Knight Before Dawn

by Kristi Cramer

  “And you waited all this time to take care of it. You should have told me.”

  “And then what? It would still have had to wait.”

  Nick stood up and went upstairs to get a fresh shirt. He started pulling it on and winced as the action pulled the edges of the wound apart. The littlest cuts always hurt the worst, he told himself, going downstairs again.

  “I’ve got to go out and talk to Alex now.” He reached into the cabinet where he kept his gun, taking out the box of bullets and loading the weapon. “He’s been tied up for a long time. I’ll have to untie him for a little while.”

  “I’m coming with you.”

  “No.” Nick was too tired to be diplomatic.

  Cassie stood up, determined. “I want to hear what he has to say. Besides, you’ll need someone to hold the gun when you untie him.”

  Nick shook his head in half-hearted protest, but didn’t say anything as he went outside. Cassie followed him, pulling on her coat.

  Once inside the shed, Nick turned on the light. Alex still sat on the floor, now squinting against the bright light.

  “Oh,” he sneered. “You brought the bitch with you.”

  Nick’s lip lifted in a slight smile. In a way he was glad Cassie had come out with him. Silently, he handed her the gun. Stiff with anger, she took it and aimed it at Alex’s head.

  “Aaaand she’s going to shoot me.” Alex’s voice shifted to thick sarcasm. “Right! Don’t shoot yourself in the foot, lady.”

  “Look at her, Alex,” Nick said, noticing how still Cassie had become at the taunting. He hoped he hadn’t made a mistake in giving her the gun. He’d wanted to scare Alex, not have Cassie lose her temper and shoot him. “Does she look like she’s going to shoot herself in the foot?”

  Alex laughed, but his laughter stopped as Cassie came up to him, putting the gun right against his head and cocking it. Nick noticed her finger was not on the trigger, and he knew the safety was on, but Alex wouldn’t know that. “It would be hard to shoot my foot from here, wouldn’t it?” she asked.

  Alarmed at her tone of voice, Nick stepped forward to put a hand on her shoulder. Cassie turned her head to look at him and winked. Relief surged through Nick as he realized she was playing a part—he hoped.

  Making a show of pulling her away, he then knelt to unstrap the belt from the boy’s arms. Glancing up, he noticed Cassie still had the gun trained on Alex’s head, finger resting comfortably on the trigger guard. Alex remained silent, staring at her. Nick bent to take the belt off his legs, while Alex stretched his arms out.

  Nick stepped back and Alex shook his legs out, chaffing them to return circulation. Crossing his arms, Nick glanced at Cassie and saw her watching Alex very closely. She stood far enough away that no move would reach her before she had time to react. Maybe it was just instinct, but she looked like she knew what she was doing, and Nick wondered where she had learned.

  “You’ve been playing games, Alex,” Nick began, not sure how to proceed.

  Alex stood up slowly, keeping his eyes on Cassie. He began pacing in a circle, all the small space afforded him, shaking out his arms and massaging his legs.

  “Who sent you to follow me?” It was not the first time he had asked the question, and Nick hoped he would get an answer this time.

  Alex flashed a glance at Nick, spitting on the floor in answer. Not exactly the response he’d hoped for.

  “It’s going to be a long night.” Cassie settled on a drum of generator fuel. “I’ve got lots of coffee in me,” she said, giving Nick a rather feral grin. “Just hope it doesn’t make my trigger finger twitchy.”

  Alex growled at her. “You didn’t look so cool while I flew you up here, bitch.”

  Cassie lowered the gun a little, and Alex looked down. “Bang,” she said in a deadly calm voice.

  Nick took note of where the gun was pointing and didn’t laugh at Alex’s audible swallow. “Unless you want an extra hole in you, I would watch your language.” Nick gestured at Cassie to lift the barrel of the gun a little. “Now, who did you fly my plane for last Monday?”

  Alex didn’t answer, just continued to rub his arms.

  “Fine, we tie him back up and try again in the morning.” Nick reached for the discarded belts.

  “I won’t answer in the morning either.” Alex backed away from Nick, but Cassie raised the gun and he stopped.

