Knight Before Dawn

by Kristi Cramer

  Cassie recoiled from the sharp tone of his voice. “Sorry! I just got the impression that your father and Alex are in this together. You don’t think it’s a coincidence that Alex brought your father to see you?”

  “As a matter of fact, I do. I think Alex offered to take Pop out there so he would have an excuse to look around.”

  Cassie held up her hands with an exasperated sigh. “Okay, just forget I said anything. What are we going to do now?”

  Nick fished a ten dollar bill out of his wallet and tossed it on the table, to cover the coffee and however many drinks Denise had ordered. Then he motioned for Cassie to get up so he could slide out of the booth. He looked down at her, his green eyes still sparking with anger. “I am going to have a talk with Alex.”

  “What are you going to say to him?” They clattered down the steps, Cassie trying to match her step to his long stride as they crossed the room. “You can’t tell him that Denise told you what he’s been doing. He’ll hurt her.”

  Nick stopped just before leaving the bar, turning to Cassie. “I’d like to rip the boy to shreds, Cassie. He’s a part of the scheme that hurt you, and now he’s threatening my employees. He’s been running around in one of my planes like it was his own, doing Lord knows what kind of illegal activities.” Nick’s face grew red with his anger. “I’d like to tie him up and thrash the details out of him. I’d like to scare the hell out of him the way he scared Denise!”

  Nick looked out the window, his next words dying on his lips as he went still at some sight. “And speak of the devil, if he doesn’t appear.”

  Nick pushed his way out the door before Cassie could say a word. Alex had apparently seen them coming and had run, with Nick in pursuit close behind. Cassie could only follow. She didn’t even know what the devil looked like. She plunged after Nick into the crowd of tourists.

  Cassie tried to keep up as best she could, but she had never been much of a runner. Nick, however, had such long legs. She lost sight of them around a corner and stood undecided for a moment, looking through the throngs of people. Then she caught sight of Nick’s shaggy head weaving through the crowd. She started to run again, ignoring her protesting lungs.

  * * *

  Nick ran after Alex, adrenaline fueling the anger already flowing in his veins. He dodged pedestrians, always keeping the younger man’s bobbing blond head in sight. They neared the harbor’s storefronts, where tourists crowded the shops. Nick briefly lost sight of his quarry until Alex appeared on the other side of the street, racing for the Coast Guard dock and presumably the seaplane base on the other side.

  Nick raced after him, gaining on the shorter man now that the crowds had thinned out. They passed the boat broker’s office, their feet thumping on the wooden boardwalk.

  Finding his way blocked by a car leaving the parking lot, Alex twisted aside like a receiver evading a tackle and continued his run to the edge of the pier and down the ramp to the docks. Only a couple of planes floated at this arm of the docks. Alex turned at bay in front of a big Grumman Mallard seaplane, trying the door but finding it locked. Nick skidded to a stop just in front of the wavering knife Alex turned on him.

  Nick didn’t waste time on words, knowing he would lose his resolve to terror if he waited. He lunged for Alex’s knife arm, knocking it aside to bulldoze right into him. Surprised, Alex fell back, but he brought his knee up into Nick’s chest.

  Grunting, Nick released the wrestling grip he had around Alex’s waist. Keeping the younger man’s right arm away, he aimed a right hook at Alex’s face.

  With a twist, Alex ducked so the blow only grazed his cheek. Wrenching his arm out of Nick’s grip, he swung with the six-inch blade. Nick leapt back. As Alex recovered from the miss, Nick slipped inside his guard to connect a kidney punch. Alex staggered back, and Nick closed in.

  With a motion so swift it was impossible to follow, Alex switched the big knife to his left hand, a second knife appearing in his right hand from somewhere inside his jean jacket. Not quite as big, this blade still looked very sharp and dangerous.

  Nick hesitated, knowing the game had changed, and not in his favor. The motion had been so smooth, Alex’s grip so sure, that he clearly had ambidextrous skills. Nick had to assume he posed even more danger with knives in both hands.

  Crooked teeth showed in Alex’s feral grin. He crouched low and advanced like a crab, leading with the longer knife.

