Alanna’s eyes came into focus as her nose picked up the scent of something awful. She slapped it away from her face and sat up only to feel a piercing pain in her chest. She coughed, her breath catching again, but this time she stayed awake. Looking around, she realized that she was in the back of an ambulance.
“What the fuck?” she asked. “How did I end up in here?”
“You were found on the floor of the warehouse. It seems as if you were shot at close range, but your vest kept you alive,” the paramedic answered.
Alanna looked down at her shirt to see the huge gaping hole the bullet had left. She pressed her finger up against the vest and found that the bullet was still in it. She unstrapped it and found a huge bruise just below her right breast. With her finger, she poked at the bruise and instantly felt a shooting pain through her body.
“Son of a bitch!” Alanna yelled, startling the paramedic. She swung her legs over the side of the gurney and began to stand up.
“Whoa, where do you think you’re going?” the man asked.
She ignored him and walked out of the ambulance to where the rest of her mangled team stood. “I want a damage report,” she immediately ordered.
“Six wounded, one critical. Everybody else is fine,” Anderson reported.
“No one dead?” Alanna asked.
“Nope. We were lucky,” he replied.
“Have you talked to Rogers?”
“He’s on his way along with Harris.”
“Great,” Alanna mumbled as she sat down on the curb and waited for her superior to arrive.
“Roberts!” she heard Rogers voice over the crowd.
Alanna looked up to find him barreling her way with Destiny trailing him. ‘Shit,’ Alanna thought when she saw the nervous expression on her friend’s face. “What?” she asked aloud.
“That was one stupid move you pulled. I have everyone yelling at me,” Rogers spat. “What were you thinking?”
“I was trying to get my men out of there safely,” Alanna answered.
“By making a mad dash towards the enemy? You could have killed everyone with that stunt!” Rogers was now shouting. “You risked the lives of your men and yourself. Do you have any idea what kind of trouble you’re in?”
“Hmm… I wonder,” she sarcastically retorted as she stood up, her five foot eight body towering about his five foot three frame. Alanna walked off without wanting to hear another word.
“Wait!” Destiny yelled as she ran to catch up with her. Alanna stopped and let her run up beside her. “You look like shit. Why don’t you get that looked at?” she asked, pointing to the bruise on Alanna’s chest.
“Nothing’s broken. I don’t need anyone to look at it,” Alanna angrily replied as she headed away from the scene.
“Want me to take you home?” Destiny asked.
“Home? I don’t have a home!” Alanna shouted.
“Calm down!” Destiny returned. “I’ll take you over to Darren’s. Maybe he can help you cool down.”
“How the hell am I supposed to explain this to him?” Alanna pointed to her bruise.
“You got into a fight with one of the drug lords because he wouldn’t give you your money,” Destiny answered.
“What? How did you know about that?”
“Rogers told me.”
“Oh, God! Please don’t tell me you told him who I was really staying with.”
“I didn’t. Trust me. I’m not insane, you know.”
Alanna glared at her. Destiny led her to her car and opened the door. They got inside and began to drive away.
“So, what’s gonna happen now?” Alanna asked.
“Well, you’ll be suspended for a little while, but nothing else. You’ve got a really good record, so you’ll be back in no time,” Destiny explained.
“But what about Dmitri? I can’t just sit here and wait for someone else to get on the case that doesn’t know shit about it and will screw everything up. I just can’t sit back and relax while they fuck around like idiots,” Alanna desperately replied. “If anything, I’d do this myself if I had to.”
“Alanna, get some rest and stop it with the nutty ideas. Your brother is all right. He will be fine. Vladimir has to keep him alive in order to get you irritated enough to want to get him back again, and when you do, he’ll slip up, and you’ll win the fight,” Destiny tried to comfort her.
“Shut up and drive,” Alanna retorted, not wanting to stay on the topic anymore.
The two of them rode in silence for only a few minutes before Destiny opened her mouth again. “I brought your bag,” she said. “And some new clothes.”
“Thanks,” Alanna mumbled.
“Was there anything else you wanted me to get out of your locker?”
“No… Yes, the bag of hair dyes.”
“Got it. But why? Thinking about changing your color again?”
“Yeah, purple this time.”
“Hey, nice, just make sure it’s not something too bright.”
“No, it won’t be. I want a dark color. I’m sick of sticking out like a sore thumb.”
Destiny laughed as she pulled up to Darren’s apartment building. She and Alanna parted ways and she drove off. Alanna gingerly climbed the stairs as she felt the pain in her side worsen. ‘Shit, I should have known a cracked rib would come with this one,’ she thought to herself.
Alanna put her bag down once she was at the top of the stairs. She looked down and saw something fall out of it. She picked up the little piece of photo paper and looked at it. The picture was of her and Dmitri at the annual cookout they threw for their team members. They were sitting side by side beneath a tree and laughing.
Alanna cold feel the tears that welled up in her eyes. Her head dropped as she began to cry in front of the door. She put her hand on top of it to steady herself, but it began to fall away as someone opened it. Darren stood there in the darkness waiting for her. He began to say something, but soon stopped, seeing that she was ready to fall apart. He led her inside, closing the door behind him. Neither he nor Alanna saw the car on the other side of the street that had shown up soon after Destiny had left.