Mastering the Devil (Rush Series Book 4) (2 page)

She and Cash met the
crew back in the middle of the house. The house was empty, which made no sense. Their intel had been checked and verified. They lowered their weapons and began searching through the empty rooms for any evidence of drugs. Devon shook her head. It just didn’t feel right. Behind her, she could hear Cash and Nick discussing the situation. Her eyes searched the main room looking for any inconsistencies, but didn’t see anything which would point to a house being used to cook meth.

As she had during the initial sweep, her foot once again caught on the floorboard. Her nerves stretched to near breaking, she grumbled, “Son-of-a-bitch!” Kicking angrily at the loose floorboard, she watched in amazement as a panel built into the floor, automatically rose up. She stared in disbelief at a darkened set of wooden stairs leading under the house.

“Cash!” she yelled, as she lifted her weapon and began the descent into the dark, cavernous hole.

She slipped a hand into her utility belt and lifted a small flashlight. She turned it on by
depressing it against her teeth. She flashed the light around the room as she heard the footsteps of her team climbing down the stairs behind her. There were multiple stainless-steel tables littered with numerous Brunson burners and glass containers. She moved forward and saw that one wall was covered in maps. She slipped her weapon into its holster and moved closer and shined her flashlight at what was written on the maps. Black lines had been drawn connecting black circles. She traced the lines with her forefinger trying to understand the meaning behind the seemingly random drawings.

As she lean
ed forward to get a better look, she spied a fallen envelope on the floor which caught her attention. She bent and scooped it up. She turned it over and due to the fact that she still clutched the flashlight, in her other hand, she awkwardly slid a single piece of stationary out of the envelope.

Let me know if this isn’t enough. There’s plenty more where it came from.   Miguel Munoz.

Her chest burned as she sucked in a deep breath.
Miguel Munoz
! She turned the paper over in her hands, looking for any other writings, but didn’t find any. She once again looked at the map and this time saw the initials
M.M.
written beside a circled destination. She’d just reached out her hand to touch the initials on the map when she heard Scott Rifkin said, “I found a light switch.” The bare-naked light bulb suspended in the center of the room flickered twice before Cash yelled, “Get cover!”

Cash dove at Devon as she clutched at the map on the wall
. He knocked her down with one hand and upended a table with the other. An enormous bright-white flash engulfed the room, a second before a huge explosion filled the air. The sound reverberated in her ears, leaving her nearly deaf. She struggled not to inhale the arid smoke.

A huge ball of fire blew over the top of them. She heard Scott Rifkin scream, but from Nick Ochco, she heard nothing. She struggled to rise but
the intense pain in her shoulder forced her to stop her movements. “Just stay down,” she heard Cash say, “I’m going to check on the others.”

Her stomach roiled at the pain in her shoulder, regardless of
it however, she struggled to her feet and swept the flashlight still miraculously clenched in her hand around the room. All the maps were destroyed, as well as everything else in the room that was burnable. All the evidence they could have possible had, had just been snatched from them within seconds. She glanced down at the piece of the map still clutched within her hand.
M.M.
it read. She smoothed out the portion of the map she’d ripped away and smiled.

As she shoved the map-piece and
letter into her vest, the walls around her began to tremble and the ground rumbled. She jerked around and the flashlight went flying out of her hand, bouncing off under some wooden shelving. Pain radiated through her shoulder when she fell to her knees in the dark cavernous hole, as the world around her seemed to wobble and weave. “Cash!” she screamed, right before the house above crashed down on top of them.

~M~

Alex Masters slid smoothly into the awaiting limousine. He was thankful for the advantage of arriving in Rush Drayton’s private jet, which afforded him the luxury of slipping directly from the plane into the coolness of the car, therefore, bypassing the oppressive heat of the Mexican sun. His consuming thoughts throughout his flight of a certain sultry
señorita
, had had him digging his cellphone out of his jacket pocket. Before the phone had a chance to ring a second time, however, he’d clicked the phone off. He inhaled sharply. Talking never changed anything between them. God, he wanted that woman. She’d kept him twisted in knots for far too long. But the path she’d chosen contained too much risk. He didn’t want that life any more.

While he understood what drove Devon Montanez – the need to find her mother – he just couldn’t stand by and watch as she self-destructed. And she would, it was only a matter of time. The agency’s hype of being able to take a bad situation and make it rise up like a phoenix from the ashes… was just that, hype. He only hoped she realized that before it completely destroyed her. With a resolute shake of his head, he turned his thoughts back to the job at hand.

His boss, Rush Drayton, CEO of Drayton International, owned three different resorts in Mexico and was currently in the process of adding a fourth in Puerto Vallarta. But there was trouble… it seemed there was always trouble when he visited Mexico. Before even checking into his hotel, Alex had the driver take him by the job site.

When they pulled up in front of the mam
moth shell of the building, he leaned forward to gaze up the building’s height. When completed, it would be the biggest resort in Puerto Vallarta. But the work-crews were having difficulties getting their supplies. Rumor was the local drug cartels were trying to keep the new resort from being completed. It was said they feared the additional security a resort this size would bring.

Of course, he and Rush both thought the issues might stem from the killing of Tiko Mars, who’d kidnapped Rush’s wife, Trinity
, earlier in the year. Tiko had owed a particular drug cartel an extensive amount of money, which he’d hoped to pay with the ransom from the kidnapping. But by them killing Tiko, and thus foiling his kidnapping scheme, they’d deprived the cartel of their money. Alex hoped that wasn’t the case. He slid out of the car and made his way toward the site. He stopped by the office and waited for the foreman, Sal Monoco, to meet him.

