Who were they? And who was the Dragon?

  She looked at her white rabbit. “Thank you,” she told him. “But...you do know you’re not a white rabbit—and you don’t need the gas mask.”

  “Bullets, explosions, gas…”

  “There is no gas out in the air. They don’t plan to gas anyone. Whoever they are, they blew up the road hoping the Dragon’s car would there at that time. Someone figured badly. They’re going to go and try to stop him at the explosion site. What we need to do is get help—”

  The rabbit was already walking away.

  “Wait! Listen to me. We need to figure a way to get help. I need to drive back to civilization—figure a way to get on the phone and alert the authorities,” Kody called.

  The rabbit was still walking.

  “Please!” Kody said. “I need to—”

  She broke off. She didn’t know where her keys were. Would she ever find them?

  She looked at her phone again.

  NO SIGNAL.

  “Rabbit, wait!” she commanded.

  He stopped, turned and stared at her.

  “I’m late, I keep being too late, late, late, late, for a very important date!” he said.

  “No, no, listen!” Kody said, but he was already moving again, machete swinging at his side.

  Then he stopped and turned back to her. “Come, you have to come with me. There may be more of them, more evil cards, out to obey the Queen!”

  Kody winced. He was crazy, of course. But...

  He might well have saved her life. She didn’t know who the men in camouflage were; she didn’t know who “the Dragon” might be. But the crazy white rabbit wasn’t crazy about one thing. The two men planned something very bad. Something that sounded like…

  Murder.

  For a moment she paused, thinking about the beauty of the fresh, crystal snow. They’d sent pictures. She knew how the old inn and tavern Austin had just rebuilt was shimmering with Christmas lights; a large tree dominated the old tavern area; and Brodie, Austin and Julia had combined Christmas decorations with white candles and streamers for the wedding.

  Her wedding was still going to happen, dammit. She was not going to spend the next days roaming hopelessly lost through the frozen landscape following a large white rabbit.

  “Take off the gas mask!” she told him. “Now! And listen to me! Thank you. I don’t know who those men are—”

  “Dragon slayers.”

  “But they do appear to be dangerous. Thank you, you might have saved my life. But! I do believe someone—Brodie McFadden—will be coming from the other direction. He works with the FBI, and he—he’s experienced with taking down dragon slayers. Please, take off the mask and the rabbit head. We’re going to need him to know you’re trying to get the dragon slayers—and you’re not the dangerous one.”

  Just the crazy one! She added silently to herself.

  The rabbit paused, cocking his head to the side, weighing her words.

  “Please!” she said. “I want to help you—please, trust me. Brodie can really help you. But you’re wearing a gas mask and a costume.”

  He kept looking at her, and despite the ridiculous costume, the angle of the giant head told her he was listening to her. Thinking perhaps. Maybe reaching back into some semblance of sanity that had a small foothold, somewhere in his mind.

  “You’re not a rabbit,’ she said quietly. “You’re a man. You don’t need to wear a rabbit costume; please, take off the mask and your...rabbit head.”

  He removed the gas mask.

  “Great. Drop it. You’re really not going to need it,” she said. “Please, take off the giant rabbit head.”

  She thought he was going to listen to her.

  Except they heard the sound of tires on the icy road again.

  Another car was coming.

  The rabbit turned, ran back, grabbed her, and took cover in the rich branches of the pine trees, warning her softly, “Shush, please, shush! It may be the Queen of Hearts!”

  Chapter 3

  Still no answer.

  Brodie drove anxiously reminding himself they’d faced deadly situations before. Kody was not a fool, and she was all right.

  He reached the road where the explosion had taken place. Flames no longer licked the air. The fire was out, but the smoke still mingled with the steam created by the melting snow, and the asphalt remained nothing but mire in several places.

  He pulled off the road well ahead of the damage taking care to park the jeep behind a thick copse of trees. Stepping out he surveyed the scene.

