" Leo muttered in pain between deep breaths.
"We can't Gabby!" Angelo pleaded with her. Gabby frowned but didn't take the point further.
They were in a safe house of the Latin Kings on the edge of the city, deep in gang territory. It made Gabby nervous, but she tried to steady her focus on Leo instead.
Gabby finished fixing up Leo's wound as best as she could 20 minutes later and Leo was now resting due to the blood loss.
Gabby rubbed her hands together still stained with her brother's blood in painful silence for a few minutes before turning to Angelo who was sitting down still in shock.
"What the hell is going on Angelo?" Gabby asked, not letting him brush the question off anymore.
Angelo laughed nervously after seeing Gabby's angry face that he knew all too well. Angelo dry huffed and attempted to make a swift exit, but Gabby was too fast and caught his wrist before he could get far. Gabby raised an eyebrow as Angelo reluctantly looked anywhere but making eye contact.
"So um we might be in a dispute with the Black Disciples." Angelo admitted while rubbing his neck.
"What?" Gabby exclaimed with wide eyes.
"Don't worry about it Gabs." Angelo tried to reassure her.
"How can I not worry about it?! Leo just got shot and we nearly did too!" Gabby retorted.
"I'm handling it." Leo's voice broke up their conversation as he attempted to sit up.
"Don't move, you need to rest, you lost quite a bit of blood." Gabby told him, pushing him back into a lying down position.
"I don't have time to rest, I need to plan our next move." Leo stubbornly protested but Gabby's hand holding him down was too strong for his weak body at the moment.
"Let someone else do it!" Gabby demanded, not even bothering to protest against the eruption of more violence knowing that they won't listen to her.
"Gabby…" Angelo said trailing off, not knowing what to say to her. Leo and Angelo shared a look between each other not knowing whether to tell her or not. Gabby caught onto the unspoken conversation, and she faltered from what she was going to say next.
"What is it?" Gabby asked, voice not as strong now.
"Gabs… I'm a lieutenant now and an attack on me is an attack on our whole gang. They have just declared war." Leo told her reluctantly. Gabby covered her mouth with her hand in dread.
-Line Break-
"Have you found her yet?" Antonio demanded as he came into the room where the rest of his squad was, Voight following behind.
"We lost the car carrying Gabby on 26th street. Cameras are not operational in that area, but we are scouring nearby cameras to see if we can pick up the car again." Kim told Antonio
"26th? That's Latin King territory. They could be going to a safe house if Leo is wounded." Antonio said while analysing a map of the area. Voight was beside him looking at the map with interest.
"They could be anywhere in this 2-block radius, but the trouble is that if we start knocking down doors they could flee before we find them. We need to be smart about this Antonio." Voight told Antonio and the rest of the team who was listening intently. Antonio continued to look at the map without saying anything further.
A man in a sharp suit came up the stairs accompanied by Trudy.
"Ah right on time," Voight said as he stepped away from the map to greet the man "Everyone this is Detective Mann, he is an expert on keeping tabs on the Latin Kings." Voight introduced the man.
"Thanks for coming Steve." Voight said while shaking Steve's hand.
"Not a problem although it is not the best time for this to be happening, shit is going down out there." Steve told them.
"What do you mean?" Antonio asked with a frown, and he crossed his arms as he faced the new man.
"That car that shot up the Latin Kings? it was the Black Disciples. They have just declared war." Steve Mann told the room who sucked in an uncomfortable breath as they realised the danger of what Gabby has found herself in the middle of.
"Declared war?" Upton questioned. Steve moved over to their board where Gabby and Leo's faces were pinned up and pointed to Leo's.
"Leo Santiago? He's a Lieutenant now and they will want vengeance." Steve announced to the room. The group grumbled at the new information and Antonio felt his stomach drop at the news. Voight watched his face carefully.
"What exactly is Gabby and your relationship with Leo Santiago?" Voight questioned with narrowed eyes. Antonio rubbed his forehead for a moment before dropping his hand in helplessness.
"He's our half-brother." Antonio told the room before storming out, wanting desperately to hit something.
- Line Break-
"Hey, have you seen Casey?" Antonio asked Hermann and Cruz who were talking near their rig while storming into the firehouse, not slowing down his pace any.
"Yeah, in the back." Hermann replied in his thick Chicago accent with a frown, Cruz looked uneasy about Antonio's sudden urgent appearance.
"Casey!" Antonio called out in the firehouse as he stormed around the workplace of his sister, urgency clear in his voice.
Casey heard the call for him and came out of his bunk room where he met Antonio.
"Hey, if Gabby shows up here tell me immediately, ok?" Antonio told him straight to the point. Casey frowned but nodded anyway, sharing a concerned look with Severide who was also in the room and overheard everything.
"Call me immediately, got it?" Antonio repeated himself pointing at him before making a swift exit, almost as swift as he came in.
"What was that about?" Severide questioned with concern. Casey continued to frown but didn't reply.
-Line Break-
Casey went to Gabby's apartment straight after shift, but he was stopped initially by police who had cordoned off the area next to Gabby's apartment building. Casey tried speaking to the uniformed officer but wasn't getting anywhere and they also were making it difficult to get any information as to why there is a cordoned police area near Gabby's apartment.
