Risky Christmas (14 page)

“Please let us go. Please.”

“It's okay, CC,” Chloe repeated. They had a better chance if they were both calm. She met CC's eyes through the rearview mirror and tried to reassure her silently.

“Drive north out of town. I'll tell you when to stop.”

Chloe watched her surroundings. Cars passed the other direction but no one noticed them. People walked along the sidewalk on both sides of the street. A man saw them and looked as they passed. Did he see the gun against CC's head?

Moments later they were driving on a desolate road, thick forest on either side.

“What are you going to do?” Chloe asked.

“What I shoulda done the minute I first met your boyfriend. It would have saved me a lot of trouble.”

“What good will it do to kill us?” He hadn't said he'd kill them, but he hadn't answered her question, either.

“You're going to bring him to me.”

So, he'd use them as bait and once he had Mason, kill them all. She wouldn't tell him he'd be outnumbered. CC's brother would surely join Mason, and Chloe wasn't about to stand around and let them do all the work. She planned on making it out of this alive.

“Up here on the right, turn.”

Chloe saw the turn. If it weren't for CC, she'd drive the sedan into a tree or something. Anything to put Axel off-balance long enough to take his gun.

“Don't do it, Chloe,” CC said.

Chloe turned. Now wasn't the time to fight back. She drove up a narrow road that wasn't plowed, but there were tracks. Tracks that Axel had made. A small cabin came into view. She stopped where the road dead-ended in front of the small structure. Another vehicle was parked there.

“Open the door and get out.”

CC opened the door and Axel forced her toward the cabin. Chloe followed, trying to figure out what to do. If he tied them they were finished.

Axel wore a black leather jacket and thin gloves. The jacket would slow him down. Despite the cold, Chloe was glad she wasn't wearing her own jacket.

Pushing the door open, Axel shoved CC hard as she stumbled into the cabin. She tripped and fell against another man wearing a black ski jacket and no gloves. He was slightly bigger than Axel and had light brown hair that came to his shoulders. His brown eyes were shrewd. Patient. Axel started to turn on Chloe. His gun was no longer on CC and the other man was busy helping her correct her balance.

Chloe jumped up and swung herself nearly horizontal for a roll kick. The element of surprise always worked for her. No one expected a girl to move like this. She wacked the gun from Axel's hand with one foot and rammed the heel of her boot right into his mouth before her roll was complete. Landing like Catwoman with her hands ready, she picked up the gun as Axel sprawled facedown on the floor.

He started to roll onto his back. Chloe straightened and kicked him to let him know she was watching. “Don't move or I'll shoot.”

Looking up at the other man, she demanded, “Let her go or he's dead.” Now he had his gun pressed against CC's head. Her eyes were wide but not as afraid after seeing Chloe fight.

When the man didn't do as she asked, Chloe knelt next to Axel and jabbed the gun against his head, satisfied with his grunt of pain. “Do it or I'll kill him.”

The man shoved CC and she tripped toward the still open door, leaning against the frame and waiting there for Chloe.

“Now drop your gun,” she told the man.

He hesitated.

“I'm not kidding around. I'll kill him.”

“Drop your damn gun!” Axel yelled.

The man did.

Chloe picked it up and stood, aiming each weapon at each man as she backed toward the door. Axel rolled onto his rear and elbows, watching her with a little incredulity.

“Who are you?” Chloe asked the other man.

He cocked his head at her mockingly.

She decided not to waste time forcing him. “CC, go to the car.”

Hearing CC's running feet, she continued to back through the doorway, and then running after her, keeping watch on the doorway. She could see Axel emerging. At the car, she shot the second vehicle's front and back tires on the passenger side before getting behind the wheel. With CC already in the seat next to her, Chloe put the guns on her lap and started the car. She saw Axel walking out of the cabin with a gun raised.

“Stay down!” She spun the sedan around as bullets hit the exterior. He must be aiming for the tires, copying her tactic. She should have checked them for spare weapons.

Driving too fast down the narrow, icy road, the tires slipped and she skidded. The rear end hit a tree and then the front sailed into another. She tried backing up. The tires spun.

