Mastering the Devil (Rush Series Book 4) (21 page)

And now, here she lay, broken and defenseless. His Little Devil,
no longer fierce, but lost and full of turmoil. She’d not even been this unstable when Roman had been killed and her mother first taken. He remembered sitting on the edge of the tub and sponging water over her trembling body as he helped soothe her flagging spirits. But back then she’d had hope. Now, she had nothing. He didn’t know how to help her this time… or if she’d even want his help.

“Alex?” Ensley’s soft voice called to him from the hall.

He rose quickly and stepped into the hall so as not to disturb Devon’s sleep. He looked into Ensley’s tired features. “Don’t you ever go home and sleep?” he asked.

She frowned up at him and lifted a hand to press it gently against his temple. He flinched even at the slight touch. “You’re more swollen today than yesterday. I told you
, you needed to take your medication. Did you?”

He gave her a sheepish grin. “No, I haven’t left the hospital either.”

She turned and moved swiftly to a nurse seated at a half-circle shaped desk. She bent down and spoke quickly. The nurse glanced down the hall and gave him a small smile before nodding up at Ensley. The nurse reached down into a drawer and rummaged around before pulling something out and placing it in Ensley’s hand. She smiled at the nurse before returning to Alex.

She placed a small packet in his palm. “You are becoming more trouble than you’re worth, Mr. Masters,” she said with a grin. “Now take those right away and it’ll help reduce that swelling.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” he said with a grin. “Now, was there something you needed?”

“Yes, actually. Cash had me paged earlier. He’s still waiting on your or Devon’s return to the hospital. I think you need to go talk to him. He
’s really worried.”

Alex nodded and exhaled deeply. “I should have gone down earlier. I’m sorry, I was waiting for Devon to wake. I’ll give her a bit longer, then, I’ll go talk to him.”

Ensley nodded and turned to leave. She turned back briefly and said, “I’m leaving Mexico City in the morning.”

“Where to next?” he asked.

“There’s a remote village about twenty miles outside of Puerto Vallarta. It’s really difficult to get to and I’ve put it off for as long as I can.”

“More difficult than your jungle gigs?” he asked with a grin.

“It’s more of a remote island off the coast of Puerto Vallarta. I don’t even know if the place is on any map. But it’ll be my last stop before heading back to New York.”

Alex pursed his lips and reached to take her hand. “It has indeed been my pleasure to know you, Dr. Ensley Ingram. If you’re ever in Savannah, please look me up.” Reaching into his wallet, he extracted a business card. “Please call if there’s ever anything I can do for you.”

“Devon is a lucky woman. Don’t make her wait too long before making an honest woman out of her,” she said seriously.

“I don’t…” he began before she cut him off.

“You probably don’t, but you should. You’re meant to be together and life is short. Keep that in mind.”

He gave a slow nod of his head as he contemplated her words. “I will.”

She gave him a smile and as she stepped away from him, she said with as much rancor as she could manage, “And, don’t forget to take your   medication, Alex!”

He smiled and gave her a jaunty salute.

Devon wasn’t sure what eventually woke her, but with trouble, she opened her swollen eyes. She slowly uncurled her stiff body and glanced to where she’d last seen Alex, hoping he was still asleep.
Shock radiated through her body to discovery him gone. Her heart clutched painfully in her chest. What had she expected? That he’d suddenly have an overwhelming need to be with her? She knew she should be thankful he was gone, but she just felt heartsick.

A noise from the hall had her turning her head just in time to see Alex and the blonde woman standing in
the hall, in front of her room. The blonde’s hand was gently caressing the side of Alex’s face. Devon adverted her eyes. She didn’t want to see the intimacy between the two of them. She wondered why Alex had even bothered to come to her room. She didn’t want him to feel any obligation to her at all! The darkness she’d been battling – and had tried to sink into with the aid of the pills, began to swirl within her, sucking her back down into its frozen depths.

She shivered and pulled the sheet and thin blanket up over her head, curling even tighter into her ball. She wished the bed would swallow her up. She had no doubt Alex knew exactly what she’d tried to do. She found, she really, really didn’t want to face him – couldn’t face him.

Even in the depths of her dark despair, she knew the instant Alex entered the room – she felt his presence as surely as if he’d crawled into the bed with her. A part of her longed for him to do just that. She wanted him to curl his strong body around hers and promise her everything was going to be okay. She wanted him to tell her that he loved her and would never leave her.  A far off memory from the night before when she’d thought her father had returned to sing her that lullaby caused a sob to bubble up unexpectedly, which she fought unsuccessfully to catch. She really needed him to leave.

She felt his hand land softly on her hip. She felt the heat of his body as he leaned over her and gently swept the covers from her head. She
buried her face deeper into her arm.

“Devon?” he said softly.

She tried to shrug his hand off, but he tightened his grip.

“Devon, please look at me,” he said, when she didn’t answer the first demand.

“Please go away, Alex,” she begged.

“Devon, talk to me,” he said, as he more forcibly turned her quivering body towards him.

“I… I really can’t do this right now,” she mumbled, trying so hard not to meet the intensity of his eyes.

“You’re going to have to talk someone.”

With eyes filled with bitter defiance, she turned her head fully and looked into his face for the first time. “Well, it won’t be you!” she snapped, but the words lost some of their bite, when another sob bubbled up. She immediately clamped her lips together and tried to return to the comfort of her ball, but Alex refused to lessen his grip on her body. The warmth of his hands on her seemed to burn into her frozen body like a fiery brand.

Closing her eyes, she struggled to breathe. “Please, Alex,” she begged.

“Come on, baby, talk to me,” he conjured her.

She swallowed hard at his word of endearment. “Please don’t call me that,” she whispered.

