Page 27 of The Entire Team

Baker entered Ashe’s apartment, smacked in the face by the smell of blood. Looking right he saw most of the small studio and why the place smelled of iron. He pulled his cell, dialing 911, as he stepped toward the male body in the small kitchen space. He didn’t feel a pulse at the man’s neck and recognized him from the picture he’d been given. “Damn it,” he muttered, he’d clearly been late. Shifting to his phone, “Yeah, I need to report a break-in at my current location.” Looking passed the dead man he saw feet and immediately stepped forward snaking around the island.

Ashe whimpered when he reached down to check her pulse. While talking with the dispatcher on the phone, he pulled a knife from a pocket in his pants and cut Ashe loose from the bindings. Deep bruises had already started from her struggling. “Ashe? Can you hear me?” her hands had fallen listlessly once freed. “Babe, we don’t have a lot of time. Cops are on their way.” He looked her up and down, her left hand had some relatively superficial cuts, she had smeared blood all around her but looked relatively unharmed. He had just finished taking pictures of the scene and was sliding his phone into his back pocket when the cops came through the door. Baker put his hands up andmotioned toward the body, “I came by to see Ashe and found it like this.” As if on cue, Ashe moaned, drawing the police’s attention.

“Ma’am, are you okay?” the nearest officer asked, kneeling down in front of her.

The second officer cued his radio and requested an ambulance.

Baker moved to be able to see Ashe. She had started to make small movements but was not answering any questions. He could tell she could hear, she just seemed incapable of response. Her gaze landed unsteadily on Baker, first his shoes then up to his face. They had never met and this is not how he would have wanted to meet, oh well. “Ashe,” he started in a whisper, “I’m a friend of Red’s. My name is Baker.” Ashe tried to wet her lips, but nothing followed. She blinked slowly trying to focus from the burning in her throat and make her voice work. The EMS crew arrived; Baker backed off just enough to let them access Ashe without moving out of her sight.

“Ashe?” the male EMT questioned. Everyone paused and looked at the two. “Ashe, can you talk to us?” After a beat he continued, “you have some nasty bruising, swelling around your throat.” Ashe reached for her throat, her fingertips carefully palpating where she felt the burning. “Can you sit up?” he reached instinctively to help Ashe and she took it, slowly sliding her hips and legs under her and into a sitting position. “How about we get out of here?”

“Wait, there’s been a crime here,” one of the Officers said.

The female paramedic looked up from the notes she was making, “She works at our station. She needs medical attention.” The second Officer nodded.

38

BAKER

As the team came off the aircraft, Baker was waiting. “Red, Ashe is at the hospital. Everyone else was fine.”

“Go,” Genie ordered in Red’s direction. “Thanks, Baker.” Red fell into step with Baker as they headed toward his truck.

“What happened?” he asked as he dropped his gear in the bed of the truck and pulled at the door handle on the passenger side.

“I got there late. I don’t know the details,” he started as they snapped in seatbelts and Baker put the truck into reverse. “Her place was a mess. I managed to cut some of the bindings before the police got there and she was breathing. He’d tied her hands behind her and anchored them around her neck---“

“I’m gonna kill that motherfucker!” Red punched the dashboard.

“She beat you to it.” Red turned toward Baker. “It had to have been luck given how she was tied up but sure as shit, he was dead when I got there, and she looked like she’d drug herself clear of him before she finally passed out.” They sat in silence for the rest of the drive to the hospital.

Baker let Red out at the entrance, “I’ll park and be there. She should still be in the ER. She should be in a private room.”

Red burst into the ER, his size and demeanor drawing attention. The security guard stood up and Red headed toward him. “I’m looking for?—“

The security guard started to point in the direction of administration “That’s?—“

“No. She was brought in with an escort.” Baker came up behind Red. The security guard looked between the two men and keyed his radio.

39

RED

The officer at her door was standing as they approached.

“She’s in a fishbowl,” Red was irritated.

“She is the sole survivor of an incident which resulted in one dead. The incident is under investigation. There’s no phones, no electronics.”

Red nodded as he emptied his pockets, his work phone staying in his pocket.

Silently he entered the room, the door clicking shut behind him. He stood quietly, alert, taking in the details he could in the dim night lighting of the room. He couldn’t see her. He debated knowing he just needed her in his arms, make sure she was okay, not sure if she even wanted to see him, or what she would want. Feeling like a coward and a failure as he continued hesitating. The far side of the room was dark enough to make out a chair and curtains.

He stepped toward the bathroom. Started to push the door open, letting more light into the room, when he made out the edge of a blanket behind the chair. “Ashe?” he whispered as he slid toward the blanket, dropping to a knee. He felt her hand against his neck, his hands wrapped around her instinctively;pulling her into him as he slid against her. He crossed his ankles, Ashe tucked between his knees. She turned into Red, her bandaged left hand taking hold of the collar on his shirt as best she could. “Acushla,” he whispered wrapping his arms tightly around her, releasing a breath he hadn’t known was stuck.She was in his arms.She dropped her head into his neck. “Can you talk to me?” He felt her shake her head. “I was scared,” he admitted.

He felt her relax, her breath slowing as she fell asleep. The faint acrid smell wouldn’t go away. He knew he wasn’t a picture of fresh shower smell after 20+ hours of traveling, but this was different. He’d have to wait for light to figure it out. In the meantime, she was asleep in his arms. She was breathing and the threat to her was dead.

As dawn broke into the room Red shifted to put his back against the wall. It trapped the blanket wrapping it tightly around Ashe. She started to thrash to get loose. “Acushla, its ok,” he tried to soothe as he yanked at the blanket under him. Red went silent when she started to whimper and pull away from the sound of his voice. He finished yanking the blanket clear and then saw the source of the smell on Ashe. She still had blood on her from the incident, her left hand was bandaged, she was wearing a bra and the underwear they’d found her in; his blood rolled toward boiling.No kidding she needed a blanket! Where are her clothes, who’s blood, why blood, what the hell is going on?Red pulled his phone out and sent a message to Flash, then stood and grabbed Ashe up, making sure she was covered with the blanket. As he stood, he saw Baker asleep in a chair outside the room. Baker looked up, Red motioned with his head, and he stepped in quietly. “I don’t trust these guys. She’s got blood on her, and I assume she’s wearing what she was picked up in.”

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