“Three!” Charlie pulled the emergency brake up and jumped out just before the truck the rammed the car again. This time the emergency brake made the back of the car fling upward in the air causing the truck to go under the Monte Carlo. The force pushed the car straight into the fast-paced train then there was a loud boom! It was so loud, it made me stop running and look behind me. The car flipped a few times crashing into the trees nearly missing the town homes. It started smoking then flames burst from the button and engulf the totaled car.

When I turned around, I quickly crouched behind some tall brush. I saw the front passenger stumble and fall out of the front seat. There was only one street light working properly and he laid right underneath it. I was only standing a few feet away when he looked up and saw me. Slowly as he stood up, the man pulled out a pistol from inside his jacket and pointed it in my direction. He moved out of the street light and walked towards the brush to get a better look.

Shit! I said as I stood to my feet. All I heard when I started running was, Bang! Bang! Bang- Bang- Bang- Bang! I ran in a zig zag hoping that would confuse him as I ran further into the dark away from the street lights. I could the whistling sounds of the bullets passing by me. Some landed in the dirt right next to where I stepped, others kept flying. I turned towards the forest area which wasn’t that far away anymore. Another set of rounds went off, hitting the trees and bushes as I ran by. I felt like if I kept running I would for sure make it without getting harmed but I was wrong. I turned one more time as I entered the small forest when I felt a sharp pain in my left shoulder. One of the bullets hit me, “AWW!” I screamed out as I fell to the ground. I grabbed my shoulder and squeezed it hard trying to stop the bleeding. I’ve been in some dangerous situations before but never been shot. That’s when I noticed the gun shots abruptly stopped and you could hear voices from afar.

The pain hurt so damn bad all I wanted to do was lay there in ball holding my arm. I slowly pulled myself up to my feet and stumbled to the middle of the forest area. It was the safest place for me right now. I could see lights of the downtown area piercing through the end of the path but I was too tired from running and was losing a lot of blood. I needed to rest for a moment… I got to a large tree and leaned against it. I slid down and sat against it’s trunk. I wasn’t going to stay long I was scared the men were going to catch up to me and what in the hell happened to Charlie? I was trying my best not to freak out…

I took a deep breath and pulled my belt out of the loops in my pants. Thank goodness I wore my belt today. Once I got it free from around my waist, I wrapped the belt around my arm to stop the bleeding. Just then, I heard sticks cracking coming from the brush I just walked through. I didn’t know if it one of those guys or Charlie. I had to be prepared even though I only had good one arm to use. My best bet was to hit the attacker with a big stick or something. I wanted to knock out one of those assholes. I was ready too cause no one shoots at me.

The cracking of the sticks started getting closer and closer, I stood up leaning as close to the tree as possible. I waited until I knew the person was close enough for me to get a good swing and maybe even a kick to the face. Before I jumped out, I heard, “Ally, Ally are you there? Shit where is she?” It was Charlie! On my goodness I was so relieved it was him. I jumped out of my hiding place and fell to one knee in pain from the gun wound. Charlie saw me and quickly ran to my aid, “Oh shit you got shot!” I started slouching again against the tree when he picked me up easily like I was a small child. He grabbed my legs by cupping one arm under my knees and his other arm around my neck. “You know we can’t go a hospital, right?”

“I know… My place is not that far from here honestly, we’re only a block away.” I softly replied. Charlie picked up his pace when I said it wasn’t far. Once we got out of the wooded area, he put me down on my feet. He got in front of me and kneeled down for me to get on his back. “I can walk Charlie it’s just my arm.” I grabbed my left shoulder and started walking slowly. Charlie then raced in front of me again kneeling.

“You can’t walk right now because you’re bleed out… The less cardio the better. Now get on my back and stop being stubborn, its cool. We have to get out of this area now.” Now I really felt like a child riding piggy back but it looked better than him carrying me cradle style. Charlie and I finally got to the residential area surrounding downtown. “Which one is your building? Ally? You have to stay awake ok.” When he said that, I was just about to pass out. My head bounced up hard, I was so tired and cold.

The feeling in my left arm was almost completely gone and blood was sticker than I thought. My jean jacket was completely red from the left side. The blood trickled through and I felt it dripping on my fingertips. I pointed to the red building when he got to a small street cut off street called, Halliwell Ave. The building I stayed in was four stories high and only had four apartments. My apartment was on the top floor, of course. Each apartment had it’s own floor and was set up differently. Mine had the most windows and a skylark on top.

