Carrots: A Shelby Nichols Adventure (24 page)

Uncle Joey also wondered what Walter had up his sleeve. Walter was probably waiting for his chance to rush Hodges and get his gun. That would be the perfect distraction for him to pull his own gun. It was bound to get exciting, and he was almost looking forward to it. Action of any kind was better than getting killed doing nothing.

Hodges was rifling through Uncle Joey’s desk drawers by touch while he kept watching us. His arm was getting tired from holding the gun so long. Sweat trickled uncomfortably down his face, and he couldn’t wipe it off. In fact, this whole ordeal was taking way too long. He touched something that felt like money and glanced down. There it was, a whole drawer full of large bills.

“Kate, when you’re done with that, bring it over here,” he told her.

She smiled. Her plan to get out of this was working. Hodges needed her, and with the jewels and money, there was enough to make a good start somewhere else.

Walter was getting ready to spring when Kate walked by, thinking he could use her as a shield if Hodges fired at him. I was just about to say something when Kate unexpectedly went around on the other side of the table.

Walter was about to go for her anyway, but before he made his move, the door exploded open. There stood Ramos like an avenging angel. His hair flew wild around his face, and his eyes held a wicked gleam. He was scary, but I’d never seen anything so wonderful in my life. Ramos was alive!

Hodges fired his gun, but Ramos was already in motion and the shot went wide. Ramos did a dive-roll and came up shooting. The room became a hotbed of gunfire. Hodges shot at Ramos while Walter jumped toward the desk, grabbed his gun, and rolled aside. Uncle Joey pulled his gun and, ducking behind the table, aimed at Walter. Kate was holding the bag of jewels in front of her like a shield and tried to take cover behind a big potted plant.

I fell to my hands and knees. The sound of gunfire was deafening and I wasn’t sure where to go. A bullet whizzed past my ear and I let out a little scream. In a surge of desperation, I gathered my feet beneath me, and keeping as small as possible, bolted for the half-open door.

I was nearly there when someone came crashing through the doorway, slamming it open. I tried to stop, but couldn’t get out of the way before the hard edge struck me in the head. I grunted and toppled over, unable to see around the swimming black dots that clouded my vision. Like a signal, the gunfire stopped, and I could hear people shouting, but it was lost behind the roaring in my ears and everything started to go dark.

***

I came to hearing someone call my name.

“Shelby?” That sounded like Chris, but how could he be here? “Shelby? Can you hear me?” There it was again, but I knew it wasn’t him. He couldn’t be here. I must be losing my mind.

“I think she’s fainted.” Now that was Uncle Joey. At least I thought it was Uncle Joey. “I don’t see any blood.”

“No, actually, I clobbered her with the door when I came in. See that big bump on her forehead?” That was Chris again. Maybe he really was here.

“Oh…yeah. That’s got to hurt. Wow, look at that. It’s getting bigger by the second. Maybe we should get some ice on it.”

“Is it over?” I tried to say, but it came out more like a groan.

“It’s all right, Shelby. You’re safe now.”

I blinked open my eyes. It really was Chris. He was here. Someone handed him something and he gently placed it on my hurting head. I sucked in my breath. “Oww!” I yelled, suddenly awake. Tears leaked from the corners of my eyes and I pushed the cloth away, struggling to sit up.

“You need to keep this on your head or the swelling might get worse.”

“But touching it hurts!”

Chris helped prop me against the wall, then gingerly raised the ice to my head. Tears leaked out again, but this time it was easier to bear. After a few moments, the ice began to numb the pain, and I was able to open my eyes and focus on the room.

“Is that Dimples?” I asked.

“Yes,” Chris sat down beside me.

“What’s he doing here?”

Chris sighed. “Trying to save you. Same reason I’m here.”

“How did you know?”

“Kate came to my office after our little lunch today, and told me she was looking for a file she’d misplaced. For some reason, she thought it might be in my filing cabinet. I told her to look all she wanted, and went out into the hall, then listened at the door.

