Laughing Eyes: Bittersweet Familia (3) (26 page)

Fucking cowards.

Laila’s hair clung to her sweat-dampened face, her breathing shallow. She didn’t deserve any of this and my heart ached knowing that there was an all too real possibility that the monsters may have won this battle.

Danny

Stretching Laila out on the back seat, I made an assessment of her injuries. Blood was still pulsing from her collarbone, as I placed some gauze over the wound.

I could only hope finding Ethan would be an easy feat for Aiden, Laila’s life depending on every second that passed. With a sudden jerking motion, I dropped the antiseptic bottle and gauze fell from my hands, my body thrust back until I fell from the car, landing heavily on the concrete. Despite my best efforts to escape, the thick hands around my neck failed to let go, the weight of my attacker pinning me to the ground. I hadn’t seen him before in the mansion, but he looked to be a guard dressed similarly to Carlos, the man whose shins I blew out. Unlike the other who was probably dead, this man had thick dark hair gelled back into a ponytail. He didn’t look as intimidating as his colleague, but he was still larger in size.

He cast a leering look at Laila’s motionless body, a sickening grin returning back to me.

“What were you planning on doing to her?” He snarled.

“Certainly nothing you are thinking,” I replied as best I could manage through sporadic gasps.

“I didn’t so much like her before. Too mouthy. Didn’t know her place. Now that she can’t fight back, I’m thinking I might cash my cheque now.”

“Spoken like a true coward.”

The brutal blow of his fist smashed into my eye socket, my head snapping to the right. A dull throb and blurred vision wasn’t ideal in this situation but that’s what I got. Throwing my legs up, I wrapped them around his neck forcing him to bend backwards. He grunted against the pressure, his hands immediately releasing my throat. With a grunt of my own, I twisted my torso until we both got caught in a roll. Unhooking one leg, I moved quick getting enough distance before I brought my foot back down, smashing the heel of my boot into his nose. Above his yelps, the sickening sound of broken bone filled the night. Repeating the process, his body losing its strength, I aimed for his mouth, the crushing blow now rendering him quiet, teeth shattering on impact. Unhooking myself, I pushed him away from me. My energy had been sapped from the chokehold, so I waited on hands and knees while my breathing evened out. I couldn’t see the guards face, his features swallowed up by the night shadows. Getting to my feet I noticed his hands covering his injuries, the moon light now revealing just how much he was bleeding. Unhooking my Glock that had been pressed painfully into my back, I moved to stand over him. Giving a slight kick in the ribs, I waited for the guard’s full attention. When he didn’t move, I kicked harder ensuring the steel capped toe smashed into his bones. With a deep groan that sounded like a wounded bear, he finally rolled onto his back his hands falling away to reveal four front teeth missing, two split lips and an irreparably broken nose. Blood was everywhere and it showed no signs of stopping.

“If she’s dead, fucker, I will find you and kill you all over again!” His eyes lit up in alarm seconds before the bullet stilled him completely.

Moving back to the car, I went to work on helping Laila. Gently pressing gauze against her wound I watched with dwindling hope as the white fabric turned an instant red. I knew that this would be a job for the hospital, but my heart was defiant, my mind knowing that she may not make it there in time.

I studied my surroundings every few seconds, cautious of more rogue guards who felt compelled to settle a debt that wasn’t theirs. The west wing of the mansion was in complete darkness, courtesy of the earlier explosives.

Using a clean cloth and some antiseptic, I wiped gently over Laila’s wounded skin. First her arms, her chest and breasts, stomach and then legs. For a brief moment Laila stirred, her eyes squeezing shut, her mouth mumbling short incoherent words.

“Laila, can you hear me?” I coaxed gently. No response. This happened a few times over the course of fifteen minutes while I waited for Aiden, but she would only fall back into a state of unconscious.

When Aiden and Ethan finally did arrive, I saw them sprinting down the lane until they reached the car. Aiden’s concerned face tried to read mine seeking answers to his girl’s condition. I wanted to promise him that everything was ok, but it wasn’t.

He looked at the dead guard on the ground and the blood that was still oozing from his face.

“What happened? Did he hurt Laila?”

“No, but he would have. Get in the car, we need to go.”

As we pulled onto the street, I didn’t waste time in finding out what had gone down in the mansion.

“So I’m sorry to speak ill of your family, I know how highly you thought of them, but did you finish the fuckers off?” It wasn’t the most subtle question, but I was trying to get his mind off worrying about Laila. I knew it was a stretch but I had to give it a shot. Aiden was one tough motherfucker. The last time I had seen tears in his eyes was when I told him Anna had been killed. But now my best friend who had had his fair share of undeserved shit, now looked like a broken man. I knew all too well how he felt.

For the next ten minutes Aiden revealed everything. Hector had been obsessed with Aiden’s mother. She ran when things got bad, not wanting to be a part of his fucked up world. When Hector found her, she was already married to another man and together they had a little boy, Aiden. Hector had confessed he was the one who had murdered Aiden’s parents when he was just seven years old. That he adopted the boy, raised him with love in a place his birth mother despised and later as an adult, had him trained in defence in order to protect the men and women buyers who frequented the mansion. It was one fucked up situation.

