Children of the Knight (84 page)

Lance just grinned a little against the pain. “Not if I saved you first.”

Jack reached out and stroked Lance’s soft, sweaty brown hair with trembling fingers. “Oh God, Lance, you can’t go, you can’t leave me.” Tears sprang to his eyes. “I need you too much!”

“It’s okay, Jacky,” Lance said quietly, offering that little smile, “I can—” He coughed up a little blood, and Reyna gently wiped his mouth with her sleeve. “—I can tell Mark how much you loved him.”

Jack choked back a sob and turned his anguished gaze toward Reyna. They reached out to grasp each other’s hand, sharing the aching pain of their mutual love for this boy.

At that moment, Ryan and Gibson shoved their way through the crowd and into the circle. “Get back, everybody, stay back, give the boy some air!” Ryan was shouting. He knelt beside Jack and gazed soberly at the wounded Lance.

Approaching sirens began to get louder. Ryan stripped off his rumpled jacket, gently moved Chris aside, and laid the jacket over Lance to help keep him warm. “Don’t worry, son, help is on the way.”

Lance smiled up at the aged cop, that beautiful, almost angelic smile. “Thank you, Sergeant Ryan.”

Ryan just nodded but couldn’t think of anything to say. He actually felt sick. He’d seen so much death in his career, but somehow, watching this boy suffer was worse than all the rest.

Jack moved to sit beside Lance, and Reyna allowed the devastated boy to take Lance’s head and cradle it. Chris took Lance’s hand again and sobbed loudly into Jack’s shoulder. Reyna took Lance’s other hand. “Hang on, cutie,” she said with a wink, praying more than ever in her life that help would arrive in time.

Gibson stood gazing down at the wounded boy, the blood pooling around him, and turned away in disgust and anger, and came face to face with his son. Justin was tearing up, something Gibson hadn’t seen, nor encouraged, since the boy had been no older than Chris. Father and son gazed at one another and then Justin unexpectedly grabbed his father in a tight hug.

Caught off guard, Gibson at first let the boy do the hugging. Then he realized that Justin wasn’t crying only for Lance, but for everything that had happened in his life, for all the missed opportunities he and his father had had to connect, the way he had connected with Arthur. So finally Gibson did what he should have been doing all long—he hugged his son and whispered into the boy’s ear, “I love you, son. I always have.”

Ugly slashes of red and an ear-piercing siren signaled the arrival of the paramedics, who leapt from their vehicle almost before it stopped and ran to the wounded boy.

I
NSIDE
the limo, Jenny struggled against Lee’s iron grip. For such a small man he was incredibly strong, and she couldn’t break free. The two young Asians Lance and Jack had wounded sat stoically in the very back of the limo, holding sections of cloth ripped from their shirts against the bleeding of their wounds. Both were lucky to even be alive, and they knew better than to ask for immediate medical care. They were expendable to the operation and had known it when they’d signed on.

The third Asian, the one who’d kidnapped Jenny, sat calmly beside them, handgun at the ready, awaiting further orders.

Ramirez sat across from Lee and Jenny holding a chunk of ice he’d taken from the refrigerator against his swollen, crooked jaw.

Jenny glared at him with hate. “What do you want with me?”

Ramirez glowered, his eyes rolling with fury. The pain of his jaw and the indignity of having been bested by a punk-ass kid had driven him to the brink of instability. “Bait, lady. Stupid kid got in the way. Your Arthur still lives!”

A thrill of joy and fear thrummed through Jenny’s nerves. Arthur lived! But which kid got in the way? What did that mean? She didn’t want to ask. She could see how unstable this man was becoming.

Ramirez turned his head slightly. “Any sign of pursuit?” he asked the Asians in back.

“Just cops,” gurgled the one Jack had stabbed. “No sign of
him
.”

Ramirez scowled. “Get rid of the cops.”

The young Asian who’d grabbed Jenny put down the back window. Two police cars had barreled up Temple after them and a third had entered the chase from Spring Street. He slid his semiautomatic handgun out the window and began firing.

The pursuing police cars swerved as bullets flew at them from the fleeing limo.

The limo swung an ear-screeching turn onto N. Broadway Street heading east. The police cars skidded around the corner to follow. Startled drivers swerved their cars to the side of the road to avoid a collision.

Ramirez gazed in fury at Jenny. This Arthur had cost him millions tonight, if not billions. He would pay dearly for that. A bullet to the back was too good for such a man, too quick. No, he’d use this woman to bait a trap and then torture them both to a slow, miserable death.

Suddenly, the driver rapped on the window separating him from the passengers. Ramirez pressed a button, and the window lowered.

“What is it?” he asked irritably.

“Straight ahead, sir!” the nervous driver called back over his shoulder.

