The Knight Before Chaos Read online

  The teen seemed to take offense at the demand. But, to the bully’s credit, he stole a look at Chase, who decided to arch an eyebrow and cross his arms across his chest.

  “Sure, Sean.” He stuck out his upturned palm. “No hard feelings.”

  Sean slapped it but remained stoic. “No hard feelings.”

  The choir director stuck his head in the door and motioned for Chase.

  “What’s the problem?” Had Sean Patrick committed an infraction toward another person?

  “It’s Heather. She refuses to sing her song unless you and Sean are there to listen. I even let Daniel sit by her, but she’s having none of it.”

  “Okay. Be right there.”

  Chase eased into the front pew as Sean Patrick took his place on stage. He smiled at Heather and Daniel like a conquering hero, adding a pat on the head to each of them.

  The organist played the intro bars, and the director cued Heather when to begin. She waved to Chase, walked up to the microphone that had been lowered for her, and sang “Silent Night” in a sweet little voice. Something inside him lurched, and he touched the spot over his heart. It usually ached when her mother walked into a room. He pictured Tessa when she was a little girl. Why did he feel so powerless around these two females?

  One minute he was staring a hole in a burglar and thinking about doing an adjustment in his ability to walk upright, and the next he couldn’t stop smiling at a little curly headed girl with the voice of an angel. He suddenly realized the existence of a God. Being with these children might be a test of endurance and patience, but maybe in a small way he could redeem himself for all the suffering he’d handed out over the years.

  When she finished, Chase stood and applauded and cheered. Apparently, the timing in showing admiration needed some work because the music stopped and everyone looked his way. A few of the kids snickered, the director appeared confused, and the organist rolled her eyes. But Heather bowed and curtsied princess style before she stepped cautiously off the stage. She ran to him with outstretched arms. He scooped her up to receive a grateful hug.

  “Awesome!” he praised. “You’d better go finish your practice.” When he set her down, she kissed his cheek, and scampered back to her place. “Dear God in Heaven. Help me through this night,” he mumbled.

  Chapter Two

  Chase pulled into the driveway and stopped the car before letting out a sigh. He rubbed his face. The sound of seat belts clicking and excited conversation about the choir misadventures forced him to admit it wasn’t so bad being the hero to a bunch of little kids and a holier-than-thou minister. It remained difficult to keep from turning into a marshmallow with Heather tugging on his hand as they walked up the front porch steps.

  Their mother, Tessa, had hired someone to install the Christmas lights and greenery around the Victorian country-style home. Even the yard glowed with white lights, giving it an almost Hallmark vibe with red bows attached to swags of greenery on the porch railing. He spotted a sled and faux gifts on each side of the red front door. He wondered about the time and effort it took to make the holiday magical. Clearly, Tessa wanted everything to resemble a magazine cover.

  The magical feel evaporated once he opened the front door. A stiff breeze smacked them in the face from an open window he spotted in the dining room. Snow dusted the hardwood floors and the trestle table laden with open boxes of Christmas décor. A few boxes lay sideways, and several Santas with broken arms and an occasional busted head lay scattered across the floor.

  The Scott children froze at seeing the mess that continued throughout the cozy living room. A bare tree reached to the ten-foot ceiling and showed signs of leaning a little too far to the right. A number of clear ornament tubs remained stacked in front of the sofa with cushions and pillows in disarray.

  “I smell something burning,” Daniel declared as smoke alarms pierced the air. He stepped forward, only to be pulled back by Chase. He should have brought his weapon but had decided watching three little kids would not require extreme intervention. Another miscalculation on his part.

  “Stay here.” Chase moved toward the kitchen, but the children grabbed onto his coat hem and followed. He glared down at them in hopes of putting them in their place, but they continued to stare straight ahead without picking up on his warning.

  “I’m scared,” Heather whispered then decided to circle his leg with her arms. Peeling her hands free only forced them up to his coat pocket where she latched on like a hungry piranha.

