Mastering the Devil (Rush Series Book 4) (12 page)

Alex stood for a long time in the hotel parking lot with his hands buried in his pockets long after Devon had backed out and driven off. He was emotionally spent. He’d gone from having that intoxicating surge of happiness at finding out she’d found her mother, and thinking maybe, just maybe, she’d now be freed of the past Then to only have it doused in realizing she’d wouldn’t let it go until she’d gotten Miguel. He’d wanted it to be over. He’d wanted to take her in his arms and swing her around in celebration of her mother’s safe return. But she’d spoiled their moment… again.

He’d known though, deep down, that she’d never let it go… he wouldn’t have, back in his
day, either. He’d nearly learned his lesson regarding the C.I.A., and agencies like it, too late. He shuddered to think how close he’d come to losing everything to that cruel mistress. If Jacob Roundtree hadn’t fought as hard as he had, Alex knew he’d either still be in a federal prison somewhere… or dead. He owed that man a lot. Not that he thought Jacob was blameless in this. He was simply one of the cogs in the big machine. If he’d learned nothing else, Alex had learned that no one is indispensible and that if you weren’t careful – and sometimes even if you were – the big machine would gobble you up and leave you broken and used up. This had been what he’d been trying to save Devon from.

Slowly, Alex turned and walked back into the hotel to find Ensley still at the table
, texting on her phone. She looked up when Alex drew near the table, her blue eyes filled with concern.

“Everything okay with your friend?” she asked.

He inhaled deeply and sat down, his appetite long gone. “I’m… not sure,” he finally said, as he lifted cold coffee to his lips. With a wave of his hand he caught the waiter’s attention, who immediately came and filled a fresh cup.

Ensley studied him as he stirred creamer into his coffee. “You really love her, don’t you?” she said
quietly.

Alex busied himself with rearranging his silverware on the table. He was so not having this discussion with her. Glancing up, he finally said, “It’s complicated.”

Ensley nodded before glancing down at her hands which were wrapped around her coffee cup. “Love is certainly that.” She sat silently for a long moment before lifting her eyes. “Life goes by in a blink, Alex. None of us are guaranteed any amount of time and before you know it, it’s all over. We have to capture our moments of happiness with both hands and get over whatever is keeping us from doing just that.”

“Wow. That sounds like experience talking,” Alex said
, surprised at the seriousness of her tone.

She nodded her head slowly before once again lowering her gaze. “I was in a serious relationship
once while I was still in college.” She smiled sadly as she thought of her past. “His name was Greg Iverly. He was going to med-school to be a pediatrician. He loved kids and wanted a dozen.” She laughed and glanced up, “I wasn’t on board with that at all.” Her smile faded as the memories became darker. “He was a year ahead of me, and out of nowhere, he asked me to marry him.”

“And you didn’t want to get married?” he asked.

She exhaled before saying, “Sure. One day, but not then. I still had two years of college, then my internship to complete. I didn’t have time to be married. I wanted to wait.”

“I take it he didn’t like your plan?” Alex prodded softly.

“He wasn’t happy about it. He wanted to get married and start a family right away. But that wasn’t what I wanted. So, in the end, he loved me and agreed to wait until after college,” she said, with a slight shrug of her shoulders.

“So what happened?”

She took a long sip of her coffee before saying, “He was diagnosed with leukemia and died a year later.”

Alex laid
a hand on her forearm. “I’m so sorry.”

She nodded in recognition of his condolences. “I’ve wished often that I’d
married him and had had that child with him. At least then I’d have some part of him. It was what he wanted. It would have made him happy. But I was so extremely selfish. And now it’s all gone, almost as if it never existed.”

“You can’t beat yourself up for not marrying him if you weren’t ready,” Alex said.

She gave a mirthful laugh, “You see that is what’s funny about it. When we found out there was nothing that could be done for him, there was nothing more I wanted than to be his wife, if only for a little while. But he didn’t want to get married because I pitied him.”

She glanced up quickly, to ensure she got her point across, “I desperately wanted to belong to him, and him to me
, for as much time as he had left. But no matter how I argued the point, he refused. I shouldn’t have waited, but I thought I had plenty of time… just like you do, Alex.”

Looking intently into
his eyes, she said, “I don’t know what your situation is with your friend, all I’m saying is, don’t think that there will always be time for things to work out.”

Uncomfortable with the seriousness and topic under discussion, Alex merely nodded. Glancing up,
he saw the two men he’d come to Mexico City to meet. They spotted him at his table and ambled towards him with a military gait. It seemed to Alex, no matter how long a person was out of the service, a part of it lingered within them.

When they drew even to the table, Alex blotted
his lips with a napkin and rose to shake hands with them. Remembering his manners, he said, “Ensley, these two scallywags are Erick Mallory and John Tidwell. We used to work together years ago.” Ensley smiled and shook their proffered hands.

“Gentlemen, this Dr. Ensley Ingram
.”

Turning back to her, Alex continued, “
I hate to run, but I have a meeting to attend.” Rising to his feet, he withdrew money for the breakfast and laid it on the table as the other two gave her a nod of their heads before moving off towards the lobby. He turned to go as well before turning back once more to face Ensley as he remembered their previous conversation. “You’re a very nice person, Dr. Ensley Ingram. I hope you find your happiness,” he said lightly.

She smiled and said, “
I hope the same for you, Alex Masters.”

With a
small smile and nod of his head, Alex turned and walked away to where the two other men were standing.

Chapter 7

That son-of-a-bitch
! Devon fumed, as she drove back to her house. She began plotting ways of taking Jacob Roundtree out, and she knew plenty from her training in the I.D.E.A. None of it made any sense to her. Why would someone at Jacob’s level allow a maniac like Miguel Munoz to roam free if they knew where he was? Tears of frustration nearly blinded her as she drove.

