Christmas Guardian

by Delores Fossen

  Plenty of room for a gunman to get inside.

  And maybe that was the point. After all, Jordan had wanted a showdown, and he was going to get it.

  The cold winter air howled through the opening created by the crash, and coupled with the sound of their footsteps, it made it nearly impossible to hear if anyone was already following them. And she couldn’t see much, either. The only illumination came from the headlights on Jordan’s car.

  “Don’t look back,” Jordan warned. “Just run.” And to ensure that happened, he pushed her in front of him and guided her toward the stairs that led to the command center.

  They only made it a third of the way up when Jordan suddenly shoved her down. She landed hard on the steps. So hard that it temporarily knocked the breath out of her. Kinley tried to look around to see what had caused Jordan to do that.

  “Someone’s blocked off the command center,” Jordan mumbled.

  And he cursed.

  Kinley looked up but couldn’t see anything. “How do you know?”

  “The access code to open the door doesn’t work. Someone’s jammed it so we can’t get inside.” He shoved his PDA into his pocket and got his gun ready.

  That’s when it hit her. They were perched on the stairs, literally out in the open. The exterior doors were jammed open with the wrecked car and could easily be breached. And someone had already shut off their access to the command center.

  The one place of safety in the entire warehouse.

  “We need to make it back to the car,” Jordan whispered.

  She looked down at the vehicle. Both doors were wide open, but the vehicle was sitting out in the middle of the warehouse with a lot of open space between it and them.

  “We can’t take the stairs,” Jordan said. “We have to jump.”

  “Jump?”

  “It’s all right.” He tipped his head to the floor. “It’s padded below us, to break the fall.”

  Yes, but it was also a twenty-foot drop. Either of them could break a bone or two. Heck, even a twisted ankle at this point could turn out to be a fatal injury. Then, there was the whole problem of what might be waiting for them at ground level. The driver of that car could be waiting to shoot them. For that matter, so could the person who jammed the entrance of the command center.

  Jordan and she could be attacked from both sides.

  But that didn’t stop Jordan. Probably because it was the only chance they had. “I’m going to slide over the railing and drop. Count to three and you do the same. Unless you hear shots being fired.”

  That speared the adrenaline through her. “And then what do I do?”

  “Stay put. I’ll get to you as soon as I can.”

  Yes, after he dodged bullets and risked getting himself killed. Still, it was obvious she wasn’t going to talk him out of this. Besides, she certainly didn’t have a better plan. She didn’t have a plan at all, other than to do whatever was necessary to survive this.

  Jordan brushed a kiss on her cheek and moved so quickly that he was almost a blur. He grabbed on to the metal railing, and with one deft move, he hoisted himself up and launched his body over the side. He’d been right. The floor had some kind of thick, feathery padding because it billowed up around him like a mattress and broke his fall. He bounced right up, aimed his gun and got ready for an attack.

  “Now!” he told her.

  Kinley got up off the steps. She didn’t have the agility that Jordan did, but she still managed to get her leg over the railing. And she prayed. Because she was in a very vulnerable position.

  She caught movement out of the corner of her eye and saw someone crawl through the space of the partially opened warehouse doors. Since the headlights weren’t aimed in that direction, she couldn’t see who it was. And there wasn’t time to look farther. Kinley crawled over the railing. Said another prayer.

  And dropped.

  She landed on her butt and hands and didn’t have a chance to get to her feet. That’s because Jordan latched on to her arm and pulled her behind one of the wooden partitions draped with netting. The ceiling was low, barely an inch above her head, and Jordan pushed her to the back of the small enclosure. It was dark, cold and quiet.

  But it didn’t stay that way for long.

  A shot rang out.

  Chapter Fifteen

  The shot slammed into the wall just inches from where Kinley and Jordan were standing.

  So did the second bullet. The third tore through the partition and flew into the ceiling, scattering the acoustic tile into bits over them like little flakes of snow.

  This was not how Jordan wanted things to go down. Bullets flying. God knew how many gunmen converging on them for an all-out attack. And with someone else in control. Soon, very soon, he needed to figure out who’d gotten into the warehouse ahead of him and jammed the command center entrance—which should have been next to impossible to do.

  But first, he needed to get Kinley safely out of there.

  That meant somehow getting her back into the car so he could drive out the back exit. Jordan only hoped his security codes still worked. It was possible they’d been altered as well. If so, Kinley and he were in deeper trouble than just having bullets fired at them.

  They’d have no way out.

  He could hear her breathing. It was way too hard and fast. And he knew her heart had to be racing out of control. He’d been in too many situations like this, but she didn’t have his experience and training. She shouldn’t have to be involved in this kind of danger, but she was.

  And he could thank himself for that.

  The moment she’d walked into the Sentron Christmas party, he should have put her in a safe house and kept her away from all of this. He shouldn’t have tried to learn the truth until he had her out of harm’s way. Jordan hoped he could undo that mistake and get her to safety.

  “It’ll be okay,” he whispered to her, even though he had no idea if he could deliver on that promise.