  He instinctively laid his gloved hand on top of her head and stroked her silky hair as he walked into the kitchen. The microwave crackled with sparks, and a pungent odor filled the air. Chase quickly cleared the time left then grabbed the fire extinguisher he demanded Tessa keep under the sink after a mishap once before when she nearly burned the kitchen down. With the flames gone, he opened several windows only to notice the back door ajar.

  “Mom is going to have a cow.” Heather put her hands on her hips.

  “Not too bad.” Chase examined the door and wondered about fingerprints but decided there were probably many grimy little traces of the kids. To go through it wouldn’t be worth the effort. “We’ll have this cleaned up in no time. Looks like our visitor stuck a piece of aluminum foil in there to slow us down.”

  “So, he was here when we came into the house?” Sean Patrick asked, his eyes wide with shock. “Wow. This is turning out to be an exciting evening.”

  At the stomping of feet running across the upstairs floor, the children jumped toward Chase. He patted their heads then headed for the steps, telling them, “You kids hide in the pantry and don’t come out until I tell you.” They stared at him with wide eyes. “The pantry has a lock on the inside at the top. Sean, I think you can reach it. Don’t come out until I tell you. Scoot.”

  The boy grabbed his siblings and rushed them toward the pantry as instructed. Chase waited to hear the click before slipping upstairs with the Walter P90 pistol Tessa hid on top of the china cabinet in the dining room. Not even her husband knew she owned one. After some unsavory threats toward her and his Enigma team, he’d taken it upon himself to help her choose the right weapon for self-defense and to show her how to use it. She’d been a quick study and felt confident in her ability to protect herself and her family. Of course, this one was unloaded, with no ammo to be found.

  Another cold breeze tunneled down the hall from the master bedroom. The door moved back and forth on its own. Someone grunted as he plowed into the room with his weapon drawn. A dark figure flung itself out the window then slipped on the snow-covered roof and propelled off onto the ground below. A loud thud and groan followed. With caution now in the wind, Chase secured the weapon in the inside pocket of his jacket then followed. He sat down to glide along the same route as the uninvited guest without doing himself any harm.

  A fleeting memory of when he’d escaped out Tessa’s bedroom window during one of her training sessions surfaced. She’d passed with flying colors, no thanks to the surprise arrival of her husband, Robert. Chase found himself having to make a quick getaway, leaving his new agent to clean up the mess and create a perfect lie to cover their tracks. The man remained clueless as to what his wife really did for a living. Now he felt himself airborne once more and landed in a cushion of snow on top of the intruder.

  He bounded up and jerked the man to his feet with a powerful grip. Giving him a shake, he committed the man’s face to memory before doing a quick frisk. When he squirmed and swung his fist at his captor, Chase landed a blow to his chin, sending him flying back on his butt.

  Something moved to his left, and he managed to dodge the full impact of a large branch, but it caught him on the shoulder. Staggering back, he snagged his foot in a string of loose Christmas lights that had fallen with the first burglar when he tumbled off the roof. The new attacker yelled at his partner to get up as he reared back to strike Chase.

  Chase rolled away and sprang up when the heavier man’s club shattered against the ground.
He watched the man turn and run toward the neighbor’s yard and found it amusing when both men attempted to jump over the fence and tumbled into an undignified pile. The prospect of an easy capture, especially since he carried a gun, quickly evaporated when a tree branch laden with wet snow dropped on top of his head. This gave the two a few extra seconds to disappear into the night.

  Taking a deep breath, he shook the snow off like a wet dog then moved to the back door only to find it locked. So much for due diligence earlier. He’d secured the dining room window and the front door, and the kids were locked in the pantry. When he stuck his hand inside his coat pocket, he remembered he’d handed his phone to Daniel when he extinguished the microwave fire.

  “This keeps getting better and better,” he growled and dared eye the lattice on the outside wall near the master bedroom window. If he gauged everything right, he could climb up then ease onto the roof. At least the upstairs window remained open. He scrambled up the lattice until his foot smashed through a weak section, sending him down several feet before catching himself. On his second try, he inspected each rung until he reached the roof and easily slipped onto the surface.

