Against the Fire (14 page)

“Are you family?” she asked.

“No, just a friend.”

She stared down at the chart on her desk. “Angel has suffered a severe trauma to the head. His skull is fractured in two places. He has yet to regain consciousness. If you want to see his family, they’re down the hall in the waiting room.”

“Thank you.”

Gabe strode off in that direction. When he opened the door and surveyed the cluster of vinyl chairs and people with worried faces, Mattie saw him and shot to her feet.

“Gabe.”

He walked over and reached out to her. Instead of moving away as he thought she might, she stepped straight into his arms.

He felt her tremble and tightened his hold.

“How did you hear?” she asked softly.

“Captain Daily called. He told me Angel was assaulted. He thought I’d want to know.”

For an instant, she rested her cheek against his shoulder. Then she stepped away. “Thank you for coming. I know Angel would be pleased.” She turned to a plump Hispanic woman wearing a flowered housedress. “Rosa, this is Mr. Raines. I’m sure Angel mentioned him. Gabe, this is Angel’s mother.”

“Mrs. Ramirez,” he said. “I’m sorry this has happened to your son.”

She nodded, moving several layers of flesh beneath her chin and the shiny black braid hanging down her back. “My son has told me all about you. How you helped him and also Enrique.”

“Do you know what happened?” Gabe asked her.

“Only that someone came up and hit him from behind. The police say a baseball bat or something like that. They say…they say his skull is cracked. There is swelling and…” She covered her mouth with a trembling hand and started to cry.

“It’s going to be all right,” Mattie said, easing the heavyset woman into her arms. “This is a very good hospital.”

One of the best, Gabe thought. And by law they would have to help the boy even though he probably had no medical insurance. But as soon as the hospital thought he had recovered enough, he would be gone. Assuming he did recover.

Mattie settled Rosa back in her chair, filled a small paper cup with water from the cooler and brought it over.

“Thank you, Mattie.”

Determined to hide her worry, Mattie forced a smile. When she glanced at Gabe, still trying to get over her surprise at seeing him there, he tipped his head toward the waiting room door, and she nodded.

“How’s he doing?” Gabe asked as soon as they were out in the hall.

“He’s in critical condition.” Her voice wobbled. “They don’t know if he’s going to make it.”

Gabe’s breath came out soft and slow. “I’m sorry, Mattie.”

“We’re all praying and holding positive thoughts.”

“Do they have any idea what happened?”

She turned her gaze toward the glass doors leading into the ICU. “The police don’t know much. A cook at the A-1 Deli found him lying in the alley behind the kitchen. The doctors don’t know how long he was lying there before he was discovered.”

“Where did this happen?”

“About a block and a half from the center.”

Gabe shook his head. “From everything you’ve told me and what I’ve seen, I can’t imagine anyone wanting to hurt the boy.”

Mattie started trembling. She bit down on her lip to keep her teeth from chattering. Gabe eased her back into his arms.

“Angel’s going to be all right,” he said softly. “That’s what we have to believe.”

She told herself to push him away, that she had to be strong for Angel and Rosa, but it felt so good, just this once, to have someone be strong for her.

“How long before the doctors know anything?” Gabe asked, his arms still around her.

Mattie released a breath and forced herself to move out of his embrace. “The next twenty-four hours are crucial. After that, it may take weeks, even months before he fully recovers.”

There was an unspoken if and both of them knew it.

“I’d like to see him. I’m not sure they’ll let me in, but I’d like to give it a try.”

She took his hand and led him toward the doors, shoved one of them open and led him inside. Better to act first and apologize later than to wait and get stuck with a no.

The white-walled room was lined with rows of beds separated by movable curtains. The linoleum floors were spotlessly clean. She could feel Gabe’s tension mounting as they approached where Angel lay beneath a thin white blanket, his head swathed in bandages. A plastic tube came out of his mouth and there were IVs in both of his arms. A monitor beeped and sucked as it measured each breath, and another gauged the beating of his heart.

Gabe stood tensely beside her. “Angel didn’t deserve this.” The boy’s eyes were black and blue, his face so badly swollen she could hardly recognize him as the smiling boy she knew.

