Master of the Game (Rush Series Book 3) (21 page)

Surprise and the unexpected are
your friends
. Ben Allred’s words from her dream and their training
floated through her sluggish mind. Without any more thought than that, she
leapt to her feet and launched herself at him. They fell together, her on top
of him, and she scratched at his face. He hissed as she tore the skin. With the
butt of the gun, he hit her again, but still she continued to scratch at him,
even though her head rang with the blow. He lifted the gun and pressed it
solidly against her temple.

“I
should blow your damn head off right now, you bitch. Get the hell off me!” he
said angrily.

“Go
ahead and kill me, you bastard. I hate you. I’ll never willingly be with you.
So kill me now,” she screamed. From behind her, she felt Sara trying to
extricate her from
Lex
.

A voice
from the entrance of the cave stopped her cold. “Drop the gun!” Alex said
coldly and calmly, a gun pointed at the other man.

Devon
twisted around to yell. “Run, Ben, run.”

Lex
took the opportunity to wrap his arm
around her throat and pressed the muzzle firmly against her temple once more.
Slowly, he brought them to their feet. “Oh, I don’t think anyone is going
anywhere,”
Lex
said. “Put the gun down or I’ll kill
the girl,” he threatened.

“Shoot
him,” Devon cried. “Just shoot him.”

Lex
jammed the gun hard against her head.
“I mean it, man, I’ll kill her. I’ve nothing to lose,” he threatened once
again.

Alex
hesitated before lifting his hands, lowering his weapon, and crouching to place
it on the ground. Before he could stand back up, however,
Lex
let off two shots, hitting Alex squarely in the chest. With a grunt, Alex flew
back like a ragdoll.

Devon
screamed, “No, Dios, no!” as she watched his body slump to the ground lifeless.
She turned to run to Ben’s still body, but before she was able to take more
than a step and half,
Lex
snagged a length of her
hair and snatched her back and twisted his hand painfully through her tresses,
pulling her against his body. “You will pay for that. Be very careful, my
sweet; my patience with you has run out,” he snarled before crushing her lips
with his own.

Devon’s
body slumped against his as the pain of Ben’s loss seared her chest. Tears
streamed down her cheeks at the loss of the man she’d fallen in love with. Ben
had snuck up on her and had invaded her heart, even though she’d known he
wasn’t an option for her. And now he was dead. Again, Ben’s voice flitted
through her mind: s
urprise and what’s
unexpected are your friends. Your elbow is the strongest point on your body. Go
for the four weakest points: eyes, throat, groin and knees – use quick, jabbing
motions if possible.

While
his attention was on venting his anger by assaulting her lips, she raised her
hands and plunged them as hard as she could into the soft tissue of his eyes,
digging as ferociously as she could into the orifices.

He
yelped, “
You bitch!
” and palmed his
gun, but unlike the two abbreviated taps he’d given her before, he slammed the
gun into the side of her head and cheek for the third time. Her ears rang but
still she brought her elbow back and slammed it as hard as she could into his
throat. He gagged, coughed, and teetered off-balance for an instant before
falling to the ground. He reached out to clutch at anything to keep himself
from falling and managed to once again snarl a handful of her hair, pulling her
down with him.

Due to
the severity of the strike to the side of her head, her brain was a little
idled and her balance questionable. She struggled to regain her equilibrium and
flailed her arms uselessly. Cursing and yelling, he dragged her underneath him.
He straddled her, set his weapon aside, and punched her several times in the
face, rage wafting off him as he rasped over and over, “You, bitch… you bitch…
you damn bitch!” the damaged she’d inflicted with her elbow was evident in his
voice.

Her
arms fell to the side and she groaned, but offered no more resistance. He
wrapped his hands around her throat and
squeezed,
intent on ending her miserable life. Her consciousness had faded into black
when Miguel Munoz lifted the man off her.

“Get
a-hold of yourself, man. We got business to attend to. You can’t kill her… I
can’t let you kill her,” Miguel said.

“The
hell I can’t!” he rasped. “Did you see what the hell she did?” Sweeping the
ground with his hand, his eyes still blurry from her assault, he finally
located the gun he’d discarded just moments before and pressed it against her
temple before slowly and satisfactorily squeezing the trigger.

Chapter 11

Pain
lancing through Alex’s chest pulled him back in consciousness as he struggled
to breathe. Slowly, he opened his eyes and was surprised to see the early
morning light filtering into the cave. He sat up gingerly, unbuttoned his
shirt, and pulled at the Velcro straps holding his bullet-proof vest in place.
He saw where the two bullets had smashed into the vest - the vest being the
only thing between him and certain death. He had to give it to the other man,
he was a decent shot.

He
rubbed a gentle hand against the bruising already evident on his chest. He was
lucky he hadn’t broken a rib. Rolling to his feet, he looked around the cave
and wasn’t surprised to find it nearly empty, with the missiles gone. Not that
they’d do much damage now. The only thing in the cave, besides himself, was the
body of Roman Alcazar. He slowly made his way to him. Squatting down he pressed
his fingers against the carotid artery in the man’s neck, finding what he’d
expected… nothing. Roman’s lifeless eyes stared up unseeing, his eyes already
beginning to obtain a milky sheen. Alex began to inhale, but a sharp pain
reminded him to take shallow breaths.

As he rose
slowly to his feet, he took one more glance around the cave. It was then he saw
the second body – or rather, he saw the boots on the feet of another body
sticking out from behind a rock. Panic seized his body. From where he stood, he
couldn’t ascertain whether the boots belonged to a man or a woman. He struggled
to regulate his breathing - the pain in his chest now coming more from within
than from without. Swallowing, he slowly made his way toward the still body. He
stepped around the boulder and nearly staggered to his knees when he realized
it wasn’t Devon. It was his shooter.