“She got a phone call, and went on and on about how you’d given her file on Stephen Cohen to Manetto, and she couldn’t wait to throttle you. I thought you might be in trouble, so I followed her here. I noticed your new car in the parking garage and tried calling your cell, but you didn’t answer. I started to get worried and called Dimples. He came right over and when we got off the elevator, we heard the shots. I didn’t even think. I just ran for the door.”

“So, you’re the one who slammed the door into my head?”

“I didn’t know you’d be right behind it. At least you didn’t get shot. How does it feel?”

“It hurts real bad.” My head was pounding to beat the devil, and I still had trouble focusing. I could hear Uncle Joey talking, so I knew he must be okay. There were several more bodies in the room than before. Dimples was arguing with three other guys and I finally recognized them as numbers two, three, and four.

What had happened to Walter? Someone was lying on the floor. Was that him or Hodges? My head started to spin and I started feeling a bit nauseous.

“How are you doing?” Dimples asked, kneeling beside me.

“Awful.” I couldn’t move my head afraid I would throw up.

“I’m leaving for a minute, but I’ll be back,” he said to Chris. After he left, I heard the wail of sirens in the distance. Then Uncle Joey started arguing with the guys. With Dimples gone, it sounded like they were trying to decide what to do before he came back with more policemen. I scanned the room for Kate and Hodges, and found her wrapping something around Hodges’ bloody arm. They were sitting in the corner by the potted plant.

All at once, EMT’s and firemen flooded the room. They brought in a gurney and all sorts of equipment, making the room seem small and crowded. After a minute, one of them came to my side and started shining a light in my eyes.

“It looks like you might have a slight concussion.” He removed the ice from my forehead and let out a low whistle. “Whew! That’s huge!” He hurriedly put it back. “You need to keep ice on that, but you’ll probably still have a couple of black eyes. Are you nauseated? Dizzy?”

“Just a little,” I said trying not to move my head.

“Better sit tight for a few more minutes then. You might need to go to the hospital.” He stayed by my side, but was clearly more interested in what was going on in the room. “Man, what happened to this place? It looks like a shoot-out from The Godfather.”

“Yeah, something like that,” Chris said. The EMT got called over to the other group and someone else joined us.

“Hey babe,” Ramos said. Chris stiffened at my side, but none of his thoughts came through.

“Ramos…” I got out. “I thought you were dead.” Relief came so strong tears gathered in my eyes. He didn’t look like he was at death’s door, although there was blood on his shirt.

“I’m not that easy to kill.”

“But I saw him shoot you,” I protested.

He pulled his shirt open to reveal a black vest. “It’s Kevlar. I don’t wear it all the time, but when I saw them grab you on the monitors, I figured I’d better be prepared. I thought Walter would be gone longer than he was, or I would have had you out of there before he came back.” He sounded apologetic, like he hadn’t done his job.

“It’s okay, I’m just glad you’re alive.” My arm was getting tired from holding the ice, so I lowered it for a minute.

“Whoa!” Ramos exhaled. “That’s huge. How did that happen?”

I glanced at Chris out of the corner of my eye. He was frowning, and didn’t seem to like Ramos very much. “I was trying to get away and ran into the door just as Chris was coming in.” I wasn’t sure Chris appreciated how nicely I said that.

“Oh.” Ramos raised his brow at Chris. “You bring the cop?”

“Yeah.” There was a challenge in his tone, but he was saved from further comment when the paramedics brought the gurney carrying Walter toward the door. There was an oxygen mask covering his face and an IV stuck in his arm. His face was pale and his shirt was covered in blood.

“Is he going to live?” I asked.

“Don’t know,” Ramos answered.

The paramedic that had looked at me before came back and shined the light in my eyes again. “Not quite so dilated this time. How are you feeling?”

“My head hurts pretty bad, and I’m still a little dizzy, but I’m not nauseous anymore.”

“You should probably go to the hospital, just in case.”

“No,” I said forcefully. “I just want to go home.”

