Mastering the Devil (Rush Series Book 4) (28 page)

The thought of Devon burning in that way caused Alex to jump up in preparation of snatching the other man’s face off. But before he got more than a few inches from the chair’s seat, Tipton laid both hands on Alex’s shoulders and pressed him back in the seat easily.

“You son-of-a-bitch! I’ll kill you. I swear I will!” Alex yelled.

Miguel laughed. “That would be a good trick.” Lifting his gun to scratch the side of his head, he continued now in a deadly serious tone. “Now that we understand each other, I want my payloads and I want them now!”

Payloads
? Alex thought.
Payloads from five years ago?

“What makes you think I have them?” Alex asked.

Miguel swore in Spanish and reacted quickly by smashing Alex in the side of the head with his gun. Alex’s head snapped to the side and a loud ringing filled his ears as blood spurted and flowed down the side of his face.

“I know you have them! I know who you were trying to sell them to, you stupid fool! Did you seriously think I wouldn’t know when you tried to sell them? There is only a few people who could afford or would want them. They are mine and I want them back!” he demanded once more.

Alex’s mind scrambled as he tried to clear his head and formulate a way out. Why would Miguel think he had the payloads, and who actually had them? He shook his head and put thoughts of the payloads aside for now to deal with his most eminent set of problems.

Leaning forward, he began to gag and spit. “I’m going to be sick,” he whimpered.

Miguel jumped back. “For God’s sake! Don’t just stand there, grab a trashcan or something,” he said to Tipton.

When the big man brought the trashcan towards him, Alex slowly swung the chair around as if seeking relief in the can and simultaneously snatched the bourbon bottle from the desk and jumped up and smash
ed the bottle against Tipton’s head. But nothing happened except for a look of amazement which crossed the man’s face. At the sound of movement behind him, Alex grabbed the stunned man and spun him in front of his body as a shield. Two shots rang out in quick succession. Alex felt the large man’s body jerk instantly and slowly sink to the garage floor. He staggered against the weight of the larger man.

From the corner of his eye, Alex saw Miguel level the gun at him. His mind seemed to slow and a plan formulated.
He stepped forward and stumbled purposefully over the dead man’s body. A shot rang out, but it went wide to the left and shattered the window in the office’s outer door. Alex flung his body against Miguel, knocking him to the floor. The gun dropped from the man’s hand and both men grappled for it. Being on top of the other man, gave Alex an advantage.

As he reached for the gun,
he pressed the palm of the other hand against Miguel’s throat. Miguel bucked and thrashed, hitting out with both fists. Alex increased the pressure until Miguel’s punches lost some of their vigor; all the while, Alex continued stretching out to retrieve the weapon.

He’d just wrapped his fingers around the butt of the gun when a sharp pain caused him to gasp. He snatched the gun and rose to discover Miguel had removed a knife from his jacket pocket and had stuck him in the side. Before he could do more than comprehend what had happened, Miguel thrust the knife once again into Alex’s body. This time, the blade slipped through his ribs and punctured
his lung. Alex panted as the air in his lung slowly seeped away. Pain nearly blinded him. Fear that Miguel would get away to hurt Devon once more, had him swinging the gun and aiming it at the man.

Miguel smiled at him with arrogance, not believing Alex would actually pull the trigger. Alex gave him a returning smile
, his gaze unflinching. “This is for Devon and her family, you miserable bastard, “Alex murmured, before pulling the trigger.

The smug look on the other man’s face faded into surprise. Alex pulled the trigger once more and watched as the life in Miguel Munoz’s eyes slowly faded away and his head
fell to the side. Alex struggled off the dead man’s body and sat, leaning against the outer-office wall. He held a hand to his side and struggled to breathe, but each intake of air was excruciating. He held the gun close to his body waiting on anyone who might have heard the gunshots.

He closed his eyes momentarily as the pain in his side took his breath away… which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing as breathing brought its own source of pain.
He set the gun aside to run his hand under his shirt to feel the damage. He grimaced when his fingers came in contact with the wounds. They weren’t large by any means – just two small slits, but blood ran freely from them both. His once white dress shirt was becoming sodden with the thick, red blood.