  “Hold it right there!” The voice over the bullhorn echoed from above them on the pier. Nick looked up and over Alex’s shoulder, trying to see, but Alex refused to take his eyes off Nick.

  “This is the police. Put down your weapons and get your hands in the air!”

  Alex leapt forward, cutting across Nick’s chest with the knife before he turned to run. Nick felt the bite of pain, but he didn’t take the time to check it out. Right on Alex’s tail, he ignored the frantic orders being issued over the bullhorn.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Like contestants on a deadly version of WipeOut, Nick and Alex ran around the floating docks, leaping over short stretches of water and the marine park’s perimeter fence. In the empty park, with no sounds of police pursuit behind them, Nick put on a burst of speed to tackle Alex. Both men crashed to the ground, Alex losing his grip on one of his knives. They rolled together for a few feet, Alex ending up on top.

  Alex smashed his right fist into Nick’s chest, knocking the breath from him. Winded, Nick grabbed Alex’s left hand as it came up with the knife.

  Evenly matched, the two men struggled to control the direction of the knife. Nick’s original rush of adrenaline was wearing off, replaced by fear. Alex grinned again, slowly driving the knife closer to Nick’s chest, using the advantage of the upper position.

  Then Alex’s face contorted briefly before he collapsed across Nick. Nick looked up to see Cassie standing with a bullhorn clutched in a double-handed grip, panting but with a grim look of determination on her face.

  Nick pushed Alex off and stood up. Cassie watched him, letting the bullhorn drop. Nick realized she must have grabbed it from one of the cruise ship organizers they had raced past. She had impersonated the police, trying to bluff Alex into giving himself up.

  “Are you all right?” she asked, still breathless from running. “You’re bleeding.”

  “Yeah, it’s nothing,” he lied. “Is he?”

  Cassie eyed his chest doubtfully, but knelt beside Alex, feeling his neck for a pulse. “He’s alive. I only meant to knock him down, not out cold.”

  “I’ll watch him; you go find the real police.”

  She stood up. “I don’t think that would be a good idea.”

  “Why not? He’s involved in your abduction.”

  “Listen, we don’t have any proof. I didn’t actually see him before right now. He never actually told Denise he’d done anything illegal. If we take him to the police, they will just put him back on the streets, and he’ll go after Denise.”

  “They’ll question him.”

  “About what? He’ll deny he knows anything about my kidnapping, and what can we tell them except your father looks like the man who spoke to me?”

  Nick stared at her, and Cassie met his gaze with determination. “We need to take him somewhere where we can ask him questions.”

  Nick looked down when Alex stirred, then back up to Cassie. “I hope you’re right. Look, go back to the bar. It’s going to be a while before I can get him to my plane without being seen. At least you can wait in comfort.”

  Cassie put her hand on his arm. “It’ll all turn out fine, you’ll see. He’ll tell us what we need to know.” She turned and left the park by the street entrance to make her way back to the Active Pass.

  Nick stooped and picked Alex up, hauling him around behind a clump of decorative bushes planted to disguise an electrical control panel for the pavilion. Alex moaned as Nick sat him on the ground. His eyes flickered open to see Nick in front of him.

  “Take off your belt.”

 
Alex didn’t move. “Are you sick, man?”

  “Just take off your belt,” Nick repeated, exasperated.

  Alex squeezed his eyes shut, shaking his head. “Oh, my head,” he moaned. Slowly, the young man did as he was told, and Nick tied his hands tightly in front of him. Then he used his own belt on Alex’s feet.

  “You and I are going to have a long wait.”

  Nick stood up, looking out to see if he could still see Cassie. She was long gone, but a police car cruised past on Marine Way.

  “I was just hanging out,” Alex said, rousing enough to struggle against his bonds.

  “Right.” Nick squatted back down in front of him. “Then why did you run?” Nick took a moment to look at the cut on his own chest.

  “Ha! I knew I got you.”

  Nick ignored him, still looking at the long but shallow cut. It would need attention soon.