With Aiden in the back nursing Laila’s head, the three of us then discussed what the plans were. The hospital was the first stop. Knowing full well that we couldn’t cross the border to seek medical help we drove to the nearest hospital in Mexico. Aiden was a wanted man after having killed the two policemen in Reno, so the last thing he could do was return to the states.

“When we know that Laila is in a stable condition, Aiden can take the car back to mine and freshen up.” I looked at him through the rear view mirror. “We need to keep you as inconspicuous as possible.”

Suddenly the air grew thick in the car, Ethan and Aiden casting cautious glances at each other.

“Do you want to tell him?” Ethan asked, almost pleading.

“Tell me what?” I demanded.

“They knew where Laila and Ethan were because they found Jorge. Well actually they found Maria, his cousin.” A while back when the chase first began, the four of them had gone to Maria’s house before embarking on the next leg of their journey. She lived out of town away from where Hector’s men would have been searching.

“And?”

“They threatened Jorge that they would kill Maria if he didn’t reveal where we were. So of course he told. I wouldn’t expect any different. Maria was so good to us when we first started our escape. She didn’t deserve to be caught up in it.”

“So, she is ok?” I wasn’t quite sure what they were getting at. Clearly while still in the mansion Aiden and Ethan had discussed quite a lot.

“Maria is safe, but Jorge didn’t fare so well. He is in San Diego hospital. Some passers-by found him almost bashed to death on the side of the road. Left to die, and he would have if it weren’t for the family that stopped to help him.”

“Fuck me!”

“But that’s not the end of it. When they took Ethan and Laila they burned down your house. I’m sorry Danny. All your things, everything you owned have been destroyed.”

“The fuckers burnt down my house?”

“Yes.”

“Fuck me!”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. It was more like a base for when I wasn’t working. A holiday home. How’s Laila’s heartbeat?” As much as I’d like to defer the real issues, I knew there was still an imminent danger hanging over us.

“It’s slowing down rapidly.”

Pushing the accelerator down until it reached the floor, I could only pray that we would make it.

***

As soon as the fluorescent lights came into view, the tension in the car was replaced with a new found hope. We were certainly a sight to behold as we ran down the foyer of the hospital, every visitor and patient casting curious glances at our blood-soaked selves. Aiden held Laila as he sprinted to the E.R, a mix of panic, fatigue and sadness engulfing him.

A nurse who had seen our urgent dash was prepared with a waiting gurney calling out for the nearest doctor. The middle-aged woman eyed us suspiciously as she took in the state of Laila’s bloodied, almost naked beaten body.

“You need to wait here while we look after her,” she said in a calm voice. She gave us a double glance half expecting a protest, but we knew the drill and time was too much of the essence to waste arguing over the matter. We each took a step back, the nurse’s face relaxing somewhat before she approached the head of the gurney, steering it through the E.R doors.

“She’ll be alright, bro,” I said hoping that my words were the truth.

“Why does this shit always happen to us?” Aiden wasn’t looking at me. Instead his eyes were focused on the doors still flapping back and forth, his girl on the other side.

“We seem to be magnets for assholes and pretty women.”

Ethan shot me a disgusted look, Aiden’s lips twitching to form an almost smile.

“The two unrelated. Fuck me!” I said with mock exasperation, “One night of excitement and suddenly I’m dealing with two pubescent boys.”

“I didn’t say anything,” Aiden plead his innocence.

“You didn’t have to,” I couldn’t help my own laugh. We were all exhausted, all hopeful and all desperate for a miracle.

Danny

What seemed like hours passed before we heard any news. In the waiting room, cups of coffee in hand, we held out hope for the door to swing open and to hear a voice saying everything was going to be ok.

Not much was said between us during that time, each with our own reflection on a month from hell. There would be no hunting, no more killing and most of all, no more running, at least not from the bad guys. Aiden could never return to the U.S. What he had done was for the good of everyone. The officers he killed were not there to protect public safety. They worked for the bad guys and were quite happy to take someone’s life simply for financial gain. The authorities would have none of it. Aiden would be sent away for life and possibly face the death penalty.

Me? I had killed across the border also, my footsteps harder to trace, but I wasn’t prepared to take that risk.

I only had one reason to return.

***

I drove back the next day. Laila had opened her eyes and seemed in good health. The doctors had finished surgery and she was expected to be released in two more days. I had watched from the door as Aiden kissed her lips, both of them shedding some tears. At that point my heart both swelled and broke all over again. There was simply no better outcome for these two, their love for each other loud and proud. I had never seen Aiden so infatuated and Laila simply adored him.

They were perfect together.

They belonged to each other.

I wanted so badly to be able to touch Anna again. I had prayed so hard and for so long that I could have a happy-ever-after with her. Instead I always woke to the harsh reality that she was taken from this world in the most brutal of ways.

The risk I was taking by crossing the border was simply not a concern. I had one place to go that I would probably never return to. That thought alone broke my heart all over again, but it had to be done. In a weeks’ time back in Mexico, I would set sail for a shore far from this place leaving the worst kind of memories behind.