Christmas Guardian

by Delores Fossen

  The lights flared on.

  Not just a few of them. Probably every light in the place. She spotted the still-blazing car.

  And the men.

  They were a lot closer than she’d anticipated. And both of them had assault rifles trained right on Jordan and her.

  “Hold it right there,” a heavily muscled, dark-haired man snarled.

  Kinley looked at the opening. The wrecked car was indeed gone, giving them a clear path to escape. But the exit was at least ten feet away. Too far for her to even attempt it. The men would gun her down before she could make it another step.

  Jordan lifted his hands, and he stood, positioning himself in front of her.

  He was surrendering.

  Behind them, there was a grinding sound of metal scraping against metal.

  And the warehouse door dropped shut.

  Jordan and Kinley were trapped.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Jordan hadn’t thought things could get much worse.

  But he’d obviously been wrong.

  Here they were, being held at gunpoint by two of his former agents: Chris Sutton and Wally Arceneaux. Jordan had never worked an assignment with either of the men since they’d only been with Sentron a little over a month. But he knew what they were capable of doing.

  And what they were capable of doing was killing.

  All of his former agents had been trained to do that.

  Now the question was, for whom were they willing to kill? Were they getting their orders from Burke, or had Strahan or someone else hired them? Or maybe they were working for Cody or Desmond.

  Jordan made a quick check of the warehouse and spotted the ski-masked gunman. He didn’t come closer, but he also had his rifle trained on Kinley and him.

  Now they were facing three armed men, and with their escape route cut off, that meant he had to find another way to get her out of there.

  “Drop your gun,” Wally ordered.

  Jordan held on to it, but he did ease it down to a position that would hopefully not seem so threatening. “Is this a Sentron-directed mission?” he asked.

  “Drop your gun,” Wally repeated.

  That was standard operating procedure. Don’t engage the detainee in conversation. It could be a distraction. It could create an empathetic situation, not that Sentron agents were high on empathy. Jordan had hired them because they had ice water in their veins and weren’t easily distracted.

  Now that was coming back to haunt him.

  “I want to speak to Burke,” Jordan tried again. “He needs to know what Kinley found out about the formula for the antidote.”

  Jordan wouldn’t tell them that the antidote didn’t exist. That it was a fake. He had to let Burke or whoever believe that it was possible for him to get his hands on it. This way, it would buy Kinley some time and some safety. They wouldn’t kill her as long as they believed she could give them what they’d been told to get.

  “Drop your weapon,” Wally said for the third time, and he lifted his gun, preparing to shoot.

  Jordan recognized that look in the man’s eyes. This wasn’t a bluff. Wally had orders to kill him. And that meant he had to do something fast.

  Kinley beat him to it.

  She jumped in front of Jordan.

  Hell. She was trying to protect him.

  “I want to talk to Burke,” she insisted. “And Martin Strahan. There are things they need to know.”

  Wally and Chris exchanged a brief glance. Then Wally nodded. “Come with me. I’ll take you to the person you should be talking to.”

  Wally had chosen his words carefully and hadn’t incriminated his boss. That meant Jordan wasn’t any closer to learning the identity of the person behind this attack. But he pushed that aside for now because he had to do something to stop them from taking Kinley.

  Even though the agents likely didn’t have orders to kill her, they would no doubt torture her to get her to reveal secrets that she didn’t even have.

  Wally used his rifle to gesture for Kinley to move closer so she could no doubt go with him. She didn’t budge, but Wally wouldn’t put up with her stance for long. Soon, he’d try to grab her to get her moving. That’s when Jordan would have to act, and he only hoped that neither Wally nor Chris would take shots at them.

  The seconds crawled by. Each one ticked off in Jordan’s head. Each one kicked his heartbeat up another notch. Finally, Wally took a step toward them. He kept his rifle aimed at them. So did Chris.

  Wally took another step.

  And that was Jordan’s cue to spring into action.

  Praying that Kinley wouldn’t unintentionally do something to get in the way, Jordan threw his arm around her waist, and with her gripped to him, he dove toward the training room. They crashed to the floor, and his shoulder slammed into the concrete. The pain shot through him. Still, he did a quick check to make sure Kinley was okay. She seemed to be. She scrambled to get to her feet when he did.

  Jordan fought off the pain and came up ready to fire. But Wally and Chris didn’t shoot. What they did do was curse, which confirmed they had orders to keep her alive. Jordan would use those orders to his advantage.

  “Move quietly,” he mouthed and hitched his shoulder in the direction of the other room. They were going to backtrack, to make their way toward the center of the warehouse. Back to the command center stairs where he could get to the training tunnel he’d had installed.

  With the lights on at full glare, Jordan had no trouble seeing Kinley’s face. She was drenched from the simulated sprinkler rain, her hair had flecks of ash and debris from his car, and her bottom lip was trembling. Probably a combination of cold and fear. But despite what had to be a terrifying situation for her, she kept moving. When they reached the room exit, they bolted straight into the next area.

  Jordan listened, to try to hear what Wally and Chris were doing. Not that he expected differently, but they moved too, following along the outside of the rooms. The men were no doubt waiting for Kinley and him to reach the last training area before the command center.