  * * *

  Cassie waited in the bar, looking out the window for any sign of Nick returning. She drank coffee and looked at her watch so often that the hands didn’t move between one glance and the next.

  She tried to distract herself, but she kept replaying the chase in her mind. Her desperate efforts to keep up, catching glimpses of Nick and Alex between buildings as she prayed her path along the street was a shortcut to wherever it was they were heading. Then her terror as she entered the park to see the lean and wiry Alex on top of Nick, that huge horrible knife driving closer toward the heart of the man she loved. Endorphins spiking into her system to carry her the last two hundred yards across the park. The jolt in her arms as she swung the borrowed bullhorn with all her might.

  The chase had taken all of fifteen minutes, and Cassie had never expended so much energy on running, fear, and anger in such a compressed time frame. It was more than her mind could process in one pass, so the reruns continued, getting more airtime than the entire series of The Simpsons.

  As night fell, more and more people began to crowd the Active Pass. The DJ started to play throbbing music, and the dancing started. Still there was no sign of Nick. Cassie looked at her watch for the zillionth time and decided to give him until 7:00 before she went down to the dock to wait on the plane. She really didn’t want to leave the bar alone with all these cruise ship tourists thronging the place. She didn’t know if Alex had been working alone or not, and she felt safer in a public place. But she didn’t want to stay if Nick needed her help.

  A hand on her shoulder made her jump. She looked up to see a gum-chewing waitress standing beside her.

  “We need this booth, hon. Can you move over there?” The woman pointed to a table for two in the middle of the room.

  Cassie didn’t like the open visibility at that table. “I’ll sit at the bar,” she said, standing and taking her latest cup of coffee to a spot at the end of the bar against the wall.

  She sipped at her cup, staring at the door, waiting.

  “Hi.”

  Cassie jumped, looking up into the blue eyes of the blond-haired man planting himself on the stool beside her. Fear rooted her to the spot. She jerked her gaze away from his face to look back toward the door. Please, Nick. Come now.

  “Hi,” she managed. She closed her eyes, waiting for the gun and the order to leave with him, and got ready to scream.

  “Wanna dance?” he asked, and her eyelids flew open to see him running his gaze down to where her coat fell away from the sweater pulled tightly across her chest. He grinned, lifting an eyebrow suggestively. His golden good looks seemed better suited to California than Alaska, and the attitude matched. Annoying, yes, but he didn’t appear to be an immediate threat.

  “No.” Cassie pulled her coat closed, willing him to go away. She didn’t want to dance with a stranger, and if this man had anything to do with Alex, she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of playing with her like that.

  “Hey,” the blond man said. “It’s not like I want to take you home. Yet. I just want to dance.”

  Cassie couldn’t keep her voice from rising in fear. “And I said I didn’t want to dance with you.”

  “What’s your problem?” the man asked, hanging on like a nightmare.

  “Leave me alone,” Cassie said, looking over at the bartender, wishing he was down at her end. “Just leave me alone.”

  “I think the lady wants you to leave,” said a familiar voice. Both Cassie and the blond man looked up.

  “I just asked her if she wanted to dance,” the blond man said, catching one look at the new arrival’s face and hastily backing off the stool. He departed with his hands in the air in mock surrender.

  “Nick!” Cassie breathed in relief. “I was beginning to worry.” She stood up and hugged him.

  “Easy,” he said, wincing as he held her back. “Let’s get out of here, okay?”

  They left the bar quickly, heading for the dock. When they reached the plane, Cassie climbed aboard while Nick began the preflight check. She sat in the passenger seat and was strapping herself in when she heard a rustle in the back of the plane. She looked behind her and saw a pile of synthetic burlap sacking wriggling in the cargo area behind the seats. A muffled curse rose from the pile.

  Alex. Cassie resisted the urge to go back and see him.

  Nick climbed in and squatted beside Alex. She could hear his voice, but not what he was saying. Then he strapped into the pilot’s seat and started up the engine.

  After calling in his flight plan, Nick piloted the plane through the takeoff. The water of the channel was choppy with the evening breeze, making for a rough ride until the plane cleared the water. Cassie watched Nick, wondering at his silence and guessing that he didn’t want Alex to know she was there.

