The Knight Before Chaos

by Tierney James

  “Tessa, snap out of it. You’ve got to stop them. Shoot, damn it!”

  When the back glass exploded inward, something snapped inside her. The woman’s commands brought her out of her trance long enough to turn in her seat. She took off the safety, and pulled the trigger once, nearly dropping it because of the recoil.

  “Hey! Both hands, cupcake,” Honey fumed.

  She unbuckled her seat belt to be able to twist around and get a clear shot. “Could you drive a little more safely? I undid my seat belt.”

  The Irish assassin flashed her an incredulous glare.

  “Oh. Never mind. We can talk about this later.” She sounded too mom-like in the moment.

  “Shoot!”

  Tessa clenched her teeth, narrowed her eyes, and fired. The approaching vehicle’s windshield shattered. The attack car backed off then swerved and hit another parked car and over-corrected. It careened sideways, jumped a median, and crashed into a tree.

  “Way to go, my sweet little Grass Valley commando.” Honey continued to drive, but reached out to pat Tessa’s hip as she flipped herself around and reloaded the weapon before buckling up. “Uh-oh.” A loud pop, and the car was wobbling. “Guess they hit one of our tires, no, two. We’re on foot now.” She pulled off the road, put the car into park, and hopped out. “I see flashing lights so be quick about it.”

  “Maybe the police can help us.” Tessa climbed out as Honey disappeared into the small park alongside the road. She reached back inside the car and took out another cartridge from the glove box. Stuffing it in her purse, she scrambled after her partner in crime.

  Honey let her catch up. “And how would you explain stealing an FBI car?”

  “I’d tell them the truth, of course.”

  Honey smirked and picked up her pace. “We deal in deception, not truth. Do you really want to spend Christmas in jail?”

  “I want to go home,” she yelled.

  The assassin halted so fast, Tessa ran into her. “Then do as I say. We’ve got to prevent whoever is after Chase from reaching him. These guys are after me because they know I can help him. Not sure how they picked up my trail. I’m very careful.” She turned to press onward.

  “Why are they after him?”

  “Dunno.”

  “You must know more than you’re telling me,” she growled. “You don’t strike me as anyone who is ever in the dark about anything.”

  “Okay. Maybe. He made an enemy years ago but couldn’t do anything about it. The guy is very high profile and protected, even well respected. Chase let it go because of the demands of war and the special ops he did. He was an angry mess when I met him. Director Clark gave him focus with Enigma work. Two months ago, Chase started poking around again to see where things were with this guy.”

  “Who is it?”

  “More important is why now? Why would this creep even care? Chase must have struck a nerve. He’s a private citizen, not an enemy combatant or part of a terrorist cell, although Chase might have a different opinion of that fact. I believe he uncovered information that will give him a way into his organization and finish him off. Private citizens are safe from Enigma unless they pose a threat to American interests and security.”

  “In other words, you might not like the big prescription companies, jacked-up oil prices over holiday weekends or social media giants, the current political incumbents, but sometimes life sucks and we have no other choice but to take it.”

  “Exactly. Whoever we’re dealing with fell in one of those benign categories. Besides if the world thinks you walk on water, there is a certain do-no-harm bubble people put you in. Beloved and above the law in some cases.”

  “Who. Is. It?”

  “Honestly, I dunno. Chase always played close to the vest with anything concerning this guy. He called him Satan’s spawn most of the time. That’s all I know.” Honey reached out and grabbed Tessa’s arm then jerked her down on the ground behind tall evergreen bushes. “Police.” They zipped by and then backed up when they saw the Escalade. The Hummer appeared to be causing even more attention. “Guess you’d be opposed to taking a police car?”

  The assassin started to stand up, but Tessa tugged her back down. “Absolutely not. We’re in over our head now.”

  “Where’s your spirit of adventure?” Honey grunted as she continued to survey the area around them. “Come on. I think I have an idea.”

