Читать книгу Classified K-9 Unit Christmas - Lenora Worth - Страница 16

FIVE

“I have to admit, that was some pretty good soup. Noodles and potatoes and carrots and...what kind of spices did you put in there?”

Thomas grinned and winked. “You had some ginger and rosemary stashed away in the spice drawer.”

Nina hit a hand against her head. “Oh, my mom gave me a whole spice rack last time I was home. I think she was trying to give me a hint. You know, get some spice in your life and find someone and get married and make babies.”

“All that from a couple of shakes into the pot?”

“All that and more,” she replied, before taking a sip of her hot chocolate. “She also gave me this cocoa mix.”

He toasted her with his own. “I think mixing up the recipe in a Mason jar is sweet. It’s a mama thing.”

Remembering he’d never had that, she nodded. “I have a good family so I shouldn’t complain.”

Misreading her statement for pity, he put down the mug with a motif of a laughing reindeer centered on it. “Hey, don’t apologize or downplay that on my account. I’m okay. I have a good job and I get to travel the whole country having fun.”

“Fun? You call some of the things we deal with fun?”

“No. I said I was having fun, not that it is fun.”

“Oh, so that makes a big difference.”

“I love my job,” he admitted with a sheepish shrug. “If I can’t have a big family, I can help someone else get home to theirs.”

“I guess that’s a good way to look at it,” she replied, turning serious while her heart did that strange little beat again. “Except those two dead girls never had that chance.”

“We’ll find him,” Thomas said. “I have a steadfast rule. I always get the bad guy.”

“I try to enforce that same rule,” she said. “But I’m still new to the team. I’ve been here almost a year now and things are getting better, but I never wanted to up my status by stumbling into something this twisted and strange.”

“You were the first officer on the scene. Your SAC is wise to stand back and let you do your job.”

“Maybe,” she said. And then she asked Thomas something she’d been wondering. “But is he doing that because of my abilities or because you just happened along to help out?”

Surprise filled Thomas’s eyes. “Does it matter? We’re in it together now.”

She stood and took their empty mugs to the sink. “But would I be carrying the same clout if you weren’t here?”

Irritation shadowed his expression. “Are we seriously having this conversation? Am I a threat to you, Nina?”

“No. But am I an equal to you?”

“You’re way above my pay scale, even if you earn less than me,” he said, gathering his coat. “I came here for one reason—to bring a killer back to Texas. I can’t change the circumstances that brought us together, but I intend to do my job. But you seem to have a one track mind on getting bad guys, so that makes you more valuable than me right now.”

In spite of you, she figured he wanted to say. He intended to do his job in spite of her.

Wishing she’d kept her mouth shut, Nina pushed at her hair and then tugged at her sweater. “I’m sorry. I want to do my job, too.”

“Then cut that kind of talk,” he said, jamming his meaty arms into his coat. “It’s been a long day. I think I’ll head back to the inn. I would offer to check the place, but I don’t want to offend your stubborn need to measure up.”

She deserved that, Nina decided. Why had she even let him see her insecurities? That only made her look weak and helpless.

“Thanks, Thomas,” she said in a low voice. “For helping with the tree and...for cooking.”

“You can enjoy the leftovers tomorrow night,” he retorted.

Alone.

The silence shouted that one word between them.

He turned for the door, Nina close behind.

And then the whole house went black.

* * *

Sam growled quietly. Nina didn’t move, but she crouched low next to her partner. Listening, she heard a noise out in the carport attached to the house. It sounded as if someone had stumbled into the empty trash can. Then she heard the groan of something heavy being shoved aside.

The rottweiler woofed. “Sam, quiet,” she ordered. “Stay.”

She could hear Thomas by the door. “Nina, stay down.”

“I am down,” she whispered. “But I don’t have my weapon and I never reset the alarm after we came in tonight.”

“I’ve got my weapon,” he said. “And he’d have probably disengaged the alarm, anyway.”

He came near and grasped her by the arm. “It could be the storm. Where’s your circuit breaker?”

“The kitchen, by the door to the carport. But I heard something—”

“I did, too.”

“Let’s check.”

He didn’t argue. Together, they stayed down and worked their way to the kitchen. Nina sat and scooted toward the corner where the circuit box was located. “I’ll need some light,” she whispered.

Thomas followed her and pulled out his phone and handed it to her. Using the faint moonlight creeping through the shuttered blinds, she found the flashlight app and slowly worked her way up the wall.

But before she could check the circuit breaker, the door right beside her jiggled and a shot rang out, splintering the wood and sending fragments flying as Thomas threw her to the floor.

“He’s bold,” the marshal said, sitting up with his weapon drawn.

“Shoot,” she suggested, wishing she had her own gun.

Thomas got in front of Nina on one knee and shot back, adding more bullet holes to the shattered wood.

“I guess if he’s dead, we’ll have to explain,” she whispered. “But I would technically be protecting my castle.”

“I’ll go and find him,” Thomas suggested instead. “If I didn’t get him already.”

Nina thought about what she’d have done if Thomas hadn’t been here. She would have grabbed her weapon and taken control. “Or I could open the door and let Sam do his job.”

“Good idea. But both those strategies are risky.”

“We need to call for backup.”

“The best plan. And if they don’t make it in time, I’m shooting to kill.”

That’s what she would have done. Weapon, backup, shoot to defend and protect.

She made the call with his phone, giving her name, rank and location.

When they heard a bang against the glass sliding doors, Nina ordered Sam to bark and guard. The dog headed in that direction, sounding every bit as fierce as he looked.

“Guess I missed,” Thomas said.

“He won’t give up,” Nina replied.

“What is he doing here?” the marshal retorted. “He has to know we’re both in here and armed.”

“And that I have security. Not that it matters now.”

