mobster mash

“Think a happy thought,” Athena instructed.

“What—ow.” Max winced as Athena quickly and expertly twisted his broken nose back into place. She cleaned up the blood and then put a bandage over it.

“Gently hold this ice pack on it,” Athena said, using her best doctor voice. “It’ll help bring down the swelling until I can give you proper meds. Now, you said you hurt your back too?”

“I was thrown against a wall,” Max mumbled, doing as she said and holding the little ice pack on his face. “Feels like I pulled something.”

Athena circled behind him and prodded gently at his back. “Where exactly does it hurt? Here, or here?”

He hissed slightly when she pressed between his shoulder blades.

“Sorry,” she said. “We have a little machine that’ll help relax the muscle. It’ll take a while, and you can’t move while I’m using it. But by the time it does its job I should be able to give you some painkillers and you’ll feel right as rain.”

“Thanks, Doc.”

Athena smiled slightly as she went to fetch the machine. She pressed all the complicated buttons to get it working and then handed him a fresh ice pack before settling in the chair and turning on some classical music.

“I hope you’re patient,” she remarked. “It really does take a while for that to work. Plus I have to wait till you’re fully sober to dope you back up.”

“My only plans tonight were to go home and fall asleep in front of the tv,” he shrugged. “I think that I might remember Dr. Winters saying he had a daughter, but I probably wasn’t really listening. Last time I saw him I was getting a bullet pulled out of my arm.”

“You get yourself into trouble a lot, Hellhound?” Athena asked.

“No,” he said quickly. “I mean, I try not to. No more than I have to.”

Athena laughed softly. “Relax, I’m not judging.”

She noticed his ears had turned a little red, and she thought it was very endearing to see a tattooed biker look flustered. They chatted for a while; Athena figured it’d distract him from his back pain and she liked talking to him since he wasn’t just scowling or trying to hit on her.

“How long have you been a Hellhound?” she asked eventually.

“Forever, technically. I was born into it.”

“A Hellhound legacy. Impressive. Do you live in the back of a biker bar and sleep on a pool table?”

His lips twitched up. “No, I have my own place. Sort of. It’s just me and Valerie when I’m not doing things for the Hounds.”

“Valerie?”

Athena swiveled back and forth in her chair as his expression lit up and he launched into a fairly poetic spiel about Valerie and all her beauty. Athena just assumed it was a girlfriend until he said something about her purring like a kitten. She paused in her swiveling and cocked her head in puzzlement.

“I just got new brakes. She requires a lot of maintenance but I try to keep her in top condition.”

“Oh,” Athena said, realization dawning that he meant a car.

“What?”

She shook her head slightly, trying not to laugh at her mistake. “Nothing. Valerie sounds great. I’m sure you two make a cute couple.”

“I’ve been told so,” he replied.

“Wait, you have a fancy fast car. Do you ever race?” Athena asked, feeling her expression brighten with interest.

“Sometimes.”

“Do you ever win?”

“I do all right,” he said mildly and she smiled.

“I used to go to races sometimes,” she explained. “My ex was really into that scene.”

“A racer?”

“No. I mean he has a car, but Justin is part of the mechanic crew for a racer. At least he is when he’s not busy hooking up with every flag waving grid girl he can find.” Athena made a face, disdain creeping into her tone since Justin had hooked up with some aforementioned grid girls while still dating Athena. Max grimaced and then chuckled slightly.

“Justin sounds like a real bag of dicks,” he said and she laughed.

“You have no idea. Still, the race scene was pretty exciting. I liked going, cheating boyfriends notwithstanding.”

“What you do is pretty interesting too,” Max noted, glancing around. “You seem really young to be a doctor. Er, sorry. Maybe that’s a rude thing to say.”

“I mean I’m not actually a properly licensed doctor. My dad started teaching me the ropes when I was six though, so technically I’ve had about fifteen years of medical experience. And I learned from a top doctor. My dad’s primary specialty was neurosurgery, but he can patch up anything. You’ve been his patient before, so you know how good he is.”

“You can barely see the scar from my bullet wound,” Max agreed. “He seems to have taught you pretty well, too.”

Athena tried not to preen; she wasn’t a particularly vain person but she did take a lot of pride in hers and her dad’s work. She went to fetch Max another ice pack when her phone rang. She saw that it was her dad and answered cheerfully.

“Dad, I figured you would’ve been back by now. Did you stop to pick up dinner or something?”

