Kade: Santanas Cuervo MC (11 page)

Kade pressed the throttle harder down, picking up speed. He had no idea how far it was to Laredo, the closest place with a hospital, but he knew he didn’t have much time. He stayed in the center of the road as the speedometer crept to fifty, then finally sixty miles per hour, as he fought the wheel, trying to keep the RV from sliding out of control.

Winter scrambled to the back of the coach, holding to both walls as the vehicle shuddered and weaved, grabbing four bath towels and making her way back to the front. She pressed a towel under Bickers’ vest, holding it over the wound as she laid him back on it, then pressed another towel to his stomach. It was all she knew to do.

After thirty minutes of shuddering and shaking along the dirt road, they finally hit pavement and Kade began to pick up speed. “How’s he doing?”

“He’s still alive but he’s in shock,” Winter said. “He’s lost a lot of blood.”

Duck looked at his cellphone. “We should get a cell signal soon,” he said softly. “We can call for help.”

Kade kept the throttle down as the coach reached seventy, then seventy-five, finally topping out just under eighty miles per hour. Something smelled hot, and the coach was trying to drag itself into the ditch on the right side, but he kept his foot down.

Winter watched as Bickers breathing became more and more shallow, his chest barely moving as it rose and fell faster and faster, his skin pale and cold to the touch. “You have to hurry,” she said as she continued to apply pressure to the blood soaked towel.

“This is it! It won’t go any faster!” Kade snarled, pressing the throttle harder to the floor, willing the machine to give just a little bit more.

She checked Bickers’ pulse. It was incredibly fast and barely detectable, and she knew he wasn’t going to make it. She whimpered and leaned over him, bringing her lips close to his ear. “Hang on, Bickers! Please, hang on,” she whispered.

“I have a signal!” Duck said a moment later, dialing the phone. “Shit! I lost it!”

She put her ear close to Bickers’ face, straining to hear a sound of breathing, then checked his pulse. “He’s gone,” she said quietly, sitting down in the floor and staring at him as her tears began to flow.

“Goddamnit!” Kade raged, pounding on the steering wheel, his rage boiling over. Three more brothers dead. Three more friends lost. They were starting to pick up traffic and he slowed, allowing the coach to coast down to the speed limit. “Duck, find the nearest hospital, then call the cops. Tell them what happened and to meet us there.”

Duck swiped and tapped, using his good hand. “Stay on Eagle Pass until you get to the sixty-nine, then the Bob Bullock Loop.”

Kade nodded watching the signs. Having grown up in Laredo, he had a general idea of where Duck was sending him. He could hear Duck talking to the police, telling them what happened, as wide-eyed motorists stared at the bullet-riddled and smashed RV. When he reached the Bob Bullock Loop, he was able to follow the hospital signs, other cars giving him wide berth as he made his way toward medical help. When he turned onto Sandia Drive, the hospital in sight, a police cruiser, blue lights flashing, pulled out and blocked the road. The officer stepped out of the cruiser and signaled for Kade to pull into the grassy strip between the roads as two more cruisers pulled out of a side road and approached.

The officers approached carefully, their weapons holstered but unsnapped with their hands on the butts. “Several of us are armed,” Kade said, his hands still on the wheel as the first officer appeared in the door.

“Where?” the officer barked.

“I don’t know. Mine was on the dash, but it could be anywhere now. I don’t know about the others.”

“I lost mine, too,” Duck said. “I don’t know where it is.”

“Mine, too. I dropped it in the crash,” Big Dick said softly, his leg hurting so badly he could barely think.

“Anybody else in here?” the officer asked.

“No. We’re it.”

The officer picked up the gun lying beside Bickers and handed it to another officer as they entered the RV and looked around. “These two men are hurt,” Winter said as she started to rise to her feet.

“Stay down!” the officer barked.

“Please!” she begged as she settled back to the floor. “They need to get to the hospital. Everly has been shot in the leg, and Pete broke his arm.”

The officer ignored her request and moved farther back into the RV, looking into the small room with the toilet, then the bedroom with the bath farther back. When he returned, his hand was off his weapon.

“Please, officer…Trumbull,” Winter said, reading the man’s nametag. “These men are hurt. Please let us get to the hospital.”

Trumbull nodded. “I’ll ride with you. ER is expecting you. Are you hurt?”

“No,” Winter replied.

“You, sir?” the officer asked.

“Just a few cuts.”

“Drive slowly. The officers will follow. We need to speak to you after we get these men taken care of.”

Kade snorted as he put the RV back in gear. “What a surprise,” he muttered.

***

As the emergency staff at Doctors Hospital tended to Duck and Big Dick, the police separated Winter and Kade. He forced himself to be patient, answering the same questions over and over again.
Why were people shooting at you? You don’t know who they were? Why didn’t you call the police? Did you kill anyone?
and what seemed to be a million more.

Winter endured similar treatment, the police coming and going, probably comparing notes on their stories. Finally, after three hours, they were released and were free to go.

