Mastering the Devil (Rush Series Book 4) (26 page)

Alex felt physically sick
to his stomach. “No. Rush, I need to go right now and take care of something. I’ll call and give you an update tomorrow. Okay?”

Silence met Alex’s words. “Is there anything I can do?” Rush asked quietly.

Exhaling deeply as the obstacles suddenly seemed overwhelming. He’d sent the woman he loved… the woman he’d promised to protect, off in the very hands that were set out to destroy her. “No, boss. Just please be patient.”

“I trust you,”
Rush replied.

“Thanks. I’ll be in touch soon,” Alex promised before once again clicking off his phone.

He lifted dead eyes to John and then Erick. “Rush didn’t hire a driver. I don’t know who hired him, but I basically handed them to him tied in with a bow.”

Erick exhaled and John flopped back down on the couch as the ramifications of his words hit them. Both men sat facing him
, their gazes lowered, waiting for him to direct them in the next course of action.

“I only know one person who might know where Miguel is and that is Jacob Roundtree,” Alex said quietly.

Both sets of eyes jerked up at his words.

“Jacob Roundtree?” John asked.

Alex gave a short shake of his head, “Not him specifically, but he’s tied up somehow with Munoz. I’m not sure of the details or who is involved with keeping Miguel floating, but this could get sticky. It could cost you your jobs. I’d prefer it if the both of you bowed out.”

The men glanced at each other for
a brief second. At the same time they shook their heads.

“Not going to happen. Right is right.
No matter who’s involved in this, they’ll deserve what they get,” Erick said, as John nodded in agreement.

Alex allowed a minute to pass, giving them an opportunity to change their minds before giving them a nod and clicking his phone on and dialed his old handler’s phone number. He was lucky Jacob hadn’t changed his number in all these years or he’d have been sunk.

Jacob answered after only a few rings. “Roundtree.”

“Where are they?” Alex asked without preamble.

Silence met his words for a long moment. “Who?”

“Miguel has them and I want them back,” Alex said icily.

Silence hung in the air for a hot minute. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Jacob declared.

“Li
sten to me, you son-of-a-bitch. If anything happens to her, I’m coming after you. You can count on it!”

Silence. “If Miguel has Devon, I don’t know anything about it.”

“Where is he,” Alex demanded.

“I don’t know.”

“Why don’t I believe you?” Alex asked, impatient as the hands on his watch seemed to mock him.

“Believe
it or don’t, I don’t care. Contrary to what you think, I am not Miguel Munoz’s keeper. “ Silence filled the line once more, before, Jacob exhaled deeply and said, “I’ll make some calls.”

“You better hope I don’t find out you’re tied up in this in anyway. I promise you’ll rue the day if I do,” Alex said in a deadly quiet tone.

“Masters, I’m the wrong person to threaten…” Alex heard Jacob say before his attention was captured by movement on the monitor behind Erick’s back in front of the desk. Without taking his eyes from the screen, Alex clicked his phone off and walked closer. The other two men watched him intently, not understanding at first what had caught his attention. Almost simultaneously, they turned and stared at the screen.

Alex blinked rapidly not really believing
or understanding what he was seeing. Walking back and forth in front of the camera set in the delivery van was none other than Miguel Munoz. He was talking to someone not yet visible to the camera’s eye. Why would Miguel be at the warehouse they had under surveillance? Alex’s mind spun wildly as he tried to assimilate the information playing out in front of him.
Miguel
? Miguel had been behind the supply thefts? It made no sense. It couldn’t be about the money, or stopping the resort from being built… it had to be something else; but what?

His body went ice cold when the realization hit him
. This was about him… it’d never been about Devon – she’d just been another piece of bait to lure him here; but why? “Turn it up,” Alex said.

Erick quickly complied. The three men listened intently.

From the screen, Miguel said, “… and I want twenty-four hour surveillance. Is that understood?”

“Yes, I understand,” a voice, Alex recognized replied from just beyond the camera… his former driver, Tipton Mays.

“How banged up are they?” Miguel asked as he slipped a knife from his stylish coat pocket, opened the shiny, silver blade, and began to scrape the blade under each fingernail – as if what he was discussing wasn’t that important to him.

Alex held his breath in anticipation of the answer, praying for the best.

“Devlin was already pretty bad off… and he’s a little more worse off now. That mouthy bitch… she deserved what she got!” Tipton exclaimed, still sight unseen.

Alex’s stomach fell. She’d already been so weak and her shoulder still unhealed. But he had no doubt she’d have gone down fighting… especially if she were protecting someone else. He cringed when he remembered taking her shoulder strap off the night before. He couldn’t remember if they’d strapped it back on or not. The thought of her lying somewhere broken and in pain ate at him… but on the other hand, he now knew exactly where they were.

He struggled to pull his mind back to the ongoing conversation. He watched Miguel glance up idly. “She can be a real pain in the ass. But… I have plans for her. Do what you have to, but don’t let her die. Do you understand?” he asked with menace in his tone.

“Yes, Sir,” Tipton responded.

Miguel gave a curt nod of his head and swung smoothly on the soles of his shoes and headed out towards the back of the garage. The group in the hotel suite watched him until he was out of camera range.

“He’s got them there!” Alex said. The other men turned to him. Alex’s mind instantly went into strategic
planning mode. The former feelings of helplessness were replaced with ice-cold reason. “What kind of firepower do we have left?” he asked.

Erick and John glanced at each other. “Boss… don’t you think it’s time to call in someone official?” Erick asked.
“I mean, this is kidnapping and they are federal agents.”

