Max pushed his way through the door and attacked Russell’s face with his tongue.
“Cage, I got something in here,” Clyde said in a raised voice from the other room.
“Come on, bud. Let’s go find your mom and sister.” Russell rubbed the top of the canine’s head, then ran back into the other room.
Clyde towered over one of the slain thugs, shaking his shoulder. “Crap. Seems as though the Sandman took Amber and Cathy down to the parking garage through another stairwell. All I could get before he died.”
“Crap. We need to get down there, now.” Russell ran for the door with Max and Clyde at his back.
They funneled out into the corridor and raced for the stairwell. Clyde hammered the stairs with Max hot on his heels. Russell shone his flashlight down the center of the flights of stairs at the bottom floor.
The exit doors leading to the lower levels sat open and riddled with murals of blood and bullet holes. The men guarding each floor had either been killed or vanished from their posts. Gunfire boomed from each dark hallway they passed.
Clyde stopped at the landing for a split second to catch his breath. Max’s tongue dangled toward the floor. Russell huffed and gasped for air, but kept moving.
He wrenched open the door, leaned out, and surveyed the entryway to the complex. Three dead bodies laid on the tile floor with blood pooling under each corpse.
Russell advanced with his pistol trained ahead. More gunfire sounded from down the hallway to their right. He peered around the corner. Muzzle fire flashed from two different men rushing down the hallway away from them. They turned a corner and vanished from sight.
“Is the parking garage that way?” Clyde asked in a low tone.
“Could be. They might be chasing the Sandman down,” Russell answered. “Watch our backs. Come on, Max.”
Max rushed past Russell and galloped the length of the corridor with Russell and Clyde chasing after him. The canine flew past the blind corner without stopping.
“Max, hold on,” Russell said, nearing the edge of the wall. He peered through the open door to the low light of the parking garage.
“Do you see them?” Clyde asked, standing behind Russell.
“I don’t, but I hear Max, and more shouting.” Russell advanced through the doorway with his piece sweeping the few cars parked near the entrance. A shadowy figure materialized from the murk between two vehicles across from them and opened fire.
Clyde shoved Russell out of the way. The incoming bullets missed his arm by inches. He returned fire, hitting the black-clad thug in his chest.
A feminine voice screamed—one that Russell didn’t recognize. Max barked and growled.
“You good?” Clyde asked, taking Russell’s hand and helping him up.
“Yeah. They’re this way.” Russell rushed around the sedan they stood next to and ran toward the discord. An idling white Suburban sat in the middle of the garage. “Cathy.”
A dead body laid prone on his stomach near the front of the large SUV. It looked like Gold Teeth. The windshield had multiple bullet holes on the passenger side. Shouting came from the driver’s side, melding with the sharp barks and growls of the canine.
“Mom,” a female voice sobbed.
Max yelped.
A figure loomed behind the open driver’s side window, speaking in a raised voice with his back to the glass.
Russell spotted the white shirt Sandman wore. He opened fire on the drug lord, popping off two rounds at the window. Each bullet punched the glass, hammering Sandman’s upper back.
A loud, painful groan escaped from the dealer as he dropped to the pavement. The soles of his dress shoes poked out from under the door. His legs twitched for a moment as Russell and Clyde moved in.
Cathy laid on the ground, flat on her back with a young girl holding her close in her arms. Max stood between them and Sandman.
The young brunette flinched from their sudden appearance. She reached for Sandman’s piece, then trained the weapon at them.
“Whoa. We’re friendlies,” Clyde said, holding his hands up.
“It’s okay, Amber,” Cathy said, pushing her arm down. “These are my friends.”
Amber looked at Russell and Clyde with shiny eyes. The tears streaming down her cheeks left streaks that ran the length of both sides of her face. Her chest heaved and the pistol held tight in her hand trembled.
Russell secured his piece in the waistband of his jeans, then said, “Here, let me hold on to that for you.”
Amber hesitated for a moment, then lowered the pistol.
“Thanks.” Russell took the weapon and stared at the drug lord’s blood-soaked back.
Max sniffed Sandman’s head, then limped to Cathy’s side.
Russell nudged Sandman’s body with his boot. Sandman didn’t respond.
“He didn’t shoot you, did he?” Clyde asked Cathy, looking her over.
“No, not yet anyway.” Cathy sat up straight. “That rival gang showed up, and all hell broke loose. He brought us down here and said he had plans for us when more of those men opened fire. They pulled back and left, so I’m not sure what they’re up to.”
Russell took Cathy’s hand and helped her to her feet.
Amber kept close to her mother’s side. She wrapped her arms around Cathy’s neck, crying and sniffling. Cathy hugged her back, then kissed her cheek.
“We probably need to go before more people show up.” Clyde looked at the Suburban. “We can take this back to get my truck, then head out to Boston.”
Russell glanced at the idling SUV, then back to Cathy. “Once we get back to Clyde’s pickup, why don’t you, Amber, and Max take this. You can head back home.”
Cathy looked at her daughter, then back to Russell. She shook her head. “Not until we get you back with your wife. Remember, we