The first thing they did was check on Duck and Big Dick. Duck was having a cast put on his arm and would be released within the next couple of hours, but Big Dick was in surgery to remove imbedded wood fragments and repair damage to the muscle. He wouldn’t be going home as soon.

“What’s the plan?” Duck asked. The shot of painkillers they had given him had taken the edge off and he felt almost normal other than a bit sleepy.

“She’s done on site,” Kade said, his tone brooking no disagreement. “I’m getting her back to Houston as soon as I can. We were sitting ducks out there! I was stupid to take this job!”

“If you hadn’t, I would be dead,” Winter said quietly. “And no arguments from me about going home.”

Kade tamped down on a rage unlike any had felt before. Four brothers killed with two more injured. His two best friends dead, and two more widows, because of him.

“She’s right,” Duck nodded as the nurse fussed over his arm. “Go. Get her out of here in case they tracked us somehow. I’ll call someone and they can come get me.”

“I’m sorry, brother,” Kade said softly as he gripped Duck’s shoulder.

“Not your fault, brother, but don’t let their sacrifices be for nothing. Get her out of here. Keep her safe.”

Kade nodded then took Winter by the hand and pulled her out of the room and led her to the RV to get their few things, his eyes constantly in motion. The police were impounding the coach, but as they approached, he was surprised the thing made it Laredo. Both sides of the coach were covered in what appeared to be hundreds of bullet holes and all the glass, save one window on the left side, was shot out. The front of the coach was twisted and disfigured beyond recognition, a piece rubbing against the right front tire with others dragging along the ground underneath. Inside it was the same story. Every panel was covered with holes, sun peeking in from punctures in the roof.

“Holy,
shit
!”
he murmured as he looked around. Judging from the number of holes, it was a miracle any of them had survived. As he gathered his few clothes, she found Gabbro crouched in the corner of the closet. He growled and hissed at her, obviously still terrified, as she dragged him out and cuddled him, crying in relief. She hadn’t even thought of him until she was an hour into the interrogation with the police, but they wouldn’t let her leave to check on him.

She threw a few things into a small case, leaving most items and clothes in the RV while he retrieved the pistol he’d given her from the nightstand. He tucked the pistol away and picked up the two cases as she held her cat. The police had found his, Duck and Big Dick’s pistols, and Winter’s sat phone. They’d kept the pistols but had returned her phone.

“I guess there is nothing else,” he said as he sat the cases down and pulled out his phone. After a bit of searching he found what he was looking for and dialed.

“Sabinas Taxi,” the woman said.

“We need a cab, as soon as possible, at Doctors Hospital to take us to the airport,” he said.

“Certainly, sir. By which entrance should we pick you up?”

“Pick us up in the Emergency Room parking lot. We’re at the brown and tan RV, the only RV in the lot.”

“Emergency Room parking lot, RV. He should be there in about ten minutes.”

“Thank you,” he said and hung up. “Ten minutes.”

“We’re going to fly?”

“No. Rent a car.”

“Ah,” she said as she wiped as seat clear of glass and sat down and tried to calm Gabbro.

Ten minutes later the cab pulled up alongside, the driver’s eyes wide as he looked over the damaged RV. “What happened?” he asked as the sliding door of the minivan opened and she crawled inside, holding Gabbro tight, Kade tossing the two small bags between the middle and back row seats.

“Road rage,” he replied as he flipped the lever and the door started shut.

“Are you kidding me! What’d you do?”

Kade grinned at Winter. “I forgot to signal.”

The driver tried to wheedle more information out of him, but he stuck to his story, that it was a woman in a Miata who did all the damage. She looked at Gabbro so the driver wouldn’t see her smile.

***

Gabbro was a good rider and had fallen asleep in the back of the rented Mustang as they rumbled north and east along I-35. They were two hours into the five-hour drive when Winter finally decided she had to call her Dad and tell him what had happened.

“I don’t want to do this,” she said softly.

“It’ll be okay,” Kade said, taking her hand. “You’ll have to do it sooner or later, so better to get it over with.”

She placed the call and put it on speaker. “Dad?”

“Hey, baby girl. Where are you?”

“I’m coming home. Dad,” she paused a moment as she summoned her courage. “Someone tried to kill me again. I’m okay, but—”

“What?” Hayden roared from the phone. “You said you trusted these guys and nobody would be able to get close to you again!”

“They attacked the RV! They came right up to us!”

“Are you okay?”

“Yes. A little bruised up from getting out of there, but yes, I’m okay. The RV is totaled. It’s shot full of holes, and Kade had to crash through two trucks to get away.”

“What?” he roared again.

“It was the only way!”

“I don’t care about the damned RV! You’re not hurt?”

“No, Daddy. The Santanás Cuervo, they saved me. Two men are in the hospital, and three are dead, but they saved me.”

“Where are you now?”

“I’m with Kade. We rented a car and are on our way to Houston.”

“I want to see both of you first thing in the morning!”

“Yes, Dad,” she said quietly.