Page 74 of Doc

I wasn’t going to argue with him. I poured three into my palm and slipped my hand behind Tag’s neck to elevate his head. “Give him another drink of vodka.” I pushed the pills into Tag’s mouth. When he began to choke, I realized that Bronx was pouring liquid down his throat too quickly. “That’s enough!” I snapped.

He pulled away with a grunt and a glare.

“How come she gets to talk to you like that?” Tamara bitched from her position on the sofa. “Why aren’t you hitting her?”

“Shut it, bitch. She’s useful to me.”

I wondered what Bronx would do once I stopped being useful. I finished cleaning Tag’s stump and stood back for a moment to examine the wound, and then shook my head with regret. “He has a bad infection and needs antibiotics. And I need to close the wound.” I hoped that Bronx was a smart enough man to understand exactly what I was saying without me having to say it aloud. “If you don’t get him back into the hospital, he’s going to die.” I made sure my tone conveyed the urgency of the situation.

In a burst of outrage, Bronx let out a roar that sent chills down my spine, swung around, and with a swipe of his arm sent everything on top of the credenza behind him onto the floor. Objects went flying everywhere, and I jerked at the sound of breaking glass. My heart began to pound with a fear that he would turn that anger on me.

“Send him back to the fucking hospital, man,” Monk spoke up. “Better he’s alive in prison than six feet under and worm food.”

Bronx lost it with Monk’s flippant suggestion and rushed at him with murder in his eyes. Before Monk could react, he was grabbed by the front of his shirt and slammed against the wall with a hand at his throat. “We don’t go to jail!” he snarled close to Monk’s face, spit flying.

“He’s going to slow us down, man!” Monk brought his arms up and broke Bronx’s hold on him. “Get the fuck off me!”

Bronx didn’t like that, and suddenly they were brawling. As I watched what was going down, I glanced over at Tamara. She was sitting there casually smoking a cigarette, but looked ready to jump out of the way if she needed to. She kept her eyes glued to the two men as they pounded on each other. I slowly and carefully took a couple of steps to the side, which she ignored. It occurred to me that this might be the only opportunity I would have to escape. But there was no way I was leaving Kelly behind.

All at once, the bed jarred violently as the two men slammed against it. I jumped out of the way as they continued to throw punches. Tag’s limp body was jostled, and he nearly rolled off the bed. If he were moaning, I couldn’t hear it above the grunts and growls between Monk and Bronx. When they stumbled against the couch, Tamara jumped to her feet and scurried out of the way.

Her back was to me now. Bronx and Monk were trying to kill each other, and I decided to make a run for it. It was worth a try. I ran from the room to the closet in the kitchen, fumbled with the lock for a second, and opened the door. “Kelly, come on!” I urged in a rushed tone. “Quick!”

She didn’t hesitate before jumping to her feet and rushing toward me. I glanced around the small kitchen, praying that there was a back door because there was no way I was going back through the living room for the front door. There was another, smaller room that led off the kitchen. I took Kelly’s hand and pulled her with me.

“How did you get away?” she whispered to me.

“We’re not away yet, honey.” We stepped out onto a small, enclosed back porch, where there was a door leading to the backyard. We rushed to it, but it was locked. I dropped Kelly’s hand, and it took a minute for me to figure out the old, rusty lock.

“When we get outside, we stick together and run like hell.”

“Oh, yeah? How you gonna do that after I shoot you, bitch?”

Shit!I froze, my hand on the doorknob. I turned to face Tamara, instinctively pulling Kelly behind me so that she was between me and the door.

My gaze dropped to the gun in Tamara’s hand. I could hear that the fighting had stopped. With any luck, they’d killed each other. But that left me there, facing an irate woman with a weapon in her hands. The satisfied smirk on her face revealed her joy in having the upper hand. She looked a little too eager to shoot, and I wondered how good her aim was.

“Bronx! You better get in here!” she yelled.

With no time to lose, I reached behind me and around Kelly, searching for the doorknob. Once my hand closed around it I quickly opened it with the intention of shoving Kelly outside. I was hanging everything on the fact that Bronx needed me to treat Tag and that Tamara wouldn’t shoot me.

“Run!” I ordered, pushing Kelly out the door and quickly closing it behind me.

“No! You dumb bitch!” Tamara fired off a shot, surprising me, but it went wild and hit the wall above my head. “Bronx!”

She rushed forward. Thinking that she meant to go after Kelly, I threw myself against her to hold her back. We scuffled for a minute. She was surprisingly strong, and when she dropped the gun, we both dove for it. Tamara wrapped her arms around my knees and pulled me to the ground. I scrambled to reach the gun, but she beat me to it. I froze when the gun was suddenly pointed in my face. We were both breathing hard.

“The fuck is going on in here?”

Panting, I groaned and fell back to lay flat on the floor in defeat.

Tamara was on her knees and turned around to face Bronx. “This bitch helped the girl escape!”

The sharp, narrow-eyed look Bronx pinned on me was frightening. Monk showed up seconds later, wiping the blood away from the corner of his mouth. I noticed that he also had a black eye. My gaze shifted to the gun hanging loosely in Tamara’s hand.

“Don’t even try it.” Bronx motioned for Tamara to get up. When she was close enough to him, he snatched the gun from her hand.

“What’s going on?” Monk’s gaze moved back and forth between us.

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