Casey luckily was able to see Voight (not his favourite person) and Antonio just beyond the police tape and he called out to them desperately.
Antonio and Voight shared a look with each other before making their way over to the flustered fire Lieutenant.
"What the hell is going on? First you came to the firehouse demanding I call you if I see Gabby and now there is police tape restricting access to her building? What the hell?" Casey blurted out looking at Antonio when speaking.
"Casey-" Antonio started with a sigh while scratching his head.
"Don't fob me off Antonio! Gabby is part of our fire family and if something has happened to her, I need to know!" Casey interrupted Antonio determinedly. Voight watched the interaction between the two men silently.
"She's fine, ok?" Antonio reassured him, not even believing his own words but trying to sound as convincing as possible "We just can't find her at the moment." Antonio told him truthfully.
"What do you mean you can't find her?" Casey demanded while taking a step forward towards Antonio. Voight made his presence known and pushed on Casey's chest to back off.
"There was a drive by shooting outside her building, she wasn't hit but she's in the wind at the moment." Antonio told him as honestly as he could.
"In the wind?" Casey questioned, eyebrows furrowing even more in confusion. Why would Gabby run away after a drive by?
"She's with our half-brother, he got hit and Gabby is probably trying to take care of him, that's why she went with them and now we can't find them." Antonio told him, still not able to refer to Leo as his brother.
Half-brother? Casey questioned in his mind.
"Them? Half-brother? What the hell is going on?" Casey asked, more bewildered than ever.
"I heard he made an appearance at your firehouse the other day. Leo Santiago is our half-brother, and he is a Lieutenant in the Latin Kings." Antonio told him "There's nothing you can do Casey so go home and I will let you know when we find her, ok?" Antonio told him.
"No I can help and anyway I don't think Gabby is going to listen to you after the fight you two had recently." Casey retorted crossing his arms in defiance. Voight raised an eyebrow at that new information but kept silent.
They eventually agreed to let Casey in the loop and to help however much he can before Voight and Antonio walked away back to their car.
"You never told me you and Gabby fought recently." Voight commented with his rusty voice.
"I didn't think it was important." Antonio replied defensively. Voight did his usual humph before getting in the car, Antonio following. When they were back on the road speeding back to the Precinct, Voight spoke up again.
"If it was about what I think it is then it is important," Voight said, "Don't allow your mind to be clouded." Voight warned with a serious undertone that Antonio recognised all too well.
"I won't." Antonio promised while looking out at the city passing by.
-Line Break-
"Leo! Gabby!" Angelo shouted while running back into the room the two siblings were resting in. They both jumped at the loud shouting and sat up, Leo more gingerly than Gabby from the worn sofa.
"We have to move, cops are increasing their presence in the area, and they are getting closer," Angelo told them while rushing to gather their things "We have a new safe house to get to, now!" Angelo told the pair. Leo winced while sitting up and grabbed his handgun to put it in the back of his pants. Gabby was slower to the urgency and was hesitant in her movements.
"Why do we have to go? We've done nothing wrong!" Gabby told them. Leo scoffed in disbelief at his sister.
"Don't be so naïve Gabby, if the police had the chance, they'll shoot me where I'm standing." Leo told her darkly. Angelo stayed silent.
"No they won't! Antonio-" Gabby replied before being cut off again.
"Antonio? I wouldn't put it past him for him to be the first to shoot me." Leo retorted sourly. This time it was Gabby's turn to scoff.
"You don't really believe that do you?" Gabby argued genuinely curious.
"Yeah, I do," Leo replied while gathering the last of their things "If you want to stay here and wait for Antonio be my guest but I have no intention of being here when him and the rest of the blood suckers show up." Leo told her before leaving the room, Angelo shortly following afterwards with an apologetic look for Gabby. Gabby bit her lip and deliberated whether to follow Leo or stay here for Antonio. It took her a few seconds to make her hasty decision and she ran after Leo and Angelo who had just got in the car, Gabby barged her way through to sit in the back seat next to Leo who still looked pale due to the blood loss without a word to either of them. As they drove away the faint noise of sirens got louder and louder, descending on their previous location.
-Line Break-
Antonio, Voight, and the rest of the squad barged into the now empty safe house of the Latin Kings. They moved room to room clearing every square inch before holstering their weapons again when the all clear was echoed.
"Antonio!" Voight called for the Hispanic who quickly joined Voight in the back room.
"They were definitely here alright and given how the room has been left… It looks like we just missed them." Voight told his squad mate after surveying the room.
Drops of blood were splattered on the floor, not enough to worry but enough to know Leo was still alive. Bloody gauze and bandages were also discarded on the concrete floor along with other medical equipment that only a professional would know how to use. Gabby.
Antonio surveyed the room with critical eyes, looking for some sort of message from Gabby but there was none. His anger quickly rose and toppled over; Antonio kicked over a trash can in frustration as Voight watched from the edge of the room in silence.
Gabby what the hell are you doing and where the hell are you?