Take the Key and Lock Her Up (42 page)

“I hardly think that’s necessary.”

“Trust me. It is. He’s still dangerous. I’ll tie his good wrist to the bed.” She looped
one end of the rope around the footboard in the same spot where she’d been tied and
quickly made a knot. She took the other end and started toward Gage.

Devlin stared at the knot. The same fancy knot she’d tried to teach him years ago.
What had she called it? A double overhand knot. The way the rope crossed over itself
created an
X
shape.

Or, if you turned it sideways, a cross.

His eyes widened. He went for his gun a second too late. Kelly yanked it out of the
holster and scrambled back, aiming his own gun at him.

“Sorry, Dev. I got a little sloppy with my extracurricular activities and needed a
fall guy.”

He stared at her, stunned. He’d been so sure Gage was the one behind everything. Not
once had he considered that Kelly might be faking her own abduction. Until he saw
that damn knot. He fisted his hands beside him.

“Extracurricular activities? Shannon? Nancy? Is that how you get your kicks these
days? Beating and torturing other women and then killing them? Why, because they’re
weaker than you and can’t fight back? That’s what all of this was about?”

Her eyes narrowed. “My
kicks
? You always did think you were better than me. Judging what you could never understand.”

He waved toward Gage, who was scooting back toward the window as if to get as far
away from Kelly as possible. “You came here to kill him and pin that on me too, didn’t
you? But you couldn’t resist a little sick, twisted fun first. You kept him tied up,
beat him, but he broke loose. That’s why you were tied up when I got here, isn’t it?
That’s why you said he’s dangerous.”

“If you’re expecting a confession, you’re wasting your breath.” Her hands tightened
around the gun.

“Hold it,” Devlin said, trying to buy some time as he inched a little closer. “Are
you saying you framed me for your kills, for what? To keep from getting into trouble
with our boss?”

“He was getting suspicious.” She shrugged. “I needed a fall guy.”

“You expect me to believe that you went to such elaborate lengths to make me look
guilty just so you wouldn’t be declared rogue? I’m not so sure Cyprian would ever
declare you a rogue, no matter what you’d done. He adores you too much for that.”

She snorted. “You give me far too much credit. Even I’m not immune from Cyprian’s
reprisals.”

Something flickered in her eyes, telling him she was lying. Did Cyprian know about
her fetish for beating and killing other women? Had he turned a blind eye? If so,
then why draw attention to her kills by trying to make it look like Devlin was the
one killing the women?

“If you wanted me dead, why not just kill me outright? It would have been a lot simpler.”

“Right. And have every enforcer in EXIT trying to figure out who killed you? I wouldn’t
have lasted a week. I needed to make you look so bad no one would care when you died.”

Devlin raised a brow. “So you decided to frame me, make it look like I was the one
guilty of your sick crimes.”

“My sick crimes?” she spat. “What about your crimes? Hacking into the EXIT databases?
Did you really think you could get away with that?” Her eyes widened with dismay.
She obviously hadn’t intended to tell him that.

The ramifications of what she’d just said stunned him. “Kelly, all I did was download
dossiers so I could do my job better, with less risk. Are you saying there’s something
else in the EXIT databases worth killing me over? What exactly is Cyprian hiding?”

“You’ll never know, will you?” She tilted the gun up toward his head.

He slammed his left fist up beneath her right arm so he could wrench her gun away.
Just before he could make contact, she danced back and whirled around, slamming the
side of her leg against his ribs. His Kevlar vest took the brunt of her kick, but
the force of the blow still sent him staggering back several feet. He gritted his
teeth and inched his hand, ever so slowly, toward his waist.

Kelly laughed. “Really, Devlin? Did you think I’d forgotten that little trick of yours?
Knock my arm and grab my gun?” She bounced on the balls of her feet like a boxer,
ready to go another round. “Don’t you have any new moves?”

“Why don’t you toss the gun away and find out?”

Just a little more.
His hand was almost in position.

She waggled her pistol. “You’re afraid I’ll shoot? My, my. Big, bad Devlin afraid
of a woman. Or is it something else? Maybe your precious rule you threw in my face
years ago—never hurt a woman?”