  Both women kept to the darkest areas in the park. The snow softened the sounds of their progress until they crossed the street to a gas station resembling a building from the Old West. It was decked out with lots of bright lights and a giant cowboy boot with a purple lizard on it that moved its head from side to side.

  “You Americans do tacky better than anyone.”

  Tessa had to agree but said nothing that might slow their progress. Inside the station, an area the size of a large grocery store, the smell of evergreen and stale tacos made her a little nauseous. A clerk mopped the melted snow around a sign warning of slippery surfaces. The song, “Let It Snow” could be heard over the slot machines in an adjacent bar and grill decorated to imitate an Old West saloon. Clouds of cigarette smoke wafted out into the store where two men wearing down jackets and state highway caps glanced at them and wolf-whistled when they had to step around them.

  “You ladies are out awful late. Working?”

  Tessa started to give an angry retort at the implication when Honey pivoted and leveled a very disarming smile. She eyed them head to toe then fluffed her strawberry-blonde hair with the very red tips. Talk about tacky.

  “Well, you boys look like you’ve been working hard”—her gaze fell on their crotches— “this snowy evening.”

  “We sure have,” a burly one cooed. “Getting ready to clear the interstate. Snow stopped up there on the mountain.”

  “I bet you big strong fellas needed a little break.” Honey elbowed Tessa, and she took a step back.

  “Let’s go,” she said, grabbing the assassin’s arm. “We don’t have time for this.”

  “Now hold on there, Miss High and Mighty,” the younger one said as he patted Tessa’s cheek. She slapped away his hand that smelled of onions. “Oh, I like feisty.”

  “Do you like a foot up your—”

  Honey laughed playfully and hugged Tessa. “She plays hard to get. Our last—customer decided he couldn’t handle her and stormed off without paying a dime.”

  “What?” Tessa fumed.

  “Tomorrow our rent is due, and she needs half.” Honey ran her hand down the front of the burly man’s jacket. “Wouldn’t want to make a donation, would you?”

  They both grinned and rubbed the stubble on their chins.

  “Well maybe.” The one with onion hands pointed to Tessa. “The shy ones are always the wild ones. I left my wallet out in my snowplow, if you know what I mean.” He winked.

  Tessa suddenly realized they were about to steal yet another vehicle but at what cost? She took a deep breath and forced a smile on the younger man. “You’re kinda cute.” She felt like she was speaking with a mouth full of cardboard. The urge to puke almost got the best of her.

  Honey slid her arm through the burly man’s and squeezed it close to her body. “I bet your nickname is snowplow—if you know what I mean.” They both laughed good-naturedly as the four of them moved toward the automatic doors.

  They walked out to the parking lot near the back of the gas station and waited for each man to unlock his snowplow.

  “Can you start them up so we’ll be warm? We’ve been walking around in the weather for hours. I’m sure I would be even more appreciative with a warm tush, Mr. Snowplow.” Again, Honey offered a coy smile.

  “You got it, girls.”

  Both men hurried to start their engines.

  “Play nice, Tessa. We can take the truck over the pass and plow a path all the way to Grass Valley. By the time we get to Nevada City, the California Highway Department will have done our work for us. Easy. It’s almost midnight.” She
tapped Tessa on her lips with a gloved finger. “Lick those chapped lips. Be seductive.” Tessa pulled away when she reached for her purse.

  “These places have landlines. Let’s just go call for help.”

  “Then we’d be on security for sure, and who knows who would be listening.”

  “Paranoid.”

  “In my line of work, it pays to be paranoid. Besides, I don’t want some greasy clerk giving us the once-over so he’ll have a good description on the off chance their cameras are down. Which is a real possibility. Trust me. I know what I’m doing.”

  “You have all the answers, don’t you?” Tessa snarled as Honey again tried to take the purse.

  “Give me the damn gun before you hurt yourself. I may need it first. This truck is in better shape than the other one. See the tires? And the guy is twice my size.”

  “And what am I supposed to do. Wait for you to come rescue me from being sexually assaulted by the other creep?”