  “Whatcha doin’, Chasey?” came the sweet singsong voice of Heather from the ground below.

  “You know being up there is dangerous, right?” chimed in the sarcastic tone of Sean Patrick.

  “I’m telling Mom you didn’t set a good example for us,” Daniel threatened. When Chase stood up to order them back indoors, his feet slipped out from under him, and he barreled toward the front edge of the roof.

  To the accompaniment of gasps and a girly scream, Chase managed to catch hold of the gutter with one hand, leaving him dangling like a lopsided Christmas ornament. Then the gutter gave way, and he fell to the ground. The children quickly ran and kneeled beside him.

  “Are you okay?” Sean Patrick helped him sit up.

  “Why were you on the roof? I thought you went to see what was upstairs.” Daniel along with his brother offered a hand to assist him to his feet.

  A groan escaped from deep inside his chest, although he had no broken bones.

  “Why are you outside?” he growled. “I thought I told you to stay in the pantry until I came for you. What if there was trouble?”

  Sean smirked. “The way I see it, you were in trouble and needed us.”

  “I see you’re snarky like your mom.” Chase pointed toward the door. “Move.”

  “Was there someone upstairs?” Heather grabbed his sore hand and shivered.

  “Probably a scouting party for Santa.” He smiled down at her, and she clapped her hands and twirled. The boys opened their mouths to contradict his announcement until he leveled one of his death stares in their direction. “Those pesky elves. What’ya going to do, huh?”

  Sean Patrick squinted and twisted his mouth into a snarl. “What about the mess down here?”

  Busted. “That was a burglar.”

  Heather covered her mouth with both her gloved hands, and her eyes grew wide with fear.

  “But he’s gone now,” he reassured her, squatting and helping her out of her hat and coat. “I’m here now, and I’ll protect you. Okay?”

  She nodded then circled his neck with a tight hug. “Okay.” He tried to stand up, but she pulled him back down and gave him another kiss on the cheek. “I really like you.”

  He laughed and managed to pull free. “I kind of like you, too.” With a slight pivot, he looked behind him. “Where’s your brothers?” Before she could answer, he ran into the foyer and cocked his ear in hopes of locating trouble. “Boys?” he called, a little more irritable and louder than he intended.

  They popped up from behind the sofa, somersaulted over the back, bounced on the cushions, and crashed onto the floor, laughing with abandonment. Had he ever felt the same kind of happiness as a kid?

  Most of his childhood was spent in a dirty Chinese village with his missionary parents or with his ambassador grandfather in some hellhole in the Middle East or on an Indian reservation with his maternal grandfather. Many times, he was left on his own with only his little sister as a playmate or in the company of strangers who tried to entertain him for the duration of his visit. Then he’d be sent back to China to his parents who were doctors.

  Once the giggling stopped, they leaned back against the sofa and pointed over their shoulders to the back of the couch. “There’s a problem,” Sean Patrick announced.

  “No kidding.” Chase surveyed the room and wondered how he would manage to do all the things he’d promised Tessa he’d do before she arrived with her parents. “That Christmas tree is pathetic. First, we’re going to have to shore up the base. From the looks of all those tubs, there are more ornaments than room on the tree.”

  Daniel pushed his glasses up on his nose. “Mom is going to freak when she finds out all the presents she hid behind the sofa are gone.”

  “Guess that new security system didn’t work.” Heather walked in with her hands on her hips then shook her curly head. “Sure hope Santa comes through.” She sniffed as her lip jutted out.

  “No. No. Don’t cry, Heather.” Chase held his hands out, hoping it would stop the tears. “I’ll fix this. I promise.” But she opened her mouth and let out a wail he suspected would wake the dead.