The EMT frowned. “Well, then you should take something for the pain, and keep ice on your head. But you have to promise me if you start feeling worse, you’ll go straight to the emergency room. Does that sound good to you?”

“I’ll take care of her,” Chris said.

Ramos grunted, then stalked over to Uncle Joey and the others. As soon as the paramedics left, Dimples entered the room with several other policemen and I wondered what was going to happen. Would they try to arrest Ramos or Uncle Joey? Maybe they would arrest everyone, including me. What was I going to tell them? My head started to pound even worse, and at that moment, all I wanted to do was lie down and die.

“Come on Shelby,” Chris said. “Let’s get you home.”

“Okay,” I whimpered. He helped get me to my feet, and supported most of my weight. A wave of dizziness washed over me, but left as I got my balance. We got two steps toward the door when a burley cop blocked our way.

“Excuse me. No one is allowed to leave this room.”

I couldn’t help it. Tears started rolling down my face. This was just too much, and I couldn’t take it anymore.

“Harris!” Chris called. Dimples excused himself from the group and came over. “He won’t let us leave and Shelby’s had it.”

Dimples took one look at me and nodded. “Of course, go ahead, we can talk tomorrow.” He paused, then added. “Are you sure she doesn’t need a doctor? That bump is huge.”

Good grief, how bad could it be?

“She just needs to lie down and rest.” I hated that they were talking about me like I wasn’t there, but with the tears and headache, I couldn’t trust myself to speak.

The brawny policeman let us go, and we were soon in the elevator. That’s when I realized I didn’t have my purse or my car keys. How were we going to get home? Through my tears I managed to tell Chris my worries.

“I’ve got my car,” Chris soothed me. “I’ll come back and get your stuff tomorrow.”

“I don’t even know where my purse is,” I moaned.

“Don’t worry, I’ll find it.” He helped me into his car and put the seat back. I closed my eyes and endured the pain in silent agony. We made it home and Chris helped me inside.

He gave me one of my pain pills as soon as we walked in the kitchen. It didn’t take long before I started feeling more relaxed, and the hard edge of my headache eased. I even felt mellow enough to take a look at the bump on my head, but every time I got close to a mirror, Chris got in the way.

Was he trying to spare my feelings? Wait a minute. Shouldn’t I know what he was thinking? I tried to open my mind to his thoughts, but nothing happened. I couldn’t ‘hear’ him. The only thing I got was a twinge of pain in my right temple where the door had hit me so hard. Was it gone? Did this mean I couldn’t read minds anymore?

I didn’t know if that made me happy or sad. Mostly, I was just tired and sleepy from the pill. Who knew what would happen tomorrow. It was getting hard to keep my eyes open, so I finally stopped trying and got into bed.

I only woke up once during the night, and Chris gave me another pain pill that knocked me out until mid-morning. This time I woke up feeling mostly normal, although it hurt to lift my eyebrows.

I gingerly felt for the bump on my head. It was still there, but not nearly as big as it had seemed the night before. I was a little nervous about looking in the mirror, but the one on my dresser was far enough away that maybe it wouldn’t be such a shock.  I took a deep breath and sat up, only to find the mirror covered with a sheet.

If I hadn’t been nervous before, now I was totally rattled. Why had Chris done that? I ran my hands over my face just to make sure everything was still in the right places. Were my eyes a little swollen? They seemed normal. At least I could open them all the way. The rest of my face felt fine. The only thing that seemed unusual was the big bump on my forehead.

Now I was getting upset. This was ridiculous. Just look in the mirror and get it over with. I stood slowly. Then taking my time, wobbled into the bathroom. Good, no sheets. I glanced in the mirror and did a double take. Was that really me? I looked like something out of a horror movie, and the bump was huge!

My face was pale as death, except for the skin around the bump and around my eyes. It was totally black and blue, and I looked like a ghost who was having a really bad hair day. Suddenly, my stomach got queasy, and I had to steady myself against the bathroom sink. Taking slow and easy breaths, I tried not to panic.