Chapter Thirteen
The next five days, the Interpol team along with the Houston Police Department hunted for Nicholas King in every possible way. They left no stones unturned in their quest for the mafia King.
Allen and Axel were going out of control with each passing day. It seemed as if the earth had swallowed Hazel and Nicholas King up whole without leaving any trace whatsoever.
Both were haggard from lack of a single wink of sleep. Whenever Axel could get a little sleep, he would wake up screaming and crying for his mum. Jon and Gary stayed with them nearly the whole day. They would leave Axel with Joanne and sit at the police headquarters the whole day.
However on the sixth day they found a ray of hope when one of the officers discovered that the car number scribbled on the scrap of paper actually belonged to a cross country cargo truck. The truck was carrying a loadful of drugs hidden amongst cargoes to be delivered illegally to Nicholas King and his men at Freeport, Texas located on the Gulf of Mexico. It was approximately a one and a half-hour drive away. So that's where he was then.
The Interpol team along with the Houston Police Team left with Allen, Jon and Gary to Freeport.
They were updated by the officers who were tracking the truck which was on its way towards the port area of Freeport. They soon caught up with the slow moving truck and maintained a respectable distance to avoid alerting Nicholas and his men. It was a dark moonless night, with the whole town nearly asleep since it was past midnight.
The truck stopped at a side road before entering the port area. A black car zoomed to a halt right beside it. Men trooped out and started unloading some of the cargo from the truck.
The Interpol officers alerted the other patrol cars and they all converged around the truck and the car from all sides. The men left the cargo and tried to escape but the officers climbed down and grabbed the men. The black car whirled around and sped away at lightning speed before the blink of an eye. Two police cars chased after it.
The sound of gunshots rang in the air as Nicholas's right hand man, Flavio, tried his best to escape. He shot himself when every possible escape route was closed. The officers arrested the others and took them to their cars. They would be taken to the headquarters for interrogation.
However one of them spilled the address of the mansion where Hazel was locked when an officer pointed an empty gun to his head and pulled the triggers.
A team of ten officers along with Allen, Jon and Gary left for the mansion, to save Hazel.
For six days Hazel struggled to keep sane. She couldn't decide what to do. She couldn't escape from the room with the tight guarding all around her and also at her door.
Thankfully Nicholas hadn't come once to bother her, but tomorrow was the last day of her 7 day reprieve. What would she do if Nicholas came to impregnate her? She shuddered even thinking about it. She had found a pocket knife in the en-suite. Should she slice her wrists and die? That was the only option she had as of now.
Hazel cried like a woman who had lost all hope, every day she kept losing the will to live. She knew Allen would be trying to save her but she didn't have so much time on her hands. On the 6th night, she had just gone into a fitful sleep in the wee hours of the morning when the sound of cars awoke her.
Did Nicholas and his men return? She rushed to the window. Yes, it seemed that three black cars had come inside the compound. She panicked. Now there was no way she could stop Nicholas.
She rushed inside and picked up the pocket knife in desperation and panic. Hot tears flowed down her cheeks as she thought about her Allen whom she loved so much. Then Axel's innocent face crept up in her mind. His words, "Hazel, I'm hungry," rang in her ears. She mumbled incoherently as if in a daze, "I'm sorry, please forgive me. I have no other way."
She breathed a deep breath and picking up the knife sliced her left wrist. Blood oozed out of her wound. The sound of gunshots rang in the air. One after the other. What was happening? That was the last thought she had before she fell unconscious in a pool of blood.
The door to Hazel's room was flung open and within seconds the Interpol team rushed in with Allen following them closely. He gasped at what lay before his eyes. One of the officers immediately tied her upper arm tightly and bandaged her wrist to stop the blood flow, elevating it to help with the healing. They picked her up and rushed to the hospital located five minutes away.
Allen followed them in panic. Jon and Gary helped him keep sane. Gary completed the hospital formalities while Jon stayed by Allen's side. Hazel was taken to the operation theatre immediately.
The next forty five minutes, they sat tensed outside the OT, not knowing what to expect. How serious was her injury? Allen held his head in his hands. If only he could have saved her earlier she wouldn't have been forced to take this extreme step.
Gary called home and informed Joanne and Axel. It was the worst day of their lives.
It was already 6 o'clock in the morning when the door of the OT opened and the doctor came out with a smile on his face.
Allen, Jon and Gary rushed forward to talk to the doctor. "How's my wife doctor?" Asked Allen, with a haggard expression not knowing what to expect.
"She's fine Mr McAllister. Thankfully there wasn't any serious injury to her arteries, nerves or tendons. A few blood vessels have been ruptured. We have provided supportive dressing, so it should heal in 5-7 days. Don't worry, you may shift her to Houston after two hours," said the doctor.
They all felt relieved and after 2 hours hired an ambulance to shift her to a hospital near Allen's house.
