Nightcrawler (Trackers #1)

Chapter Five

RAVEN

The sight of a short, black man with kind eyes and a backpack striding into Trigg’s apartment, filled me with apprehension. I knew he had to be Vonne the Marine had been talking about, but the very idea of more pain than what I was feeling at the moment, wasn’t welcome.

“Come and have a look at him. He’s over here,” Trigg said in that growly, low voice which under any other circumstances would have gotten me horny as hell. I loved big, domineering guys in the bedroom, and the irony of sitting in a bed with one standing over me while feeling helpless and unable to do anything but submit to him, was mighty strong.

“I can see that,” the man replied, walking up to the bed and smiling down at me. He wasn’t particularly nice-looking, but his smile was warm, and I returned it, taking the hand he offered. “Trevon Jackson. Call me Vonne.”

“Nice to meet you, Vonne. I’m Raven.”

“Nice to meet you, Raven. Let’s see what’s going on here.” He set the backpack on the floor beside the bed and squatted in front of me, frowning as he looked at the bandages which were soaking through already. He asked me to lean forward, and he examined my back for a few seconds before glancing at Trigg. “I’m gonna need lots of clean, dry towels and for you to stop clucking.”

I bit my lip to hold in a smile as Trigg simply grunted and pointed to a stack of washcloths and hand towels sitting on the bedside table.

“Good, now go make something,” Vonne said, staring up at the tall man.

“Make something?”

“Food, dumbass. Make some of that stew or soup or something. I know you’ve got the fixin’s. You always do.”

“Hobo stew?”

“Sounds right.” Vonne made a shooing gesture. “Now go. I can’t work with you hoverin’ over me. You’re worse than a damned Blackhawk.”

Without a word, Trigg walked into the kitchen and began to do something while Vonne smiled at me. “Let me get you unwrapped,” he said without waiting for me to say anything as he examined the wounds, palpating them as he hung his head, not needing to look at them while he concentrated on what was under his experienced fingers. The exam hurt but I gritted my teeth, breathing through it as I let him do what he needed to. When he was done, he met my eyes with a smile, patting my bare shoulder. “He got you cleaned up real nice.”

Vonne grabbed some clean towels and carefully wiped away the blood around the wounds. He opened the backpack and produced several other items which he placed on one of the hand towels he’d spread out on the bed. Among them were what looked like surgical instruments in sealed plastic along with a package of surgical gloves. And if that didn’t look like so much fun, he produced a syringe and small bottle of something along with an ampule. After cleaning the end of the bottle with an alcohol wipe, he drew a dose of whatever was inside and held up the needle.

“This is lidocaine. It’ll numb the area so’s I can get in there and dig around a bit. Are you allergic to any medications?”

“No.”

“Latex?”

“No.”

He smiled, patting my shoulder again. “Good. There might be shards of the projectile in the wound track. I can’t feel anythin’ on palpation, but I don’t want to leave anythin’ behind that will—I promise you—get infected and cause a big problem later. Even with the local, this is gonna hurt some. I’ll be fast. Is that okay with you?”

“Do what you gotta do, Doc.” I tried to put on a brave face because I didn’t want to embarrass myself in front of these two capable men.

“Here we go,” Vonne said, nodding as he proceeded to give me shots front and back. It took way too long in my opinion but what did I know. It hurt like a bitch, but I held my tongue and let him do what he needed to. When he was done, he capped the needle and opened a sterile, blue chuck package. He grabbed all the surgical instrument packets and opened them one by one, dumping their contents onto the spread-out chuck before expertly opening the sterile gloves and donning them. He sat back on his heels with interlaced fingers, meeting my eyes.

“Okay, Raven, we’re gonna do this. If you feel faint, let me know and I’ll pause what I’m doin’ but I’ve got a sterile field here and I don’t want to start all over. Got that?”

“Yeah.”

He gave a sharp nod. “Good. Try and stay still.”

“I’m ready, Vonne.”

“Let’s go,” he said, picking up one of the instruments as I started doing meditation exercises in my head.

TRIGG

I watched my best friend working on Raven for a few minutes, and then turned to my task, opening a package of ground beef I’d thawed for dinner. I cut up a big red onion, five cloves of garlic, peeled several potatoes, and sliced up two big leeks and bell peppers before throwing them in a frying pan. After making sure that the ground beef and veggies were browned, I drained off the fat and tossed it all into a big stockpot and began opening cans. I’d made hobo—also known as Mulligan—stew for my unit in the field many times. It was simple, made of canned veggies when that’s all we had, but appreciated by everyone when we couldn’t find meat or fresh ingredients. After dumping in canned tomatoes, peas, green beans, and kidney, navy, and pinto beans, I added canned tomato soup, dried basil, black pepper, and powdered beef bouillon.