A nurse walked up just then, thirtyish and sandy-haired. Her name tag read Molly. “I’m sorry, unless you’re family, you can’t be in here.” She looked down at the chart she carried. “Oh, I’m sorry. Mrs. Ramirez told me to expect Angel’s sister.”

Mattie nodded at the small white lie. “That’s right.”

The nurse smiled up at Gabe. “And this must be your husband.”

A corner of Gabe’s mouth lifted, and Mattie managed to force a smile. “Why, yes, it is.”

“It’s all right, then, but you can only stay a couple of minutes.”

“Of course.” The nurse walked away and Mattie resisted an urge to look up at Gabe, catch the look of amusement she expected to see on his face.

Instead she looked down at Angel. She wanted to reach for his hand, but she didn’t want to do anything that might hurt him. Her heart squeezed at the sight of the limp form lying on the bed, this boy who was Angel but wasn’t Angel at all.

They stood there a few minutes more, then Gabe rested a hand at her waist and guided her out of the room. In the hallway, Mattie wiped tears from her cheeks and took a shaky breath.

She thought of Angel, lying there unconscious, hovering between life and death, and wrapped her arms protectively around herself. She couldn’t help thinking how much better it felt when the arms had belonged to Gabe.

“Angel is young and strong,” he said gently. “And the doctors here are good. They’ll do their best for him.” He looked over her head and she followed his gaze down the hall to a ponytailed teenager in worn blue jeans, holey sneakers and a T-shirt stained with splashes of bright-colored paint.

Enrique’s long, thin legs ate up the distance between them. “Mrs. Ramirez called my mother,” he said when he reached them. “Is Angel going to be all right?”

Mattie moistened her lips. “We don’t know yet, Enrique. I’m sorry.”

The boy stared down at his dirty, frayed shoes.

“It looks like Angel was attacked,” Gabe said gently. “Do you have any idea who might have done it?”

Enrique shook his head. A faint sheen glistened in his black eyes. “My mother said it happened down by the center.”

“That’s right.”

“All I know is Angel’s been hanging around downtown, asking a lot of questions. He thought someone might have seen somebody near the Towers the night of the fire. Or maybe there had been some rumbling, something about who might have set the blaze.”

Mattie’s heart started pounding. “You don’t…don’t think this happened because he was trying to dig up information?”

Enrique shrugged his thin shoulders. He turned to Gabe. “He said we owed you. He said he wanted to help you the way you helped us.”

Gabe’s jaw hardened and tears flooded Mattie’s eyes. “This is my fault,” she said. “I’m the one who told him he could help. I got him involved in this. If I hadn’t said anything—”

“This isn’t your fault,” Gabe said firmly. “Whoever attacked Angel is the person responsible.”

Mattie swallowed and glanced away. No matter what Gabe said, she was partly to blame.

Enrique’s dark eyes followed a nurse rushing through the ICU doors. When he looked back, Mattie could read his fear for his friend.

“So do you think the guy who set the fire was the one who beat up Angel?” he asked, cutting to the heart of the matter.

“I think there’s a chance,” Gabe said. “He could have just been in the wrong place at the wrong time, but if he’s been digging around asking questions, I think there’s a very good chance the assault might be related to the fires.”

“Oh, God.” Mattie turned away. Pulling a tissue from her purse, she dabbed at her eyes. Angel was such a sweet boy. And with his father gone, his family needed him so badly.

She drew in a shaky breath and straightened her spine. “Whoever did this…I’m not letting him get away with it. I’m going to find out who attacked Angel and make sure he pays.”

Gabe reached out and gently caught her shoulders. “Listen to me, Mattie. There’s a good chance he’s the guy who set those fires. The guy is dangerous. I don’t want you getting hurt, too.”

Mattie made no reply. She was older than Angel, and through the years, she had learned to be cautious. And she had always been smart. She would figure out a way to find the man who had done this to an innocent teenage boy.

“I mean it, Mattie,” Gabe said, his hold gentle but firm. “You need to let the police handle this.”

Picking up on the tension between them, Enrique nervously cleared his throat. “I’m going to see Mrs. Ramirez,” he said, easing past them as they stood there glaring at each other.