  Jordan pushed her deeper into the phase-one training room. It wasn’t exactly bulletproof, but when he’d designed it, he’d added some metal insulation so a shot wasn’t as likely to be deadly.

  That didn’t mean it couldn’t be.

  But for now, this was one of the best places for them to be. Soon, though, he’d need extra ammunition. Maybe even extra weapons. Those items were in the warehouse, but to get to them, he’d have to move, and that meant taking Kinley with him.

  Perhaps the person who’d accessed the command center didn’t know how to operate all the equipment. Jordan prayed that was true anyway. Because he’d personally designed some very realistic training obstacles, and he didn’t want to have to go through those, especially with Kinley.

  He didn’t return fire. Best to save his ammunition for high-percentage shots, and for that to happen he needed to be able to see the target. Jordan used his PDA to enter some codes. And then he held his breath, hoping they hadn’t been overridden by the person who’d accessed the command center.

  The overhead lights flared on.

  Since his eyes had already partly adjusted to the darkness, the lights were nearly blinding. But he forced himself to focus, and using the hole the bullet had made, he looked out to determine the position of the person firing those shots.

  There was a ski-masked gunman near the back of his car. That was the only shooter he saw. The guy took aim again at the phase-one room where Kinley and Jordan were.

  Jordan took aim, too.

  And fired.

  The guy dove away at the last second, and he used Jordan’s car for cover. Not only was he out of the line of fire, it meant as long as the gunman was hiding there, Jordan couldn’t get Kinley into the vehicle. Even more, Jordan didn’t want to take too many more shots in that direction and risk shooting out one of the tires.

  He needed a diversion.

  Jordan used his PDA to see if he could get the overhead sprinklers to turn on, but before he could type in the codes, the place went dark.

 
Hell.

  Someone definitely had tapped into the controls. But what else could the guy do?

  Too much, he feared.

  Using the backlight on his PDA, Jordan put in the codes to start the sprinkler system. They spewed on immediately, and it began to rain down on the place.

  The gunman behind his car didn’t move. Not good. Jordan needed the guy to budge, so he cranked up the speed on the sprinklers.

  But the water stopped.

  “Someone other than you is controlling things, isn’t he?” Kinley asked, her voice barely audible.

  Jordan considered lying, but a lie wasn’t going to make her less afraid. “Yeah.”

  But the good news was that the person possibly didn’t know what kind of power he had or else he would have already unleashed it.

  Well, maybe.

  Perhaps the culprit was saving those surprises for later. And that meant Jordan had to take some drastic action. If he couldn’t immediately get to the vehicle, then he had to get to a phone and call the police. Yes, the officers would essentially be walking into a war zone, but that might be the only way he could get Kinley out of this alive. Still, his first choice was a getaway in the car, and he had to try to make that happen.

  “Stay low and follow me,” Jordan instructed.

  He moved to her side and brushed against her arm. Every muscle was tight and knotted. Something he definitely understood. Every inch of him was primed for the fight, and the adrenaline was urging him on. They couldn’t stay put. They needed to move now.

  Jordan inched out of the phase-one room. There was only about four feet of space between it and the next area, but those four feet were in the shooter’s kill zone. Not the place he wanted to linger.

  Keeping himself in front of Kinley, he raced forward. She stayed right with him, and they practically dove into the other room.

  The bullets started again.

  Not single shots, either, but a barrage of gunfire, and it was all aimed at them.

  Jordan pulled her to the floor, amid the dust and straw that covered this particular section. The bullets had no problem eating their way through the partition, which meant the gunman had switched ammo. He was probably using some kind of Teflon-coated bullets.

  And that meant they had to move again.

  “Let’s go,” Jordan ordered. He caught her arm with his left hand. With his right, he got his own gun ready.

  As he raced forward, he fired. And he just kept on firing until they were in the next room. He repeated the procedure again. And again. Until they were within ten yards of the car.

  Moving so close to the gunman was probably scaring Kinley to death, but Jordan figured if he could just get closer, he could take the guy out.

  “I’m going to try to draw out the gunman,” Jordan whispered to her.

  “How?”

  She wouldn’t like the plan, and he didn’t have time to reassure her. “Stay right here, and when I tell you to run, get to the car as fast as you can. I’ll be right behind you.”

  He hoped.

  Jordan figured he had six shots left. He’d need them all and then would have to switch magazines. He put away his PDA, took a deep breath and launched himself out of the room. He caught the webbing that covered the adjacent training building, and he hoisted himself up so he could pinpoint the gunman hiding on the other side of his car.

  Jordan fired.

  The guy stayed down for the first two shots. Then Jordan went up another rung on the webbing, turned and fired again.

  Two more shots.

  These tore up chunks of the concrete and spewed the debris right in the man’s face. Of course, the ski mask protected his skin, but not his eyes.

  The man said something that Jordan couldn’t distinguish, and he jumped back away from the flying bits of concrete.

  Two more shots got the guy scrambling to the side, and he ducked behind one of the training partitions. Jordan changed his clip.

  “Now,” he told Kinley.