  “Sit,” Nick said, and Alex did. “It’s simple. You stay tied up, this time until you do answer questions.” Nick started tying Alex’s hands behind his back.

  “You think you could hit me without hitting him?” Alex asked Cassie over Nick’s head.

  “Try me,” she said, hands and voice level. Alex didn’t move while Nick tied the other belt above his Converse shoes.

  As they left, Alex called out. “Hey! I’m hungry. You guys got to feed me.”

  Nick looked back at him coolly. “We don’t have to do anything.”

  The door closed with a thud and Nick turned the padlock and closed it in the lock.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Back in the cabin, Cassie handed the gun to Nick and took off her coat.

  “How’d I do?” she asked, watching for a reaction.

  “You had me convinced you would blow him away if he breathed too hard.” Nick took their coats and hung them on hooks by the door.

  “Good.” Cassie settled onto the couch.

  “Where’d you learn to be the heavy like that?” Still in the kitchen, Nick looked in cupboards, scrounging up something to snack on.

  “My dad taught me. He was a police detective, and after he retired he became a bounty hunter. We used to go to the gun club and shoot up a few targets. Then we’d have coffee at our favorite café and talk about what I should do if I ever had to pull a gun on someone. Rule number one: if you are pointing a gun at someone, be serious enough to shoot it. Rule number two: if you don’t shoot right away, always be ready to shoot, and convince the guy on the other end you will. Let him know you can and will hit what you are shooting at. Rule number three: never hesitate. Rule number four: never show fear.” Cassie took a Ritz cracker off the plate Nick brought out and reached for a slice of cheese.

  “Have you ever had to do that before—be the heavy, I mean?”

  “Not like that.” Cassie laughed, a sound that didn’t carry much humor. “This is totally new. But once I did have to deal with a guy giving me a rough time, harassing me. I was walking home from a bar where my date had abandoned me because I wouldn’t put out.” Cassie shook her head. “The jerk. I was having a real bad day. This guy wouldn’t leave me alone, and I lost my temper. I pulled my piece and put it to his chest.”

  She saw Nick staring at her, and she gave him a half smile. “Trust me, at the time I felt like the guy deserved it,” she said.

  “You shot him point blank?” Shocked, Nick could hardly speak.

  Cassie laughed. “No. The gun was a .25—one of those little Raven beauties that fit anywhere you want to put them. I calmly explained to him that a bullet coming out of that gun would tumble around inside his chest cavity and shred his heart and lungs to ribbons. Then I told him I had had a very bad day and if he moved any direction but backwards, I would put six of them into him before he could blink.” She took a bite of her cracker.

  “And?” Nick asked, still holding the plate.

  “And he ran away, backwards, as fast as he could. I was lucky he was a coward, I suppose.”

  “Mercy, woman. Remind me never to get on your bad side.”

  “It was a pretty stupid move on my part. I didn’t even have a concealed carry permit. What if he’d called my bluff and I’d had to shoot him? Or failed to shoot him? But you...I don’t think you would give me reason to even pull a gun on you.” She knew that somewhere along the line, probably when she saw Nick’s wound, she had crossed beyond uncertainty. She trusted Nick completely—even if his father was some sort of mobster.

  Cassie thought about that. It sounded like Alex’s boss w
as involved in more illicit business than just kidnapping. If Alex had threatened Denise so easily, there might have been other cases of terrorism, maybe murders. Drug running? Who knew what all went on. Maybe she had bitten off more than she could chew when she decided to pursue her kidnappers.

  * * *

  Nick’s thoughts were running along the same lines when, later that night, he slipped out of bed, into some clothes and went downstairs. He sat down on the couch and put his chin on his fist, thinking.

  The idea that Alex had another boss unsettled Nick, especially knowing that one of his employees routinely used a Fly by Knight plane to conduct illegal activities. Who had bought the young man’s loyalty?

  Just as importantly, why hadn’t Nick pierced through the façade to see the real Alex? The young man Denise described was not the same one Nick knew. Alex had always behaved in a well-mannered fashion. Nick hadn’t heard any complaints about him from customers. Alex didn’t make a fuss about long hours, and he was a good pilot albeit very young. Why hadn’t Nick ever seen this other side Denise knew so well—the party-going, beer-drinking, excessive, violent Alex?

