Gabriel (Guardian Defenders Book 1)

by Kris Michaels

  “You’re a sick son of a bitch.” He hissed the words because Delacroix’s grip around his neck tightened.

  Delacroix snarled, released him, and viciously struck Gabriel across the right cheek with his weapon, lacerating his cheek to the bone. “Wrong again. I’m not sick. I’m not insane. I know exactly what I’m doing and why I’m doing it. I hunt. I kill, and I get off on it. No delusions, no visions, and no voices in my head.”

  Forced down to his knees by the impact, he grabbed at the island countertop, using it to lift himself up. He pretended to stumble and slid his finger along the island, depressing the duress button installed under the lip of the work surface.

  “No, no, no… no calling for help.” Delacroix grabbed his arm and twisted it up behind him with such violence, his shoulder separated from its socket. He reeled from the pain. A white-hot burst of concentrated agony threatened his consciousness. He had to control his actions, to lead the fucker to the final trap he had set for him.

  “Take me to Miss Brenner, now, or I will kill you. You have five seconds. Five, four, three, two –”

  Gabriel shouted, “All right! She’s in the den with Long, but they won’t open the door unless they hear my voice. It’s a safe room, and you need me to gain access.”

  “Doubtful, but I’ll keep you alive for a little while longer. You can join Long and watch as I kill his girlfriend. It is your fault Long will die. You required me to alter my tactics. Tracking and killing women is enjoyable, but the thrill is starting to wane. However—” a laugh bubbled up from Delacroix, sickening in its normalcy “—I’ve thought of a new twist. If I track and hunt a couple, subdue the man, and make him watch as I rape and kill his lover, the agony of his impotence may be as exhilarating as her death. So, you and Long will watch as I finally kill that bitch. Then you get to watch Long die. That will hurt, won’t it?” Delacroix lifted his arm, separating the joint further.

  He gasped against the pain and ground out, “You won’t make it out of here alive, you bastard.”

  Delacroix jammed the gun into Gabriel’s side. “Of course I will. Did you think I came without an exit strategy? Take me to Brenner, now.” The distinct sound of the weapon Delacroix held cocking lanced the silence. The detective released his arm and pushed him forward.

  The blood from Gabriel’s cheek covered the entire front of his shirt. The deep red stain obliterated the tiny radio mic attached to the inside pocket of his suit jacket. He cradled his useless arm. Even if he wanted to alert his team via the communication system, he wouldn’t have been able to activate the microphone. He prayed the duress system alarm was being monitored, although he assumed every available man was participating in the search for this bastard.

  “Do you think you’re going to be able to leave via the ventilation system?” Gabriel stumbled on purpose, slowing their progress. He'd do anything to delay the man behind him and give his team time to get to the penthouse.

  “Again, I’m not stupid. Think about it, Gabriel. How could someone ensure a building was evacuated?” Delacroix pushed him, causing him to stumble again.

  “A bomb.”

  “Very good. Explosions bring hordes of people. Chaos is such an excellent cover. Keep walking.”

  He stumbled forward as his mind calculated where his team would set up. He knew where they would deploy and prayed the alarm had been heeded. He slowly led Delacroix down the hallway. As they turned the corner into the master bedroom, he heard Delacroix hum in appreciation. “Nice. Very nice. Wealth does have some advantages.”

  He ignored the insane motherfucker. He stumbled on the carpet and purposely fell to his knees again. He felt a vicious kick in the ribs from the steel-toed boot Delacroix wore.

  “Get up.” Delacroix’s calm voice was in exact opposition to his vicious actions. The psychopath grabbed his collar, forcing him to his feet. He shuffled through the bedroom to the den door. Delacroix pushed up behind him. Softly he whispered, “One wrong move and Miss Harriger will pray for death. I’ll keep her alive and use her, over and over again. Think about that when you open your mouth.”

  Gabriel nodded. He moved directly in front of the doorknob, attempting to shield it from the man beside him. Delacroix saw the action and immediately blocked him, forcing him to the right, away from the center of the door and nearer the doorjamb. Delacroix extended his arm and kept Gabriel pushed against the outside of the door, his bad shoulder screaming as he was pinned to the wall. At least the bastard had forced him clear of the door.