  Chapter Three

  Tessa sucked in her breath before easing down into a plastic chair. She switched the phone to her other ear as people rushed around her at the Reno-Tahoe International Airport. Christmas decorations sparkled everywhere, but a wave of panic washed over her while listening to Captain Chase Hunter inform her of the burglary.

  “The police just left. The kids are fine. Heather had a bit of a meltdown when she thought there would be no presents.”

  “I don’t understand. I checked out the security company.” Tessa palmed her forehead in frustration.

  “Police are looking into it. Had another complaint earlier in the evening. Then there was the problem at the church.” She could imagine him gritting his teeth when things spun out of his control.

  “Have the kids given you any trouble?” She wondered about the pause at the other end of the phone.

  “Truthfully, running from the Taliban is a lot less complicated. The kids outmaneuver me at every turn.”

  She couldn’t help but release a soft laugh. “You aren’t doing it right. Let them know you’re the boss and in charge.”

  “Heather is the worst,” he moaned.

  Tessa felt amused. “Aw. I’m so proud of her.” Another moan. “Chase, you are being too nice, and Heather is worming her way into your heart and psyche.”

  “No kidding,” he quipped. “Reminds me of you.” His voice took on a growling tone.

  “She manipulates her father and brothers like a magician. Don’t let her get away with not helping out. And by no means let her snowball you.”

  “When will you be back?” he sighed.

  “Yeah. About that…”

  ~ ~ ~ ~

  Chase rubbed his face with both hands as he mulled over Tessa’s words. “I won’t be back until tomorrow.”

  “What?” he demanded. “You can’t do this to me, Tessa.”

  Her parents’ plane had been delayed in Denver, and they wouldn’t arrive for another hour. The highway over the mountains had closed because of dangerous weather conditions. Robert, Tessa’s husband, would be stuck in Chicago until tomorrow afternoon and hoped to be home by dinner.

  “I’m so sorry, Chase. I promise I’ll make it up to you. Really.”

  Chase considered her promise but knew they were not on the same wavelength when it came to redeeming anything he had in mind. “I’m going to hold you to that.” Her soft laughter only made him long to see her smile. “Gotta go. One of your neighbors is headed onto the porch. Kind of a looker.” His constant hope was something would eventually make Tessa jealous enough to end things with Robert.

  “Probably Bridgette from two doors down. Might be right up your alley: divorced and horny.”

>   “Call me later, Tess.”

  “Hello?” came a voice laced with a French accent. “Everything okay? Tessa?”

  The front door slowly opened, and a lovely lady wearing a faux leopard jacket and hat, black leather boots, and leggings entered the foyer.

  “Hello. You must be Bridgette.” He extended his hand and noticed her delicate touch lingered a little longer than necessary.

  “Yes. And you are?”

  The kids came thundering into the foyer and slid to a halt next to Chase. Heather seemed to mark her territory by taking Chase’s hand in hers then leaned into his side.

  “He’s Chase Hunter, our new babysitter,” Daniel announced with a laugh. “So far, he isn’t doing well.”

  “Yeah. The cops are on a first-name basis with him now.” Sean smirked and elbowed his brother who laughed even harder.

  Bridgette shifted her eyes from the children to Chase and slowly raised her eyebrows. “Really?”

  He remembered Tessa’s warnings and spoke firmly. “You boys get in there and clean up the mess you made.” This time it wasn’t a request but an order. He forced a stern tone that could command troops, not a bunch of snotty-nosed kids. “Now,” he snapped angrily. The boys straightened for an instant then hightailed it into the living room.

  Bridgette smiled. “Well, I must say, you can certainly take charge of rowdy boys.” She glanced down at Heather. “Shouldn’t you help your brothers?”

  “Nope.” She smiled, looking up at him with worship. “Chasey and I stick together.”

  He couldn’t believe how much the little stinker imitated her mother when she got snarky. A ridiculous laugh spilled from his mouth before he turned his attention to the neighbor. “She’s my helper and protector, I’m afraid.”

  “A big strong man like yourself doesn’t look as if he needs any protection,” she cooed, adding a wink.