I guess I understood his concern. More than a few seconds breathing in my heady scent while pressed against my muscular form was bound to make his wife reconsider her poor choice of partner.
So I got to ride in the front where my broad frame and long legs had room to fit. I pulled my chair forward a bit to give those behind as much room as possible, but it was still cozy back there with four of them stuffed in.
Following Tempest’s instructions, we went over the bridge into Strood and through the small town, stopping at a hardware store on the way out. It was due to shut until Boxing Day in less than an hour but that was more time than we needed.
Tempest and I both grabbed trolleys, a small procession of us heading through the electronic double doors when they swished open.
We got looks from everyone who saw us. I’m used to it, of course, because there is barely a woman on the planet who doesn’t stop to get at least a second glance. The men were looking too though, and it was entirely because four of us were wearing our black combat gear again.
The fingerless gloves with the Kevlar knuckles had a purpose, but in such a benign, civilian setting, we looked like a paramilitary team.
Naturally, anyone looking would assume I was the leader.
Spotting an attractive member of staff in her thirties, I sashayed up to her. ‘Hey, babe, I’m Big Ben. Can you point me toward the chainsaws, please?’
When she looked my way, I hit her with the smile that had dropped a thousand knickers.
Something went wrong with it because she raised an eyebrow and jerked a thumb toward the back of the shop.
‘Aisle twelve.’
Amanda hooked my elbow. ‘Come on, Romeo. We don’t have time for anything else.’
Starting to panic because my batting average in the last twenty-four hours was zero hits from a lot of swings, I found myself mumbling. ‘I need to find a mirror.’
‘No time,’ Amanda repeated.
‘But there’s something wrong and I worry that if we don’t fix it the world will stop spinning.’
I heard her say something like, ‘Dear Lord,’ as she let go my arm and jogged to catch up with Tempest.
What was happening to me?
Doing my best to put it from my mind, I found the chainsaws and loaded two into the trolley along with a can to carry the fuel I would need.
Tempest and the others were all heading for the tills by the time I found them, their trolley near overflowing with tools that made very good weapons yet were completely legal to buy and carry in public. It was using them as a weapon where the line got crossed, but we were so far past the point of caring about that now I doubted it even surfaced in anyone’s mind.
Quinn. Updated Information. Saturday, December 24th 1603hrs
‘Where are they now?’ Quinn snapped out his question when Copeland’s voice came through it again.
‘At Big Jobs hardware store in Strood, sir. They are buying tools. It looks like they are planning to renovate a house, sir.’
Quinn rolled his eyes. ‘They are tooling up for a fight, you idiot. Did you see what they bought?’
Copeland’s eye flared. What kind of people was he dealing with here? He knew of Tempest Michaels; everyone did. The TV footage of him making Quinn look like an idiot was saved to the phone memory of every officer in Maidstone. It had happened more than once too.
Copeland heard the stories about them just the same as everyone else and had been in the grounds of Rochester castle in October when a huge battle broke out between two gangs of clowns. The whole thing was utterly bizarre, but surely the other tales were all hyperbole?
Whether they were or not, he had to now question what the Blue Moon investigators thought they were going up against with chainsaws, battery-powered nail guns and sledgehammers. Yet more items were loaded into the back of the utility truck’s load bed, most of them in boxes so he couldn’t make out what they might be.
Eyeballs poking out on stalks, he saw the Indian guy and the woman who wasn’t Amanda Harper head back to the store. He recognised Amanda because she only left the police a few weeks ago. Bob didn’t know what they were going back for, but the moment they were far enough away, the big guy jumped into the driver’s seat and a second later the car rocketed out of the carpark.
The Indian guy and the woman were left staring at the receding taillights looking speechless, but Bob only caught a glimpse of them as Danny stomped on the accelerator to give chase again.
Tempest. A Plan. Saturday, December 24th 1605hrs
From the backseat, Amanda said, ‘You didn’t have to do that, you know.’ She was less than impressed with me.
I sucked some air in between my teeth, unhappy that I had done it too.
‘I couldn’t risk Jagjit refusing to hand over the keys or trying to come with us.’ I wasn’t happy that Amanda was coming with me either for that matter. It wasn’t a question of her ability to manage in a crisis situation; far from it. I was in love with her and putting her in harm’s way as I was about to did not sit well.
‘He would have understood,’ she argued.
‘There was no time to discuss it,’ I insisted. ‘Jagjit is too proud to have accepted me leaving him behind without arguing to save face. His wife was there to witness it, so he would have felt it necessary to fight me on the subject. We don’t have time for that.’
Amanda either conceded the point or she chose to save her breath. Either way, she had nothing more
