Hers to Protect

by Nicole Disney

  “Gianna, what the fuck?” she yelled.

  “She’s dying over here, man,” Anna yelled from over the girl on the floor. Adrienne and Gianna both switched their attention to her. Gianna pulled down the girl’s shirt from the neck and revealed two wounds a few inches below her collarbone, just right of center, centimeters from one another.

  “Fuck,” Anna said. “That’s not good.”

  Gianna grabbed the girl’s hand. She was choking on her own blood, panic in her eyes.

  “You went out shooting,” Gianna said to her and stood again.

  “Gianna, you have to take them to a hospital,” Adrienne yelled.

  “They won’t make it there.”

  “He will.” Anna nodded at the guy. Gianna looked at him and he nodded, quiet desperation in his pale face.

  “If we drop them off they’ll know it was us,” Gianna said.

  “Gianna!” Adrienne yelled.

  “She’s not going to make it.” Gianna pointed at the girl on the ground.

  “Gianna, stop it!” Adrienne knelt by the girl on the floor, who was trying to turn on her side to stop choking on the blood. Adrienne helped turn her and put pressure on the wounds. The girl rested her head in Adrienne’s lap. Adrienne rubbed her back, trying to soothe her.

  “And we can take care of him ourselves.” Gianna gestured at the teenager on the table. “There’s no reason to put the whole gang on the chopping block. If we go out in that Escalade right now they’ll be all over us before we get anywhere near the hospital.”

  “We could steal a different car,” the uninjured recruit said.

  “There’s no time to steal a car,” Adrienne said. “Gianna, you have to go now.”

  “I’m serious, Adrienne, we’ll never make it to the hospital in that thing. We’ll get arrested, probably shot, and those two will die in the backseat while the cops scratch their dicks.”

  “Well, we have to do something with it ’cause it’s in your driveway right now,” Anna said.

  “Fuck.” Gianna looked around the room. “Fuck!”

  “There’s a used car lot down the street,” Adrienne said. “Dump the Escalade there and get something else.”

  “Cameras?” the recruit asked, halfway to the door already.

  “No cameras,” Anna said. “But wear the bandana anyway.” The new guy nodded and ran out the door.

  “Gianna, what happened?” Adrienne asked again.

  She didn’t answer. Adrienne looked back to the girl in her arms. Her eyes were glassy. She was dead.

  “Oh God.” Adrienne set her down and stood up, revolted she’d been holding a corpse without knowing it.

  Gianna’s eyes were cold and hard. “See, she’s gone. We should bury her and patch him up ourselves or this is all going to blow back on every single one of us.”

  “We can just dump them in the ambulance bay,” Anna said. “They won’t see us.”

  “It won’t matter, the second we drop off a Wild at the hospital they’re going to be so far up our asses—”

  “They’re recruits,” Adrienne said. “They’re not even inked.”

  “Adrienne—”

  “I’ll drop them.”

  Gianna and Anna exchanged quiet looks. The newbie pulled up in a Suburban.

  “I said I’ll drop them,” Adrienne yelled. “You going to help me get them in the car or what?”

  “All right, fine. You.” Gianna pointed at the terrified recruit on the table. “She’s going to drop you off. You’ll be in the backseat. You push the body out and then get your ass out of the car and I mean fast. And if any of our names come out of your mouth I’ll give you a bullet somewhere worse than your leg.” Gianna turned to Adrienne. “The moment they’re out of the car you tear out of there. You find a busy square and ditch the car. You walk away and then you call me and I’ll pick you up.”

  Adrienne nodded and accepted a pair of gloves from Anna. Gianna reached for her cheek, but Adrienne swatted it away and powered for the Suburban.

  They loaded the body into the back so the recruit could push it straight out the rear. The moment they closed the hatch, Adrienne zipped away. The quiet roads were at odds with her raging thoughts. She tried not to drown in them. She had to accomplish this first.

  “Hey, thanks for this,” the recruit said from the back.

  Adrienne nodded. “What’s your name, anyway?”