He frowned. “Call you what?”

“Just go.”

“No, I’m not! Not until you tell me what happened. Tell me what you were thinking? Why would you do something so asinine?” he asked with exaggerated patience, patience he was far from feeling.

Drawing in an unsteady breath, she said, “My mom was killed, Alex. It was so bad. She never even had a chance to be free.”

Alex let out his own unsteady breath as her pain touched him. “I know, honey. I’m so sorry.”

She swiped a hand across her damp face.
“Cash was hurt badly in the explosion. The explosion that was meant for me.” Once more, she lifted her sad eyes up to his, “I don’t have anything left, Alex. He’s finally taken everything from me – my family, my home… why shouldn’t I give him my life as well? There’s nothing left of it anyway.”

“How can you say that?”

“You warned me this would happen. I just didn’t want to listen. And I was afraid Miguel would go after you and Cash. But maybe now with the current circumstances, you’ll be safe, at least,” she said, dry-eyed.

“Current circumstances?” he asked.

“Now that you’re with someone else,” she said with as little inflection as she could.

Alex exhaled and sat down in the chair. “Devon, its…”

She cut him off. “Its okay. You warned me over and over again that you didn’t want this. I’m only sorry the hospital called you again, I promise I had you removed from my emergency contact list.”

He stared at her for a moment. “They didn’t call me. I found you at your house… unconscious, nearly dead!”

“You found me?” she asked incredulously.

“Yes, I went after you once I knew you’d been by the hotel.”

The memory of seeing the blonde half-dressed behind his door blazed before her eyes. Pain lashed at her heart once more. The hopelessness that had overwhelmed her outside her destroyed home crashed over her once again. Feeling lost and terribly alone, she turned her head away from his gaze, and whispered, “You should have just let me be.”

Air rushed from his lungs at the implications of her words. He leaned forward and grasped her cold fingers within his warm palms.
“Devon, you’ve got to promise me you won’t try this again.”

When she didn’t respond in any way to his words, he demanded more firmly, “Promise me!”

Tugging her hand out of his, she pulled the covers more fully over herself. “I’m really tired. I need you to leave now,” she said dully.

“I’m not leaving until you promise me,” he said stubbornly.

“Fine,” she snapped, “I promise. Now, please leave!”

He studied her carefully for a long moment before slowly nodding his head. “Okay, Devon. I’ll be at my hotel if you need me. My cell was… misplaced, so you’ll have to call my room at the hotel to reach me, okay?”

Without looking at him again, she merely gave a quick jerk of her head.

He stood for a long moment staring down at her
debating whether to leave or not. While her eyes were closed, her body was trembling and her breathing ragged. He wished he knew what words would help her… would keep her from the edge of the darkness she kept gravitating towards. He pressed the heel of his hand against his eyes and swore under his breath. Leaning forward, he pressed his lips against the side of her head. He couldn’t help but feel her flinch at his touch. How had they gotten to this place? They’d been so good together for so long – had cared about each other for so long. But now everything had come unraveled.

“I’ll be back soon. Try to get some rest,” he said gruffly.

He’d already left the room when in a whispering sob, she said once more, “You should have just let me be.”

~M~

Alex exhaled as he slowly limped down the hall toward Cash’s room. He was not looking forward to telling the other man about Devon. He stopped momentarily outside and tapped against the semi-closed door. He waited a beat before pushing the door open. Alex grimaced in distaste at what met his eyes.

Cash was lying on his stomach, his face buried, with both arms raised above his head, forming an imperfect circle around his head.
From the door, Alex could hear the muffled groans and occasional garbled curses coming from the reclining man. Over him, stood a male nurse with some sort of exfoliating pad, scrubbing none too gently against the seared flesh of Cash’s back and shoulders. Alex stepped back out into the hall, thankful the nearly closed door kept the other man’s voice from carrying to him.

Alex stood, leaning heavily against the wall and waited. He couldn’t even imagine how much pain Cash was in. From the look of it, he’d taken the brunt of the explosion against his back. It’d really ripped him up.

An hour had nearly passed when Cash’s door opened and the nurse stepped out into the hall and nodded his head briefly in Alex’s direction before pushing his cart out and continuing on down the hall. Alex straightened and reopened the door. This time, Cash was lying on his side, a pillow lodged against his stomach to help prop him up. His breathing was nearly raspy, his tanned features unnaturally pale, and his eyes were closed.

He’d obviously heard Alex’s entrance into the room, because he groused, “Dude, I’ll beat the hell out of you if you come near me again with the scrubber!”

“I don’t blame you,” Alex said grinning.

Cash opened his eyes briefly before closing them again. “Where the hell you been? And where’s Devon?”

Stepping further into the room, Alex made his way slowly to the chair beside Cash’s bed. “I was… out conducting business and only just found out about the explosion,” he hesitated to say more.

“Where’s Devon? Have you seen her,” Cash asked impatiently.

“
Umm… yesss,” Alex drew out the last letter as he tried to think of the best way to tell him what Devon had done.

Cash opened his eyes again. “Well, just spit it out already. What?” he snapped.

“I’m not sure what all happened, but when I found her outside her home in the rain, she’d taken a whole bottle of painkillers.”

Tension radiated from Cash’s body. “Is she… did
she…“ he trailed off.

“She’s alive, but
extremely fragile,” Alex said softly, putting the other man out of his misery.

“What the hell happened?” Cash all but roared.

Alex slowly shook his head. “I don’t know, man.”

“What did she say when you asked her?”

Alex shrugged his shoulders. “Not a lot. She’s being very… uncommunicative,” he said non-responsively.

“She needs protection
.  You know that right?”