Chapter 2
TWO
LEXI
“Thank you so much for doing this, Chloe,” I said as I opened my apartment door.
My best friend soared inside. “Hon, you know I’m down to watch Natasha anytime you need me to. She’s my god-daughter, after all.”
I sighed. “I know, I know. I just hate that this is all last minute. One of my co-workers called out sick, and you know we can always use the money.”
I heard my daughter scramble out of her room. “Auntie Chloe!”
My best friend scooped up my daughter into her arms. “Natty! Oh, I missed you so much.”
As I watched the two of them spin around, it cemented that I had made the right choice.
For a while, I wasn’t sure if moving back to San Diego was a smart choice, especially given my history within the town’s city limits.
But when the apartment right next to my childhood best friend became available, it was almost as if fate had intervened on my part.Plus, there were a great deal more hacking jobs in San Diego to play around with in my spare time than there were in Los Angeles.
You know, when I wasn’t zooming around in one of San Diego’s finest ambulances attempting to save people from their stupidity.
“Go, get out of here. Go save someone’s life. We’ll be okay until you get home,” Chloe said.
I walked over and hugged her tightly. “You’re a lifesaver; thank you so much. There’s an envelope on the fridge with money for--.”
She pushed me toward the front door. “Go, girl. You know I’ve got this.”
“Love you, Mommy!” Natasha exclaimed.
I blew my baby girl a kiss. “I love you too, princess.”
In my spare time, I got paid to hack people’s security systems and cars in order to expose vulnerabilities within their systems. However, hobbies don’t pay the bills.
Coding and hacking gave me an outlet when I was younger, but now I had other things that were more important.
I had a regular life I needed to establish.
I required more consistent work with even more consistent paychecks.
And with the way hacking jobs had a tendency to dry up for months, I needed something stable.
Which is why I had accepted a full-time job as one of the county’s EMTs a few weeks ago.
The training itself hadn’t been the issue.
Getting the job had been the issue. They were few and far between, and only those with the best scores coming out of training were able to snag the best jobs.
However, with a little help from an acquaintance of mine that used to work in the field, obtaining the job in order to support my family hadn’t been as hard for me as it was for most.
But, nothing good ever comes into my life without a price.
Bzzzzzt!
As I flopped down into the front seat of my beat-up car, my phone started vibrating.
I jammed my hand into my purse and ripped it out, fully expecting it to be some sort of scam phone call.
I readied myself to mute the vibrations so that I could get to work.
After all, it wasn’t a good look for the new kid on the block to be late, especially when a friend of mine had stuck his neck out for me in the process.
However, when I saw that I wasn’t getting a phone call, but a text message, and that the number was restricted? I had to brace myself.
Restricted: You’ll be getting a text from one of my guys soon. We need general supplies.
As I sat there, staring at my cell phone screen, I wanted to throw it out the fucking window.
Seriously? That’s what he wanted? I mean, I figured Notch would have wanted something in return for putting in a good word on my behalf and basically securing the EMT job for me.
But, he wanted me to steal supplies? From a truck I had only been on for a few weeks! ?
Restricted: My man will be contacting you soon. I gave him your number. He’ll be in touch within the next couple of hours.
Being thrown into the deep end was something I had grown used to.
All my life, people tossed me wherever they needed me and expected me to fulfill a role they hadn’t taught me about yet.
And this was no different. Like I said, nothing in my life comes without a price, I just didn’t think that Notch would actually attempt to make that price my motherfucking job.
The thing I used to support my daughter.
The income I used to keep things stable in her life after her father--.
I drew in a deep breath and cranked up my car.
I had to get to work. I couldn’t sit there and dwell on the anger and frustration ebbing through the marrow of my bones because if I did, I’d be late and out of a job.
I cruised on into work with music blasting through the pathetic speakers of my car, trying my best to clear my mind before I clocked in.
I didn’t make it a habit of rejoicing whenever our alert siren went off.
But damn it, when I parked my car and heard that whooping noise, I had never been happier in all my life to focus on literally anything else.
“Right on time!” Chelsea exclaimed.
I rushed over to the only other woman on our team and leapt into the back of the ambulance. “I’ll clock in once we get back. We got any idea what’s going on?”