  “I’m waiting, if you please.” Delacroix looked at him and smiled as if he’d just asked Gabriel to pass the fucking butter.

  Gabriel knocked on the door. “Deacon, it’s Gabe. It’s all clear. Open up and come on out.”

  He heard Deacon from inside the room. “All right, Gabe, give me just a second to get Jackie, she’s asleep.”

  Gabriel used his strength and training to lunge to the right just as Deacon opened fire. The door splintered into a thousand pieces, and the automatic weapon fire tore into Delacroix. The bastard's body jerked with the compression of the bullets. Gabriel heard his team enter the master bedroom of the apartment at the same time as Deacon opened fire. The sound of the team’s weapons mimicked the sharp reports of the machine gun. Delacroix’s body twisted as he fell to the floor. Gabriel lunged for the revolver still gripped in his hand.

  A bullet tore through Gabriel’s arm, and he felt another rip through his body near his hip as he rolled to the right in a tactical avoidance maneuver. His vision tunneled. He’d been hit and hit hard. Struggling to keep his eyes open, he saw Deacon come out of the room pointing the machine gun at Delacroix. Thank God. They were safe.

  “Find Anna,” he called out, unable to move.

  His team rushed into the den to secure the principles, and several moved in front of Deacon. They carefully removed the weapon from his hands. Deacon scanned the room and his eyes fell on Gabriel.

  He tried to smile, to show Deacon he’d done well, but he couldn’t move the muscles of his face. His men handcuffed the suspect. Dead or not, it was protocol, and they would not break protocol.

  Everything went quiet and the world moved in a slow, gray fog. He thought his team had started to apply basic first aid to his wounds. His gaze drifted across the floor. The New Orleans detective’s eyes returned his stare in a lifeless gaze. Gabriel could see boots as they surrounded the body.

  It was hard to breathe. He struggled to sit up, but his body would not obey. Pain squeezed his chest in an unrelenting grip. He lost the battle to keep his eyes open. He heard Anna in the distance. He forced his eyes open. She was running to him. A sense of peace overwhelmed him. She was safe.

  Anna rushed through the door, shoving past the men who clogged the entranceway. Immediately, she barked orders as she dropped to her knees and assessed the situation. “Have you called an ambulance? Get me that top sheet, now! Damn it! Bring me those pillows and put them under his feet… Hurry! Damn it, hurry!”

  She worked furiously on Gabriel. His vitals were weak. A bullet had ripped through his arm and opened a major artery. The blood loss was vast. She applied pressure with the sheet someone had thrust in front of her. She wrapped it and used his tie to hold it firmly in position. The gunshot to his abdomen worried her more. There was no visible exit wound. The bullet had obviously stayed in his body. The swelling and discoloration meant internal injuries and bleeding. Anna lost track of everything except for Gabriel as she gave directions to medical technicians when they arrived. She held his hand, barking orders to the technicians in the elevator and throughout the ride to the hospital. Gabriel coded about a block from their destination. Anna administered CPR while the medical technician radioed ahead. They launched from the ambulance and were met by the trauma team. She did her best to relate concise medical data and help with the transition as he was moved from the ambulance gurney to the bed in the emergency room. At that point, she was relieved of her patient. Anna stood outside the door, watching the trau
ma team work on Gabriel. Blood saturated her clothes, and coated her arms and hands, but she didn’t notice it. She heard the sound of Gabriel flat-lining again and the trauma unit’s cadence quickened. The doors flew open, and a hospital bed with Gabriel on it headed to the elevator.

  “Where are you taking him?” Anna begged, desperate for information.

  “OR four,” one of the team shouted. Anna found her back against the wall and shook as she sank to the floor. The only thing left was to say a silent prayer for the man she loved.

  She wasn’t certain how she made it to the surgical waiting room. Gabriel’s men kept a wary eye on her as if they expected her to suddenly shatter into a million pieces. Speaking to anyone, except Gabriel, was beyond her ability. She sat, found a spot on the floor, and focused on it. It seemed as if hours had passed, but when she glanced at the clock on the wall, it had only been minutes.

