The Espionage Effect(90)

Alec quickly jerked back, out of reach of the metal finial still arcing through the air.

The body landed on the floor facedown with a loud thump.

Alec whistled low. “Damn. You pack one hell of a swing.”

I nearly grinned, then fought it. Not a damn thing amusing about the situation. “Softball champion in middle school,” I muttered as I tossed the weapon onto the bed.

Staring at the trace of dark red on the guard’s exposed temple, I frowned. “His head’s at an odd angle.”

“Probably from the broken neck.”

My gaze shot up to meet Alec’s. “From the fall?”

“From the snapping action of my wrists.”

I blinked. He hadn’t done that in here. So he’d already…

With a deep scowl, I shook my head. “Why’d you have me hit him, then?”

He leveled a serious look at me. “Think of it as in-field training. And we need to buy time. If Escobar believes you did this, he won’t be thinking what I would do next.”

I gave him a curt nod. Made sense.

But when Alec outstretched a hand toward me, I instinctually flinched away from his touch. The automatic reaction caught us both off guard, my eyes widening as he let out a heavy sigh.

“Devin, don’t do this. Not now.”

A flood of emotion threatened to break free. With incredible force, I dammed it back, determined to act the model student, the consummate field operative in action. Yet, I couldn’t keep it all in. “You told me not to trust, back then.”

My breath quickened, anger welling to the surface. He stared at me, several emotions flickering over his face in an instant before they vanished and his expression relaxed.

“Trust me now.” His tone was low, his eyes softening. A plea lay partially hidden below the surface of the command.

Gathering a fierce resolve on a deep breath, I reached up, took a solid step, and slid my hand across his warm palm. “Don’t let me down, Marquez.”

Our gazes locked for a moment, and with a muscle tensing in my jaw, I burned a message through my stare. He gave me a nearly imperceptible nod. My words weren’t an absolution for him, and he understood.

The blind faith I held in our temporary truce was a necessary evil.

Because first, we needed to get out of this predicament alive.





Without discussion of any sort of plan, Alec quickly ushered me through the cabin door and closed it behind us. I glanced left then right, down narrow passageways that I now realized—after my tunnel-vision fog of arriving with Escobar had dissipated—had burgundy carpeting with a gold latticework pattern and ivory walls featuring door alcoves trimmed in dark woods. Recessed rectangular sections of the ceiling glowed with hidden lighting.

After confirming the coast was clear, Alec grabbed my hand and we broke left at a dead run. Thankful for the borrowed combat boots even with socks stuffed into the toes, I kept pace with him. Barely.

We rounded a corner and ducked into the first door on our right. The sound of metal echoed upward and downward as we entered a nondescript companionway.

Alec didn’t break stride as he pulled me forward and raced us up the steps.

“Where are we going?” I whispered.

“Aft deck.”

“What’s there?”

“Helicopter.”

Oh. Of course. He planned to steal the helicopter. But with quick mental calculations as we climbed the steps, I stumbled upon a problem. “Aren’t we going about twenty-two knots? Does the helicopter have enough fuel to get us back to Maroma Beach?”

“We’ve been cruising over thirty knots for hours. And we’re not going back to Maroma Beach.”

My feet planted as I blinked. “Hours?”

“We’ve been onboard for almost seven hours.”

He squeezed my hand and dragged us onward and upward as my staggered brain finally let an explanation surface. While waiting behind the door to clobber Escobar with my makeshift bat, when I’d slipped into my unique state of zenful meditation, I’d lost time. A lot of time.

“What has Escobar been doing?” He clearly hadn’t had the time to return to his stateroom.

“One of the prisoners escaped. Took all the guards and assistance from the captain and a few crewmembers to track her down.”

“So the captain’s in on it?”

“Yes.” His expression turned disgusted.

And I grew grateful. That at least when it was just the two of us, Alec had become more himself—at least the version I’d come to know. “So…” Reality dawned on me. “We’re a one-agent show?”

All of a sudden, he paused with his boot hovering over the next step, half turned, and leveled a look at me. “Two-agent show.”

I rolled my gaze upward before locking on to his. “Right. Because agent-in-training me will make all the difference in the world.”

“Believe it and it will be.”

Simple as that. In a world and life where everything I’d once thought to be true had been illusion, why not fool myself into believing I could make a difference.

Yet wasn’t that what I’d left my stifling predestined life for? To discover what I’d been meant to do, unleash my true self to match a greater purpose.

Without warning, Escobar’s words echoed into my head: You have so much unrealized potential. I blew out a hard breath, shaking off irritation. It chafed that a man who sought to do immense harm in this world would point out that I was destined for something great, support my innate need to fly.