Chapter Four Rev #2
Sputtering and convulsing, he began to bleed out over the white marble floor. As I stared down at the man in disgust, rage filled me. Although I should have reined myself in, I couldn’t stop myself from kicking him over and over again in the gut and groin.
Once the man was still, I jerked my knife out of his neck.
Since I could always use another weapon, I took his rifle and swung it over my shoulder.
Just as I started out of the bedroom, a low moan caused me to whirl around.
The room appeared empty when I looked inside.
As my gaze flicked around the room, another moan came from the other side of the room.
With my finger on my gun’s trigger, I started slowly across the marble floor.
When I got around the side of the bed, I was met with the sight of a pool of blood and a female body.
“Jesus Christ,” I muttered at the sight of the crumpled form in front of me.
Shifting my guns, I dropped down onto the floor.
It was a woman wearing only a man’s white dress shirt.
Besides the blood, her body was black and blue with bruises.
Someone had done a real number on her. It was obvious she had been left to die.
My hand froze after I’d reached to push the strands of auburn hair out of the girl’s face. Sarah had auburn hair. Was it possible that I had unknowingly found her? Could it be this easy?
“Sarah?” I questioned. “Sarah?” My tone had grown frantic. Her swollen eyelids fluttered at the sound of my voice. “Are you Sarah Edgeway?”
“Annabel,” she whispered.
It felt like a harsh kick to the gut that it wasn’t Sarah.
But at the same time, I knew I had to save this girl.
Drawing her to me, I slid one of my arms under her back and the other under her legs.
When I eased us off the ground, she cried out in pain.
“I’m sorry. I’m going to get you help. I promise. ”
She surprised me by opening her eyes and gazing up at me. “J-Jesus?” she croaked.
It took me a moment to process that with my unkempt hair and beard I’d made her think of the religious figure. At the hopeful look in her bloodshot eyes, I felt terrible for having to let her down. “No, I’m Rev,” I said lamely.
My words seemed to be of little comfort to her as she grimaced in pain. “Hurts.”
“I know. Stay with me. I’m going to get you out of here.”
When I got to the doorway, I stuck my head out and peered left and right. It appeared to be clear, so I started out of the bedroom. Cradling the girl in my arms made it a little more difficult to make our way through the maze of rooms.
Just as I got to the doorway of the house, the stinging bite of a bullet pierced my left calf.
“Motherfucker,” I groaned before whirling around.
The moment I saw it wasn’t one of our guys who might’ve shot in mistake, I started firing.
I clipped the guy in the shoulder, sending him crashing to the ground.
Throwing open the front door, I waited for any gunfire in response.
When everything remained silent, I eased out onto the veranda.
Peering into the night, I saw one of the relief vans sitting outside the gates.
My left leg dragged slightly behind me as I tried hustling as fast as I could.
I was halfway across the courtyard when an explosion rocketed through the compound, sending me crashing to the ground.
The next few seconds ticked by agonizingly slowly, as if the world had slowed down to a crawl.
The blast had robbed me of my hearing, and I struggled with the feeling of having cotton in my ears.
Gradually, as it started coming back to me, I heard a chorus of agonized screams along with various voices yelling.
“Come on, Rev,” someone said at my side. I glanced up to see Chulo standing over me. He grabbed my arm and helped hoist me up. I then bent over and picked up the girl. “Fuck man. You’ve been hit.”
“It ain’t bad. She’s in worse shape,” I replied.
Carrying Annabel with my wounded leg seemed to take forever to get through the gate. Just as we reached the van, Breakneck came running over to us. “You found her?” he asked, his face lighting up.
His question caused my chest to tighten in agony. I didn’t know how I was going to knowingly kill his hope. Finally, I shook my head. “No man, this isn’t Sarah. I found her in Mendoza’s private quarters. She’s been beaten almost to death.”
Breakneck’s face fell. “It’s not my Sarah?”
“I’m so sorry. Maybe one of the others has her.”
Shouts and gunfire tore our attention to what was happening beyond the gate. Our group of men came around the corner of the house. Some were running while others were barely limping along. Most were covered in blackened soot and ash.