“He’s prowling, for some reason. He didn’t get to Kelly, so now he’s after us.”

Another shot streaked through the air, this time shattering a window just above their heads.

Nina jumped up and looked through the slats of the blinds. “If I can see him, I might be able to ID him as the man in the woods.”

“He’s toying with us,” Thomas answered. “To flush us out.”

“He’ll shoot us both if we try to get out. And if we don’t, he’ll keep shooting until he hits one of us.”

“Agreed...” The big man shifted and eyed the side door that held a scatter-shot scar. “I’m not sure what his plan is, but he’s angry, so he’s enjoying this.”

Nina moved around the small area where they were crouched. She stood, but Thomas pulled her back down. “Don’t try to locate him. He’ll be expecting that.”

“I wasn’t,” she said in a weak whisper. “I wanted to grab the hot chocolate my mom made. I don’t want it to get shot.”

* * *

Thomas fell for her just a little bit more after that soft-spoken confession. But he had to protect the stubborn woman so they could share that hot chocolate.

“We’ll worry about that later,” he said, holding her down. “We’ll have to sit right here until help comes.”

“I don’t want to sit,” she replied. “Let me go around the house and at least try to find him. Sam will show me the trail.” Sam stood guarding the sliding glass doors.

“We wait until we can’t take it anymore,” he replied. “It’s too risky.”

“But I need my weapon. It’s what I’d do if I were here alone. I’d get to my weapon and go after him.”

“But you’re not alone, and right now, I don’t want to argue about it.”

Nina squirmed and held on to the jar of hot chocolate. “I don’t like your being here, but I’m glad you are.”

“You are a paradox,” he retorted.

Sam’s woofs sounded like questions. “What’s the plan?”

“I vote we make a run for it now,” Nina said, her tone decisive. “I won’t sit here and wait to die.”

“Okay.” Thomas helped her up and gave her his coat. “Put this on. We’ll go out the kitchen door and use our vehicles as a shield if he starts shooting.”

“That’ll work,” she said, already preparing. She summoned Sam and ordered him to guard. “For now,” she told Thomas.

The marshal went ahead and slowly cracked open the side door. The burst of cold air nearly took his breath away, but the blast of the next shot caused him to duck down and slam the door again.

“Are you sure you want to go out there?” he asked Nina.

“What choice do we have?”

“Once we get out, I can circle back and take him,” Thomas replied. “If he’s still here.”

Nina nodded, concern in her eyes. At least she hadn’t argued with him.

While Nina hadn’t parked her vehicle under the carport, she had pulled it up alongside the open garage. But when Thomas tried to open the door again, and wider this time, it moved only a couple inches.

“He’s blocked us in. What do you have in that trash can?”

“I just emptied it,” she said. Then she let out a breath. “I have a potting bench right next to it. He must have wedged it against the can.”

“Nina?”

She eyed the situation from behind him and then carefully placed her hot chocolate mix in a nearby cabinet. “We’re trapped,” she said, her tone calm, all things considered. “He’s trapping us until he can find a way in.”

“But we’ll find a way out,” Thomas said. “If I can shove the table away a few more inches and we run fast, we might be able to get out before he returns to the garage. He must be making his way around the house and back.”

“It’s that or die trying,” Nina said. “I need my weapon. I think I can get to it in the linen closet.”

“No. No time.”

He could tell she wanted to argue, but she clamped her mouth shut and silently glared at him in the muted moonlight. Then she called “Come” to Sam.

“Okay then,” Thomas said, glad for another small victory. “On three, we crouch and run toward my truck.” He turned and pulled his coat over her head. “Keep that on, okay?” The coat’s suede skin and shearling lining might shield her from the shooter’s aim if she kept running.

“Okay,” she said in a reluctant whisper, followed by, “Thomas, thank you.”

“Don’t thank me yet,” he said. Then he shoved against the door and heard the potting table groaning. Thomas grunted and pushed his way through, ignoring the spattering of shots all around them. Both the trash can and the heavy potting table actually served as deflectors.

Nina hurried along behind him, Sam bringing up the rear in silence. The next shot tore a hole in the tin carport roof. Thomas shoved her ahead of him, behind his truck. “Get underneath,” he said, urging her to crawl between the big tires.

“Sam, come,” she called again. The K-9 got on his belly and did as he’d been trained to do.

Soon, they were safe under the truck’s heavy armor.

Thomas lay on his belly, his chest and head lifted, and listened for the footsteps he knew would be coming. It didn’t take long.

“I’ll try to sneak around,” he whispered against Nina’s sweet-smelling hair.

The crunch and cracking of boots hitting snow and dirt stopped him. Too late.

Nina pointed to the left.

Thomas nodded. If he could take aim, he could at least maim the intruder.

The man inched within a few feet from them in a matter of seconds. Nina pointed to Sam. Thomas nodded. What better way to take the man down and keep him alive to talk?

Nina raised herself up, about to sound the attack command, when they heard sirens on the road.

The man turned and took off running. Nina shouted, “Attack!”

Sam bolted from under the truck and went into the woods, following the scent of the stranger. Nina pushed away Thomas’s coat and started to follow, but he pulled her back. “Wait for backup.”

“Give me your weapon,” she shouted. Snow was falling all around them now, and her house was full of bullet holes and scattershot.

Thomas shook his head, glad when Max West stalked toward them and asked, “Agent Atkins, are you all right?”

“Yes, sir,” Nina answered. Then she launched into a full report, Sam’s fierce barking making her fidget. “I need to pursue the suspect, sir.”

Max put his hand on her arm. “We’ve got it covered. Why don’t you let the EMTs check out your injuries?”

“I don’t have any injuries,” she retorted, anger marking each word.

“Yes, you do,” Thomas said, taking her by the arm.

She was bleeding from her left shoulder.