Vortex (SAI Book 1)

VORTEX

Book One

Lea Hart

Copyright © 2016 by Lea Hart
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Lea Hart
Visit my website at www.leahartauthor.com
 

DEDICATION

For My Daughters, My Heartbeat

For My Mom, My Champion

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I want to thank Julie Cupp at Formatting Fairies for her magic.

Security Alliance International
is a security firm that is owned and operated by retired SEALs. It is made up of elite warriors culled from some of the most revered military forces. Every operator has impeccable ethics and doesn’t quit until the job is done.

Vortex

Vivi DuMond’s clinic is caught in the crossfire of a turf war that threatens both her life and livelihood. Can the NOPD and Feds handle it, or does she need more help?

Joel McDade runs the Florida office of SAI and he’s been roped into protecting Vivi as a favor to his old client Ronnie DuMond. As much as he would like to refuse, he knows he can’t.

Can the retired Navy SEAL protect the good doctor and her clinic? Or…will the vortex of events make that impossible?

Watch what happens when two people are caught in a whirling mass of threats outside of their control. Will they be pulled in together or will the conflict pull them apart?

CHAPTER ONE

Vivi stepped out of her car and waved to old man Stewart, who was sweeping his front porch across the street. “Hey, it’s looking good over there.”

“Ms. Vivi, the clinic had some trouble last night. I heard a lot of noise, and I think they come stole your drugs again.”

“That alarm we had installed last month is worthless.” Lowering her head, she shook it slowly as she crossed the street. The scent of the early blooming camellias wafted across the breeze as she stepped over the cracked concrete. “Are you okay? They didn’t do anything to you—did they?”

“Oh, no, sweet girl. I’ve lived in this neighborhood my whole life. I learnt a long time ago that violence and silence go hand in hand. How do you think I’ve made it to the ripe old age of ninety?”

“Truer words were never said.” Patting his arm, she noticed that he appeared exhausted. “I don’t want my clinic to cause any trouble for you. I came here to help the neighborhood, not bring more problems and violence.”

Leaning against his broom, he curved his mouth into a smile. “Having your clinic here has done nothing but good for the folks of Algiers. It’s the only way for a lot of people around here to see a doctor.”

“Well, I hope so.” Lifting her long dark hair off her shoulders, she twisted it into a bun. It was already in the high seventies and the humidity was rising. A heat wave in the middle of January wasn’t something she enjoyed. “Don’t forget that Uncle Buck is coming this afternoon, and he hopes to whip you in pinochle.”

“That old man can dream, but it ain’t never going to happen.” He smiled gently and nodded. “I made a big pan of cornbread for you all. You girls are too skinny. It’s no wonder that you all are single. A man likes to have a woman with some meat on her bones.”

Throwing back her head, Vivi let out a big laugh. “I don’t think that’s the problem. But bring that cornbread over later on, and we can have it with some sweet tea.”

He tilted his chin in the direction of the clinic parking lot. “Here comes your girls. You better call that NOPD friend of yours and see what kind of trouble you have on your hands.”

Shrugging, she smoothed down her scrubs and then waved to Trinity and Ruby as they got out of their cars. “We’ll see you later. You and Uncle Buck may have to play at your house because we have the well-baby visits this afternoon.”

“All right. Go on now, and take care of your business.”

“Thanks for keeping an eye on us,” Vivi called over her shoulder as she ambled toward the clinic.

Having a clinic in the poorest neighborhood of New Orleans wasn’t easy, but having her two best friends work with her made it seem possible. “Hey there. It seems that we had visitors again last night. Let’s go in and see what they stole.”

Trinity and Ruby waited for her, and then the three of them strode toward the back. The door was ajar, and Vivi silently prayed the damage wasn’t as substantial as last time. It was the third time this month that they’d had the drugs stolen from the clinic. “Mr. Stewart gave me the heads-up when I got here. He also informed me that we’re all too skinny and that’s why we have no men around. He’s bringing over a pan of cornbread to fatten us up.”

Ruby took a tissue out of her purse and pulled the back door open. “Yeah, that must be it. It couldn’t have anything to do with the curse the three of us are under.”

Trinity pushed past Ruby and marched in. “Every man who has gotten close to any one of us has ended up dead. So I don’t think cornbread is going to cure what ails us. But hell, it’s worth a shot.”

“It’s not every man…just the ones we married,” Vivi replied. She dialed her old beau at NOPD and hoped he was going to be able to help them solve the problem of the break-ins. It made life for their patients difficult because this was the only place where many of them could get the medicine they needed. Moving through the back door, she waited for her call to connect.