“What the fuck happened?” I demanded.
“The bunker where he kept the girls…” Bishop shook his head. “It was rigged with explosives. The second we got through the alarm system, someone blew it all up.”
I closed my eyes as the realization washed over me. It was a fucking coward’s defense strategy. Destroy the evidence of your crimes when you were about to get caught. In this case, Mendoza sacrificed the lives of the young women for no reason at all.
When I opened my eyes, I saw that Breakneck was staring wide-eyed at the flames billowing into the night sky.
It was painful to watch as the realization washed over him.
An agonized cry tore from his lips as he sank to his knees on the ground.
To come this far only to lose Sarah in the end was brutal.
“Okay boys, let’s get the fuck out of here before the reinforcements arrive,” Chulo ordered.
With anguished eyes, Breakneck whirled around. “No. We can’t leave. Sarah’s still in there.”
Bishop placed a hand on Breakneck’s back. “I’m sorry, man. She’s gone.”
“You don’t know that. We don’t know unless we find her body.”
Chulo grunted in frustration. “Listen man, you forget any idea about going back for her body because there ain’t nothing left. That place was wired so tight the Feds won’t find a scrap of anything. You get me?”
Although a look of defeat flashed across Breakneck’s face, he didn’t respond. He once again resumed staring at the flames.
Glancing down at the girl in my arms, I said, “Chulo, we need a hospital for her.”
“And for you,” he replied.
“You were hit?” Bishop questioned.
“It’s nothing.”
“Yeah, well, that nothing looks like it’s bleeding pretty bad,” Nero challenged.
“Whatever.” With the girl weighing heavy in my arms, I went to get her settled in the van. When I started to ease her down on the seat, I noticed the blood pooling down her thighs. “Jesus,” I muttered. Whirling around, I grabbed Breakneck’s arm. “Forget about me. She’s hemorrhaging or something.”
Breakneck threw a glance at Annabel before returning his stare to the inferno at the compound. “I…I can’t.”
Grabbing him by the shoulders, I shoved him into the side of the van. “Listen to me. I’m sorry we didn’t get to Sarah in time. I’m sorry that you lost her. But you can’t shut down. We’ve got a girl who needs your help.”
Breakneck shoved me away. “Fuck you!”
“Guys, we gotta move. Now,” Chulo said.
The second van cranked up its engine. I shook my head at Breakneck. “What about your fucking Hippocratic oath, huh?”
Breakneck glared at me. “My little girl was just murdered, you bastard. I don’t give a shit about anyone else. You can fucking bleed out for all I care.”
“You think this is what Sarah would want? You think she would be proud her old man was refusing to treat someone—a girl who had been through the same hell she had?”
Breakneck refused to look at me. Instead, he was staring at something on the girl’s hand. He brushed past me to go over to her. He took her hand in his and then brought it closer to his face. “This was Sarah’s.”
My brows rose in surprise. “Maybe this girl and Sarah were friends.”
Breakneck gently laid the girl’s hand on her chest. He exhaled an anguished breath.
Glancing over his shoulder at Chulo, he said, “We need the closest hospital or clinic. With that bleeding, coupled with whatever internal injuries she’s sustained, she’s got maybe an hour.
I need to get in and stop the bleeding.”
Chulo glanced from Breakneck to me. “Thirty miles up the road there’s a hospital. It ain’t much, and it sure as hell ain’t no trauma center.”
“I’ll make do,” Breakneck replied.
“One good thing is most of the staff can be bribed, and we’re going to need that for sure,” Chulo said.
“Fine. Let’s go,” I replied.
As we started the van, I surveyed Breakneck one last time.
With muscles taut throughout his body, the heart-wrenching agony was written over Breakneck’s face as well.
His baby girl was dead. Murdered. It was likely the finality of Sarah’s death would leave him a broken man.
For our mission not to have been completely in vain, Annabel had to live.
With a swift nod in his direction, I tried to convey to Breakneck all my unsaid sympathy along with my thanks.
He shook his head. “Don’t thank me yet. She’s got a helluva long way to go to survive.” Although there was doubt in his voice, there was also a hint of firm resolve.