  Then they would grab Kinley.

  Or so they thought.

  Jordan didn’t want the duo to get suspicious and ambush them so he kept watch on the exit and worked as quickly and quietly as he could. He used his foot to kick back some of the soggy straw that covered this particular section of the training area. He grabbed the handle that the straw had concealed and lifted it.

  There was a set of steps that led down to a tunnel. A tunnel that Chris and Wally didn’t even know existed. This was a route used by the trainers to set up a simulated ambush for advanced training, something that neither of the men had received yet.

  When she saw the tunnel, Kinley’s eyes widened, and there was just a touch of relief in them. She didn’t waste any time. She hurried down the steps and into the dark space. Jordan got in as well, and he pulled the door shut. It wouldn’t stop Chris and Wally from finding the escape route, but all Jordan needed was a minute or two head start.

  Since it was pitch black, Jordan handed Kinley his PDA so she could use the backlight to illuminate their way. Thankfully, there were no turns to take. They were literally on a direct path to another trapdoor exit near the command center. Too bad the tunnel didn’t extend the entire length of the warehouse. That would have been a nice bonus about now, but he had to be satisfied with just making it to the halfway point.

  One step at a time.

  There was little or no chance for them to get into the command center now, but if they got very lucky, they could quietly make their way out of the tunnel and through the other training rooms at the far end of the warehouse. Then he’d need another dose of good luck that his PDA codes would still work so he could open the exit.

  If not, well, he didn’t want to go there.

  Nor did he want to think of who or what might be waiting for them once they made it out.

  This had to work.

  Jordan moved ahead of her as they approached another set of
stairs that led to the exit. He kept his gun ready in his right hand, and he used his left hand to ease open the hatch door. Just a fraction. Then he waited and listened.

  No voices.

  No footsteps.

  Just the glare of the light bouncing off the water on the floor.

  “I should go first,” Kinley whispered. “They won’t shoot me.”

  Not on purpose, anyway. But it was possible one of them might have a quick trigger finger. Plus, they had to worry about the ski-masked guy. Jordan had no idea what his intentions were, but he doubted they were good.

  “I’ll go first,” Jordan insisted. “There’s about ten feet of space between the tunnel exit and the first training room. Get there as fast as you can.”

  She nodded, and as he’d done before, she brushed a kiss on his mouth. Jordan wished he had the time to tell her how sorry he was that she was in this predicament. He wished there was time to say a lot of things. But there wasn’t. They had to make their move now.

  Jordan inched the tunnel door to the side and looked out again. No one. He made his way up the steps, and while staying crouched down, he fired glances all around them. Wally and Chris still had their rifles trained on the room at the other end.

  Good.

  Two fewer guns to worry about.

  Jordan motioned for Kinley to come up the steps as well, and he held his breath. Waiting and praying. She made it to the top, and he motioned for her to move. They needed to get to the cover of the nearest training room and then run like hell.

  He reached for her hand and helped her to step out onto the concrete floor.

  Just as the lights went out again.

  Kinley gasped.

  Jordan wanted to believe she’d made that sound because of the shock of the darkness, but he knew in his gut that it was much more than that.

  There was some shuffling. Footsteps. Since his eyes hadn’t adjusted to the darkness, Jordan had no idea what was happening. He couldn’t fire and risk shooting Kinley. He could only stand there in the pitchy blackness and wait for what he knew wouldn’t be good news.

  “Jordan,” she said, her voice a tangle of nerves and concern.

  “I’m here,” Jordan answered and immediately moved to the side.

  It wasn’t a second too soon because the shot came right at him.

  THE SOUND OF THE bullet blasted through the warehouse and echoed off the metal walls.

  “Jordan!” Kinley called out.

  That bullet could have hit him. He could be hurt, or worse. But there was nothing she could do to get to him because someone had grabbed her and put her in a fierce hold.

  Worse, that someone had a gun pointed to her head.

  “Move and Jordan dies,” the person rasped in her ear.

  Kinley couldn’t recognize the voice, which was no doubt what he intended, but he obviously didn’t intend to stay put. He began to move away from Jordan and to the stairs that led to the command center. If he got her there, Jordan wouldn’t be able to get to her.

  Even more frightening, Jordan would be a sitting duck.

  She had to make a stand and stop this person from getting her up those stairs.

  But how?

  How could she do that without risking Jordan’s life?

  Kinley had his PDA still in her hand, and she’d seen him type in various codes to make things happen in the warehouse. She didn’t know the codes, but maybe if she could randomly punch in some numbers, she might be able to create some kind of distraction.

  Of course, it could be a deadly one.

  God knew what kind of training exercises were in place. She hoped she didn’t make something explode or cause shots to be fired. Still, she had to try. Her kidnapper was much stronger than she was, and he was using his muscle to get her up the stairs.

  Trying not to draw attention to what she was doing, she used her thumb to push some buttons.

  Nothing happened.

  She pressed more. Then more when the darkness stayed, and still nothing changed. Maybe there was a special sequence of codes. Maybe even fingerprint recognition. If so, the PDA was useless.

  The man dragged her up the first step, and when she struggled, he jammed the gun hard against her back. “Think of Jordan,” he warned.

