Solstice Shadows - VanOps #2

EXCERPT - SOLSTICE SHADOWS, COPYRIGHT 2020, REPRINTED BY PERMISSION

CHAPTER 1
San Francisco, California
December 18, 3:51 p.m. PST
Maddy cracked her loft's front door, peered through it, and felt the hair on the back of her neck stand at attention like rows of tiny soldiers about to do battle.
There's someone in there. She pulled the entry door almost closed and put a finger to her lips to silence AJ and Vincent, who lingered behind her in the complex's dim, soundless hallway. AJ's ten-year-old eyes grew wide and her ex raised a brown eyebrow, but they both went still. Heart pounding strong and steady, every sense alert, she willed her breath to deepen so she would be ready for whatever came next.
She inched the door back open. Caution had become her friend in the last year and a half. The pencil-thin beam of light she'd seen two heartbeats ago flickered off in her bedroom and pitch-black darkness descended. Although she had closed the living room patio door when she'd left to teach at the aikido dojo, it was ajar, and damp air filled the loft. The city's skyline glittered through the windows, showing off the San Francisco Giants' baseball stadium, lit like a gargantuan ornament in festive reds and greens. The air smelled of the frigid rain that drowned the night. Her roommate had texted an hour ago that he was working late, so who was in there?
What did they want?
There. What was that sound?
Something like the scrape of a boot on her hardwood floor.
She listened and squinted into the gloom.
For the briefest moment, crimson light from the stadium's Christmas decorations glinted off a metal object in the bedroom doorway. A gun.
That was all the warning she needed. Maddy yanked the door shut just as the bullet splintered the jamb where her knee had been.
"Run!"
With both arms, she pushed AJ and Vincent away from the exploding shrapnel, sending all three of them sprinting down the shadowed hallway, and careening around the corner. Vincent threw his umbrella behind them and it clattered on the tile. Ten feet ahead, the red EXIT sign heralded the stairwell. A shot hit the wall just behind Maddy, knocking a chunk off a glossy Golden Gate wall mural. She cringed. She liked that mural.
Vincent pulled up short and she nearly ran into his tall frame. He strained to pull a gun from his left armpit holster, turned back, and shot once around the corner.
Frowning, Maddy put her hand on the top of gun. "Put that away," she whispered. "It'll make things worse."
Vincent answered in the cultured voice she used to find sexy. "Head downstairs."
The index finger of her left hand twitched, and she balled both hands into fists. "No, I'll wait inside the stairwell to disarm him."
"No. Go. I'll join you in a minute."
Angry at him for not trusting her aikido skills and escalating the situation, Maddy pressed AJ toward the stairwell, all the while thinking that more assailants could arrive from downstairs. She bent over and whispered, "Run upstairs to the roof and hide."
His freckled face, framed by big jug ears and perpetually messy red hair, looked up at her. He used to be a foster child from the dojo, but she thought of him as hers now, and wanted the adoption paperwork to be official--yesterday. What if she died today? Love for him poured through her heart as he nodded, fear and determination in his eyes.
As the sound of Vincent's next shot echoed down the hallway, she reached around AJ, opened the metal stairwell door and ushered him toward the wet and muddy linoleum landing. His small feet made no sound as he padded up the stairs.
Guessing that what she'd hidden in her loft had placed him in danger, her heart overflowed with guilt. But who knew it was there? She reached for her phone and dialed the police.

Chapter 2
3:54 p.m.

Rounding the corner of the stairwell, AJ paused to glance back. Through a rectangular glass pane in the door, Maddy looked at him with wide, green eyes full of love. In the black jacket, cabbie hat, and blue jeans she typically wore after changing out of her gi, she looked fierce, as though she'd personally block anyone from hurting him. With a phone to her ear, she pointed up the stairs and mouthed "Go!"
Another gunshot boomed through the hall and AJ used it like a sprinter's starting gun, panting as he raced up the four flights of stairs to the rooftop patio. Hide. But where? Two metal patio tables with four chairs stood to his right, wet from the falling rain. In front of him was the city's bright skyscape. To his left, the top landing of the wrought-iron fire escape looked like prison bars.
Shivering from the cold, he moved around the back of the tall structure that enclosed the door. The area was dark and scary, but it might be a spot to hide if he could overcome his fear of the dark and make himself explore it. He hated the dark. But as his eyes adjusted and the shaking subsided, he realized there was no good hiding place back there, only large metal boxes that he guessed housed some sort of heating equipment. Afraid to make a sound, he tiptoed around the entire rooftop, avoiding shiny black puddles as best he could.
A loud sound blasted through the chill night air. Another gunshot? What if Maddy was shot? She was always kind to him, ever since he started taking classes at her dojo. His foster parents were nice, but they had five other kids at the house. He didn't get a lot of their attention. But Maddy had wanted to take him to ride roller coasters on his birthday and was trying to adopt him. She was as good a teacher as the sensei who owned the dojo and she often came to his rescue during his nightmares.
He walked back to the fire escape and looked down. A couple of flights below, there was a two-person patio table perched on the landing. It blocked the exit down, but at the moment he didn't care. The table was draped with a waterproof tablecloth, which meant it'd provide better cover than the larger ones up here.
The fire-escape gate creaked as he opened it and scurried down the stairs. Reaching the table, he ducked beneath it. At least it wasn't dark.
With his back to the railing, he pulled his soggy knees to his chest and tried to quiet his breathing. He quivered with fear for Maddy. For himself. Could he do anything to help her? What would he do if Maddy were killed? He lived for the dojo and nights like tonight, when they were supposed to eat popcorn and watch a movie while cuddled up on the couch in her loft. Yes, that was a better thought. Popcorn, with his big dog, Damien, curled up at their feet, chewing on a bone while they laughed at the TV. Maddy's broad-shouldered boyfriend, Bear, would be there, too, one strong hand on Maddy's arm, protecting them both.
Eyes closed, fantasy playing through his mind, he could almost shut out the sound of gunfire and distant sirens.
He'd be safe here from eyes above, but as his fingers caressed the grate beneath him, he realized he was still vulnerable from below.