  There appeared to be absolutely no reason for the explosion and the destruction in the road, but the asphalt was ripped to shreds, as were the trees nearest the area where the pavement was gone. Pines and pine needles, heavy branches from barren oaks and other trees blocked the path making it impossible for anything but an all-terrain vehicle to traverse the area. Even then he believed, some of the asphalt might still be bubbling beneath what the eyes could see. Taking a car over the area now might be like landing an amphibious vehicle not on water but on a bed of lava.

  He crept along the tree line, watching and trying to discern what had happened and why. As he moved—assuring himself neither Kody nor her car were anywhere near the rubble—his phone began to ring.

  He caught it quickly, hoping it was Kody.

  It wasn’t. Rather, it was his oldest brother Bryan who had just completed his stint at the academy and was now officially an agent with the Krewe.

  “Bryan, where are you?”

  “Krewe headquarters. I was calling because we’ve had a disturbing notification that puts a large—”

  “White rabbit wearing a gas mask and carrying a machete in our area,” Brodie finished, pausing and still watching the road as he spoke. “Bryan, something is going on down here worse than a white rabbit. Kody was almost here—maybe an hour away, tops. She called me, freaked and screamed. I heard her yell she was all right, and now I can’t reach her. But a piece of the road exploded—”

  “A piece of road exploded?”

  “Yes, I’m about thirty-minutes east of Austin’s place. It looks like someone took dynamite or another explosive to the road. It’s impassible unless you’re in something hardy, and right now...well, I wouldn’t drive anything over it with rubber tires. It’s cold enough so the situation won’t last long, but it’s so ripped up most cars couldn’t possibly pass over it. Trees down on it, branches everywhere.”

  “I’ll make sure the authorities are on it, but you already heard about the white rabbit?”

  “I was listening on a police scanner.”

  “It’s Christmas, you’re getting ready for your wedding, and you were listening on the police scanner?”

  “Not something you’d be doing?” Brodie asked his brother skeptically.

  “Never mind. I just wanted you to know I was heading out now; I’ll give all the proper authorities your position now. There’s some concern. Apparently, the old asylum out there—”

  “Has been refurbished and reopened as some kind of an experimental addiction and mental illness facility,” Brodie finished.

  “Will you stop that?”

  “Sorry,” Brodie told his brother. “Look, I can’t find Kody. If you—”

  “I’m on my way out. Do you want to know about the white rabbit?”

  “Know what about the white rabbit?”

  “Captain Avery C. Lynch, United States Army, retired. He saw an extreme amount of action in the Middle East and was suffering from serious PTSD. Apparently, he was being treated at the old asylum—now the Virginia Hansom Hospital—with a new treatment we so far know nothing about. He was reported missing late this morning. Early on he tried to convince one of his doctors the Red Queen had sent out dragon slayers to kill the ‘Golden Dragon.’ He was extremely agitated, and an order had been given to sedate him. A few hours later, a man heading in from the Blue Ridge to Richmond for the holidays saw a man in a rabbit costume—and gas mask—running through the woods with a machete.”

  “He thinks people are out to slay a golden dragon?”

  “Apparently, the Golden Dragon.”

  “Sounds like a Bruce Lee movie,” Brodie murmured. “This guy is a retired captain? He faced all kinds of action in the Middle East? Even with PTSD, I don’t think—”

  “He’s carrying a machete,” Bryan reminded him.

  “Yeah, but a captain—”

  “Men have come home and attacked their wives; women have suffered from PTSD, too. And if an ex-serviceman or woman thinks they’re under attack, they’re trained to respond, Brodie. That’s war; we both know it. Still, we’re all hoping to take down the white rabbit without any kind of violence. You needed to know he was out there.”

  “He didn’t blow up this road, Bryan. I’m thinking maybe this rabbit heard something or saw something...who could be a Golden Dragon?”

  “I don’t know, but I’m at headquarters ready to leave. I’ve already called Bruce; he’s ready for me to swing by for him. Marnie and Sophie will follow together tomorrow as planned. Try to keep an open line of communication.”