  She couldn’t think of anything else. Jordan was in danger because of her.

  Kinley frantically stabbed more buttons.

  Everything seemed to happen at once. The lights came back on. So did the overhead sprinklers, and netting dropped from the ceiling landing on the two agents who minutes earlier had held Jordan and her at gunpoint.

  She didn’t see Jordan.

  God, where was he?

  She didn’t even know if he was alive since that shot could have been a direct hit.

  Her kidnapper ripped something from his face. Night goggles, she realized. Now that the lights were on, they were useless. Still, she couldn’t get a good look at him because beneath the goggles, he wore a ski mask. This was the man who’d taken cover behind Jordan’s car.

  But who was he?

  He stopped on the stairs, yanked her against him so that her back was to his chest.

  And he put the gun to her head.

  “Call out Jordan’s name,” the man growled, his voice still unrecognizable.

  She shook her head, but he only jammed the gun harder against her back. “Do it,” he insisted. She realized then he was wearing some kind of device to alter his voice. “Or you die here.”

  “You won’t kill me.” She dug in her heels to keep him from moving her higher up the steps. “Because if you do, you’ll never get the antidote.”

  “The antidote doesn’t exist,” he said. It sounded very much like a threat.

  And it was.

  Kinley didn’t say anything. She just stood there, waiting for him to continue while she looked around the warehouse for Jordan. Still no sign of him. But the two agents on the floor were gradually making their way out of the netting. It wouldn’t be long, a couple of minutes probably, before they could join forces with the man who had the gun jammed against her.

  “I got copies of all the notes, too,” he continued. “And I had people go through them. About two hours ago I was told the formula didn’t exist. Yet.”

  “Yet? What do you mean?”

  “I mean you’re going to create that antidote for me so I can sell it. I already have a buyer.”

  “Impossible. I can’t make it.”

  “You’ll find a way. If not, Jordan will die. And if that doesn’t work, I’ll track down your son and use him. One way or another, you’ll cooperate.”

  Oh, God. He was talking about holding her hostage while he forced her to make something that probably couldn’t even be done. This was just the beginning of the nightmare. Gus was still in danger. And he would stay in danger as long as this man believed she could create that formula.

  She would have to die.

  That was the only way.

  If she were dead, it would stop. Gus wouldn’t be in danger any longer and neither would Jordan because he would somehow escape this mess. There’d be no threat that could rear its ugly head years from now when some other person decided to get their hands on a potential gold mine.

  A sudden calm came over her. She didn’t want to die. She wanted to live and raise her son. Kinley wanted to see if she and Jordan could possibly have a future together, but her past had ruined any chances of that.

  She took a deep breath. And got ready to jump. The padded floor would probably save her again, but her kidnapper might shoot. Either way, she’d be away from him.

  There was a soft rattling sound that stopped her. It caused her kidnapper to freeze, too. She felt the muscles tighten in his chest and arms. His gaze flew up toward the ceiling.

  But it was too late.

  Jordan was there, hanging on to a pulley-type rope that was zooming down on them. Her kidnapper lifted his gun and aimed, just as Jordan crashed into him. The collision sent them all plummeting to the
floor.

  Kinley landed with a thud and quickly rolled to the side so that she wouldn’t be crushed beneath them. Jordan’s gun went flying, but that didn’t stop him. He came up off the padded floor and launched himself at the kidnapper. He landed a quick punch and snatched the ski mask off the man’s head.

  Kinley got just a glimpse of the man’s face before he fired a shot at Jordan.

  “CODY,” JORDAN SNARLED, and he dove out of the way of the shot.

  After the way things had been happening in the warehouse, Jordan figured Kinley’s would-be kidnapper was someone with insider knowledge of the training facility, but he’d hoped it wasn’t Cody, the agent who’d once been his right-hand man.

  Now that right-hand man was trying to kill him.

  Jordan would have much preferred to be facing Strahan or Burke. Heck, even Desmond. Because none of them had as much training and experience as Cody.

  “Don’t!” Cody warned when Kinley went for the gun that had been dislodged from Jordan’s hand during the fall. So had his PDA that Kinley had been holding. It was just a couple of inches from Jordan’s feet.

  Unfortunately, Cody had managed to hang on to his weapon and had it pointed at Kinley. When she continued to go after the fallen gun, Cody turned his weapon on Jordan.

  That stopped her.

  Kinley looked at Jordan, and he didn’t see fear in her eyes. Just resolve. Which wasn’t a good thing right now. He didn’t want her taking any risks that could result in her getting hurt. Cody was obviously desperate and greedy enough to do just about anything.

  “Cody wants me to create a formula,” Kinley explained. She wiped the water from her face.

  “I know she can do it,” Cody insisted. “I read all about Kinley when I went through Burke’s files.”

  “What were you doing in Burke’s files?” Jordan asked. But he wasn’t really interested in the answer. He was more interested in how he could get that gun away from Cody.

  Cody shrugged. “I was checking up on my new boss. The boss you shoved down my throat when you sold Sentron. Bad move, Jordan. The company was as much mine as it was yours, and you had no right to sell it.”