Chapter 8
"In here, come on!" Angelo beckoned the two siblings, while holding the door open of an abandoned house next to the old railway line. Leo and Gabby quickly made their way inside the dilapidated building that looked like it had gone unoccupied for several years.
"What is this place?" Gabby asked, half in disgust and half in relief that they were off the streets.
"It used to be old man Johnson's house. He died around 6 years ago, and it has been vacant ever since. I guess no one wanted to live here." Leo explained to Gabby with heavy breathing from the recent exercise they had been doing.
"Yeah, I can't imagine why." Gabby muttered sarcastically under her breath while swearing up and down she saw something small and furry move in the corner of the room.
-Line Break-
"Park here," Voight instructed Antonio who was driving the car as fast as he could to Ryback and Smith. "The officers are still under fire, and we need to get the long guns out." Voight ordered. Antonio obeyed the order and parked the car a block away from where the officers were. The squad geared up and checked their guns over before proceeding towards the scene of officers in trouble.
"Watch each other's backs, this is Latin King territory, and we don't know what surprises they may have in store for us." Voight whispered to the team as they moved as one in a tight formation. The squad nodded in acknowledgement.
When they rounded the corner to the street where the fire was coming from the Latin King gang members immediately saw Voight and his team and they shifted their fire towards them and away from the two officers pinned behind their car.
"Chicago PD! Put your weapons down!" Antonio called out, hoping that the house the Latin King members were shooting out of housed Gabby and at the same time hoping it didn't. The gang members didn't listen and one by one they fell to the accuracy of the squads' bullets after a 10-minute firefight.
Bullets stopped being shot from the house and all gunfire ceased.
"Are you ok?" Voight asked the officers who were pinned down and Antonio barely stayed around to hear their affirmative before he was cautiously making his way into the house, on the alert with his gun up, with Halstead and Upton following behind him. They systematically began clearing the house and in the last room Antonio found a wounded but still alive Latin King member gasping for breath after taking a shot to the gut.
"All clear!" Jay called out after the whole house had been searched.
"In here!" Antonio called out, keeping his eyes on the wounded member but kicking away his discarded nearby weapon that must have dropped when he did. Jay and Upton came in the room with Voight trailing behind silently.
"Hey, have you seen a woman?" Antonio asked him while lowering his weapon and crouching down beside the wounded young man. The man continued to gasp and groan in pain.
"Hey! A Hispanic woman, she may have been with Leo Santiago!" Antonio questioned, trying to get the man's attention desperately. Antonio grabbed his jaw and forced the man to look at him. The Latin King laughed mockingly despite the excruciating pain.
"Leo Santiago?" The man questioned, beginning to become drowsy.
"We need to get him medical help." Upton quietly pleaded to Voight who ignored her and continued to watch Antonio's interrogation.
"Yes. Do you know where Leo Santiago is?" Antonio asked, trying a different approach. Gabby wouldn't be far from Leo. He was sure of it. The man laughed again with as much strength as he could.
"Leo Santiago is dead or at least he will be soon along with anyone who is loyal to him and especially that chicka sister of his!" The man spitted at Antonio with the last of his strength before he lost consciousness. Antonio starred at the unconscious form of the man, not really seeing him as he tried to digest the man's words and when he did, he pulled back his arm to punch the unconscious gang bang but suddenly Jay and Ruzek were there pulling him away from the man with one arm under each of Antonio's armpits and out of the room.
"Get a paramedic in here." Voight quietly ordered to Upton who was watching the scene in disbelief before walking away with one last glance at the unconscious man to where Antonio was pulled to.
-Line Break-
"Aww shit, they've found us." Angelo exclaimed from his watch post at the front window. Gabby jumped up in concern with Leo following slowly afterwards.
"How does he keep finding us?" Gabby asked in confusion and weariness.
"We are in the Latin King's territory. He's top dog now and everyone that lives here informs to him or else. We can't trust anybody." Leo explained angrily.
"I don't get it. You were a Lieutenant and now you're being hunted. How can leadership and loyalties change that quickly?" Gabby asked.
"It didn't happen overnight. He must have been planning and cultivating this for a long time." Leo told her quietly, silently kicking himself for not noticing anything off beforehand.
The group peeked from the ancient window and saw the multiple lights of cars that had stopped across the street from the house with groups of armed men getting out. Leo saw Dante's figure and he bared his teeth and barely held back a growl.
"Take cover!" Angelo called out to Gabby and Leo when he recognised his former gang brothers get out their automatic weapons.
Leo flipped a solid oak dining table on its side and grabbed Gabby's hand to pull her behind the structure with him. Angelo barely had enough time to jump into the cast iron bathtub before the house got shredded by automatic gunfire that sliced through the walls and windows without any hinderance. The multiple gunfire noises were deafening, and Gabby covered her ears with her hands as much as she could.
Suddenly there was a lull in the gunfire and Gabby wondered if they were reloading and preparing to enter the house and kill them all.
"Hey Leo! You still alive man?" Dante called out in the sudden silence.