  Unable to reconcile his thoughts, he got up and went outside to check on his captive.

  Cassie stirred awake when Nick came back to slip under the covers with her, touching her warm skin with his cool fingers.

  “He’s still there?” she asked.

  Nick nodded. “Sleeping. He didn’t even wake up when I flashed the light on him through the window.”

  “The untroubled sleep of the guilty, I see,” she murmured.

  Nick chuckled, amazed at her dry humor when he needed to hear it most. He nestled close to her, putting an arm across her waist. “I love you,” he said, too tired to be afraid to say it out loud.

  “And I love you.” Her whisper was the last thing he heard as exhaustion claimed him at last.

  * * *

  Cassie woke before Nick and spent a quiet moment watching him sleep. His face was smooth, free of worry lines, his hair a mass of darkness framing his face. As she watched, a small frown creased his brow, his lips parting slightly as if he were about to speak. The moment passed and the frown left his face, creeping instead to Cassie’s face. She wished there was something she could do to take away his reason for worry.

  Getting up, Cassie took her clothes into the bathroom, where she dressed quietly before slipping downstairs. She found the key to the shed and went outside, the Speed Six loaded with the safety on, tucked into her jeans in front of her.

  She looked through the window in the door, seeing Alex curled in a miserable heap where they’d left him the night before. Unlocking the door, Cassie kept her eye on him as she went inside. Alex stirred, lifting his head as she closed the door behind her. She saw him move his arm reflexively, trying to rise, and when he failed, she decided the belt was still tight around his wrists.

  “You’re awake. Good.” Cassie’s studied calm voice broke the quiet. She pulled the gun out, holding it down at her side with her body between it and Alex, and knelt beside him. “I know who your boss is. Nick will need to hear it from you, so you’re going to tell him today.”

  Alex stared at her with sullen eyes and didn’t say a word.

  “Bet you are cold, with just those jeans, t-shirt, and that light jacket. You might even be a bit hypothermic. Are you hungry?”

  He nodded, still mute.

  “You’re going to get a lot hungrier if you don’t answer Nick’s questions.”

  “You just going to keep me tied up here forever?” His petulant voice sounded scratchy from sleeping on the cold floor.

  Cassie smiled thinly. “I doubt you’d last forever. Maybe Nick will fly you into the Yukon. You can live with a tribe of Eskimos where you can’t run and you can’t hurt anyone. They leave troublemakers out on the ice up there.” She didn’t know if that was true, but it sure sounded good.

  “You’re serious, aren’t you?” Alex tried to sit up. “I’m not going to get to go home from here?”

  Cassie didn’t move to help him, and Alex fell back to the floor, his cramped muscles refusing to move.

  “I’m as serious as the next guy who’s involved in this whole affair. As serious as the son of a bitch who crammed me full of sedatives for two days. Did you think it was a game? Didn’t you know what you were getting into?” She paused meaningfully. “You push someone hard enough, they’re going to push back.”

  “You would have shot me last night.” Alex’s face tensed in fear.

  “I’ll still shoot you if you give me half a reason.” Cassie stood up and went to the door, tucking the .357 back into her waistband. “Think about it,” she said. “The Yukon may begin to sound like a good solution to us.”

  She went out, locking the door behind her.

  * * *

  The smell of coffee and frying bacon woke Nick. He pulled on a clean pair of jeans and went downstairs to find Cassie in the kitchen, pulling bacon out of the pan.

  “You’re awake,” she observed, looking up briefly. “How do you like your eggs?”

  “Sunny side up,” he said, watching her for a moment and enjoying the sight of her cooking in his kitchen. He crossed to the window to look out at the shed. “Have you checked on our guest?” he asked. He had noticed the gun on the counter, the cylinder open for safety, yet ready for quick use.

  “Yes, I have. He may have had a change of heart with the cold and hunger gnawing at him.” Cassie cracked three eggs into the pan and pulled two slices of toast out to butter them.

  “You spoke to him?”