  She put the extra headset on, bringing the microphone close so she could be heard without speaking loud. “How can you see where you are going?”

  Silently, Nick pointed to a gauge. Some sort of compass with an airplane on it instead of the four points, it meant nothing to Cassie.

  “Oh,” she said. She turned to look out the window into the dark night. Clouds obscured the moon and stars so that Cassie could hardly tell the difference between the sky and the ground unrolling below them. Occasionally she saw lights in the gloom beneath them and noticed Nick looking out the window at them. He would always nod, sometimes moving the controls slightly as if adjusting his course by them.

  Cassie wasn’t sure how long they flew before Nick brought the plane lower, actually buzzing the top of one ridge. Suddenly she saw the lake-filled basin below them, the beacon light at the cabin guiding them in. Nick flipped a switch, and a bright light on the nose of the plane pierced the darkness in front of them, illuminating the surface of the tranquil lake below.

  The windsock fluttered lightly, and Nick maneuvered the plane into the wind. Taking it through the mild turbulence, he set down gently on the rippling surface of the lake. He motored over to the dock, until the plane thudded softly against the rubber bumpers.

  Nick climbed out to fasten the mooring lines from the dock to the plane, and Cassie followed him onto the dock.

  “Alex?” she whispered, jerking her thumb toward the back of the plane.

  Nick put his finger to his lips and leaned forward to give her a kiss. “I’ll take care of him. Go up to the house now, and I’ll be right there.”

  Cassie walked up the ramp, then turned to watch as Nick awkwardly pulled the human bundle out of the plane. Alex fought him, and for one prolonged, nervous moment, it looked like both of them would take a swim in the lake. Then Nick got him safely over his shoulder and headed up the dock.

  Cassie turned to go into the cabin.

  * * *

  Nick dumped Alex onto the floor of the woodshed and pulled the burlap off his head. He stood, staring at the boy who stared back, dazed and obviously in pain. Everything about the boy, from his blue jeans to his ruddy face, looked rumpled and dejected. But Alex’s stare grew angry as he struggled to sit up.

  Nick walked to the door, pausing once to look back at Alex.
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br />   “Hey!” Alex shouted. “You gonna untie me? I’ve got no feeling in my arms.”

  Nick came back and squatted in front of the boy. “I’d like to let you loosen up, but I’d rather not take the chance. I’ll be back shortly, and we will talk.”

  He left the shed then, ignoring the stream of curses following him out the door as he shut it and closed the padlock over the hasp.

  Utterly weary, Nick trudged up to the back door of the cabin and went inside. Going straight to the linen closet, he grabbed the first aid kit and sat down on the couch.

  Cassie saw what he had and hurried over to him as he unzipped his coat.

  “You have been hurt,” she said, helping him take off his coat. “Why didn’t you tell me before?”

  Nick shook his head, too drained to speak. He unbuttoned his shirt, carefully pulling the cloth away from the wound.

  She gasped at the sight of the blood.

  “It’s not as bad as it looks,” he assured her, “but I’ve had to leave it for more pressing matters.”

  “Here, let me.” Cassie took the antiseptic wipe and began cleaning the blood away from the wound. The little wipe quickly soaked with blood, so she went into the kitchen to wet a clean rag and brought it back to finish the job. Then she opened another antiseptic wipe and cleaned the wound, then around the edges.

  Nick didn’t say a word during this procedure, though the wound started bleeding again. He closed his eyes, glad she didn’t look at his face, since he didn’t want her to see what it cost him to keep quiet. She smeared salve on a long gauze patch and laid it over the cut, then wrapped a stretch bandage around his middle.

  “Jeez, Cassie. You make it look like I’ve been cut in two.”

  She looked up, and he forced a smile for her. Her return smile looked strained too. She sat back, setting the leftover wrap down.

  “When did that happen?” she asked.

  Nick patted the couch beside him, and Cassie sat next to him. “When I caught up with him on the dock. There was a voice saying it was the police—I assume that was your ruse?—and telling us to stop fighting. Alex used it as a distraction. He cut me and ran.”