As she stepped into the back corridor, she noticed that the clean antiseptic smell of the clinic was gone. It had been replaced by the smell of a corpse. The odor was unmistakable.

Three years abroad had burned the smell into her brain. It had been her first month in Syria when she’d first experienced the indescribably rank stench. It was the overlay of sweetness that always got to her.

What occurred in her clinic had just gone from inconvenient to tragic. Before she made it all the way down the hall, Gideon answered his phone. “G, we have a dead body at the clinic.” Peering around the corner, she spotted the corpse. “Okay, see you soon.”

Ruby covered her face with her sleeve as her eyes watered. “Seems they left us a present. It wasn’t enough to break in, they had to leave a body this time.”

Trinity handed Vivi a pair of gloves. “It’s a gunshot wound, and it doesn’t appear that it cleared his body. I’m guessing it happened in the early evening.”

Vivi slipped on the gloves and rolled the man over. “You’re right, Trin.” She checked the entry point and confirmed there was no exit wound. There was a pool of blood around the victim’s head, along with a lot of his brain matter. “Shit on a shingle.”

What a way to start the day, stolen drugs and dead bodies. Whoever said that being a doctor was boring had never tried to run a clinic in a poor neighborhood.

Ruby crossed herself and silently recited a litany of prayers. “I guess we’re going to be closed for the day.”

“Let’s see if Gideon can process the scene quickly. Perhaps we can still have our well-baby clinic this afternoon. We have a ton of appointments, and I don’t want to make those mamas wait if we don’t have to.” Vivi stripped off her gloves and silently said a prayer over the man. No matter what he’d done in his life, he deserved one last prayer over his dead body. She knew that Ruby had already said hers, and she figured that a few more couldn’t hurt. “Let’s make a sign for the front door, letting people know that we’ll be closed for the morning.”

Throwing her gloves into the bin, she glanced around and finally noticed the damage that had been done by the break-in. Several chairs in the waiting room had been smashed and two small tables had been wrecked. The last three times when the prescription drugs had been stolen, there hadn’t been as much damage. 

“Well, it’s not another routine Friday, that’s for sure. I guess we’re having a Purple Jesus tonight along with our gumbo.” Ruby shook her head and moved over to her desk. “Nothing else will do.”

Trinity stepped around the blood that was covering the floor and crossed herself. “I don’t know what that says about us that we’ve chosen our drink before the body is cold.”

Vivi studied the two women who had been her best friends since kindergarten and grinned. “It says that we have our priorities in order. I don’t like having a dead body in the clinic, but I’m tired of the gang war. Maybe that sounds callous, but these men have chosen this life, and they can’t be surprised by what happens.”

“That’s what three years in war-torn countries does to a person,” Ruby called out.

Vivi waved her hand behind her head as she went into her office. “Probably true,” she muttered to herself. She had seen the worst of humanity across two continents and awfully little surprised her anymore. Including the gang war that was taking place outside their front doors.

There was no way to erase her memory, and her compassion was reserved for people who didn’t use guns to solve their arguments. Those who chose to live their lives violently were never going to get her pity.

***

Detective Gideon Brennan stood in the center of the activity and directed the collection of evidence. “Did you all touch anything else?”

Vivi stood behind the desk along with Trinity and Ruby and shook her head. “We opened the back door and then we wore gloves. You should be able to grab some fingerprints.”

“Okay, darling. I just wanted to check.” His face cracked with a big grin, and he winked at the women before he turned back to his men.

Trinity and Ruby elbowed her, and she glared at them both. “I rode that horse, and I see no need for a repeat performance.”

Trinity fiddled with a pen as she studied the man before her. “You were both twenty when that happened. That was fifteen years ago. I bet he’s learned a lot, and I think it’s time you found out what.”

“Shut up,” Vivi drawled in response. Giving her friends a side-eye, she wondered why they had decided that now was the time to start matchmaking. “I wonder about the sanity of you both.”

“No, you don’t,” Ruby replied. “You
are
the craziest one.”

“Be that as it may, I don’t know why you all are talking about Gideon when there’s a dead man in our waiting room.” She checked her watch and realized that they might not be able to open the clinic up until after lunch. “I’m going to my office. I may as well catch up on my paperwork.”

“The locksmith is coming by in a little bit to fix the back door,” Ruby called out to Vivi’s retreating figure. When she didn’t respond, she turned back to Trinity and shrugged. “I hope we can figure out a way to stop all of this.”