“GSW, about four blocks from here,” Cap said as he slid behind the wheel of the ambulance. “And Lexi?”
“Yep?” I asked as I buckled myself into the back.
“Thanks for coming in on your day off.”
I smiled. “Not a problem at all, sir. Let’s go save a life.”
The sirens roared and the tires skidded as we sped toward the scene of the accident. I held on tightly to my restraints, taking deep breaths in through my nose and out through my mouth. It was one of the many techniques I leaned on in order to help keep my anxiety in check.
But, when the ambulance came to a grinding halt, I was the first out the back doors.
“All right, everyone, let’s get to work!” I exclaimed.
“Jesus Christ,” Chelsea said breathlessly, “he’s all alone.”
“Someone get a gurney out here!” Cap bellowed as he charged his way out from behind the wheel of the ambulance.
The man was just laying there, bleeding out from his torso. I rushed toward him with my bag thrown over my shoulder as I assessed his wounds. The tattoos that rushed up and down his entire body hinted at the fact that this may have been due to gang activity.
A chill rushed down my spine as I looked up and surveyed the scene.
“Here, we need pressure,” Chelsea said.
“On three, we get him onto this thing. One, two, go!” Cap commanded.
Everything happened so quickly that I almost couldn’t process it.
I leaned onto my autopilot, going through the motions while trying to take stock of my surroundings.
The pavement was stained with a gigantic red spot that simply sat in the middle of the sidewalk.
The abandoned buildings that surrounded us seemed to be watching us, as if they lived and breathed and had eyes of their own, watching the scene unfold.
A shiver worked its way down my spine as we loaded the man up into the back of the ambulance and started racing toward the hospital.
But, with the blood that kept dripping onto my black shoes, I wondered if we’d even make it in time.
“Come on, Cap, move your foot to the right and press down,” Chelsea spat.
“Fucking hell,” Cap murmured as he whooped the siren, “get out of the way! Don’t you see us coming!?”
We packed his wounds and set I.V.s in both hands.
The man definitely needed surgery, and anything we could do to take time and effort of the hospital’s back were points in his favor.
The man groaned out in pain as I slipped the catheters into the tops of his hands.
His head lobbed off to the side as his eyes rolled into the back of his head, and I watched as his muscles tensed up.
“On his side, now!” I exclaimed.
Just as Chelsea and myself got him twisted onto his side, he started to convulse.
His muscles tightened and his fingers grew crooked.
Every single ounce of his body shriveled up as his entire form trembled.
Choked sounds fell from the man’s lips as blood spurted from the holes in his torso from the bullets.
It was like a scene out of a horror film. One I’d never forget so long as I lived.
And then finally, Cap eased us up toward the E.R. doors.
“All right,” a doctor said as he ripped open the ambulance doors, “what do we got?”
The man continued to seize as we rolled him into the sunlight. “GSW victim, three gunshots to the torso. Two on his side, one near his pelvis.”
“B.P. is 190 over--.”
The man’s body locked out, contorting in a way I’d never seen in my entire life. His neck bent at an odd angle and his back bowed so badly that I thought it would snap.
“I need a free O.R., stat!” one of the doctors exclaimed.
“We’ve got it from here,” a nurse said as she patted my arm, “we’ll do our best.”
I looked down at my bloodied hands. “He didn’t start seizing until about a minute before we pulled in. He hasn’t been doing this the entire time.”
The nurse placed her hands in mine. “Clean your hands and take a breath. We’ve got it from here.”
I cleared my throat. “He’s lost at least three pints of blood. He was steadily dripping on my shoes the entire way here.”
“I’ve got her,” Chelsea said as she stepped in between me and the nurse.
And as I watched the woman turn around, charging back through the E.R. doors, I couldn’t help but gaze upon the ground.
At the blood trail staring me in the face.
“Fucking hell,” I whispered.
Cap came to stand beside the two of us. “Twenty minutes, then we’re back out on the road. Get cleaned up. I’m going to go hunt down the cafeteria.”
“Oh, can you get me some coffee?” Chelsea asked.
Cap nodded as he backtracked toward the E.R. doors. “Lexi? You want anything?”
I drew in a deep breath. “Coffee would be great. And something sweet.”
“Make that two something sweets,” Chelsea said.
Cap pointed at us both. “You got it. Be back in a jif!”