He unsheathed his knife and threw it in one smooth motion.

She screamed and staggered against the bed, clutching at the hilt of his knife buried
in her abdomen.

“It’s more of a guideline than a rule.” Devlin rushed toward her.

She swung the pistol toward him again.

Bam!
The front of her chest exploded in a bloody mess that would have made a horror movie
fan cringe. She flopped end over end like a rag doll to land in a lifeless, crumpled
heap by the door.

Stunned, Devlin looked past her to the other side of the room. Gage was on his knees
under the window, holding a pistol, the same one Devlin had shot out of his hand earlier.
Damn. Devlin had allowed Kelly to distract him or he would have retrieved the gun
instead of forgetting about it. He tensed, prepared to lunge at him, but Gage dropped
the pistol to the floor and pushed himself to his feet.

“Kelwee keel Yancy,” he said, repeating his earlier mantra.

Now Devlin understood.

“Kelly killed Nancy, right? That’s what you’re trying to say?”

He nodded, tears flowing down his swollen cheeks. “Sawwee kill Erweannah. Sawwee Ace
fire.”

Sorry kill Arianna. Sorry Ace fire.

Because of Gage, his fiancée had died a horrible death. And because Gage had thought
that Devlin had killed Nancy, he’d sicced Ace on Devlin’s family, nearly destroying
them. Devlin should hate him, but at that moment all he felt was pity.

Emily had ruined him as an enforcer.

“Come on. Let’s get you to a hospital.”

Pitiful relief flashed across Gage’s face and he tried to smile, like an abused puppy
begging its master for a kind word or a pat on the head. But the bloody, gap-toothed
attempt just made his battered face look gruesome.

Devlin had never hated himself more than he did at this moment.

He started forward.

The glass in the window behind Gage shattered with a loud
boom
.

His head exploded like a too-ripe watermelon and his lifeless body dropped to the
floor.

Devlin dove down as another shot sliced through the air, burying itself in the wall
above him. Crouching down, he swiped his gun back from Kelly and yanked his knife
out of her body. He scrambled on all fours into the hallway, flipped the granite-topped
table on its side, and ducked behind it.

Silence reigned inside the house once again. He should get out, run for the cover
of the trees before whoever was shooting at him cornered him in here. But he couldn’t
move. Not yet. He just needed . . . one . . . damn . . . minute. He drew his knees
up and rested his head against the wall behind him.

Kelly had earned what had happened to her. Her death didn’t bother him, except that
he was still left with unanswered questions—like just what exactly Cyprian was hiding
that was worth killing for. No, he wasn’t sad Kelly was gone. She’d paid for her crimes.
But Gage . . . He squeezed his eyes shut, but that didn’t block out the image of Gage’s
last, horrific moments on this earth, and Devlin’s role in those moments.

In spite of everything Gage had done, seeing him die that way after what Devlin had
put him through had grief and shame welling up inside him. He allowed himself another
minute before he ruthlessly bottled his emotions up and locked them tightly away.
Later, he would grieve and swear and probably break something. But right now, he needed
to focus on surviving. Because someone outside wanted him dead.

And he had a pretty good idea who. Ace.

He crept down the hall toward the stairs. Halfway down, a high-pitched, agonized scream
cut through the silence outside. It was far away, so far that he’d barely heard it,
but what he had heard made his blood run cold. No, it couldn’t be her. She was back
in town, safe, under guard. Wasn’t she?

He practically flew down the stairs, taking them two at a time until he was flat against
the wall by the open front door, waiting, listening.

The scream sounded again, driving like a knife straight to his heart.

Oh, God. Please, no. Not Emily too.

Chapter Twenty-Five

T
HE ACHE IN
Emily’s shoulders from having her arms tied to the tree behind her was nothing compared
to the throbbing pain of the burns on the side of her face. Where was her tormentor
now? Was Ace hiding in the trees on the opposite side of the clearing? Waiting for
Devlin to try to rescue her, so he could kill him?

