I slammed my fist into the window and called Bax’s name again. He still didn’t move. I let myself be dragged backward as the firefighters surrounded the car. While I was trying to bend metal with my bare hands, paramedics and my fellow cops, as well as an entire fleet of firefighters, had arrived on the scene. I started barking orders, telling anyone that would listen to go look for whoever had been driving the truck. I knew Roark was behind it. I had no idea how he knew where Bax would be, or how he had gotten his hands on a massive battering ram like the trash truck, but I knew it was him. And I was going to annihilate him when I finally got my hands on him.
Metal groaned and screamed in protest as they worked to pull Bax free. I moved forward and kept getting pulled back. It felt like it had taken a lifetime even if only a few moments had gone by, when the car door suddenly popped open and Bax’s big body slumped out. He looked worse not surrounded by the protective shell of the ’Cuda. I could see one of his legs was really messed up. I could also see that his chest was indeed moving, but slowly and laboriously. I rubbed my hands over my face and tried not to lose it. I didn’t even care that I was smearing blood all over myself from my torn hands.
“I need to call his girlfriend.”
Dovie was going to freak out. Rightfully so. With all the dangerous and dirty stuff Bax messed around in, here it was a car accident that was going to have him fighting for his life. It was so unfair I was choking on it and couldn’t see around it. I fumed as the paramedics strapped him down and started rolling him toward the waiting ambulance. I had never seen my brother look so fragile or so helpless. That included when he was just a little kid and I had to explain to him that I was moving out, leaving him to fend for himself because there was no other way. He looked broken and it was making everything inside of me howl with the need to do something, to seek some kind of retribution. I never considered myself the vengeful type. I put too much stock in the law and justice for that, but right now all I wanted was revenge. I wanted to bury Roark in a casket of metal and pain just like he had done to Bax.
“His pulse is thready, and he’s losing a lot of blood. We’re taking him to City General. Time is a factor. They have a trauma unit already waiting for us.”
Time was a factor? No kidding. He wasn’t moving at all and there was no color to him other than the black of his star and the red that was covering his face and soaking into his T-shirt. He looked like a corpse.
“You want to ride with us, Detective?”
No. No I didn’t want to climb in the back of that ambulance and watch them fight to keep my brother alive, because if they failed I was going to go nuclear and that wouldn’t help anyone. My rage and my grief would only hurt the people who were trying to help, and I didn’t want that. I worked hard to keep the beast in the cage; letting him out now wouldn’t do me or anyone else any good. Reeve had woken that monster up and now putting him back to sleep was getting harder and harder to do.
“No. I need to call his girlfriend and I need to see if anyone has any info on where the driver of the garbage truck went. I’ll be right behind you.”
The paramedic looked at Bax as they loaded him into the transport vehicle and then back at me. I had seen that look a hundred times before. I had given family members and victims that look myself. He didn’t think Bax was going to make it and he didn’t want me to miss any of the last moments I might have with him.
“Just go.” I gritted out the words between my teeth and took a step back. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and took a deep breath before I dialed Dovie’s number. She answered in her usually cheery way and I literally heard her heart break when I told her what was going on. In typical Dovie fashion, she didn’t shriek or shout; she just started breathing heavily and asking me a million questions. I could hear her crying, so I told her I would meet her at the hospital and hung up and called Race. I told him to go get her. She needed to be ready for the worst and there was no way I wanted her driving herself. Race handled the news in much the same way his sister did, but after I gave him the limited amount of information I did have, he assured me he would go get her and that he would see me at the hospital.
When I got off the phone one of the patrol guys that I had been talking to before the accident appeared at my side.
“The real driver stopped for gas a few blocks over. He went in for gas and came out and the truck was gone.”
“How in the fuck did he know where Bax was going to be?” I muttered it under my breath as the guys from my precinct started to set up to do their standard accident investigation.
One thing was clear. No one that had been involved in bringing Novak down was safe. Even the baddest of badasses like Shane Baxter could be blindsided, and no one was invincible. A son’s thirst for vengeance over the perceived wrongs that had befallen his father was a powerful motivator. Roark had hit Race and Nassir where it hurt both financially and emotionally, but Bax . . . Bax he wanted taken out. It was one brother trying to eliminate the other. We all bled the same and Roark was letting me know he wanted to paint the streets red with everyone he held responsible for his loss.
Chapter 9