Blood Money

10

"Shit, stay down, Danielle." Trevor says. He pulled her down and covered her body with his at the first gunshot.

"What the fuck?" Jeremiah says as he too is taking cover under the table. "I don't have my fucking gun with me."

Danielle reaches around and takes out her gun. She can also feel Trevor reaching for his gun.

She feels Trevor's body jerk as he takes a hit.  "NO!" She is able to slide out from under him and finds a place where she can look at the person wielding the gun that shot Trevor. She sees Jeremiah get shot as well.

She takes aim and shoots. The shooter looks at her in shock before going down. She isn't the only one firing at this point, but she's the only one from this direction. She takes aim at another gunman and fires at him. He too goes down.

After that the other armed men in the restaurant, she assumes they are Trevor and Jeremiah's body guards or men take care of the others.

At that point she goes to the two men that tried to protect her and checks on them. Trevor is bleeding pretty bad with a back wound. Jeremiah has a head wound, but it looks like the bullet just grazed him. She pulls the table cloth off the table to use it as a bandage and puts pressure on Trevor's wound.

Soon another man joins her and looks to Jeremiah to take care of him.

"Is it bad?" The new man asks.

"I'm not sure, but I think so, yeah." The once white table cloth is now a bright red.

Sirens are heard and soon the place is flooded with police and EMT's. The man that came to help with Jeremiah makes sure that help takes over with Trevor. Before Danielle can even think straight Trevor is whisked onto a gurney and out the door to the ambulance. Another EMT worker goes over to look at Jeremiah.

He's walked out the door to an out door triage set up for the less injured.

"You saved both their lives, we owe you." The unknown man says.

Danielle shakes her head, "No one owes me anything. I was the target that Trevor and Jeremiah was protecting. It's my fault they were shot."

"Bullshit, Danielle." Another man says coming over to her.

"What are you doing here?" Danielle says turning white before fainting.

"You know her?" The one that helped with Jeremiah asks the new comer.

"Yeah, she was married to my boss until he was killed and she almost died."

"So do you think this was aimed at her?" The first unknown man asks curious. He'd wondered why his boss wanted so many of their men here for lunch.

"It's entirely possible. I know Trevor was worried that she would be a target."

"Then why did you call bullshit on her?"

"Because none of this is her fault, just like her husband's death wasn't her fault."

"I don't think she believes that." The first man says looking at the unconscious woman.

"I know." The second man says. His job is to stay with Danielle no matter what, unless he's dead. Others have already followed Trevor to the hospital.

He takes out a small vial about the same size as trial perfumes. He takes the top off careful to not breathe in the fumes. He waves the vial under Danielle's nose.

"Get that shit away from me, Doug or so help me I'll kill you." Doug immediately removes the vial and replaces the lid. He doesn't blame her, but he needs her conscious so that they can give their statements and leave.

"Your gun, is it legal?" he whispers to her.

"Of course it is. Fully registered as am I. My permit to carry is in my purse." Doug nods and makes sure that he has her purse. He looks for and finds the all important paper.

Finally an officer comes over to them. Danielle gives him her gun and the permit. "I took down the one that was shot over there." She points to the large pool of blood staining the floor to the left of them. "As well as the one that was behind where you're standing now."

The officer looks at her differently after she tells him that. Both men had been difficult shots from where she was at and both men were killed.

She gives her statement and shows the officer the blood staining her dress to prove that she had valid reason to shoot to kill. Not that there was any doubt in anyone's mind there at the restaurant. More than one person, besides the shooters, were killed. Including the waiter that brought them their food.

By the time that she's done Danielle is a basket case. She can't stop shaking. She hears someone call her name but she can't focus or see. The last thing she remembers is the welcoming embrace of the black.

Doug searches frantically in her purse for her blood monitoring kit and can't find it. "Damn," Doug says angrily.

"Is there a problem?" an officer asks coming up to them.

"She has diabetes and I can't find her blood monitoring kit." 

The officer motions to an EMT. "She needs to have her blood sugar checked."

The EMT worker takes off to go get one from an ambulance. They wait for the test result. The worker gets to work taking out an IV and starting a sucrose drip. "When was the last time she ate?"

"They had just finished when the gunmen showed up. I'm pretty sure that she ate. Mr. Trevor Williams, he's pretty worried about her health. She was married to his father and she didn't do well after he died."

"She's the widow of Mr. Williams father?" The EMT worker had helped to stabilize Trevor. He'd of thought she would be his girlfriend not step mother.

"Yeah, she is." Doug is worried, if anything happens to her Trevor is going to kill him.

"Don't worry, shock will lower the blood sugar levels in a person. What happened here is enough to send anyone into shock."

As the IV drips silence falls. The EMT gestures for Doug to pick her up and he keeps the IV up high so that it will continue to drip. They go out to the tent where the triage was set up. "Can you hold this until it finishes?" The EMT guy asks Doug.

"Yeah, that shouldn't be too hard."