  “Jeremiah,” his voice was a whisper. She wanted to ask if he was okay, but she knew he wasn’t. There were a million things she wanted to ask, actually, but it didn’t seem right in his condition.

  “Any hospital but Christ Advocate,” Jeremiah said.

  “What? Why?”

  “Cops,” Jeremiah huffed out the word like breathing was a struggle.

  “Cops?”

  He didn’t answer.

  “Jeremiah, you with me? Hang in there.” She took his small groan as enough and sped for the next hospital. The building crept into sight and her heart raced as she choreographed the drop in her head.

  “We’re pulling up,” she said. “You ready?” He didn’t answer. She looked over her shoulder and saw he was unconscious. “Shit.” She stopped the car a block away and climbed into the back. She shook him, but he didn’t wake up. She searched the car for an idea but came up short. She could go back home, but she knew Jeremiah would die if she did. She could call Gianna for help, but the idea disgusted her.

  She lowered the backseats so they were flat, removing the barrier between herself and Jeremiah. She removed her jacket and shirt, tied the shirt around her face, and put the jacket back on. She climbed back to the driver’s seat and took a deep breath.

  She hit the gas and pulled into the ambulance bay. She pulled past the door, as far away from the staff as she could to allow herself time, then threw the car in park. She climbed over the front seat, crawled to the back hatch, and opened it. She pushed the dead girl as hard as she could. It was harder to move her than Adrienne expected, but the panic helped her muscle through, rolling the body until it thumped to the ground outside. People saw her now; they were jogging over. She put her feet on Jeremiah, one on his shoulder, the other by his hip, and pushed as hard as she could. He thudded to the ground.

  She slammed the hatch shut and dove for the front seat. People were screaming at her to stop, but she threw the car in drive and hit the gas. A man in a security uniform slammed on her window, but she was already rolling away. She hit the gas harder and tore into traffic. A symphony of horns and screams berated her, but she powered on. Her face was covered and the car wasn’t hers. She could be a maniac if that’s what it took.

  She screamed through traffic and weaved her way out of the area. She waited for sirens behind her. Nothing yet, but she knew she couldn’t be in the car long. Gianna wanted her to leave the car in a busy shopping center. It would take longer for anyone to notice it was out of place that way, but Adrienne was afraid of cameras. She didn’t want to walk down the streets of Chicago with her shirt tied around her face, so she pulled into a quiet neighborhood instead.

  She jumped out and put several blocks between herself and the car before she took the shirt off her face. She found a dark corner to put it back on, then cut for a main road where she could disappear into the crowd. She glanced at her phone, but she couldn’t make herself call Gianna.

  A pink neon sign caught her eye. The flickering words read “Irish Pub.” Yeah, she could use a drink.

  * * *

  It was four in the morning when Adrienne fumbled with the lock to the front door. When she got inside the lights were dim. Her eyes adjusted slowly, and finally she could make out the graffiti WAK letters sprayed on her walls. She’d stopped noticing them a while ago, but they leapt at her now. Music came from the kitchen, but all she could make out was the bass.

  When Adrienne made her way to the kitchen, Gianna was lounging in a dining room chair with a woman on her lap and a joint hanging from her mouth. One arm was tightly wound around the woman, th
e other held a bottle of tequila. Gianna’s eyes met hers and she let out a cloud of smoke.

  “Come on in,” Gianna said.

  Adrienne thought the hours away might help, that by the time she saw Gianna again she might not hate her anymore, but she still did. She still found this person who was willing to let her friends die a stranger, and even though she knew she should be afraid of what might happen next, she couldn’t muster fear of this person. She saw a coward.

  Adrienne pulled up a chair and sat. “Who’s this?” She nodded at the girl on Gianna’s lap.

  “This is Amber,” Gianna said. She wrapped her hand around the back of Amber’s neck and pulled her into a kiss. Adrienne knew Gianna cheated from time to time, but she’d never had it rubbed in her face. She knew Gianna wanted a fight, wanted Adrienne to scream, to cry. She stood and started for the bedroom instead.

  “Where do you think you’re going?”

  Adrienne glanced back. “To bed.”

  “Are you drunk?”

  “Yes.”