She still couldn’t believe he’d gotten the drop on her back by the house. She’d been
so intent on getting to Devlin that she hadn’t paid attention to the woods around
her until it was too late. Ace had grabbed her gun, tied her to a tree, and made her
watch as he aimed his rifle toward the same window where she’d seen movement earlier.

Moments later, he’d fired. The resulting smile on his face had terrified her that
he’d shot Devlin. But then he’d suddenly lowered the rifle, his face contorted in
fury as he swung it violently against a nearby tree, cracking the wooden body of the
gun. He’d pitched the ruined weapon down and glared at her.

There was only one reason Emily could think of for him to be that mad. The
second
shot was meant for Devlin, but for some reason Devlin was no longer in range. She
couldn’t help the smile that had curved her lips.

And then he’d pulled out the lighter.

She hadn’t wanted to scream, figuring he wanted to use her to draw Devlin out. But
willpower alone wasn’t enough to keep her silent when the white-hot agony exploded
across her nerve endings. He’d dragged her back through the trees, deeper into the
woods to this clearing, and tied her up again. And then he’d disappeared.

Did he think Devlin would follow her trail to this clearing? Did he hope to shoot
Devlin in the back while he bent down to untie her?

The Buchanan family had suffered so much these past few days. Were they doomed to
suffer another more permanent loss? The loss of Devlin? Hot tears tracked down her
cheeks. But they weren’t tears of pain. They were tears of anguish and fear for a
man who mattered far more to her than she’d ever have thought possible a few days
ago.

The hairs on her arms suddenly stood on end, her skin prickling with alarm. Something
was wrong. The birds, the insects, even the warm breeze had stopped, as if the forest
knew a predator was close by. Devlin. He was here. She sensed it in her heart, her
soul. Somewhere under the cover of trees and bushes he was watching her.

Don’t come for me
.
If you try to help me, he’ll kill you. Stay away.

Suddenly, Devlin burst into the clearing. He moved so fast he was a blur, dropping
to the ground in a tumbling roll as a hail of bullets rained down from one of the
branches above him. He whirled around on his knees, firing his pistol up into the
trees.

A crashing, cracking noise followed by a solid whump told Emily that Ace had jumped
or fallen from his perch.

Devlin raced toward her, pistol in one hand, knife in the other. He dropped to his
knees and cleanly sliced through the ropes binding her to the tree and immediately
turned around, shooting his pistol in a deadly arc across the other side of the clearing.
He hauled Emily to her feet as he continued to fire.

“Run, Em!”

Needing no further encouragement, she took off for the trees behind them while Devlin
ran backward, firing to protect her flight until they were almost at the tree line.
He turned and grabbed her, shoving her behind a tree as another volley of gunshots
boomed across the clearing.

He hissed and arched back as he fell to the ground.

Emily jumped out from the cover of trees, grabbed his gun, and fired back toward the
clearing to cover him.
Bam! Bam! Bam!

“Dev, can you get behind the trees?” She fired her pistol again.

“Damn it, Emily,” he growled. He grabbed her by the waist and yanked her behind the
tree with him.

She blinked in surprise to find him standing with his back to the tree with her facing
him, pressed against him. She smiled, almost giddy with relief.

“You’re okay. I thought he shot you.”

His eyes widened and he grabbed her arm.

She looked down, and her face flushed hot to see him turning her gun away from his
stomach. She’d totally forgotten she was holding it. Again.

“I suck at this,” she grumbled as he took the gun from her.

“No, you don’t. I took a bullet to the vest, but if you hadn’t laid cover fire, he
might have hit me somewhere more vital. You did good, Em.” He gently forced her chin
up. She knew the exact moment he saw her burns because the look on his face sent a
shiver of dread straight down her spine. She would never want to be his enemy.

“That bastard is going to pay for hurting you. You must be in terrible pain. Are you
injured anywhere else?”

“Just my face. I’m okay. Did you see Pierce anywhere when you were looking for me?
We were supposed to meet in the woods at the back of the house, but Ace found me first.”

His knuckles whitened around the grip of his pistol. “No. I’ll find him. And give
him hell for bringing you here. But I’ll have to take out Ace first.” He grabbed a
magazine clip from his pocket and put it into hers. Then he shoved the pistol into
her hand.