Mattie narrowed her gaze at Gabe. “You’re telling me to let the police handle it? I’m sure the police will do their best, but they have a thousand cases to work on. Am I supposed to believe that’s what you’re going to do?”

He straightened to his full height. “I’m a man, not a boy. This guy comes at me, he’s going to get a whole lot more than he bargained for.”

Mattie’s gaze ran over the powerful chest encased in the formfitting T-shirt, the biceps bulging with muscle. Gabe was an ex-marine. He could handle a creep like the one who’d assaulted Angel.

“Fine, then you can help me. I’m finding this guy. You can help me or I’ll do it on my own.”

“Mattie.”

“I mean it, Gabe.”

For several long moments, he said nothing. She could read his frustration in the hard set of his jaw. And his certainty that she meant what she said.

“All right, but we do this together. No going off on your own. No knocking on doors without letting me know where you are, no late nights out by yourself.”

“Fair enough. When do we start?”

He drilled her with those blue, blue eyes. “How’s this afternoon suit you?”

“Perfect.” And for the first time since this had happened, she felt a sense of purpose instead of worry and guilt and frustration. “I’ll meet you at your construction trailer in an hour.”

With all the pounding and scraping going on, and the deafening roar of saws, Sam didn’t hear the first few rings of his cell phone.

Unclipping the phone from his belt, he walked away from the noise and hustle of the Towers cleanup project, flipped the lid open and pressed the phone against his ear.

“McBride.”

“Hi, Sam. This is Tracy Spencer.”

Sam felt a warm stirring. “Hello, Tracy. I kind of gave up on hearing from you.”

“I’ve…um…been busy. Is your invitation still open? For dinner, I mean?”

He pressed the phone a little closer to his ear. “It’s open.”

“So…um…what night would be good for you?”

A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. It was obvious the lady wasn’t used to phoning men up and asking them out on a date.

“I’m busy tonight,” he said, though he wasn’t doing a damn thing. “How about tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow would be good. What time?”

“How about seven? That’ll give us time to get to the restaurant and have a drink before we eat.”

“All right. Where do you want to go?”

He ran over his options. A girl like Tracy was probably used to expensive, high-class restaurants. Not this time. “There’s a little Italian place down on Lamar. Bella Sera. A friend of mine owns it. Have you been there?”

“No, but I’m willing to give it a try.”

“Great, I’ll pick you up at seven.” Tracy said goodbye and Sam hung up the phone. It took him a minute to realize his lips were still curved. Tracy Spencer had called him. She wanted to get to know him. He didn’t understand why that seemed so important. Most guys would be happy to take a gorgeous blonde like Tracy straight to bed, even if it was just for a night.

But for weeks, Sam had been watching her at the club. There was something sad and sweet about Tracy, something vulnerable beneath all that bravado. There was something more to her than just sex and goodbye, and he wanted to know what it was.

The bad news was he wouldn’t be getting laid tomorrow night. He intended to make that clear right up front. He had a hunch Tracy would act differently if she didn’t have to live up to any kind of sexual expectations.

Even if they were her own.

Fourteen

A moist, hot, late-afternoon wind had come up outside the trailer, whirling leaves and papers around and whipping the branches on the trees. Gabe was sitting behind his desk in the construction trailer, going over some of the insurance paperwork for the fire at McKinney Court, when his cell phone began to ring.

He recognized the caller ID.

“Hey, Jackson,” Gabe said. “Good to hear from you. How’s that beautiful new wife of yours?”

Jackson’s soft chuckle came over the line. “As sassy as ever.”

“I’ll bet she is.”

Jackson and Sarah Allen, the woman he had recently married, had first met in high school. Jackson had had a serious crush on her, but Sarah had rejected him in front of half the school, humiliating him in the very worst way. It wasn’t until she found herself in desperate trouble that she and Jackson had been able to overcome their past and work things out.

“Dev called,” Jackson said. “He filled me in on the fires. You should have let me know you were having trouble.”

“I figured you’d find out soon enough. Besides, there’s nothing you can do.”

“Dev’s been working on that list you sent him. He asked me if there was anyone else I could think of who might have it in for you.”

“And?”

“You remember that guy you went head-to-head with when the two of you were in the marines at Camp Lejeune?”