Tog
ether, they’d toured the facility for several hours when Alex’s phone beeped. He glanced down and didn’t recognize the number.

“Excuse me,” he said to Sal as he turned away.

“Masters.”

“Is this Alex Masters?” an accented female voice asked.

“Yes.”

“Mr. Masters, my name is Landa Fernandez. I work at
the American British Cowdray Hospital.  We have you listed as the emergency contact for Ms. Montanez; Ms. Devon Montanez. Is that correct?”

Alex’s stomach flopped at the words. “Yes,” he answered briskly.

“Mr. Masters, Ms. Montanez has been injured and is currently being taken into surgery.”

“Injured how?” he asked, as he immediately began walking towards the construction elevator, being followed by a very confused Sal Monoco.

“I’m not sure of the details, sir, only that you were to be notified.”

Alex huffed a breath as he ran a hand roughly over his head. “What was the name of the hospital again?”

After hearing the reply, he immediately clicked off his phone. “Sal, I’ve got to go take care of another matter. I’ll be back,” he said as he slipped into the elevator.

Alex sat silently in the car, his clenched fist, the only indication of his angst. He should have let
his call to her go through. He should have demanded she leave the I.D.E.A. That whatever had happened to her was because of the agency, he had no doubt.
God! If anything happened to her
… he stopped his thoughts immediately. He couldn’t afford to think that way.

It seemed to take an enormous amount of time for the car to
finally reach the hospital in Mexico City. With his limited Spanish, trying to find where she was in the hospital added to his frustration. His heart seemed to try and beat out of his chest. The overwhelming feelings of anguish reminded him of when he’d been summoned back to the states when his wife, Addison, had killed herself, years before. He clenched his jaw until his teeth ground together. He wasn’t sure how he’d handle this again… this was the very reason he’d refused to remain with Devon Montanez. He knew, as he’d always known, that he didn’t want to have to live with getting this
very
call.

He stood in front of the admission’s desk for what seemed like hours, when
, in all probability, it’d only been minutes trying to make the Hispanic woman behind the desk understand him. He continually raked his hand over his head in frustration. He kept repeating her name over and over again to the woman,
Devon Montanez, Devon Montanez
.

He turned when he felt a hand on his arm. A pretty blond woman with amazing blue eyes and a beautiful smile, dressed in hospital scrubs stood next to him. He inhaled sharply. The woman reminded him of Addison. So much so that he was forced to shake his head.

She gave him a gentle smile. “Maybe I can help,” she said, her accent belying her New York roots. “I speak a little Spanish.”

He gave the woman a small smile. “I’d appreciate that. I have a friend who was hurt and brought here. Her name is Devon Montanez.”

Turning to the woman at the desk, the pretty blonde began speaking in stilted Spanish. The Hispanic woman behind the desk slowly began to nod her head and turned to click the keys of her keyboard. Once she’d retrieved the information she was looking for, she turned back and fired off something in rapid Spanish. The blonde nodded and said, “Gracias.”

Turning back to Alex,
she smiled gently, “Your friend is in the Emergency Room. Do you know where that is?”

“No,” he replied.

“Come on, I’ll take you there,” she said, as she turned away from the lobby.

As he turned to follow her, he said, “I appreciate your help.”

She gave him a wave of her hand, dismissing his words. “I know how frustrating it can be, not speaking the language.”

She led him through a maze of interconnecting hallways until they reached the emergency room. She
led him to the counter. Again, in stilted Spanish, she spoke to the woman at the desk. Turning back to him, she asked, “What was her name again?”

“Devon Montanez,” he
supplied.

The woman at the desk said, “Oh, si. The policía.” Alex nodded. The woman began to speak in the same rapid Spanish as the woman from the previous desk. Alex stood by impatiently shifting from foot to foot
, wanting to shout in frustration. The pretty blonde nodded and spoke back, smiling her thanks.

Finally, she turned back to Alex. “Your friend is in with a surgeon right now. If you’ll wait, someone will be out shortly.”

Alex’s jaw clenched again as he thought of Devon scared, wounded, and all alone. “Did she tell you how she is?” he asked anxiously.

“She really didn’t know. All she said was there was an explosion of some kind,” she replied, as lightly as she could.

He blanched at the words. “Oh, my God!” he muttered, under his breath. “I need to see her,” he said urgently.

The pretty blonde reached out a comforting hand. “As soon as…”

He cut her off, “No! You don’t understand. She’s all alone. Her family is… gone.”

As the woman lifted her compassionate blue eyes up to his, the swi
nging doors behind them opened and a Hispanic man came through. “Ahh, Dr. Ingram! What a pleasure to see you,” he exclaimed, as he walked to Alex’s pretty blonde escort.

Alex’s brows arched.
Doctor
? She was dressed in scrubs, but he’d assumed she was a nurse.

“Dr. Burrows,” she said, with a polite smile.

“What brings you in from the jungle?” he asked her.

She glanced at Alex. “Were you seeing a patient named Devon Montanez?”

“Si,” he replied. “Bad business… bad business.”

Alex’s stomach fell. Taking a deep breath, steeling himself for whatever he might find, he asked, “Can I see her?”

“Are you a relation?” the doctor asked.

“I’m
Alex Masters, her emergency contact,” he replied.

“Yes, they are putting her in a room now.
You’ll have to wait…”

Alex cut him off, just as he’d done to the pretty doctor, “No! She doesn’t need to be alone.”

He watched the petite blonde place a hand on the other doctor’s arm. “She doesn’t have any family. I think it’ll be okay, don’t you?”

Dr. Burrows rubbed a hand over his face. “I don’t know… the hospital has rules…”

“What if I go back with him? I’ll not let him out of my sight,” the petite doctor cajoled.