  “I’m sure you’ll think of something. You’ve lasted this long at Enigma without getting your head shot off. Surely you’ve learned a few tricks.” Honey grinned and elbowed her good-naturedly. “Tricks. Get it?”

  “What I’ve learned is if there is trouble, you show up to the party.”

  Honey snatched Tessa’s purse, quickly removed the gun, and slipped it in her deep coat pocket.

  “I’m not doing this.” Tessa shivered. “I feel like I need a bath.”

  “A bath?” the burly man asked as he climbed down out of his truck. “Little motel down the road has heart-shaped Jacuzzis in every room. Maybe when we get done here, we’ll go freshen up,” he said, nudging his friend as he walked up. He rubbed his hands up and down the sides of his coveralls.

  The younger man nodded toward his truck then reached for Tessa. “Come on, sweetheart.” He switched to a Clint Eastwood impersonation. “I’m here to make your day.”

  “I seriously doubt that, you sexually frustrated Neanderthal.”

  Before Tessa knew what was happening, the man slapped her to the ground. She tasted blood and tried to get to her feet, but he reached down and jerked her to upright. He shook her violently and dragged her away while she kicked and clawed at any areas she could reach. Through his thick clothing, he probably couldn’t feel a thing.

  The other man laughed and called after them. “When I’m done with the redhead, I’ll come help you. Save me some.”

  She twisted away and was headed back when Honey pulled out the gun and shot her mark in the head, propelling him backward.

  “Asshole. You shouldn’t have messed with my friend.” She kicked snow on the man then leveled the gun at the other one as Tessa fell at her feet. “Get up,” Honey ordered.

  The second man halted, threw his hands up, and backed away. “Don’t shoot.”

  “Fine. But you’re driving us over the mountains.”

  “I can’t,” he whined.

  Honey raised the gun a little higher and fired, slicing off part of his ear. “Next time I’ll take your pecker off and shove it down your throat.”

  “Okay. Okay. I’ll drive you. Please don’t kill me. I got a family.”

  “A family,” Tessa yelled. “We don’t need them. Shoot him. We can drive ourselves.”

  Honey fired twice, and Tessa screamed.

  The man fell facedown in the snow, and a circle of blood formed.

  “What have you done?” Tessa ran over to take a look.

  “You said shoot him.” Honey returned the weapon to her pocket then checked both men for any identification. Next, she removed anything that made them look like drivers for the state. She tossed Tessa a cap.

  “I only wanted to scare him.”

  “Oh good. I think I did my job quite well, don’t you? Come on. We need to hide these bodies.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chase prayed the kids were secure and hadn’t left their mother’s room. He climbed through the open window then dropped to the floor. From the sounds of fumbling in the dark and a lack of leadership, he could take these clowns out before any real damage was done.

  Pulling out the walkie-talkie, he tried to contact Sean Patrick. “Die Hard. This is Silent Knight. Do you copy?”

  “Silent Knight, this is Die Hard. We copy.”

  He slipped through the dining room and spotted two of the men climbing the steps. His heart stopped when he spotted the glow of a flashlight at the top.

  “Die Hard! Get your people back inside the bedroom. That’s an order,” he growled no louder than a whisper.

  “Sorry, Silent Knight. You’re breaking up,” he lied.

  He rushed out to intervene, but something pinged and bounced rapidly down the stairs toward the intruders. Chase bumped the hall table, knocking over a collection of wooden Santas and a bowl of glass Christmas balls. The crashing and popping reminded him of incoming mortar attacks in Afghanistan for a few seconds.

  With the sudden explosion of glass, wood, and what he now knew to be marbles cascading down the steps, the intruders pivoted awkwardly to look back at him. Their next step made contact with several marbles, and they flapped their arms like flamingos taking flight. Their weapons flew up in the air as did their feet, and they were soon rolling down the steps with grunts and confused expressions.

  Chase lunged forward with the bat and swung toward any body part he could reach. The first intruder dodged a blow to the head but caught the strike against his shoulder, laying him out flat. The second man scampered up and tried to move away but stepped on a handful of marbles and fell flat on his face. He remained out of reach, and Chase needed to avoid the marbles if possible.

