vehicles circling the clinic,” Nadia said.
“Suspicious?” Chen asked.
“Four men. Silver Toyota, old model. Driver looks Latino, thirties, ink on left arm.”
“Do you recognize the tats?” This from the Captain.
“Checking now.”
“How about the other vehicle?” Delgado asked while pretending interest in a mural on the wall.
“Caucasian male, facial hair, thirties, black Explorer with rental tags. He just moved out of drone range.”
“Might be a tourist lost in the Valley,” Chen joked.
“Do you want a packet of vitamins?” A voice pulled Gabby’s attention to the woman behind the counter asking the question. She was one of the polished ones.
“Oh, I’m actually a reporter,” she said.
The woman froze up, eyes turning into slits. “Ms. Ortega is not giving any interviews.”
Gabby pointed to the reception area. “But this would go a long way to show the good she is doing for the community. You know, after what her brother did?”
“I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”
A distraction over the comm channels drew Gabby’s ear.
“Fuck, get out of there now,” Nadia said urgently. “These men are cartel.”
“Are they heading toward the clinic?” Gabby asked.
“They just parked.”
“Both of you heard Nadia,” Cap ordered. “Abort.”
A door slammed further down the hallway and Gabby heard arguing and she leaned back to see Ariana and a man she didn’t recognize.
“I’m not leaving like a coward,” Ariana said vehemently.
“If I have to remove you bodily, I will,” the man threatened.
“I’m not running. They’re after Raul, not me!”
Gabby signaled to Delgado who was already holding the door to the clinic open and he was scowling at her delay.
“Ma’am, I told you to leave,” the woman offering the vitamins repeated, but her eyes were getting shifty.
“Damn you, let me go!” Ariana shouted.
Turning her attention back to the fighting couple, she saw the man did as promised and was physically hauling Ortega’s sister out the back exit. Gabby dashed down the hallway just as her comms broke into chatter and—gunfire?
What the hell?
Chaos and screaming erupted from the front of the clinic.
She hesitated and glanced back, not seeing Delgado, and decided to follow Ariana and the man who Gabby tagged as a biker thug.
Pushing the exit bar, the door opened to a small parking lot that led to a narrow street lined with houses surrounded with steel fencing.
“Gabby, where the fuck are you?” Kelso yelled in her ear.
“In foot pursuit of Ariana Ortega.”
She spotted the pair in front of the first house facing the clinic.
“My brother needs me!” Ariana shouted, twisting her arm away from Biker Man and ran to the house, but he caught up with her and kept a firmer hold on her.
Gabby drew her weapon, pointed it down, and crouched behind one of the parked cars.
“And my job is to protect you!” The man looked angry enough to toss Ariana over his shoulder.
Her bodyguard? He didn’t exactly fit the bill of Ortega’s soldiers. More like an independent bruiser for hire.
“Ortega could be in the house behind the clinic,” Gabby spoke into her comms. “Nadia, do you copy?”
“Roger that. Repositioning drone.”
“I’m on it,” Kelso said. “Chen, cover me. First house you said?”
All the while there were sporadic gunshots echoing around them.
“On the corner.” She paused. “I have an idea …”
“Gabby … what the fuck?” Kelso rasped.
“You’ve gone off script enough!” the Cap cut in.
She ignored the mix of protests and assents that crackled in her earpiece, but she had to follow her instincts. She broke her concealment behind the car and Biker Man spotted her instantly.
He was a quick draw—surprising her—reaching for his pistol and pointing it at her as he shoved Ortega’s sister behind him.
Gabby had raised her gun at the same time he did. “Police! Let her go. Drop your weapon.”
“Don’t come any closer,” he snarled as he backed away with Ariana.
“Ariana,” Gabby said. “We just want to ask you questions. Tell your pit bull to stand down.”
“You want to arrest my brother.”
“You know what he did was wrong.”
“He’s very sick.”
“We know. And we’ll make sure he gets his treatments, but he must be taken off the streets.”
She was shaking her head. “He’s not going to die in prison. I can’t let that happen.”
“Ariana, the cartel is out there, my unit is holding them back.”
The blare of the sirens echoed in the distance. “Hear that? You’re safe.” She inched closer. Slowly. She had instincts about the jumpiness of a person with a gun and Biker Man was as cool as ice.
She swallowed. He could shoot her and not blink an eye.
As for Ariana, she seemed to be relenting.