“Damn it!” She twisted to look behind her.

Axel and the other man were walking toward them.

Chloe opened the door and fired both of the guns she had. The men ducked out of sight.

“Run through the trees!”

“What?”

“We're stuck and they'll kill us if we stay here. Now run!”

“Chloe!”

“CC, don't think. Just do what I tell you. Run through the trees. Head for the road. Do it!”

CC ran. Chloe ran behind her, looking back to make sure Axel and the other man weren't in sight.

“Which way?”

“A little more to the right. The road is that way.” She pointed. CC had been too scared to notice details, but Chloe was no stranger to dangerous surroundings. Or dangerous people.

Another check behind them and Chloe spotted Axel. Where was the other man? “Keep running!”

She stopped behind the cover of a tree and tucked one gun in the front of her pants. Then, inching out from behind the tree, aimed the second gun. Fired. Bark from the tree inches from Axel's head sprayed. She heard him curse.

“That's right, dirtbag,” she yelled, “I'm a good shot!”

Firing some more, she ran out of bullets. Tossing that gun to the ground, she turned and ran, weaving in and out of trees and glancing back several times. She didn't see him. But he was there. He'd just be more careful now. Searching around for the other man and not seeing him, Chloe ran faster.

 

Mason screeched to a stop in front of Hank's Gift Shop. Teddy alighted from the Yukon with him and they entered the store. No one was there. Not even customers. Mason led the way to the back. No one. At the back door, he exchanged looks with Teddy and the two drew their weapons. Mason opened the door.

Hank lay there in the open space of a back entry.

Teddy already had his cell phone out while Mason checked for breathing. Hank groaned. His eyes blinked open.

“Hank?”

“Man…hit me.”

“I know, just stay still. Help is on the way.”

Mason looked up the stairs and saw an open door. Sick with dread, he took the stairs three at a time. Inside, he saw CC's purse and then Chloe's. Both girls were gone.

Axel had taken them. Fury roared into a forest fire inside him. His sister. Chloe…

He fought for control. After this morning…

A siren grew louder as he rejoined Teddy in the area at the bottom of the stairs. Teddy still had his phone to his ear and had crouched beside Hank.

“I'm fine,” Hank said grumpily.

The sheriff's car came into view and stopped near the entrance. That was fast. Mason looked down at Teddy,
who shrugged. Straightening from Hank, he moved to stand beside Mason just outside the door.

Sheriff Murphy got out of his car. “One of you two call in a man with a gun?” He saw Hank and alarm changed his expression.

“I said I'm fine, damn it!” Hank roared, rubbing his head.

Just then a man came running toward them from the street. “Sheriff!”

Teddy spoke into his phone and ended his call, turning expectantly toward the man.

Breathless, the man came to a stop before them. “I saw someone holding a gun to a woman's head in a dark gray Impala. Another woman was driving.” After he caught his breath he described all the people in the car.

Chloe.

“Which way were they headed?” Mason demanded.

“North.”

North, out of town.

“There's only two roads between here and the ranch,” Teddy said, keeping track with Mason's thoughts. “The first one leads to a cabin,” he added.

“No one goes there anymore. Mom said it's falling apart,” Mason said.

They both knew this area well. Axel wouldn't want to go very far. If he spent any time scoping the area, it wouldn't have taken long to discover the cabin, a gem to a criminal mind like his. Did he intend to use the women as bait to lure Mason with the threat of their lives?

“Let's get going,” Teddy jarred him from thought.

More than ready, Mason turned and would have started for the Yukon along with him.

“You two should really let me handle this.”

He faced the sheriff with Teddy.

“Now, I know you're an agent, Mason, and you, Teddy, a detective, but this here is my jurisdiction.”

“You're not really going to play that card with us, are you?” Teddy asked in exasperation.

“What about Hank?” Mason used a more diplomatic approach. “He needs help getting to the clinic.” The only one in town, a one-doctor outfit with a couple of paramedics and a nurse practitioner.

“I told you I'm fine!” Hank struggled to rise to his feet but slumped back down, his back bumping against the door frame.