The
small crackle of a foot stepping on a pebble brought Alex’s head and his hand jerking from under his shirt down to where he’d carelessly placed the gun. He looked around the garage, but his vision was obscured by both the stolen van as well as his position on the floor. As his eyes roamed, his hand did the same, searching the weapon. He had to risk a glance down in order to find it.

As he snatched
the gun up, lifting his head at the same time, a familiar voice – more confident now, said, “Uh uh, Alex, how about putting that down and sliding it over to me.”

Alex blinked as
shock momentarily stalled his senses and he took in the scene laid out before him. Jacob Roundtree stood in almost the same place as Miguel Muonz had been just minutes before. In one hand, Jacob held a Glock, similar to his own, but the weapon wasn’t pointed at him, instead the barrel of the gun was pressed firmly against Devon’s temple.

Jacob laughed at Alex’s expression. “What?” he smirked, “you look surprised. Surely the great, infallible Alex Masters knew who was really pulling the strings?

Alex tore his eyes away from Jacob’s smug face and swept his eyes over Devon. Anger burned when he saw her battered face and eye which was swollen shut. She didn’t meet his eyes; however, her gaze was riveted on the man lying dead on the ground at her feet. Her body trembled and shook, as tears streamed down her face. Her jaw was rigid and she gasped in heaving sobs.

“Devon?” he said softly.
For a long moment, she didn’t respond in any way and he was afraid she was in shock.

Then she lifted her gaze to his and gave him a watery, weak smile. “I’
m okay, Cowboy,” she whispered.

“Are you responsible for this?” Alex asked harshly
, nodding toward Devon and all her new injuries.

But he shook his head. “No. While I’ll admit there were times I really,
really
want to knock the hell out of her, I never got the pleasure. This was done by Miguel’s men.”

“Where’s Cash?” Alex asked, as he glanced around seeking a way out for both he and Devon.

“Cash is tied up in the next building… alive… for now. I found this little vixen trying to escape. Tsk, tsk, I guess she never heard the expression about never leaving a man behind, because she was certainly running out on her partner.” He gave a rueful shake of his head. “I thought I’d trained her better than that. Although, I have to admit even I am impressed… even in her condition, she managed to take out one of Miguel’s goons before I arrived. It was surely something to see. You should be proud of her.”

Alex
glanced at her, but once again her gaze was fixed on Miguel’s dead form.

Anger warred with Alex’s need to remain calm and rational. “What the hell do you want, Jacob?”

Jacob gave him a sardonic smile. “Nothing now. You’ve already done it. You’ve just saved me a world of trouble. If I could have gotten away with it, I’d have done it a long time ago, but I couldn’t have his...
associates
, coming after me… looking into my business. I would say thank you, but like your girlfriend, you’ve been a colossal pain in my ass. Why couldn’t you have just done the right thing and stayed in the C.I.A? If you’d only done that, I wouldn’t have had to entice young Devon here into working for me to keep tabs on you. I will admit, you threw me for a loop when you went back to the States without her. I never thought for one minute you would ever leave her, especially knowing how dangerous… and unpredictable, the job can be.”

Devon stumbling to her knees shifted both men’s attention to her.
Soft sobs bubbled up from her as she continued to stare at Miguel.

Alex glanced back up to meet Jacob’s eyes. “You have the
missile payloads?” he guessed.

Jacob smirked. “Of course, I have them. But ole’ Miguel here, just wouldn’t let them go. I convinced him that you had them and that all we had to do was wait and eventually you’d try to move them, then we’d have you.” Jacob gave a sharp laugh. “The old bastard was so easily swayed and manipulated.”

“So what happened? Why am I here?” Alex asked.

Suddenly looking bored with the whole thing, Jacob said, “Well, to be frank, I got tired of waiting for Devon to take the old man out! I gave her chance after chance, but she just kept missing him. Finally, I just gave up and decided to
sell the payloads anyway. I figured Miguel would think it was you… which he did. But then, he just kept on and on about wanting you out of the safety of the States and back in ole’ Me-eh-co,” Jacob said, with a flourish.