"Yeah dog, although you won't be for much longer!" Leo called back with bravado even though he had a measly handgun with a few clips that Matteo had given to him before parting and was grossly outnumbered.
Dante's amused chuckle was heard loud and clear from the now beyond repair house.
"You know, I always did like you, Leo." Dante called out. Leo scoffed at the obvious lie.
"Sure." Leo replied, realising if he could keep Dante talking longer maybe the cops will show up and save them and especially Gabby. Leo couldn't even believe he was having the thought of cops saving him instead of killing him.
"No, no I'm not lying dog, but you know what my problem has always been?" Dante asked rhetorically as Leo had no intention of answering for him "I don't like to share."
There was then a pause that made Leo and Gabby uncomfortable and they silent shifted in their spots behind the wooden table, listening out for any movement but not daring to pop their heads out to see.
"However, I would love to share if it came to you letting me have some alone time with your sister!" Dante taunted.
"Hey Gabby girl! Why don't you come on out here and I promise I won't hurt you!" Dante called out to Gabby while he gang members could be heard laughing and taunting each other. Leo and Gabby looked at each other and Leo shook his head just in case Gabby who considering it.
Gabby didn't answer back and the communication between the two groups fizzled out. Dante huffed in frustration when he realised Gabby wasn't talking and that Leo hadn't retorted at Dante's provocation.
"We need to make a move Gabs. We stay here we are dead, ok?" Leo told her.
Angelo took the opportunity while they were talking to roll out of the bathtub and crawl over to where Leo and Gabby were.
"Where are we meant to go? We have nowhere else to go!" Gabby harshly whispered at Leo with frustrated and scared tears in her eyes. Leo didn't answer her but nodded at Angelo to move towards the opening created from the gunfire to the west of the house. Suddenly a spray of automatic gunfire started up again and Angelo fell down with an audible groan of pain.
"Angelo!" Gabby shouted, automatically moving to get to him before Leo held her back behind cover.
"I need to get to him!" Gabby frantically reached out to the man, who crawled slowly back towards cover, from her brother arms that were wrapped tightly around her torso.
Angelo eventually came back within touching distance and Leo and Gabby pulled him behind the table in cover. Gabby's hands immediately got to work in staunching the bleeding coming from his shoulder that took a bullet.
"You'll be fine, it didn't hit any arteries." Gabby told him after taking a close look at the gushing wound. She ripped off her overshirt and heavy handily pressed it down hard on the wound and Angelo cried out in pain as a result.
"Keep pressure on it to slow the bleeding." Gabby instructed him in paramedic mode once again. What she wouldn't give right now for her fully stocked ambulance.
"We need to move. I'll give you cover fire and then you need to exit out there with Angelo when I tell you ok?" Leo told Gabby once Angelo was situated. Gabby looked at Leo in disbelief but nodded when she realised the predicament, they are in.
"Ok, 3.. 2.. 1.. Go!" Leo counted down before he popped up from behind the solid table and started firing back at Dante and his men. Gabby grabbed Angelo and hauled him up as quickly as she could and out through the small opening. Once outside with Angelo, she called back for Leo inside who was still firing. Leo quickly realised they were clear and quickly ran to where Gabby and Angelo was. They hauled Angelo up between them and tried to run as far as they could before gunfire erupted behind them in their direction and forced them to duck behind parked cars in the street. They didn't get far at all.
The incoming fire shattered the car windows of the car they were hiding behind and caused Gabby to cry out in pain as the shattered glass pierced her face in multiple places.
"Are you ok?" Leo questioned when he heard his sister cry out. Gabby winced but nodded. Leo noted the cuts on her face but knew he couldn't do anything about it right now.
Leo ran to another parked car for cover in order to get a better vantage point to shoot back from but cried out when a bullet found it's way into his leg and he fell down immediately and luckily behind cover of the car. Gabby gasped when she saw her brother take another bullet in the space of a few days. Tears welled up in Gabby's eyes as she knew there was no getting out of this now. They couldn't move with Angelo and Leo both shot and immobile and no one knew where they were so no one was coming for them.
"Gabby," Angelo called for her attention in an unsteady breath sitting on the pavement behind the car next to her "Take this." Angelo dropped his gun into her hands. Gabby shook her head frantically at what Angelo was asking her to do.
"I can't shoot with my shoulder messed up like this, you need to shoot back." Angelo told her.
"I-I can't!" Gabby protested fiercely.
"You have to, or we are dead Gabs." Angelo told her. Gabby looked at Angelo who was getting paler by the second and then turned her head to see Leo slumped against the other car with his bloody leg staining the pavement with his blood although he was scrambling to find purchase enough to sit up and reload his handgun.
"Ok." Gabby whispered hesitantly.
Gabby waited for the lull in gunfire before she stuck her head above the bonnet of the car and let off rounds in Dante's men's' direction. Things were moving so fast she couldn't keep up if she hit any of them. Gabby heard gunfire from her right and saw Leo had managed to pull himself up to let off rounds from his gun.
However Gabby's heart sank when she heard the familiar clicking sound to signal the gun was empty and then winced even more when she heard the clicking sound again coming from Leo's direction.