Charlie stopped in front of the gate and set me down. “What time is it?” I asked.

“It’s almost midnight. Why?” He looked around and saw no one was at the front desk.

“Peter, the doorman, must have gone on break. This is our chance to get by…”

Charlie and I quickly walked inside and pressed the up button on the elevator. The doors open and required you to put in the code. I was started to fade again when Charlie grabbed me by the arm. “Hey stay with me, what’s your code to upstairs?” I told him in a whisper because that’s all the energy I had left. The code was 7052. The elevator started moving going upstairs, once we reached the top floor the doors opened up to my loft.

When the doors opened, Charlie was amazed by what he saw. “Wow, Ally this is a really nice place.” All I could do was moan as a response. Charlie noticed I was barely hanging on so he hurried and sat me down in my living room on the couch. He quickly ran to my kitchen and grabbed kitchen towels, napkins and water. After he got what he needed, he grabbed his brown book bag then he hurried back to the living room. He opened the book bag and got out a small white box which had medical supplies inside. He pulled out a needle and some thread then some big bandages. “I hope this shirt isn’t one of your favorites, well it’s covered in blood anyway…” He gripped the collar of my T-shirt and tore the shoulder area first. After the shirt was ripped enough to slip off, he took a pair a small silver scissors and cut my bra. I felt the left strap snap freeing my left shoulder completely. Afterwards he scooted me off the couch and laid me on a towel he laid on the floor. Quickly he ran some warm water then poured rubbing alcohol over the wound, that shit made me scream!

“AWWW! What the fuck?! Shit! Damn that hurt so bad!” I couldn’t help but be in agony from the damn rubbing alcohol soaking into my shoulder making the wound throb. Charlie covered the wound with a towel and sat me up slowly so he could stitch the wound. He also grabbed my bottle of Jack Daniels I had sitting on the corner of the pool table. That was exactly what I needed right now. I grabbed the bottle with my other hand trying to move slowly so I didn’t hurt myself. I eventually unscrewed the top with my fingers and knocked the bottle back. That whisky went down like water and it helped to kill the pain a little as Charlie literally sowed closed the hole in my body. I kept looking over at him as he focused on sticking the needling through my skin. I had to talk or something otherwise I was going to pass out. Charlie noticed it too, I was slipping in and out and the whisky wasn’t helping with that.

“Why don’t you slow down on that,” he grabbed the bottle and take a swig himself then he placed the bottle back down on the table, “Talk to me Ally, so why a private investigator and not a cop like your dad?” Charlie looked at me with his green-brown eyes waiting for my response. He was so handsome and mysterious… He could have just dropped me off at the hospital and had them deal with me, but no. He saves me with his own hands. Gently taking his time and making sure he stitches are right. Out of all my cases I’ve never met, let alone, teamed with someone like him. I had a lot of ‘things’ going through my mind…

“Cops have too many restrictions… I don’t work well under so many rules, you know. Besides, my father was murdered by his partner. Sean Wayne…” Then it hit me. I looked up into space thinking as the pieces started coming together. ‘SW’. It had to be him. The other initials in the ledger.

“What is it?” He noticed my reaction.

I looked up at Charlie and he had just finished up. He stood up and took the torn t-shirt and started ripping it some more into strips. He tied the ends of the strips together into a knot and made it into a homemade sling. Although he stitched me up and saved my life, I wasn’t ready to tell him everything just yet. I had to keep some of what I knew a secret until I needed it. “Nothing, I just thought of something.” I changed the subject, “So tell me something… How does an Army Ranger know some much about being a medic?” I rubbed my shoulder gently and felt the incision. It was clean and straight; it wasn’t lumpy or done half ass. This man had skills, what can’t he do was becoming the real question…

He packed up his supplies then sat next to me on the floor and leaned against the couch next to me. He let out a big sigh like he was exhausted as well, “My best friend Jacob was our medic on my team. Sometimes we would have lots of down time on our hands while waiting for something to happen. He loved to talk about medical stuff. All the time that guy made some reference to something medical for everything. I mean everything… So, I started learning some things from him. Just the basics really but important stuff that could keep you alive. He died saving me from a grenade filled with scrap metal. That’s where I got all these scars on my face and chest. Jacob was an honorable man. More honorable than I ever was… I kept his med kit in memory of him and used everything I learned to help out others until I was honorably discharged myself.” Charlie stood to his feet and extended his hand out to my good hand. “You lost a lot of blood, come on let’s take you to bed.” When I stood to my feet, Charlie scooped me up once more carrying me across the living room towards the small flight of stairs leading to my bedroom area. There wasn’t much up there but my king size bed, a few dressers and a night stand with a small flat screen on top of it.