  “Will do.”

  “I’ll have authorities heading out right away.”

  “Thanks.”

  Brodie ended the call with his brother and stood staring at the road.

  Or actually what had been the road.

  There was no one else around. It wasn’t a heavily trafficked area at the busiest time. Now, with the holiday almost here, it wasn’t unusual it was empty.

  What happened?

  A patient at a mental facility might have gotten hold of a rabbit costume and a mask—and even hit up a tool shed for a machete.

  But how could he have gotten the necessary supplies to blow up a road?

  And—why?

  He began to skirt around the forest, carefully avoiding the road.

  There might be a large white rabbit on the loose, but he had a feeling there might just be something else more sinister afoot as well.

  ***

  It was cold.

  Maybe it wasn’t quite so cold for people accustomed to it, but Kody had spent the majority of her life in Key West, Florida. Anything below sixty was cold there. It was twenty-something degrees here today. Tonight...

  Tonight, the temperature would drop even lower.

  She prayed she wasn’t still running around the woods with a large white rabbit once the night came on.

  But the rabbit had removed his gas mask.

  And the rabbit “head.”

  He was a good-looking man of about forty-five, with close-cropped brown hair, a lean, character-lined face, and deep brown eyes.

  So damned normal looking!

  “Why are you in a rabbit costume?” she asked him.

  “I’m undercover, of course,” he said. “It’s not usual; I was never an MP.” He seemed puzzled by his own statement. “Not that MPs are in disguise, but I have to be in disguise. My superiors don’t understand I overheard the Queen of Hearts. She was demanding the dragon slayers find and kill the Golden Dragon, and here’s the thing—that’s the mission! Whether they believe or not, I must save the Golden Dragon. He is our salvation.”

  He was speaking about MPs—which suggested he was military.

  But it seemed he had mixed dragons up with Alice in Wonderland, and it was all very confusing.

  She’d heard the explosion and seen the smoke and the fire…and the men in the SUV with their camouflage.

  They were out to harm someone...and her, if she got in the way.

  “I’m Kody—Dakota McCoy. Almost Kody McFadden,” she added in a murmur to herself, “maybe...anyway...if we get out of this. We need to start walking and get to the place where the road is torn out. I know Brodie will be there, and if we can just reach him, he’ll help us. I promise you. Brodie will help us.”

  “You can’t trust the Cheshire Cat, you know,” he told her.

  “Okay, let’s try this.” She offered him her hand. He took it and politely shook it. “I’m Dakota McCoy. And, you are?”

  “White Rabbit,” he said.

  “Your real name,” she said.

  He shook his head. “I’m not being rude; it’s the mission. But let’s move, soldier. You believe help is ahead; it is the way of the mission. As it is, they must be stopped. The evil cards must be stopped.”

  It was good enough; they would be moving through the forest.

  The cold forest.

  But she sincerely believed it would bring them closer to Brodie.

  It wasn’t easy for her. The white rabbit could keep up a brisk pace. She’d thought she was in decent shape, but slugging through the snow—and over the hidden roots and other barriers beneath the snow—she found her breath was coming in deep gasps. A balloon of steam appeared before her each time she exhaled. It was cold, so cold, it felt as if frozen steel filled her lungs.

  “Keep pace, soldier!” he said.

  She figured it would be worthless to try to explain she wasn’t a soldier.

  As they walked, she worried. Brodie was one of the most competent men she had ever met, and by nature and the very tenure of their lives, he was wary and careful, but he didn’t know. He couldn’t know there were men in winter camouflage who knew about the road exploding and who were searching for someone they called the Golden Dragon.

  To kill him.

  The thought gave her chills. Their conversation seemed to infer the men’s hearts and minds were icier than the winter’s day. If Brodie had heard about the rabbit, he might think the rabbit was dangerous, and the men were good and out to find the rabbit.

  He could be in danger himself.

  She pulled her phone out of her jacket pocket again.

  NO SIGNAL.