Crouching
down once again, he pressed his fingers against his neck, checking for life,
and as he’d again suspected, due to half his head having been blown off, there
wasn’t any. He patted the man down and found a wallet in his back pants pocket.
Flipping it open, he read the name on his driver’s license:
Lex
Vega
. He wondered who the man was. He’d heard the conversation
between Devon and him, so he now knew her stepfather was involved as well as
the young Sara Daniels.

Alex
stepped out of the cave and breathed in carefully, the humid air making his
chest feel even tighter. He stepped over the slippery boulders on the
waterfall’s edge and made his way to where he’d buried the missiles. He exhaled
deeply in relief as he found what he’d buried still there.

Moving
quickly through the jungle, he reached the road and hit the speed-dial on his
phone. Jacob Roundtree answered on the first ring.

“Jay, I
missed them. They got away with the missile hulls. They killed Roman Alcazar in
the process and took Devon. They also killed another man named
Lex
Vega,” he said in a rush.

“What?
Are you all right?”

“Could be better.
They took my gun. Sara Daniels
is tied up in it somehow, as well as Devon Montanez’s step-father. According to
what I overheard before all hell broke loose, they were waiting to meet up with
someone else.”

 
“
Ahh
, the plot
thickens. It was rumored that Miguel Munoz was joining forces with another
small-time drug dealer, that being
Lex
Vega. Did they
realize the missiles’ payloads had been taken apart?” Jacob asked.

“No, I
don’t think so. But they’re gone and took Devon with him. I need a team to come
and get the payloads. I need to know where they have gone as well. I’m heading back
to camp to pack up, and I’d like that information in less than an hour. Okay?”
he
said,
no question in his voice, just expectation.

“Okay,
Alex. I’ll get it for you. Let’s just hope he goes where we can find him. Any
idea on
who
the buyer was?”

“No, not yet.
I’ll review the tapes. Maybe
he said something. I’ll let you know,” Alex answered quickly.

“You
said they
took
Devon Montanez. What
do you mean? Wasn’t she a part of it?”

“No, I don’t
think so. Again, I’ll know more when I review the tapes,” he rushed, wanting
the conversation over so he could get going.

“Alex,”
Jacob paused, obviously hesitating in saying his next words. “I think it’d be
better if I let the team track the missiles.”

Alex
stopped his pacing. “What? Why would you do that?”

Again
Jacob paused. “You seem a little too personally involved in this case.”

Alex
clenched his jaw. “I’m not leaving until I see this through, Jay. Do what you
need to, but I’m staying until this mission is over. Now, I need to go see what
I can find. I’ll scan the tapes, pack up,
then
once
I’m where I can forward it, I’ll send the tape info to you. Okay?”

The
silence that met his words grated on Alex’s nerves. Finally, Jacob agreed.
“Okay, Alex. I’ll let you stay, but I’m sending a team to you. It won’t take
them long to reach your destination. Be careful and come back home in one
piece. I expect to hear from you soon. If you find the location before the team
arrives, let me know… I want to know
before
you rush in and do anything. Understood?”

“Fine, fine.
I
gotta
go. I’ll call you,” Alex said as he severed the connection.

Putting
Jacob and his words out of his mind, he hurried back toward his tent. He slowed
his feet when he realized someone else was already up, getting ready for the
day.

“Well,
you’re up and about early this morning,”
Taggert
Lanier commented from his position close to the campfire, a cup of coffee
clutched in his hand.

“The
early bird and all that,” Alex replied as he shuffled his feet, impatient to
get to his tent and review the tapes, but not wanting to give away his
impatience.

“It
would appear you’ve been a busy beaver,” Tag said quietly.

Alex
rubbed a hand over his face, struggling to understand the other man’s words. He
seemed to be making a point, but it was lost on him as his mind roared with the
need to move forward to try and salvage his mission. “I have been busy and I
still have a lot of work to do, so I’ll leave you to yours,” he said politely
as he turned to move away.

“Not so
fast,” Tag said with confident precision.

Alex
turned his head and it was then he saw the small handgun pointed at him. Tag
had risen from his seat and was now staring at him with dispassionate eyes.

“
You
are the third party,” Alex said as
understanding blossomed in his mind.

Tag
gave a wry twist of his lips. “I’d say I was the first of the party, but no
matter. I do want to thank you, though, for being so thoughtful as to put up
all those wonderful surveillance cameras. My own weren’t nearly as effective.
You’ve been a big help. But now, I need one more thing from you, if you don’t
mind.”

“And
what would that be?” Alex asked in a bored tone, even though his mind was
racing.

“I need
what you took from inside the missiles. While I appreciate what you did and why
you did it, I really need those payloads. In fact, I must insist,” Tag said
calmly and coolly.

Alex
twisted his own lips. “You know I can’t do that.”

Tag
rocked his head slowly side to side. “Oh, I have my ways of persuasion.”

Alex
didn’t comment, but gave him a small smile, which indicated his doubt of the
other man’s words.

Taggert’s
lips curled. Over his shoulder
he called, “Sara, come out, please.”

Alex
watched as the flap to Devon’s tent opened. Devon stumbled out of the tent, her
head bowed and her hands clasped together in front of her, followed closely by
Sara Daniels. He barely contained his gasp when he saw her. If her face had
looked battered before when she’d been attacked, now, it was almost
unrecognizable. One eye was swollen completely shut, her lips were split open
and swollen, and the bruising was hideous. Alex couldn’t stop the steps he took
toward her. He was halted immediately at Tag’s voice.

“
Uhhh
uhhh
,” he said waving the
gun. “She’ll be dead before you reach her. Now, once again, tell me where the
payloads are.”