  “Come back here.”

  “Why? You’re busy.”

  Surprise filled Gianna’s face, but it quickly turned to a smile. “Join us.”

  “It’s been a long night, Gi.”

  “Sure has. Where the fuck have you been? Getting some of your own? That why you don’t want to join us?”

  “No, I actually have no idea how you can think about sex right now.”

  “Oh, please, don’t give me that. Don’t act like this happened to you. You weren’t there. You didn’t lose a member.”

  “Excuse me?” Adrienne whipped around and went back into the kitchen. “This didn’t happen to me? I didn’t just have a girl die in my arms? I didn’t just shove two bodies out of a car while you sat here getting shitfaced and fucking some bitch?”

  Gianna was speechless for a moment. She patted Amber’s hip. “Scram.”

  Amber seemed more than happy to scurry away. Gianna didn’t move a muscle until the front door closed behind her.

  “The fuck do you mean you shoved two bodies out of the car? What happened?”

  “No, you tell me what happened.”

  “What happened to Jeremiah? Did he die?”

  “I don’t fucking know, Gianna. Maybe.”

  “Why didn’t you call me? I’ve been calling you for hours.”

  “I turned off my phone.”

  Gianna stood and slammed the bottle on the table. “Why? We had a plan. You call me, I pick you up. And if you had complications you should have called me.”

  “Yeah, well, I didn’t want to.”

  “This isn’t all about you and what you want. This is serious!”

  “You think I don’t know that?” Adrienne yelled. “That girl died in my arms. Now tell me why.”

  “Because of your fucking blond friend, that’s why. She did this.”

  Cold tickled up Adrienne’s spine. “Kaia shot them?”

  Gianna took a swig of tequila. “Yep. She did. There were five of us. She was alone and off duty checking on her boyfriend partner. It should have been a no-brainer. None of us should have died.”

  “You did a drive-by on Kaia at the hospital?” Jeremiah telling her not to go to Christ Advocate Medical Center rang back through her brain.

  Gianna leaned close to her face. “You’re Goddamn right I did. I took every big gun in the closet and every recruit with something to prove and I lit that fucking lot up.”

  Adrienne felt a tingling sting, the impact of her hand on Gianna’s face as a loud clap sounded with it. She and Gianna were equally stunned by it. She couldn’t breathe. She didn’t care if she breathed. Paralysis melted off and something inside snapped. She swung at Gianna again with everything she had this time.

  “What is wrong with you?” Adrienne screamed.

  Gianna’s booze-lazy face finally registered what was happening and caught Adrienne’s wrist in the air.

  “I lost a member today!” Gianna yelled. “I don’t need your shit!”

  “Yeah, you lost a member. This is your fault. I told you to drop it. I told you to lay low, but you’re too fucking selfish, and now people are dead!”

  “Your stupid cop isn’t dead, Adrienne. She’s fine.” Gianna slung Adrienne’s hand away. Adrienne realized she was crying, near hysteria, figuring it out only as she came down from it. Kaia was alive.

  “That’s all you care about, isn’t it?” Gianna said. “You don’t care about the recruit. You don’t care about me.”

  “I—”

  Gianna spit in her face. Adrienne tried to wipe the spit from her eyes, but she felt hands around her neck and they were toppling to the floor.

  “You’ve just been playing me,” Gianna screamed. “Using me.” Adrienne’s head was shoved into the corner. Gianna was on top of her, a knee on each shoulder as her hands drove down on her throat. She couldn’t move. She was losing consciousness.

  * * *

  Gianna was dragging her. Had she passed out? She didn’t resist. Better Gianna not know she was awake until she could see straight. She was being dragged across the kitchen. Adrienne wondered if Gianna was taking her to the backyard to bury her. Did she think she’d killed her? But Gianna dropped her feet. Adrienne heard the faucet turn on and water sprinkled on her face from the sprayer. She didn’t move.

  “Damn it, Adrienne.”

  Gianna’s footsteps left the room. It was now or never. Adrienne jumped up and went for the sliding door that let into the backyard.