I set the pot on low heat to boil and looked up in time to see Vonne squat and help Raven out of his expensive boots and strip him to his boxer briefs. He said something and Raven rolled to his side, presenting his back as Vonne pulled out several syringes and filled them. He bent and lowered his boxer briefs, giving him one shot after another. The last one dragged another moan out of the man before Vonne helped him stretch out on his back. He covered him with my favorite quilt and said a few words before Raven nodded and closed his eyes.

I stayed in the kitchen, watching Vonne clean up.

“This is trash,” he said, dumping the chuck he’d used as a sterile field into my trashcan before meeting my eyes. “What in the hell happened, Trigg?”

I frowned and looked over at Raven who was lying unmoving on my bed before darting a glance back at Vonne. “He gonna be okay?” I kept my voice quiet so I wouldn’t be overheard although it was probably more about letting him rest than anything else.

“I cleaned the wounds and patched him up. Dug around in there for a bit. Made a bloody mess, but I think the bullet passed through cleanly without fragmenting. Looked like a .22 caliber if I had to guess. Not a lot of firepower but it would’ve been lethal if it hit the right spot. I dug a couple of big splinters out of his face too and dressed them with antibiotic ointment. He’s lucky one of them shards didn’t end up in his pretty eyes.”

I agreed. “What were the shots for?”

“I gave him a broad-spectrum antibiotic which should kill anythin’ that was on the bullet. He’ll have to have one more tomorrow morning. I’ll be back to do that. I also gave him a tetanus shot since he said he hasn’t had one in a while. Finally, I gave him somethin’ that’ll help him sleep a bit.” Vonne turned to look at the bed before looking back. “Who is he? One of your bounties?”

I shook my head. “No, man. His name is Raven Mathis, and he works for Grayson, Mallory, and Simms Insurance. He’s one of their recovery agents.”

Vonne nodded and then a slow smile split his face. “Wait…is he that guy you had a total hard on for when you lost out on that diamond recovery a few months back, Trigg?”

I frowned. “I didn’t have a total hard on for him. I was pissed, that’s the extent of it.”

“By the sound of your voice, you’re still pissed about it.”

“Do you have any idea how much money I lost on that fucking recovery?” I asked. “I mean Jamie does okay for himself, but he’s got other bounty hunters working for him and he has to spread out the work.”

“But you’re his best, Staff Sergeant. He should be givin’ you more work,” Vonne said.

“Jamie’s okay. He gives work to people who deserve work,” I said, speaking the truth even though it bugged the shit out of me. “And I fucked this one up the same as I did six months ago when I lost the Mulberry diamond collar to this guy.” I reached up and ran a hand through my hair, turning away from Vonne who’d always been able to read me. I hated showing how vulnerable I was, and it seemed every time I was in the presence of Raven Mathis, I felt exposed. I walked over to the stove, lifted the lid, and began stirring. When Vonne walked up behind me, I could feel him. I’d always known when someone was coming up behind me. That’d been honed into my very being, not from my days in the military, but long before that…the night everything had changed. “I can feel you at my back, Vonne.”

My best friend chuckled. “You always could, Staff Sergeant.”

I turned around with a smile on my face for him. “You don’t need to call me that anymore, Vonne.” I rested my hand on his shoulder.

He shook his head. “Nah, I kinda like it. Makes me remember that you were always the smartest and bravest of all of us.” He turned and pointed to the bed before catching my eye. “Until you go and do a boneheaded move like gettin’ that man shot and I suspect almost yourself. What in the hell happened, Huerta?”

I smirked. “Did you ever hear of a 70s porn star by the name of Gemma Monroe?”

Vonne frowned before a lightbulb went off. “The chick with those giant jugs?” He held his hands out chest high, a foot in front of him.

I laughed. “Yeah, that’s her. Anyway, I’m sure you know they’re fake, right? Women don’t come by something that prominent the natural way.”

“Yeah, they’re breast implants, I’m sure.”

I shook my head. “Not implants. They’re actually a prosthetic, you know, like the one that actor used in the Boogie Nights movie.”

He tapped his chin. “Mark Walberg?”

“Yeah. He wore a fake dick in that movie.”

Vonne’s eyes widened. “I never knew that. I remember thinkin’…respect, man, that boy’s hung like a broth’a.”

I burst out laughing. “Racist.”

“ Uh…uh …never seen no white man with a dick that long,” Vonne said.

“I’m sure they exist. Anyway, Gemma Monroe’s boobs are fake, and she apparently loved them so much, she insured them for a quarter of a million dollars. She told her insurer that her ex-boyfriend stole them, and it so happened that he lived right next door. A big recovery reward went up a few days ago…so, I went to grab them.”

“You broke into the dude’s place?”

I shrugged, turning my back and stirring my stew. “Hey, it’s not really breaking in when it’s the thief’s house, is it?” I asked, pivoting back to look at him.

He shook his head. “You’re tellin’ that to a black man, my man.”

I laughed. “Fuck you, Vonne. We all bleed red, and you know I’ve never seen you like anyone other than my brother.” I reached out and squeezed his shoulder. He covered my hand and nodded.