“I could have walked you know.” I said jokingly. I looked up and met his gaze as he smiled while setting me down on my bed. I appreciate it though… My legs were heavy like concrete and the combination of the lost of blood plus the whiskey. I’m sure it would have taken all night to get to my bed.

“I like carrying you. I think you’re growing on me a little…” He smile slowly faded but he kept his eyes on me. We stared at one another for a few seconds before I broke eye contact. My heart was pounding in my chest… I sat all the way back against my head board. I tried to stuff pillows behind me with my good arm. Charlie plopped down at the foot of the bed once I got semi comfortable. He reached in his bag and pulled down a bottle of pain killers, “Here take these, they will help with the pain.”

I reached over and grabbed them then threw it in my mouth. I was hurting so bad it was all I could think about. I had so many questions I wanted to pick his brain about but I was having brain fog. I was too tired to think… It was three o’clock in the morning and I couldn’t last any longer. Charlie started whispering something about what happened earlier but I didn’t hear him. I quickly drifted off to sleep…

***

Ding-Dong, Ding-Dong…

“Ally open the elevator doors!” screamed Amber. I could barely hear her as I stumbled out of bed. I almost tripped over Charlie, he was asleep on the floor next to my bed. It shocked me to see him down there when there’s a couch in the living room.

I was holding my shoulder the whole way to the elevator. Amber was still screamed through the metal door when I answered, “Hold on…” I looked down and saw the little switch next to the door that said locked. I flipped it to open then the elevator doors released.

“What the hell Ally?! Did you lock your elevator door? Then for what’s the code for?!” Amber stormed pass me and went to into my kitchen. Did Charlie lock my doors? I didn’t know you could do that… “I haven’t heard from you since yesterday. You missed two intake appointments that I had to do plus a follow up. I was blowing your phone up all day! You had me so worried!” I walked behind her putting on the cloth sling Charlie made. My arm was still so tender even the smallest movements seemed to be too much.

“I’m sorry… yesterday was crazy.” I didn’t know what else to say.

Amber walked over and turned on my tiny kitchen TV. She still had her back to me as she continued to yell. She jerked the remote at the TV as she flipped through the channels. “Let me show you why I was so worried. Look! Isn’t that Charlie’s car?!” Amber put on the news and they were covering the crash with the train. I didn’t need to see it, I was there… She turned and looked at me to be just as shocked as the breaking news. “What the hell happened to you?!”

“I was with Charlie when that happened last night. We were being followed then they tried to push us into the train but we escaped in time. One of them shot me as I ran into the forest.”

“What the fuck Ally? Where’s Charlie? Why didn’t you go to the hospital?”

As Amber asked the question Charlie walked into the kitchen, “What about Charlie? I’m good and she can’t go to the hospital. They call the police for gun shots.”

Amber’s eyes nearly popped out of her head. I knew this was going to happen… “It’s not what you think…” I tried but it was too late.

“Whoa here! What the fuck happened last night?”

“Like Ally said, some guys followed us from the restaurant and tried to rammed to us into the train. Thank goodness that was not the case…”

“Why?!” Amber yelled. She jerked her head between Charlie and I.

My attention quickly turned back to the TV when the three guys that attacked us showed up on the screen. “Hold on, turn it up. They’re talking about them right now.”

The news lady stood in front of the train tracks next to the yellow police tape. “We just learned there were three bodies found on this very street next to the train crash. The bodies have been identified as Officer Stevens, Officer Jones, and Officer Kale… They were victims of gun shots wounds. The local Freeside Police Department has classified this case as a homicide. They are unsure how the three off duty officers are involved in the car crashing into the train and what led to their deaths. There were no signs of anyone being inside the car but the police want to identify the driver…”

I quickly turned and looked at Charlie who was already looking at me. “They were police officers?” He didn’t answer nor break his stare. What type of shit am I into now?

Amber snatched a stool from the wrap around bar counter and sat it right in front of Charlie and I who standing by my side, “Ok… How much trouble are we in?”