  She was ready. She barreled out of the room and made a beeline for the car.

  She didn’t get far.

  Jordan aimed his gun, but a gun was defenseless against this.

  His car exploded in a fireball.

  “OH MY GOD,” KINLEY MUMBLED. And because she didn’t know what else to say or do, she just kept repeating it.

  Someone had blown up the car, their means of escape. Now what would they use to get out of there?

  She forced herself to move, and she raced toward the cover of the training room. Something hit her hard in the back, and for a moment she thought she’d been shot. But it was just a piece of debris, she realized.

  She didn’t dare look back. Didn’t dare pause to check her injuries. The fiery fragments of Jordan’s car were literally raining down on them, and any of those fragments could be deadly.

  So could the gunman.

  He was no doubt still there on the other side of the warehouse, and if he could manage to see through the cloud of wreckage, he would shoot at them again.

  She scrambled back into the room and yelled for Jordan to do the same. He jumped from the webbing and not a second too soon. A piece of the car’s leather upholstery had flown against the webbing, setting it on fire.

  The smoke was already thick from the explosion itself, but the new fire only added to it. Soon, they wouldn’t be able to breathe, and that meant they had to move, maybe closer to the fresh air coming from the gap in the front warehouse door.

  Of course, that meant going back through the maze of rooms, and that meant the gunman would once again have clean shots at them.

  “Let’s go,” Jordan instructed.

  He didn’t waste another moment. With his gun ready and with him positioned at her side so he could shield her, they started to retrace their original path.

  Kinley heard heavy footsteps on the concrete. Maybe the gunman was trying to escape, too. Unless he’d brought equipment with him, he wouldn’t be able to breathe much longer, either. If he went in the same direction they did, there’d be another gun battle.

  That caused her adrenaline to spike even more.

  Jordan and Kinley made it through two of the training rooms. Then another. No shots came at them. No one attacked. They were about to race to the area nearest the front door, but the moment they reached it, overhead sprinklers came on again. Cold water began to pour down from the ceiling.

  Jordan lowered his gun, putting it barrel down, no doubt to protect it from the water. However, there was nothing they could do to protect themselves. Within seconds, they were drenched. With the winter air rifling through the opening, she began to shiver, and her teeth began to chatter.

  “Now,” Jordan prompted.

  They started to move again toward the front door. Heaven knew what they would do once they were outside. Maybe darkness would shield them long enough for them to take cover.

  But then what?

  With no cell phone and miles from anyone who might be able to help, getting out of the warehouse was only the first step to what would be a nightmare of obstacles.

  They stopped in the first room. And waited. Jordan lifted his head, listening. But with the pounding downpour, they couldn’t hear anything. Someone could be sneaking up on them, and they wouldn’t know until it was too late.

  “Let’s move,” Jordan finally said.

  Just as the water stopped.

  That caused him to stop, and she tried to listen again to see what was going on.

  She heard a sound as if someone were dragging something heavy. That sound was followed by footsteps. Not one set this time. At least two. And the dragging sound and the footsteps were coming from the front door.

  Mere feet away.

  Kinley was almost certain someone was moving the wrecked car sandwiched beneath the warehouse door.

  Jordan put his left index finger to his mouth in a keep-quiet gesture, and he aimed his gun at the opening to the room. But no one came inside. The footsteps moved quickly past the
m.

  Without making a sound, Jordan leaned his head to the side and peered out the room’s opening. Even though there was barely any light, Kinley could still see his expression. His jaw had turned to steel, and he mouthed some profanity.

  “What’s wrong?” Kinley put her mouth right against his ear so she wouldn’t be heard.

  Jordan didn’t take his eyes off the opening, but he moved closer to her and whispered, “Two Sentron agents just arrived. Both armed.”

  “Not Cody and Desmond?” She held her breath, praying it wasn’t.

  He shook his head. “New recruits. I trained them both here just last month.”

  Now she understood the reason for his reaction. She doubted the men were on Jordan’s side. No, they almost certainly had been sent here as hired guns. And they knew the warehouse. They were trained. By Jordan, no less.

  The men would know how to kill.

  When they joined up with their ski-masked comrade, Jordan and Kinley would be seriously outnumbered. They really had to get out of there now.

  Jordan must have come to the same conclusion because he inched his way to the opening. “Stay as quiet as you can,” he mouthed.

  So, this wouldn’t be a mad dash like before. They would need to sneak out without being seen or heard.

  Jordan stopped at the room’s door. He looked out again and then crouched down. Kinley did the same, and, following him, they crept toward the warehouse opening. It wasn’t hard to find. It was the source of the wind and the only noise in the place.

  Well, except for her heartbeat.

  It was pounding like war drums in her ears, and she hoped that her breathing wasn’t as audible as it sounded to her. She didn’t want to give away their position.

  Jordan eased out of the room, and, still crouched, he turned in the direction of the still-burning car and command center. He kept watch while they made their way out.

  There was a crackle of sound, and Kinley braced herself for another explosion. Or for the overhead sprinklers to spew water onto them. But it wasn’t a bomb or water.