  There was nothing to do but walk faster—be a “soldier” keeping pace with the rabbit.

  A sudden chill, deeper than what she’d been feeling, seemed to sink into her. She looked to the sky and realized that it was a winter’s sky.

  The afternoon was waning.

  Darkness, and a greater cold still, would come soon enough.

  ***

  Brodie kept to the side of the road, glad the area was rich with pines, snow-laden, but rich in their greenery providing cover.

  He heard a vehicle, but had no intention of showing himself until he could see who had arrived.

  He saw the vehicle coming down the road. It was a large, white, all-terrain SUV with no markings on it to indicate if it was a law-enforcement vehicle or that it might belong to the military.

  He thought of the latter, because when it stopped, the men who emerged from it were wearing winter camouflage outfits as if they were military preparing for operations in Siberia.

  They didn’t look right especially since they were bearing rifles.

  Nor did they seem surprised the road had been rent asunder.

  “Nothing yet,” the driver said to the other.

  The second man made moves similar to those Brodie had made, walking alongside the ruined road searching for what, Brodie wasn’t certain.

  “No cars,” he murmured.

  “No,” said the first, “and no damned white rabbit, either.”

  “He’s out here—somewhere,” the second man said.

  “He has to be stopped.”

  “We’ll find him; he can’t survive out here too long. Besides, half the state is looking for him by now. Crazy—crazy as a loon.”

  As Brodie watched the men, he heard the sound of a siren wailing.

  The man who had been in the passenger’s seat swore with irritation. “Dammit! That blows the operation.”

  “Hey, we had nothing to do with the timing on this!”

  “Right. We should have. If we’d been on it—”

  “We need that white rabbit.”

  “Yeah.”

  Brodie decided to keep to his position and watch, and as he did, a state police car drove into sight. The officer driving parked.

  The other men walked over to the newly arrived patrol car, aggravated maybe by the arrival of the police, but making no attempt to hide from them.

  A uniformed officer emerged from the driver’s side of the car followed by his partner, a woman, who stepped out from the passenger’s seat.

  “What the hell—” the uniformed officer began.

  His partner and he were obviously old friends. She walked around and gave him a knock on the arm. “Heck, Ben, please, say ‘heck.’ It’s the Christmas season!”

  The trooper named Ben, a man of about fifty, loose-limbed, tall and apparently confident in himself and probably long at the job, just shook his head as he answered her and stared at the destruction of the road.

  “Nope. Right now, I mean, what the hell? What the bloody hell? How does this happen to a road—out here. In the middle of nowhere.” He turned to the men in camouflage. “I’m Master Trooper Ben Sharpton and this my partner, Senior Trooper Elise Markowitz. You fellows wouldn’t happen to know anything about this?” he demanded of the two in the camouflage gear.

  “No, sir, we do not!” said the man from the SUV’s passenger’s seat. He pulled off his white ski mask to talk to the deputy. Brodie saw that he was lean, with a hard-edged face, a short nose, and dark hair. “I’m Barrie Stone and this is Rocky Morris. We’re out here from the hospital, looking for one of the patients. I’m sure you’ve heard—”

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah, large white rabbit. I don’t think a crazy in a rabbit outfit did this!” he said. “You didn’t see anyone? You came upon it like this? I’m going to need to see your ID, I may have questions later—or the criminal division may need to talk to you.”

  “Sir, we just drove up. Yes, we’re out—we’re doing our best to find the mentally ill patient who disappeared from the hospital,” Stone said.

  “And you think the rabbit did this?” Ben Sharpton said skeptically.

  “Sir, you don’t know. Some of these men can be damned whacked out,” Stone replied earnestly.

  “That’s why you’ve got rifles—you’re going to shoot him down?” Senior Trooper Markowitz asked indicating their rifles.

  “God, no, ma’am. But we are looking for a man suffering dangerously for PTSD. And like it or not, we’re not supposed to give up our lives or endanger others in our pursuit of him. You...you haven’t seen him or heard anyone has found him?” he asked.