She refused to admit the tears were for Alex. She was done with him. He’d clearly moved on, she’d seen it with her own eyes. She sighed at her own foolishness. What had they had for him to move on from? While she’d never kidde
d herself that Alex had had other women, she’d never been forced to see it firsthand. But seeing him so casual with the other woman, made what they’d had seem sordid and tawdry somehow; like she was just nothing more than another of his women; just another girl in a port. It’d been real to her, something she’d held on to. Maybe if she’d never joined the I.D.E.A, they’d have had a chance. But he’d never forgiven her for that. And while she’d like to be angry at Alex for throwing her aside when she’d only agreed to go into the agency to save him, she knew that was only partly true. She’d have joined anyway. She’d have done anything to save her mother and make Miguel pay.

She’d
almost gotten home, when suddenly she pulled over into a vacant parking lot. She had to know the truth; she needed to hear from the horse’s mouth – or the jackass’s mouth, as the case was. She had to know if Jacob knew and had known where Miguel was. Pulling her phone out, she punched in his number. He answered on the second ring.

Apparently, seeing her name on his screen, he answered, “Devon, where have you been? You’re supposed to be in the hospital.
And yet I hear you’ve been off doing only God knows what!”

She
blustered at the censure in his voice. How dare he censure her! Allowing her anger to build, she spat, “Have you always known where Miguel and my mother were?”

There was a moment of silence, then she heard him sigh. “You’ve been
speaking to Alex.”

“Is that an admission?” she asked unrelenting.

There was another pause before Jacob answered, his tone more brisk and clipped, “First of all, I don’t answer to you, nor do I have to explain my actions to you…”

She cut him
off before he could go any further. “Well, we’ll just see who you do have to explain to. You can certainly guarantee I’m going over your head on this one. You have nothing on me now to stop me. You can’t touch Alex, and I have my mother. I hope you and Miguel are good, close friends, because you’ll probably be sharing the same jail cell!”

“Don’t you dare threaten me, little girl! I’ve been in this business longer than you’ve been alive! Do you really think it was my call
to not bring in Miguel Munoz? I pleaded your case to them, but they refused to listen.”

“They? Who
is they, exactly?” she demanded.

Again, she heard him sigh, “Devon, you’re fighting a losing fight. Go home and
enjoy being with your mother.”

She simmered at his condescending tone.
Then something in her brain kicked in. “How do you know I’m not at home? How come you didn’t ask me how I have my mother? Are you having me followed? Is my car tagged?”

Silence once again met her words. In a strained voice, he replied, “Just go home, Devon. What’s done is done and we’ll just roll with it.”

“Where is Miguel now?” she demanded.

Silence once again met her words. Finally, he said, “I don’t know.”

“You’re a liar!” she spat.

“Even if I did know, I couldn’t tell you,” he replied.

“I demand…” she began, before the line went dead.

She
sat holding the phone to her ear long after it’d clicked off. Anger slowly swirled into panic, which gripped hold of her so tight, she thought she’d suffocate from it. What was the game here? Why would they be tracking her? She looked momentarily at her phone before turning it over and taking the battery out. Slowly, she put the car in drive and drove home.

When she walked through the doors of her home, she couldn’t help but wonder if maybe the house was bugged as well. She walked through the empty rooms to the kitchen and wasn’t surprised to find Cash and her mother in kitchen. Cash was sitting at the bar, while her mother stood at the stove frying empanadas.
She smiled at the normalcy, especially following the unreal things she’d just endured.

Striving to make her voice sound normal and emotion-free, she said, “Hey guys! What’s going
on in here?”

Cash eyed curiously, knowing something was off immediately. She shook her head at his raised eyebrows. Turning to her mother, she said, “That smells wonderful! I think I’m going to shower real quick before we eat.”

Her mother accepted the kiss on her cheek. “Don’t be long, it’ll probably only be another ten minutes or so,” her mother said.

“I won’t, I promise.” Devon turned to head
toward the bedrooms, then stopped. “Hey, I have an idea. Why don’t we go to the movies this afternoon, then maybe catch a late lunch… get out of the house for a little while? How’s that sound?”

Again, Cash cocked his head at her, but only said, “I think if you guys are going out, I’ll head home for a little while and check on things there. I’ll meet you both back here. Okay?”

“Sounds like a good plan.” Quickly, she turned and continued down the hall, not wanting to have to answer any questions from Cash.

~M~

Back in his suite, Alex sat across from Erick Mallory and John Tidwell. He’d concluded several successful missions with both men as an agent with the C.I.A., both together and separately. He’d already explained to them the problems he was facing with the unknown thugs not allowing supplies through to Dragon Towers.

Erick Mallory scratched his head and looked
at Alex in confusion. “I don’t understand? Why are we here? You, alone, could easily take out some thugs.”

Alex inclined his head. “If they were simply thugs, then I’d say yes. However,
these pirates are too well organized to be common street thugs. I need to know who’s behind the hijackings. That will be the only way to nip it in the bud, or if the force seems too great, to walk away from the project. My boss, Rush Drayton, doesn’t want to be in a continual battle over this project.”

John Tidwell sat back in his chair and placed an ankle on his knee. “So what devious plans do you have up your sleeve?” his nearly black eyes in stark contrast to his shockingly white hair.

Alex sat back and grinned, “We’re going into the delivery business.”

Erick ran a hand over his shiny bald head. “
I don’t see how drawing out the thugs, then taking them out will point you to whoever is behind it.”