Ramirez squinted as he leaned forward for a better view. Lee, too, craned his neck around, while still clutching Jenny like a vise. Ramirez gasped in surprise.

Arthur, his hair flying in the wind, galloped Llamrei straight down Broadway, crossing the overpass above the 101 Freeway, darting in and out of the swerving cars, on a nonstop collision course with the limo.

Ramirez grinned. “Run his ass down!” he called out to the driver.

But then Ramirez’s grin dropped instantly, for Arthur had raised a bow and arrow and aimed it straight at the limo. He let the arrow fly.

There was a
thunk
as the arrow struck the limo’s left front tire, and the car spun wildly out of control. Arthur lowered the bow, snatched up Llamrei’s reins, and jumped the horse high into the air. The spinning, swerving limo passed directly beneath him and smashed into the concrete embankment of the overpass.

Arthur landed his horse safely and spun in time to see the limo smash through the overpass embankment, sending large chunks of broken concrete onto the freeway below. He heard the sounds of crunching metal and swerving, screeching tires from below, but Arthur’s gaze remained fixed on the limo.

The long black Hummer swung partway out above the freeway, its front end still on the roadway, but its rear teetering dangerously over the abyss. The sound of police sirens signaled the approach of the pursuing police cars.

Arthur spurred his horse toward the tottering limo.

As the car smashed into the guardrail and knocked off chunks of concrete, Jenny saw her chance and shoved the startled Lee away from her. The teetering car and spinning tires threw everyone off-balance. Ramirez had landed on the floor in back with the three Asians, and they all scrambled to recover themselves.

Jenny fought madly for the door, instinctively kicking out with one foot and hearing a satisfying “umph” as she made contact with Lee’s face. The door swung open, causing the car to teeter even more. The driver frantically gunned the engine, fighting to keep the vehicle on the overpass.

Jenny leapt from the car.

She tumbled hard onto the asphalt and looked up at the sound of pelting hooves. Before she could react, Arthur was upon her, his arm outstretched for hers. She stumbled upright and flung out her hand desperately. He grasped it in his and swung her sharply and painfully off the ground and into the saddle behind him, almost wrenching her arm from the socket. She nearly cried out from the searing pain but bit it back with a groan.

Arthur galloped onward even as the limo driver righted the vehicle and gunned the engine in pursuit. One police car stopped at the overpass to help those who may have been injured on the freeway below, but the other two followed the damaged limo.

“Hurry, Arthur,” Jenny called out, glancing back over her shoulder. “They’re gaining!”

Arthur knew he was an able horseman, but no horse could outrun a car, even one as wounded as the limo. A bullet whizzed past his head, and he knew they hadn’t much time. He spun Llamrei sharply to the right, and they galloped down the much smaller and less-trafficked Arcadia Street.

He didn’t have time for this! He had to get back to Lance.

The limo, caught off guard by Arthur’s sudden move, screeched to a halt and then backed up and turned down Arcadia in pursuit. Those precious few seconds were all Arthur needed.

Arthur rode Llamrei to a sudden stop, turning the horse around to face the soon-to-be oncoming limo.

“Take the reins,” he told Jenny hurriedly.

Without question, she complied.

Arthur grabbed his bow and cocked an arrow just as the limo’s headlights sped down the street, bathing them in harsh, blinding light. Arthur dug in his heels, and Llamrei leapt forward into a determined gallop.

Within the limo, a furious Ramirez shrieked at his gunmen, “Get that son of bitch, or I’ll kill you myself!”

All three young men and Lee began firing from the windows of the limo.

With both hands occupied by the bow and arrow, Arthur could not grip Excalibur. The first few shots missed, but the fourth struck him in the shoulder, causing him to flinch.

“My God, you’ve been hit!” Jenny screamed in horror, fear squeezing at her heart.

“Just keep her steady!” Arthur shouted, pulling back on the bow and letting the arrow fly.

It shattered the already-cracked windshield and pierced the driver in the left shoulder, pinning him to the seat and sending the limo careening out of control.

Arthur dropped his bow and snatched back the reins, turning his horse sharply away from the spinning limo.

The twisting car whipped past them and smashed hard into an electrical pole, knocking it down and puncturing the Hummer’s enormous gas tank. Gasoline began spilling from the rupture, and buildings in the vicinity suddenly winked once and then went black.

Without hesitation, Arthur turned his horse and galloped past the wreckage. He was desperate to return to Lance.

My only son….

As the electrical wires sparked into the gasoline, it set off the remainder of the gas in the tank, and the limo exploded in a huge fireball visible throughout the city.

Jenny snapped her head back to observe the conflagration, but Arthur didn’t even take notice. His heart and mind had only one focus—Lance.