Blood & Water

Chapter 32

Riz and Taza showed up at Vicki's after a call from one of her girls. They felt a rumble from the collapse but now they were worried someone was stuck.

"When?" Riz asked as they walked around to the hidden entrance.

"The other night," one of the girls said. "Sometimes some of the local assholes ride their quads around, same feeling but without the engines."

"And that was it?" Taza asked, hoping for more details.

"Yeah," she huffed, "Until a few hours ago. There was another, closer, and I swore I heard someone or an animal," she stammered. "I don't know, but it made my stomach turn. I keep thinking someone was coming through that we didn't know about and they're stuck."

Riz and Taza looked at each other and nodded before opening the hatch. A cloud of dust and dirt waffed up, both men coughing and waving their hands about to clear the air.

"Jesus," Riz choked out.

"Wait," the woman said. "Shhh."

"HELP!" EZ shouted. "We're down here!"

"That's the prospect," Taza said urgently. He turned to the woman and pointed to the house again. "Have Vick call the clubhouse or the office, get them here now."

Riz climbed down to see half the tunnel had collapsed in on itself, slivers of light showing the gaps that allowed EZ to be heard and oxygen to flow through.

"Is Angel with you?" Riz asked. "Are you okay?"

"Angel's here, but he's not okay," EZ said, terror in his voice. "We were out about a mile, dug out and found some clear tunnels but the whole way is weak. Shit came down on us, Angel's hurt, his leg and his back, I think. I can't see."

Riz hollered up. "We need an ambulance. Someone who's not gonna talk."

"Pena can make that happen," he said knowingly. "They both down there?"

"Yeah," Riz grunted. "Won't be hard to dig em' out but Angel needs help. Now."

—

"She looks like Angel," Gilly said as he looked at Marisol. "Like in here," he added gesturing to her eyes and nose.

"Yeah," Carrie said sadly knowing he was just being nice. "So come on, what's going on? Talk to me."

Coco shrugged. "They're both gone, we haven't found shit."

Carrie swallowed and nodded. "Then what do you do next?"

"Keep looking," Coco told her.

"That doesn't sound like a good plan," she complained. "When do you go to the cops?"

"We don't," Gilly told her.

"I need to find him," she snapped. "I'm being discharged. My sister is on her way here, she's helping me, taking me home, and then we're going to the police."

"You want Officer Rogan sniffing around this? He's not gonna find shit, none of them are."

She glared at him. "This is bullshit."

"No one wants to find Angel more than we do," Coco told her, "And we're gonna, eventually."

Both of their cell phones buzzed at the same time breaking the tension between Carrie and Coco. He turned to read the text, as Gilly was as well, and the two men looked at each other.

"We gotta go," Gilly said quickly.

"No cops," Coco told her. "Just give us six more hours, then you can call the fucking FBI."