Alex blinked at the question
and scoffed. Turning away from their gazes, he moved to stand in the middle of the room with his back to them. Lifting a hand he rubbed the back of his neck as he thought things through. Reaching a decision, he turned back.

“Listen, guys, you’ve both been tremendous
assets to this operation and to me and I appreciate it, but I think its time for you both to head on back to the states. There are things you shouldn’t be part of,” Alex said quietly.

“You’re planning on killing him, aren’t you?” John asked.

Alex tilted his head to one side but remained silent.

Again, both men glanced at each other. Ever the voice of reason, Erick said, “If Munoz is valuable enough to be watched over by Jacob Roundtree, do you think that’s wise?”

Alex met their gazes, but again didn’t answer.

John stood slowly and stared at Alex for a long moment before a grin spread across his face. “Well, hell! Let’s get to it. Our job is hard enough without an asshole like Miguel Munoz roaming the streets gunning for us.”
Alex began to shake his head when John turned to look at Erick. “Can you get an aerial view of the garage?”

Erick
blinked at John as he waived in his decision to help or pull out, then snorted. “At least give me something that’d be a challenge,” he responded with a grin. With that, Erick turned the bill of his hat to the back as he turned to face a computer screen set up next to the surveillance screen.

Alex moved closer to the men and watched as Erick’s f
ingers flew across the keyboard, the click of his fingers on the keys, the only sound in a room that had gone from a feeling of casualness to the new feel of severe intensity. “Be sure to add an infrared filter as well,” he advised.

“On it, Boss,” Erick replied.

It took Erick nearly thirty agonizing minutes to finally have an aerial view of the garage. During that time, Alex and John took an inventory of their available weapons and began strategizing possible scenarios of rescue.

Alex was leaning against
the built-in counter thinking through the situation from all angles. John standing behind the counter, sipping a bottle of water, said, “We still won’t know where Miguel is if we go in and take Cash and Devon from the garage.”

Alex exhaled deeply and massaged his fingertips against his forehead where a hell of a headache was raging. “I know, but I can’t leave her… them, there.”

“Won’t that defeat our purpose though?” John asked innocently.

Alex
stiffened and said emphatically, “I don’t give a damn about our purpose! I’ll not leave her to suffer anymore at his hands! Is that understood.”

John raised his eyebrows but only nodded.

Alex sighed and swore softly under his breath. “Sorry,” he muttered.

From across the room, Erick’s chair creaked as he pushed back from the computer desk. “Boss, we’ve got a problem.”

Both Alex and John joined Erick and looked at the aerial view of the garage complete with the requested infrared filter. Alex’s body stilled and he blinked rapidly as he forced his eyes to scan the picture on the screen once again, refusing to believe what his eyes were telling him.

Beside him, John tilted his head and said what they
all already knew, “There should be more bodies.”

On the screen was the picture of the top of the garage with only one blob consisting of red, yellow, and green. Erick glanced up at Alex and darted his eyes away quickly before saying, “Boss… you don’t think…” he trailed off without saying again what they all were thinking.

Alex’s jaw clenched so tight he was afraid his teeth would crack. “No!” he barked sharply. “You heard him. She wasn’t to be killed. She has to be there.”

Sympathetically
, John said, “Alex, maybe they moved them somewhere else.”

Alex slowly shook his head as he forced himself to cool down
and think things through. “Nooo,” he said thoughtfully, “it’s something else.” Looking at the garage in the aerial view, he pointed to another building next it. “What’s this?”

Erick looked to John. “John, you scouted the area after the truck was placed there. What kind of business was this?”

His eyebrows scrunched as he struggled to remember. “I know on one side is a warehouse and on the other an abandoned meat-packing company.” Turning to look at Alex, he continued carefully, “But Boss, even if they had been stashed in either of those places, we would still be able to see them with the infrared”

Alex shook his head slowly as he folded his arms across his chest and continued to stare at the computer. “They are there somewhere… I just know it.”
He rubbed a finger over his bottom lip as he contemplated the photograph. “A meat-packing company, you said. Maybe it was insulated for refrigeration, which would make it near impossible for the infrared to see through, right?” he asked looking to Erick for the answer.

“Maybe,” Erick said skeptically.

Ever practical and a man never to complete a task without a plan, Erick said, “What do you want to do?”

Licking his lips, Alex said softly, “I’m going in. I want you two to monitor and provide tech support only.”

“But Boss…” John began before Alex cut him off.

“Just me, and only me. If there’s trouble, make the call, and then clear out. This is my fight and I intend to see it finished for good this time.
”

John began to argue again, but Erick laid a restraining hand on his arm. “Let it be, John.
This is his mission… we will do as he asks.” Turning to Alex, he said, “But be forewarned, we will call it in. We will have no choice. I’m sorry, Alex, but that is the way it must be. We will put off the call as long as we can, but that is all we can offer.”

Alex nodded, knowing he was right. The agency would have to be notified. He only hoped he’d
have already killed the sorry bastard before they arrived.

“Will you wait until Miguel returns to the garage before going?” John asked.

Alex weighed his options. He wasn’t a hundred percent sure Cash and Devon were even at the location; but he was at least ninety-five percent sure. Once he
was
sure, he’d have to have Miguel summoned somehow. He’d worry about that when the time came. “No, I’m going now. I’ll need an earpiece and some weaponry,” he said to the two men. They both nodded solemnly. “Oh, and John, I’ll need to borrow your bike,” he said, referring to John’s prize possession. John frowned but dug the keys from his pocket.

“I’d like it back… in one piece, if you don’t mind,” he groused.

Alex nodded his assurance and once he’d been outfitted with his requested equipment, he gave the two a nod of his head which spoke volumes to the men.