“I’m afraid there’s no takeout tonight, sweetheart,” drawled a voice she didn’t recognize. Athena froze, her hand clenching around the ice pack she was holding. Max seemed to notice the change in her body language and looked at her curiously.

“Who is this?” Athena demanded.

“Just a new friend of your daddy’s,” the man replied. “We needed to have a little chat about something he has that doesn’t belong to him. He doesn’t seem to know its whereabouts though, so I decided I’d give you a little jingle.”

“What the hell are you talking about? My father has never stolen anything.”

“No, we don’t figure he did. But some slippery little rat stole something that my employer wants back. And we have reason to believe they came by your little hospital and saw the good doctor sometime in the last couple of months. You have people supplying medical equipment and medicines, and patients who don’t always pay you in cash. The person who has what we want was in your hospital. So if you want to see daddy dearest in one piece again, you’re going to find it for us.”

“What even is it?” Athena asked, voice sharp with frustration.

“It’s a memory card,” the man on the phone explained.

“Well gee, that should be easy to find,” Athena snapped.

“It’s of great value and it’s likely hidden inside of something else. Find whoever stole it, and you can ask them what they did with it.”

“Put my dad on the phone.”

“Beg pardon?”

“I’m not doing anything you say until I have proof my dad is alive.”

The man laughed. “Spunky little nursemaid, aren’t you?”

“Put my dad on the phone, asshole,” Athena said, scowling even though her heart was about to pound out of her chest.

“All right, little Winters. Don’t get your panties in a bunch.”

There was some rustling and then Michael’s voice came on the line.

“Dad? Are you okay?” Athena asked anxiously.

“I’m fine,” he replied, though he sounded a little hoarse. “Athena, don’t help them, they’re dangerous—“

“Dad? Dad!”

“Enough chit chat.” The cold man was back on the phone. “You have a thief to find, Miss Winters. You get us either the thief or the item, and you get your papa back. I’ll be in touch. And I suggest you hurry, because the Red Queen doesn’t like to be kept waiting.”

The line went dead and Athena’s blood ran cold. Red Queen was a nickname for Stefania Conti; she was one of the biggest mob bosses in Cerora, and she was one ruthless bitch. Athena’s mind was going a mile a minute trying to process this situation. A lot of people had been through here in the last two months, where would she even start? She spun around, gaze landing on Max where he was still sitting on the exam table and watching her warily.

“What, uh. What was all that about?” he asked slowly. A very bad plan took form in her brain.

“You,” she blurted. “You’re going to help me.”

“Help you…what?”

“My dad was taken by some of Stefania Conti’s goons. I assume you’ve heard of her?”

“Of course I have. But what—“

“I have to find something for them to get him back. You’ve been here before, so you know we work out forms of payment other than actual money, right?”

“Yes, but—“

“You’re going to help me get my dad back,” Athena said firmly. “In return for patching you up.”

“Okay but I mean…why?”

Athena started to pace. “Because I’m going to have to track down everyone who’s been here in the last two months. I’m five foot three and have the upper body strength of a pampered house cat. You’re a big scary biker.”

“Scary?” Max frowned. Athena threw him a mildly exasperated look.

“The point is, you’re tall and have big manly man muscles and recognizable tattoos. If those muscles and tattoos are backing me up while I go to question a bunch of seedy criminals about their seedy criminal business, it’ll save me a lot of time and hassle.”

“I don’t know if—“

“You’re a Hellhound, right, so just…think of it as acting like a guard dog,” she interrupted. “I’ll even feed you and we live above the hospital. The apartment is actually really nice, and you can crash there till this is over.”

“We literally just met and now you want me to be your bodyguard?”

“You don’t have to actually do anything,” Athena insisted. “Just, you know, stand there with your towering biker form. And if you refuse to help me I won’t give you any painkillers,” she added, crossing her arms over her chest. Max heaved a long sigh.

“Okay, I…guess I can help you,” he said reluctantly. Athena tried not to let it show too much that she was relieved. She nodded once, then shed her lab coat. She went over to dig through patient and delivery files, pulling everything from the last two months.

“Why do criminals have to get injured so much?” she grumbled, making a note of how many people had come in recently. She snapped pictures of the files with her phone, deciding she’d start with the handful of delivery guys. She pulled a jacket on over the tank top she was wearing before undoing the machine Max was hooked up to for his back, trying not to let herself get frazzled.

“Here,” she said, tossing him a small bottle of pills. “You can take those now. On the road.”

Athena shoved her phone and a scalpel into her jacket pockets. “I know who we’re going to talk to first.”