Three

Çhapter 3—Aviana

“Fuck!” Aviana whispered as she watched the situation play out behind the dumpster between Curo and the new men that had just arrived.

She'd just wanted to see the boss of the iron vine. She didn't think she'd be caught in a shoot out for fuck sakes!

Curo and his mate drew out their weapons and began to fire.

In a blur of motion, Curo’s mate fell to the floor as he took a shot to the head while Curo yelled out loud for his partner—Lucas to wake up.

Aviana counted the men that had appeared. There were only three of them.

Her first instinct was to call for backup but she thought about it and realized that helping them out would destroy her chances of getting the info she needed

She had to gain their trust somehow.

Without thinking it through, she leaped out from behind the dumpster she was hiding just when the assailant was about to shoot Curo, she did the unthinkable, something she'd never done before…

She fired her gun.

The man fell to the ground, screaming in pain.

Curo turned around with wide eyes as he saw Aviana staring at him, painting with a gun in hand.

“Who are you?” Curo asked, pointing his gun at her.

Shit!

She had not thought this through thoroughly.

“I am not your enemy. I promise,” Aviana said, slowly lowering her gun to the ground.

“See,”

“Then why do you have a gun?” he yelled, his index finger dangerously close to the trigger.

“It's not mine, it was my uncle's… I… was going to…” Aviana swallowed.

“I was going to use it on myself today but…”

Curo frowned, his expression going from hostile to pity. He was once there before till the boss saved him and brought him into the family.

He lowered gun and quickly glanced to his mate who seemed to be in pain.

Hold on, Lucas, I'll get you home.” Curo said and quickly dailed a number on his phone.

Aviana walked towards him.

“I can help stop the bleeding before help arrives.”

Curo nodded and gave way for Aviana to help out his friend. She quickly took out a scarf from her bag and tied the gun shot wound of Lucas who was starting to lose consciousness.

Less than a second later, A car pulls up beside them and two men in black stepped out, their menacing Aura shocking Aviana.

Aviana helped Lucas up and the two men in black carried him into the car. Curo got in beside him, urging him to hold on. He looked over at Aviana when the engine was ignited and smiled.

“Tell nobody of what you saw tonight or I'll kill you and don't do it, you are too pretty to die now” with that he wound up the windshield and drove off.

Aviana stared after the car, wondering if she should follow him or not.

That was when she noticed the redhead on the floor.

“Are you okay?”

Aviana rushed to his side as she formulated a plan in her head.

He responded with a groan of anguish.

“Wait here, I'll get my car.” Aviana said and quickly rushed to pull up her car from the front and drove to the back.

Carefully she carried the redhead into her car and zoomed off towards her home. She quickly called her friend Dory who was a medical doctor to come over to her place without much of an explanation.

Just as she pulled up to her little apartment, she found Dory waiting for her outside her rickety old house with a first aid kit in hand.

Aviana got out of her car and waved Dory over.

“What's going on?” Dory rushed towards her friend

“Help me get him inside first,” Aviana said, struggling to support the redhead’s weight as he groaned in pain.

Dory’s eyes widened as she took in the blood soaking his clothes. “Aviana, what the hell have you gotten yourself into?” she hissed but quickly moved to help, wrapping an arm around the injured man’s waist and guiding him toward the house.

They maneuvered him through the small doorway, Aviana kicking it shut behind them. Her apartment was modest, barely furnished, but it was safe. She led them to her the kitchen and carefully placed him on top of dining table.

Dory immediately went into doctor mode, pulling on gloves from her bag and retrieving medical supplies. “He’s lost a lot of blood, but the bullet’s not lodged inside. I can stitch him up, but he needs rest.”

Aviana exhaled sharply, watching as Dory worked. She knew she was taking a risk bringing him here, but this was her best shot at getting closer to the Iron Vine group.

In less than twenty minutes, Dory was done stitching the man up.

“All done,” Dory turned to look at her friend.

“Thank you so much, is he going to wake up anytime soon?” Aviana asked, inspecting the wound.

“A better question is what the fuck?” Dory snapped for the first time, finally out of doctor mode and now in What the hell is going on mode.

“Look, I know what this looks like and I'm sorry but I couldn't take him to the hospital, he's precious cargo,”

“Precious cargo? What are you, a human trafficker now?”

“I'm sorry but this had to happen. He is important for a case I'm working on,”

Dory sighed, knowing there wasn't much she could do in this instance.

“Look, I'm going home. I came only because I thought you were wounded but seemed I was wrong. You don't have to tell me what happened. Just…Nobody can find out about this or I'll lose my licence,”

“I wouldn't breathe a word of it, I promise,”

Aviana said. “I owe you one, I promise,”

“You are babysitting the kids for a month for this huge favor” Dory retorted

“I promise,” Aviana hugged her friend.

“I need to wash my hands,” Dory said and made her way to the sink to clean up.

She was out in less than a minute.

“Let's go, I'm ready,”

She walked to her door and just as she was about to turn the door knob, Aviana's doorbell rang.

She froze. She wasn't expecting anybody. Who the hell could that possibly be???

The doorbell rang again. This time she was forced to ask who was at the door.

“Who is it?”

A muffled voice came from outside.

“It's Tim, open up.”

“Oh fuck no!” Aviana whispered under breath. She scratched the inside of her palms.

She'd not been expecting her partner to show up.

She was in big trouble.

“What do we do?” Dory asked, her eyes darting from her best friend to the door.

“Um, wait here. I'll answer the door.”

Aviana said and took a deep breath before opening the door just about two centimeters wide.

“Heyyyy, Tim. What are you doing here?” She asked with a deapsn expression even though she felt uneasy inside.

Tim’s brows furrowed in confusion.

“Are you going to let me in?” Tim asked, confused at his partners behavior

“Uh…” Aviana opened he door wider by just an inch but instead of letting Tim in, she came outside of her apartment, shutting the door behind her.

“I have company right now Why are you here?” She asked bluntly

“Well, I was passing by and I thought to let you know of a new development,”

“What development?”

“Salone was involved in a shoot out tonight. He's badly wounded, the Chief will be taking the case off him till he recovers,”

*Wait a minute. A shoot out? Where?* Aviana questioned.

“Over at the boulevard bar,”

Aviana's face turned completely pale.

She'd been at the boulevard bar and had been involved in a shootout…”

“... Don't worry, he's okay though but I just thought I'd let you know, maybe you'll get lucky and be handed the case,”

“Yeah, maybe,”

Timothy looked down as his phone buzzed.

“Ah, gotta go, have a nice night,*

He smiled before turning around and walking towards his car.

Just as he drove off, the door to Aviana's apartment opened and out walks Dory.

“Everything okay? You look like you've seen several ghosts,”

And ghosts Aviana had seen, the ghost of her ending career. If Salone had sent her or worse she'd been the one to shoot at Salone, she was done for.

“Yeah, everything's fine,” she answered with a smile that didn't reach her eyes.

“I'll walk you to your car,” Aviana said and after walking Dory to her car and bidding her a goodnight, she went back in to interrogate the red head.

She closed her door behind and made her way to the dinner table where he was supposed to be.

She gasped when she didn't find him.

“Redhead?!” She called out but there was no answer.

Her stomach twisted into knots as she realized that he was gone.