  “A few words. He’s...subdued. Whether or not that is enough, we shall see.” The eggs cooked quickly, and Cassie put them on a plate along with the toast and bacon for Nick. “Chow’s on. I saw juice in the fridge. I’ll pour some in a sec.”

  Nick came over to take the plate from her, sliding his arm around her waist to kiss her soundly. “Good morning,” he said, stepping away from her with a tender smile.

  She smiled back. “Good morning to you, too.”

  * * *

  Alex laughed. “You really don’t know, do you?” Sitting up with his legs stretched out in front of him, he almost looked like a man in repose, except for the arms still bound behind his back.

  Nick didn’t answer, just repeated the question. “Who is he?” They had been at it for ten minutes, and Nick hadn’t gotten one answer. Frustrated and angry—with Alex and the whole affair—he was ready to follow up on Cassie’s threat to dump him in the Yukon.

  Finally Alex shook his head. “I didn’t really believe them when they told me you were ignorant of the operation, but it must be true. She knows.” Alex jerked his chin at Cassie, standing by the window looking out. “Why don’t you ask her?”

  Nick glanced at Cassie, but she didn’t turn away from the window. “I’d rather hear it from you.”

  “You’re being stubborn. What would your father say to that? Let me see. ‘Open your eyes, Nicolas.’” Alex’s voice deepened and affected a bad Ukrainian accent. “‘There are no lines of good and evil. No black and white, only infinite shades of gray.’ That’s what he said to me when he hired me.”

  Nick stiffened, turning his head slightly to see Cassie looking at him. “I don’t think I heard you right.” Nick’s voice, strained and quiet, held a dangerous edge.

  “I said it’s your dad, man.” Alex burst out, exasperated. “Anton Knight. He’s the guy who hired me to fly down to Seattle.”

  Nick moved forward, standing over Alex now. “You’re lying! There is no way that is true!” Overwhelmed by a sudden flash of rage like he had never felt before, Nick drew back his arm to deliver a backhanded blow, but Cassie stopped his hand.

  “Outside.” She gave him a gentle push backwards toward the door, and Nick turned abruptly, leaving the shed.

  * * *

  Cassie didn’t spare a glance for Alex as she followed Nick out of the shed, shutting the door. She didn’t approach Nick, just waited for him to speak.
<
br />   Nick faced the forest, his hands clenched into fists at his side. He wouldn’t look at her, so she finally went to his side, touching his shoulder.

  “It’s not true.” The miserable confusion in his voice tore Cassie’s heart in two. “He’s just saying that to make me mad, to keep me from finding out whom he’s really working for.” He closed his eyes, shaking his head.

  Cassie tried to speak as gently as she could. “And if he’s telling the truth?’

  “He’s lying!”

  She stepped back from the whiplash of his anger. “Nick, let’s ask some more questions, make him prove that what he said is a lie.”

  Nick turned on her. “Why do you say it like that? You think Pop’s the one, too. You probably planted the thought in his head this morning.”

  “Nick, be fair!” Cassie shifted close to him to take his hand, but he backed away from her, turned, and went into the house.

  Cassie watched him go, shaking her head. She looked at the gun in her hand, then glanced at the shed, undecided about what to do. She wanted to give Nick time to work things out, and she didn’t want to talk to Alex again without him there.

  The roar of the plane’s engine starting up startled her. She ran around the cabin to the dock in time to see the sea plane speeding over the surface of the lake, then rising into the air. Cassie lifted her hand in a half-hearted gesture.

  Nick would be back. She had faith in that. But where was he going? And what would she do while she waited?

  Cassie returned to the back of the house, worrying about Nick. Anything could happen when someone was that upset.

  She didn’t notice until she had almost arrived that the door to the shed stood wide open.

  Lifting the gun, she peered inside the shed to see that no one was there. Only an abandoned belt lay on the floor. The generator kicked on with a rattle and hum, and Cassie whirled to look behind her, though no one was there.

  Trying to watch everything at once, she walked around the shed to see if she could find Alex. When she didn’t see him, she took a step back, right into his arms. Alex clamped one arm around her middle and with his other hand grabbed the wrist of her hand holding the gun.