On Her Master's Secret Service (39 page)

McKay checked his list. “
Bartwell
Farms has a private landing strip.”

“That’s it.” It had to be.

“Fuck. That’s what he meant. The little fucker said he didn’t know anything. I hope Chazz freezes his balls off.” McKay stopped. “If you’re lying to me, you need to know that I will…”

Jesse could finish that sentence. “Do all kinds of things that will make me wish for death before you actually kill me. I get it. Now hear me. I swear on my father’s honor that I am telling you the truth. I will do anything to make up for my mistakes. From what I can tell, Petty is alone and Chazz talked about the fact that Evans usually brought five guys with him. You need me.”

McKay snorted. “I think I can handle it.”

“I have an armory.”

“Like I didn’t come with guns.” McKay started for the door. His cell trilled. “It’s Adam.”

He stepped outside, leaving Jesse alone with Sean and the one called Jake.

“Do you have a sniper rifle?” Sean asked. “We’re good on handguns but we could use something with a scope. Alex isn’t thinking.”

“Alex probably doesn’t want to have anything to do with the kid who nearly killed him,” Jake mused.

But Jesse was already going for the rifle. He had more than one. His little piece-of-crap loft didn’t have books or movies, but he had a metric shit ton of weapons and ammo. He opened the door to the closet he’d made into his own private supply shop.

Jake whistled. “Is that C-4? Are you fucking kidding me?”

Jesse shrugged. Everyone needed a hobby. “I like to be prepared, sir.”

“We’re not your superior officers, man. It’s just Jake.” Jake practically salivated. “Is that a fucking
P90
?”

Jake caressed the Belgian made submachine gun. It was highly restricted. Jesse had spent a lot of money buying it on the black market.

“You can take it. It might come in handy.” God, he sounded like a five-year-old trying to make a friend.

Sean nabbed his SR-25 and an extra cartridge. “This should do it.”

Jake sighed and Jesse would almost have sworn he whispered something to the
P90
before moving away.

Alex opened the door again, his big body leaning into the room. “Adam has a line on that asshole we tagged. He just touched down here at
Bartwell
Farms.”

A relieved grin came over Sean’s face. “Don’t you mean the asshole
Evie
tagged? You won’t hear the end of this, man. Let’s go get your girl.”

“Thank god,” Jake said, following.

They would leave him behind. He put a hand over the little hole that the bullet had left. His ribs ached, but that didn’t matter. The three men were at the door, leaving him behind, and he did the one thing he hadn’t done in years. Not through torture or death. Not when everyone he cared about had turned away had he said one little word.

“Please.” It was his last chance.

McKay walked through the door. His voice floated back. “If you can make it to the car before I leave, I might think about using you as a human shield. And, Murdoch, if my wife is dead, I’ll take you apart myself.”

He got to the door, practically running to keep up.

Whatever happened, he would deserve it. One way or another.

Her wrists were bleeding and still she couldn’t get them to slip out of the bonds.

“Come on, Eve. We need to move.” Warren had been oddly polite ever since he’d shot Jesse. He reached for her hands and pulled her upright.

He’d knocked her out again. She was really damn sick of being rendered unconscious. Still, it gave her a realistic ploy. The longer she stayed away from Michael Evans, the better chance Alex had of catching up. She shook her head as though trying to clear it. “So woozy. What did you use on me?”

“Nothing that will kill you.” He caught her arm under the elbow, stabilizing her. “Come on. You need to get out.”

Slitting her eyes open, she could see that the afternoon sun was waning. Between Jesse knocking her out and Petty shoving a needle in her arm, the day had wasted away. She seemed to be in the back of a car. Her feet were untied, but her hands were still in the damn zip tie Jesse had placed them in. Where was she now? And how far behind was Alex?

“
Evie
, please.” His voice had gone oddly soft. “Come on, honey. We have to move. His plane is already here.”

He was trying to charm her to her own doom? Knowing that Evans was waiting for her didn’t make her want to move any faster. She decided to play dumb. She put her hands to her head. “Who are you talking about?”

“You know who, Eve.”