“So you were behind the hits on Drayton’s supplies?

Again, Jacob shook his head and placed his eyes on the back of Devon. “No, that was Miguel… his plan… his execution. If it had been me, I’d have used this prime piece of bait right here,” he said as he rubbed the barrel of his gun against the back of her head in a sensual manner “But Miguel didn’t believed you’d come for her. He never could see her appeal, or her… most obvious charms,” he said with a salacious grin. Glancing back to up to Alex, he continued with a smirk, “I have always envied your skill with the women, Alex… this one especially. She is spectacular! It’s a real shame I’ll have to kill her as well.”

Alex rose a little at the sight of the gun being pressed to her head. The sight sickened him.
Cold fury settled over him and shaking his head, he said sharply, “Don’t do it, Jacob, she’s got nothing to do with this.”

“Well, that is true… but it’s not going to matter. I have no choice, surely you can see that. It’s all gone too far,” Jacob said matter-of-factly.

Panic began to rise up in Alex. His mind whirled as he tried to figure a way out of this problem. He glanced to the van behind Jacob and prayed they’d already made the call. But knowing he couldn’t count on that, he looked to Devon and while she was still sobbing softly, she met his gaze steadily. He stared at her for a long moment. She shifted her eyes to the ground then back up to his. He cocked his head trying to determine what she was doing.

She
mimicked her actions by looking to the ground then back up at him. His eyes followed where hers had gone. On the ground, next to where she was crouching near Miguel’s body was the knife he’d stabbed Alex with. Alex wanted to smile. He’d thought she was losing it, when all along she’d been plotting and planning her next move. He wanted to shout,
good girl
!

Lifting his gaze back to Jacob, he asked, “
I can help you unload them,” Alex said confidently.

Jacob grinned. “I don’t need your help. I’ve got it covered. I do need you
to stand, however.”

“I must admit it was ingenious, stealing the payloads; blaming me; then protecting me
; it certainly took any sights off you. Bravo, Jay, bravo. I am curious though, how did you get them from the excavation site without notice? There were dozens of C.I.A. agents combing that area looking for them.”

Jacob
gave him a smug look. “Who said I moved them? I just had the teams looking on the other side of the cave. It was simple, really. No one even questioned it… not once.” His eyebrows scrunched in thought. Glancing back at Alex, he said, “You know, that’s when I became jaded with the C.I.A.; all those supposedly brilliant people – all at the top of their game, and they were so easily fooled and manipulated. That was when I decided to switch agencies. I just couldn’t stomach being around those pretenders any longer,” he said with disdain. “I could see why you’d want to leave the agency, Alex. You saw it long before I did.” Inhaling deeply, he gave a small shake of his head as if to clear it of his melancholy thoughts. “Well, now I won’t have to be bothered with the bureaucratic bullshit of any agency. I’ll be so rich I can buy my own island and run it as I see fit. That’ll be a nice change… not having to answer to any other asshole!”

“It’s going to be hard to explain all these dead bodies… two of which were agents,” Alex said rationally to help buy time.

Jacob laughed. “You give them too much credit. They’ll believe whatever I tell them. It’s been well documented that Miguel has tried to kill his beloved step-daughter many times and it’ll become known that he was responsible for the death of her mother. It would only be natural for her to entice you and her partner to help her hunt him down and kill him; and if the three of you died in the crossfire, who would question that?”

With a quick glance at Devon, who was watching him intently while continuing her façade of fake sobs, he said, “Looks like you’ve got this all figured out. I guess you might as well get on with it.”

Without hesitation, Devon snatched up the knife and slammed the blade into Jacob’s upper thigh. Involuntarily, he jerked backward and stumbled as he howled in pain. Devon began scrambling away from him. He fell against the van and bent to remove the knife. He flung the knife to the other side of the garage and leveled his gun on her.