  “You fake bitch.” Gianna ran after her. She grabbed Adrienne’s hair and pulled her back. Gianna slipped on the water on the floor and they both crashed to the tile.

  Gianna tried to wrap her arm around Adrienne’s neck from behind. Adrienne bit her forearm and clenched her jaw as hard as she could. She felt skin rip and tasted metallic blood. Gianna screamed and let go. Adrienne scrambled up and grabbed a knife. Gianna looked at her own arm, then at the knife.

  “What’re you going to do with that? You going to stab me?”

  “Don’t make me.”

  Gianna rushed her and Adrienne slashed, connecting with Gianna’s shoulder, biting into it enough Gianna jumped back.

  “Yeah, you don’t care about me. Never did. You want to stab me? Stab me!”

  “Just let me go!”

  “Where? To your cop?”

  “Away from you before you kill me.”

  “Please, I’m not going to kill you.”

  “Yes, you will. You don’t know what you’re doing when you’re doing it.”

  “Don’t be such a baby. I didn’t almost kill you. But I will if you don’t put down that fucking knife.”

  She moved toward Adrienne again. Adrienne swiped. Gianna caught it, but by the blade. Adrienne ripped it away and sliced her hand open.

  “Fuck!”

  Loud knocking sounded at the door, and Adrienne could just barely hear someone calling Gianna’s name, someone looking for drugs. Gianna glanced away just long enough for Adrienne to bail out the back. She heard Gianna hot on her heels and ran with everything she had. She made it out the back gate and ran down the alley. Gianna sounded close. Adrienne couldn’t breathe, but she couldn’t stop.

  “Help!” she screamed.

  “Shut up!” Gianna hissed.

  “Help!”

  House lights started turning on and Gianna fell back.

  “This isn’t over, Adrienne.”

  She knew it wasn’t, but she didn’t care right now. She ran until she found a heavily populated street. She slowed, gasping, and fished for Kaia’s card from her wallet and dialed. She held her breath, praying for Kaia’s voice.

  She answered. “Adrienne?”

  “Kaia!” She knew Kaia probably couldn’t understand a word she was saying she was crying so hard, but she couldn’t calm down. “Pick me up. Please, Kaia, I’m sorry. Please come get me.”

  She was vaguely aware Kaia had said okay, but she couldn’t stop crying. She stayed on the phone the whole time s
he waited. Finally, Kaia pulled up. She started to open the driver’s door, but Adrienne frantically climbed into the passenger seat.

  “Let’s go. Please, go. Hurry. Get me away from here and I’ll tell you everything.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Kaia had been a little afraid the cop car she was in would spook Adrienne, but she barely seemed to notice. She wanted to hug Adrienne, calm her down, but she followed instructions and sped off, eagerly counting the blocks out of WAK territory. Once they were well outside the area, Adrienne reached across the seat and wrapped her arms around Kaia’s neck. Surprise and warmth traveled down her spine, and Kaia squeezed her arm in return. Kaia could only guess what happened. Adrienne was still flushed, but she looked basically uninjured. She released Kaia’s neck.

  “I thought you were dead,” Adrienne said. “They said…” She didn’t finish.

  “I was wearing a vest.”

  Out of the corner of her eye, Kaia saw Adrienne continuing to look at her and reached for her hand. She squeezed it and they both fell quiet while Kaia drove home. She didn’t know if that was what Adrienne had in mind, but she didn’t know where else to go and Adrienne didn’t comment when they pulled up to Kaia’s apartment. Kaia could always breathe easier once she made it back to the north side of town, away from the criminals she angered on a daily basis. Adrienne followed Kaia inside, watching as Kaia dead-bolted the door.

  Adrienne looked around the clean but understated apartment. Kaia marveled at the simple wonder of Adrienne in her living room.

  “Beer?” she offered.

  “God yes,” Adrienne said. Kaia smiled and grabbed two from the refrigerator, then handed one to Adrienne. She led Adrienne to the balcony and sat. She was on the tenth floor and had a great view of the twinkling city and the lake stretching as far as the eye could see. It looked nice at night but seemed to be crumbling by day, a sad and abandoned quality to everything despite the dense population.