  Craig sat next to her in one of the uncomfortable orange plastic chairs that lined the waiting room. He took a cold cup of coffee from her hands. She wasn’t certain who had given it to her or when.

  Leaning in, he whispered to her, “What is your game? What do you actually expect to get out of being here?”

  Anna pulled away from him. His closeness made her extremely uncomfortable. Tearing her eyes away from the floor, she looked directly at him and leaned in close. She whispered one, barely audible, haunted word. “David.” Returning her eyes to the floor, she dismissed McNair and resumed her wait.

  Craig stood and jerked her out of her chair by the upper arm. He lifted and propelled her brutally toward the hallway.

  Anna blinked and darted a confused, fearful look at Gabriel’s men. Concern flashed across several faces.

  “We’ll be right back.” McNair snarled as he shoved her into the hallway. He marched her about fifteen feet down the hall, out of earshot. He leaned into her, smashing her forcibly into the wall. His lips hovered close to her. “Bitch, if you ever say that name in public again, I promise I will make you pay with your life.”

  McNair tightened his grip on her upper arm. His fingers dug deeply into her flesh. He backed away, but if he was expecting to see fear, he was mistaken.

  She’d had enough. She lifted her head and looked directly into his eyes. Her voice was just a slow and just a venomous as his. “Let go of me, you son of a bitch.”

  Craig’s eyes narrowed as he squeezed her arm tighter. The pain of his grip brought tears to her eyes, but she wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of asking him to stop. When the door to the hospital room next to them opened, Craig dropped his hand. A nurse exited the room, smiled politely as she passed, and headed toward the nurses' station.

  McNair leaned menacingly toward her and ground out, “This is not over. That man won't want you long. You're a piece of country trash, and he will come to his senses. He’s going to dump you like he has every other woman he has ever been with.” He spun and headed back to the waiting room.

  Anna rubbed her arm and shook her head. She wouldn’t let this man intimidate her. Gabriel had shared an intimate piece of himself with her. McNair be damned. True, McNair had known Gabriel longer, but she knew Gabriel in ways his best friend never would. Gabriel wanted more with her. It would be enough to get them through this.

  Six hours after she watched the trauma crew move Gabriel to surgery, Nathan, Deacon and Jacqueline rolled into the waiting room. The fact that her best friend was in a wheelchair and in the hospital was alarming. Anna struggled to stand after sitting for so long. Jacqueline raised a hand and shook her head. “I’m fine. The wheelchair is because I can't hobble fast enough to get where I want. We wanted to be here for you and for Gabriel.”

  Deacon rolled Jackie beside Anna’s chair. Craig had obviously seen Deacon enter, and he and the FBI agents who accompanied him had pulled Deacon and Nathan aside. McNair introduced the agents as agent Harvey and Olson. She and Jackie were close enough to hear everything. Hell, every Guardian member in the waiting room could hear. The agents were able to bring the final pieces of the puzzle to the table.

  “We’ve just come back from Delacroix’s house.” The man introduced as Agent Harvey glanced toward Jacqueline.

  Anna gripped Jackie’s warm hand, leaned over, and whispered, “You don’t have to listen to this.”

  Jackie shook her head. “He cannot hurt me anymore. He can’t hurt anyone anymore. I’ve lived in fear of this man for too many years. He’s dead. I’m happy he’s dead. That might make me a bad person, but I will hear every detail about what made this man seek me out and try to hurt me.”

  Anna squeezed her friend's hand. She was so proud of the way Jacqueline was handling this, but she knew her friend was going to need professional help in the aftermath of this horrendous afternoon.

  Deacon's hand found his girlfriend’s shoulder, and Jackie covered it with her own. “Please, continue.”

  “In the past six hours, we’ve uncovered a lot about Remí Delacroix. We’ve compared his employment records to the murders. The information Sheriff King initially identified holds up. The random murders outside his normal range were on dates where he was transitioning—either on vacation, between jobs or transitioning from section to section within the NOPD.”

  Deacon cleared his throat before he asked, “Can you prove for sure that this man was a killer?”