“I don’t know why, Warren.”

Warren Petty had gained some weight in the last few years, a paunch forming around his midsection. And time had not been kind to his hair. What he had left was rapidly going gray, but Eve could still see the bull-like strength in his meaty arms. “Does it matter?”

His eyes had shifted away as he asked the question. Guilt. He felt guilty. Which was a good thing since he was obviously guilty as hell.

He hauled her out of the car and Eve wished she still had her shoes. Somewhere along the way she’d lost them. The concrete was still hot from the day and up ahead she could see that the trail became rocky.

She forced herself to focus. A large metal building stood in front of her. In the distance, she could see another structure. This one seemed to be a large screened in area of some sort, perhaps attached to a resort or the back of a large family home. There might be people who could help her there.

A sign to her left welcomed her to
Bartwell
Farms and offered daily tours.

She needed to get to that farm. And that meant she needed to distract Warren.

“Was it because of Carmen?”

He stopped. “How do you know?”

“You erased her file because you can’t stand to look at it. You have to know that someone will figure it out.”

“I don’t see why. I’m the SAC and I say the case is cold so no one needs to look at it.” He pulled her along. “I really didn’t want to drag you into this again, Eve. It’s Alex’s fault. He couldn’t let go.”

“Was she your lover?” She needed to keep him talking.

A little laugh huffed out of Warren’s mouth as he moved along, forcing them both toward the building. “No. No. She wasn’t my lover. She was a goddamn twenty-something kid. No. That’s not my vice.”

Realization hit. She remembered how flirty Warren’s brother had always been. “But young women are Eddie’s vice, aren’t they?”

Edward Petty, senator from the great state of Oklahoma, the pride of his family, with a bright political future ahead of him. As long as no one discovered that he’d knocked up an intern.

“He can be a stupid fuck. She wasn’t his first, but we managed to pay off the rest or scare the fuck out of them.”

“But Carmen was pregnant.”

Warren’s face screwed up into a mask of distaste. “And the dumb bitch wouldn’t get an abortion. I tried buying her off, but she actually had some family money behind her. The only thing that stopped her from talking right off was the fact that she didn’t want to disappoint Daddy. Eddie had to convince her that he was going to divorce his wife and marry her. We had to buy some time.”

But that would have ruined the senator’s political chances. “Did you send her to that clinic?”

A horrible suspicion crept across her mind.

“It was out of the way.”

Just how much was he guilty of? “It was exactly the kind of clinic Evans loved to hit. Tell me something, Warren, did you know he was going to hit there? Or did you suggest it?”

A flush stole across his face, and his hands tightened on her arm. “He’s my brother. I couldn’t let some stupid piece of ass come between him and the presidency. He’s going to run next year. He’ll run and he’ll win.”

Eve stopped, forcing him to as well. She hoped that someone, anyone, would walk by, but the place seemed deserted. “I deserve to know. I get the feeling I was used as payment.”

Warren turned to her, exasperation plain on his face. “Fine. You want to know the whole truth? I sought him out. I made a fucking appointment with the man. I took a couple of my men. He brought a couple of his, and we made a deal. I would get Alex off his ass for a while in exchange for doing this little job for me. It had to be big. I couldn’t just have her killed.”

Because the media scrutiny on the death of an intern would likely have turned up the relationship with Edward Petty. The victim would have been the story. But by masking her death with others, she’d faded to the background, just another of Michael Evans’s victims. “And he agreed to this?”

“Alex was close to figuring out his hiding place and the fact that he had some very important connections in the drug trade. I made sure Alex wasn’t on top of his game. I wanted to get him thrown off the case, but Evans had another plan.”

She knew exactly what that plan had been. “Evans wanted me.”

“
Evie
, you have to know I hated it.”

“Why? It was convenient. Tommy and Leon were the men you took with you, weren’t they?” And they had known far too much. Warren had seen an easy way to get rid of them and to give Evans what he wanted.

So much betrayal.

“I didn’t want to kill them,” Petty said.