Sheriff Murphy knelt beside him. “Don't move, Hank. We need to get you checked out.”

“You stay with Hank,” Teddy said.

“We'll brief you when it's over.” Mason turned once again and this time didn't stop until he reached the Yukon.

When Teddy shut the passenger door after him, Mason drove fast out of the cramped parking area, fish-tailing on snow and ice as he turned onto Main Street. Less than two minutes later, he reached the first turn. Slowing, he could see tracks but stopped so he and Teddy could check them.

“Fresh,” Teddy said.

“Yeah.” Good sign.

Mason pulled out his gun the same time Teddy did. Both men scanned the trees and listened. Nothing. And then…gunfire.

With fear climbing up into his throat, he got back into the Yukon with Teddy and drove up the road. And then stopped.

“We better go on foot,” Mason said.

“Yeah.”

The sound of snapping branches brought them both to a standstill. Mason heard breathing.

“I see something!” a woman shouted.

“CC!” Teddy yelled.

“Teddy? It's Teddy.”

Emerging from the thick forest of trees, CC ran to them. Mason searched for Chloe but didn't see her. “Where's Chloe?”

CC threw herself into Teddy's arms, breathing crazily. “Oh, my God. He's after us. We have to get out of here!”

“CC. Where's Chloe?”

Stepping away from her brother, she turned and looked behind her into the trees. “She was right behind me.”

A tremble shook his hands. He felt faint with dread. Not Chloe. The gunshot…

“Stay here with her,” Mason demanded.

Running through the trees, he found CC's footprints and followed them. The deep snow made his progress slow. Movement ahead caught his eye. Not Chloe. He stopped and hid behind a tree, peering out. He searched the shadowy trees. Chloe's. She was on the ground.

“No.” He couldn't lose her like this.

He started running again, keeping his gun lifted. When he reached her, he saw that she'd hit her head on a rock. But what had made her fall?

A gunshot rang out. Mason moved between Chloe and the gunman and scanned the trees for Axel. His head popped out from behind a tree, gun raised. Mason fired. Bark from the tree hit Axel's face. He could tell by the way his head flinched. Mason fired again, and again.

Axel turned and ran. Mason fired three more times,
until he could no longer see his targets retreating back. Another movement swung his aim. He didn't see anything. Had he imagined the movement? Searching further, he saw nothing. Only falling snow and the sound of wide open space. The urgency of Chloe made him abandon the instinct to chase.

Tucking his gun into the back of his pants, he bent over her. “Chloe.” He felt her warm breath and breathed a sigh of heavy relief. Probing her head, he found her injury. No major laceration, but she could have fractured her skull.

“Chloe.” He held her face in his hands, looking at her closed eyes, willing her to wake up. “Chloe.”

He began checking for other injuries. He found a gun tucked in the waist of her pants. Taking it out, he looked at her face in wonderment and then set it aside to finish checking her. He made his way down her body and found bloody snow under one of her legs. The cause of her fall. Gunshot wound in her leg. Ripping her jeans where the bullet had torn through the material, he wiped away the blood so he could see the wound. The bullet hadn't penetrated. Only grazed her.

He bent his head, shaking off his fear. She wasn't critical. He didn't want to move her, but waiting for emergency services out here would be dangerous with Axel still on the loose. And it was too cold. He had to get her to the clinic in town. Lifting her, he turned and saw Teddy running toward them with his weapon raised.

“It's clear,” he told him.

Teddy lowered his gun. “Is she okay?”

“She needs a doctor.” He told him what he'd found on her.

Being knocked out like this scared him. He tried not
to jostle her and held her head as steady as he could as he made his way back to the Yukon.

The big SUV came into view. CC jumped out and raced toward them. “Oh, my God. Chloe! Is she okay?” She panted a few scared breaths. “This is all my fault.”

Teddy grabbed her by her arm and led her back toward the SUV. “Get in, CC. We have to hurry.”

He opened the front passenger side and she got in. Mason carefully took Chloe to the backseat and climbed in with her. Teddy turned the SUV around and headed back into town. Mason searched for Axel. Nothing.