  Agent Olson nodded. “Yes, sir. He had polaroids of almost all of his victims, with the exception of Ms. Brenner. He had crime scene photographs of the assault in Denver. We are assuming he used his connections in law enforcement to obtain them.”

  “He wanted me to go with him to the penthouse. If I’d gone with him…”

  “Why didn’t you?” McNair’s snarled question ripped across the room like the accusation it was meant to be.

  She recognized the venom in Craig’s question but couldn’t bring herself to care. She answered him in a wooden voice. “I’d bought Jackie a present, and I wanted to wrap it. He’d been cleared through security; I didn’t see why I needed to go with him. Then I was stuck on the floor until your men unlocked the elevator and stairwell doors. All I heard was gunfire. They told me what was going on.”

  St. James interrupted. “Miss Harriger was frantic, but she got it under control and took over when our basic medical training wasn’t enough.”

  Olsen smiled at her. “I have no doubt you’d be injured or dead now if you’d gone with him. Fate dealt you a good hand today. Take it at face value. If you try to second guess your actions, it will drive you insane.”

  Anna heard a small gasp from Jackie. “Then it’s really over?”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Agent Harvey extended his hand to Craig. “We have to get going. Please let us know the second you find out how Gabriel’s doing.”

  She watched as the men left.

  Two hours later, eight hours after Gabriel had been wheeled into surgery, a doctor exited from the direction of the operating room. Every eye watched him walk down the corridor. He entered the waiting room and was visibly taken aback by the crowd of people present. There were at least twenty men in the room. Some wore suits and had earpieces dangling onto their shoulders. Others were in tactical gear.

  The doctor glanced around the room before he asked, “Who here is the next of kin?”

  Craig cleared his throat. “None are present. I'm his business associate.”

  The doctor looked at Craig. “Your associate had internal damage. The bullet that entered above his hip nicked a kidney and lodged in his back near the spinal cord. The surgeon who retrieved it is the best we have, and we don’t believe there will be any spinal damage, but we will watch him carefully. I repaired his kidney. The bullet tore his large intestine, and we were forced to remove a portion to ensure all the perforations were accounted for. The other bullet went through his upper bicep. The brachial artery was chewed up pretty good, but we were able to graft it with a donor vessel from an available cadaver.” He looked directly at Anna, who was still covered in dried blood. “Were you
the nurse who was present on scene?”

  Before she could answer, Craig responded. “Yes, she was there.”

  The doctor disregarded Craig and continued talking to Anna. “I understand from my team, had you not been present, Mr. Gabriel would have bled out before the EMTs could have gotten to him. Your immediate action and unique trauma training saved his life.”

  Anna lifted her eyes to the doctor. “May I see him please?”

  “He is in recovery now. Get yourself cleaned up, and I’ll have a nurse bring you back.” The doctor turned to Craig. “One visitor at a time. You can see him when she’s done.”

  Anna pushed Jacqueline into the bathroom with her. She washed her hands and face. While she was drying them, a nurse entered with a spare set of scrubs. Both she and Jacqueline thanked the woman for her kindness. When the nurse left, she pulled off her shirt. Jacqueline gasped and she glanced at her reflection in the bathroom mirror. The bruises on her upper arm from McNair’s brutal grip were vivid and growing darker.

  “Oh my God, what happened? Did that happen at the apartment? When?” Jackie sounded frantic.

  She’d be damned if McNair would be the stimulus that tipped Jackie over the edge today. Her friend was handling everything so damn well. She bent down and placed a hand on each of Jackie’s shoulders and got at eye level. “Hey, no, no, no. We aren’t going to do that. These bruises are nothing. We are all alive. Gabriel made it through the operation. There is nothing we need to worry about today.”

  She was not going to let her friend freak out about her bruises. Dealing with McNair would come another day. Right now, she was going to do everything she could do to forget the man existed. She had permission to see Gabriel. The doctor hadn’t seemed too impressed with McNair. She’d leverage every opportunity that came her way to be near Gabriel. McNair could go to hell.

  Jackie nodded. The color in her cheeks started to return. Anna quickly put on the scrubs and tossed her ruined clothes into a biohazard bag the nurse had given her along with the scrubs.