“So you found a way to let Evans do your killing again. Was he mad when Alex kept coming after him?” Alex hadn’t done what Evans and Petty had expected of him. He hadn’t retreated to take care of his wife. He’d rededicated himself to bringing in Evans.

“You have no idea. I’ve been dangling on his fucking strings for years now. When Alex called and started asking about him again, I knew I had to work fast. Alex is fucking everything up again. I had to get rid of a valuable asset, damn it.”

She let logic lead her where it could. Alex really had upset Warren’s carefully laid plans. Why else hire someone like Jesse for this job? He’d wanted to be free of Evans and he couldn’t risk bringing him in. “Jesse was supposed to assassinate Evans for you.”

“Of course not.” He could deny it all day, but Eve didn’t believe him.

He very likely had men like Jesse in all of the clubs, just waiting to take out Evans so Petty’s secret would finally be safe.

He’d sacrificed so many people so his brother could rise through the ranks. Of course, he’d risen, too. By making his deal with Evans, he’d practically ensured that Alex would leave the Bureau, and that opened the way for Petty to slide into his spot.

“He raped me.” Anger started to thrum through her system. “You ate at my house the night before you facilitated my rape.”

He flushed again. “I had to protect my brother.”

“Did you know what he would do? Did you sit there at my dinner table in my home and think about how he was going to assault me? I was friends with your wife. I was there when your youngest was born and you threw me to the wolves. Alex was your partner.”

He snarled a little. “And Eddie is my brother. You can’t talk your way out of this, Eve. You think that going over my crimes is going to make me see the light? I understand what a complete shit I am. I know it every day of my life. Sacrifices have to be made for great men. My brother is a great man. I’m so sorry, Eve, but I’m going to sacrifice you again.”

He didn’t hesitate this time. A look of terrible conviction furrowed his brow, and he hauled her along. She stumbled, hitting the ground, her knees scraping and pain exploding along her skin.

“Get the fuck up.”

She bit back a cry against the agony in her legs. He jerked her up.

Eve opened her mouth to scream. Maybe someone would hear her. “Help!”

“It won’t matter. The farm is closed. Do you think the livestock is going to help you?” Warren asked, his face nearly purple with the strain.

“No,” a new voice said, the sound snaking through her. “She’s doing it for me. Eve remembers how much I love to hear her scream. Hello, lover.”

Michael Evans walked out of the double doors from the hangar building. He was older, thinner, still a monster. He moved over to her, and she couldn’t help but try to get away. A primal fear took over. She pulled at the hold Warren had on her. Every bit of terror she’d gone through in those days with Evans bubbled to the surface.

He bore down on her, using his height to his advantage.

“Hello, whore. I missed you. I was so sad to have to give you up.” He reached out for her.

Scream for me, you dirty whore.

She could still hear him yelling at her as he struck her with the razor-tipped flogger.

She flinched away, her voice leaving her. Panic threatened. A muscle memory of the pain he’d given her flared, and she could feel the skin flaying off her back. She could feel the blood running down to her legs and feet. He hadn’t cleaned her up. She would smell the coppery scent for hours.

And she could feel a soft kiss to each scar. A smooth hand covering hers as words were whispered into her ear.

I loved you then. I love you now. I will love you long after we’re dead and gone.

A quiet voice took over. The screaming one didn’t stand a chance against Alex’s voice. She closed her eyes. He was with her. He was always with her.

Calm down. Be patient. What would her Master want?

He would want her to stay alive. And this time she knew that she could handle anything. She could take the pain and humiliation because Alex would hold her and love her and make her whole again.

And if he got lost, she would be strong enough to bring him back. The mistake she’d made the first time was in not telling her Master what she needed. More than anything, she needed him.

He was here. No matter what happened, he loved her.

And she would survive.

“Fuck you.” He wouldn’t get her submission. That belonged to the man who had earned it.

Evans’s dark eyes narrowed. “You haven’t aged well, whore. You seem to have forgotten your place. I will teach you again. Warren, bring her in. We’re leaving in thirty minutes.”

He turned and walked away as though he knew no one would ever disobey his commands.

“I’m sorry.” But Warren forced her up.