“I do. So, he caught you, and—and where was that white boy when he done that?”

“Mathis works for the insurance company, and they sent him out on the recovery. He was waiting for him to come out, or planning his way in, or whatthefuckever. The fact is, he spotted me hopping the wall and followed me in. When we realized we were both there for the same retrieval and checked the safe together and didn’t find it, we decided to team up. You know I do what I gotta do, even if it means working with someone I don’t like, Vonne.” He nodded as I continued. “Anyway, we realized he had to have put it somewhere else in the house. We thought the noise he was making upstairs was him working out in his weight room, but it turned out, he was boning Gemma, his supposedly ex-girlfriend, and she was wearing them the whole time.”

“So, that guy shot Raven when you two brain surgeons ran, right?”

I nodded. “After her tits fell off, we ran but not before I got pictures of the whole thing, the inside of his bedroom and a few other places, so I could collect my fee from the insurer.”

His eyes widened to saucers. “Her tits fell off?”

“She was wearing the fake ones while they fucked, like I said.” I rolled my eyes. “She was wearing them over her own and they kind of fell off when we caught her.”

He stared at me for a second before bending over and grabbing his stomach. He slapped a hand over his mouth, probably to stifle his laughter. I watched his shoulders shake and when he finally straightened, he was grinning like a jerk with tears streaming down his face.

“So, you two didn’t know about the gun?”

“No, and trust me, that oversight almost cost him his life.” I pointed to the sleeping man in my bed.

“Everyone makes mistakes, Huerta. I have no doubt in my mind, this was one.”

I nodded. “Yeah…we thought we were good to go. She’d run into the bathroom, and he was pounding on the door, trying to get her to open it. Besides, they were both stark naked when we left the bedroom. Neither of us knew he had a gun.” I looked at the ground, speaking to my feet. “I almost got him killed, Vonne.”

“Or blinded or both,” my best friend said, shaking his head. He waited for me to respond but I already felt so bad, I didn’t want to explain anything further.

“I fucked up and this time Jamie’s gonna fire me,” I said instead.

Vonne frowned and poked me in my chest. It hurt and I stepped back. “No, he’s not and if he tries, you’ve got a real good lawsuit against him.” He poked at his own chest. “I got lawyers who’d help get you a lot more than a stinkin’ bounty.”

“What grounds do you think I’d have for something like that?” I asked.

“Did Jamie tell you the guy had a gun in his house?”

“No, but—”

“Because if you’d known somethin’ like that, you’d have never done anythin’ so stupid as to go in there when you knew the guy was home, Huerta. We both know you don’t leave that kind of thing to chance, or did you forget we’ve taken a few doors together?”

I hadn’t forgotten. How could I ever forget how every single guy in my unit had saved my life more than once. Then again, I’d saved all their lives too. It’s how our recon team worked. We relied on each other to stay safe. Without that, we would’ve had nothing. “I haven’t forgotten but I’m not suing Jamie. I am, however, going to read him the riot act. The fact that Passantino had a gun nearly got me killed.”

“Anyway, I’m gonna go.”

“You can stay,” I said, thinking about how empty my refrigerator was and instantly feeling bad that I didn’t even have a soda to offer my friend. “The stew won’t be ready for a while but I can make some coffee.”

“No, man, I’m good. Really. I have a shift at the V.A. at eleven and I’m gonna have to sweet talk that pretty, little nurse I’ve been datin’ to have her restock my kit.”

“She gives you drugs?” I was surprised. With Vonne’s job as a technician in the Cath lab at the Sylmar V.A. Hospital, I knew he didn’t have access to drugs.

He shook his head. “She doesn’t give me any controlled substances. She gives me supplies that won’t be missed and the odd vial of tetanus vaccine and antibiotics they keep locked up in the employee’s health center now and then. I’ll be back in the mornin’, Huerta. You need to change his dressin’ tonight and call me if he spikes a fever.”

I nodded. “Okay.”

“I mean it, Huerta. If he spikes a fever or if that wound looks nasty when you change the bandage, you need to call me.”

“You’ll be at work.”

He pointed to the bed before frowning back at me. “And he could go septic or get very sick if the wound gets infected. Understand?”

“Yeah, I get it.”

“Good.” He held out a hand which I ignored, hugging him instead. He chuckled against my shoulder, patting my back. When he stepped back, his expression was grim. “Take care, my friend. I don’t want to hear how some cops showed up here and dragged you off. Got it?”

“I got it. Thank you, my brother.” I did get it. What we’d done had been stupid and reckless. Had I not had rent coming due and no way to pay it, I wouldn’t have gone through with it. Maybe the life of a bounty hunter was all wrong for me. I just didn’t know what else I was fit for. As I saw Vonne out of the apartment and stood there looking across the room at the man sleeping peacefully in my bed, I felt completely lost…and not for the first time in my life.