  The third man now had circled back and dragged his downed partner away by tugging on the back of his collar. They disappeared into the kitchen where only a battery-operated candle lit the room.

  The children squatted, peering expectedly through the bars of the railing. He motioned for them to return to their mother’s bedroom, but they merely gave him a thumbs-up. It was too dark to see their expressions in spite of the glow of the flashlight now resting on the floor beside Sean Patrick. Finally, he growled in a whisper for them to turn off the flashlight. In seconds, the light extinguished.

  The man on the floor moaned and tried to sit up, and outlines of the other two men appeared in the kitchen. Thankfully, they hadn’t found the door that would have allowed them to circle back through the living room, catching him off guard in the hall. He guessed the reason they didn’t rush forward had to do with not knowing where the scattered marbles on the floor might be located.

  His immediate concern was whether these two had guns. When they’d gone airborne seconds earlier, he couldn’t see where their weapons had landed or if they had been able to scoop them up. The one’d he tied up had nothing, not even a pocket knife. That indicated he might be nothing but a thug trying to rob folks at Christmas. These guys had amateur written all over them. A fleeting thought darted in and out of his mind that these were not the ones come to take him out. With the break-ins in other parts of the neighborhood, these guys could be a part of a home invasion ring. Christmas was a time when people went to parties, children participated in programs at school and church, and you visited family away from home, all while leaving a treasure trove of gifts, electronics, and jewelry behind.

  “Better put the bat down before we have to shoot you,” one of the men said, stepping forward.

  “I’ll take my chances,” Chase said as he evaluated their movements. “I’d really like it if you tried to take it from me.”

  The two paused. They tilted their heads toward their unmoving friend on the floor, but one reached in his pocket for something. Chase reached down and jerked their friend to his feet to pose like a shield. At the same time, a taser in the man’s hand came out and let loose two projectiles that attached to their friend’s chest. Chase dropped him immediately so not to be affected by the jolt. Freed, he twisted and shook, driving his friends back farther into the kitchen.

  �
��Chase! Catch!” Daniel tossed a slingshot to him. “The table!”

  Chase caught the weapon with his free hand and looked to his right at the small table that belonged to Tessa’s grandmother. A jar of mismatched buttons with the lid lying on the side offered more ammo. He forced the bat under one arm then grabbed a handful of buttons.

  “Get back in the bedroom,” Chase yelled at the kids as he charged forward.

  This time the intruders stopped, and Chase found himself flanked by two of them. They wore sinister snarls. They lunged at Chase with doubled fists and connected to his side and kidney. Buttons scattered on the floor when he staggered back.

  He managed to swing the bat, although it connected only with a few of Tessa’s foo-foo decorations on the counter, but the crash startled them enough that they stepped away. Even though pain surged up through his back, he pulled the bat back for another swing.

  “This guy is crazy. Let’s get out of here,” number two said.

  He cut them off and held the bat like it might be a loaded cannon waiting to go off. “Who sent you? Who are you working for?”

  They glanced at each other and ran for the back door, but Chase slammed one of them on the back of the knees, and he crashed over the granite countertop. After pushing off, he whirled around with a banshee yell and came at Chase with doubled fists. Number one ran around the table and toward the hall as Chase swung the bat, only to have it caught in midair by him and jerked from his hands. For a split second the intruder appeared surprised that he managed to take it as he examined the weapon in his hands.

  In a split-second decision, Chase pulled out the slingshot from his pocket and several jacks from the forbidden package Heather had given him earlier. She had opened it and poured them into one of the Christmas bowls on the counter. He snapped the shot and connected with the man’s eye. With the intruder temporarily blinded, Chase landed a punch to the man’s gut followed by an uppercut to the chin, and the villain dropped the bat. He caught it before it hit the floor and grabbed the man by the nose and threw him forward toward his friend. He staggered then picked up speed.