Free Face to Face by CJ Lyons

first.
    "What's your plan?" Jimmy asked, playing peacemaker.
    "I'm taking Hart out of here. Tonight. Up to my aunt's house at the Lake. She'll be safe there while I come back to set a trap for…" He stalled. "For whomever."
    "Good plan. Except for one thing. You and Hart stay up at the Lake and I'll take care of this actor," Jimmy said, gathering the photos and sliding them back into the envelope.
    "No. This is about me. I'll—"
    "You can't investigate a case you're personally involved in. And this is about as personal as it gets."
    "Besides," Andy put in, "do you good, some time alone with Hart."
    "We won't be alone. My aunt and mother will be there."
    Andy and Jimmy exchanged glances. "So, where's the ring? How're you going to pop the question?" Andy asked while Jimmy beamed his approval.
    "Ring? No, I'm not—"
    "Sure you are. We can have the bachelor party right here."
    Drake pushed his coffee away, lay his head down on the table and groaned. Someone out there wanted to hurt him, and maybe Hart, and these two were planning wedding favors? Could this day get any worse?
    <><><>
    Cassie hugged Baby Jane to her chest, her other hand gripping the length of rebar as they climbed up the steps to the alley door. A primal drumbeat surged through her veins. After her disastrous marriage to Richard, she never dreamed of having children. The thought terrified her. The enormity. The responsibility.
    Yet, in this moment, the baby so light and warm bundled in her arms, she would die for Baby Jane. She knew it. Protecting Baby Jane filled her with the same fierce determination rushing to save a life did back in the ER.
    She reached the last step and crossed the threshold. Bright sunlight blinded her and she didn't have a hand free to shield her vision. As she blinked, the rumble of gangsta rap echoed through the narrow concrete canyon. Tony had backed his van into the alley to make for a quicker getaway. Just as he opened the side door and laid Athena inside, a black BMW with rims spinning sparks rolled into sight, blocking their escape.
    Tagger shouted a warning. Cassie stepped forward, hand with the rebar rising as if she could miraculously fly across the ten feet and protect him. 
    The rat-tat-pop of semi-automatic and automatic fire cut through the air. Tagger dove to the ground. Cassie dropped her useless weapon and jumped back inside the doorway, both arms now holding Baby Jane.
    Naïve to think the Rippers would come at them with fists and warm bodies. Of course not. They'd retreat and return armed with Mac-10s spitting bullets. 
    Tony returned fire with his pistol. Cassie dared to edge a glance beyond her cover. Bullets flew from above as well as from the car. That's when she realized. The car was black. Garfield Gangstas, GGs. The Rippers on rooftops returning fire.
    Leaving them hopelessly caught in the no man's land between the warring gangs.
    Cassie hugged the baby tight. No matter what, Baby Jane would survive. 
    But it wasn't Baby Jane's face that floated in her vision. It was Mary Eamon's. The little girl Cassie couldn't save.
    Huddled in the dark, back against a charred cinder block wall, Cassie remembered the little three-year-old. Her blonde curls floated out around her head, her face so pale it blended in with the white sheets, still beautiful despite the blood tinged tube running down her nose and the other, larger tube taped to her mouth. Her naked body on the trauma stretcher, exposing Mary's terrible secrets to the world.
    As they'd cut away Mary's pink nightie, stained with blood and vomit and bile, the damage had been obvious. So obvious that one of the paramedics, a Lieutenant who'd seen the worse Pittsburgh had to offer, made a noise caught between a retch and a growl, balled his fists and turned for the door before Cassie intercepted him. His ears were scarlet with rage, body tense against the palm she placed on his chest, and she wasn't sure he wouldn't storm right through her.
    It took a beat. The only