You Only Love Twice (Masters and Mercenaries #8)(74)

What was waiting for him was not a traitor but a man who had died a long time ago. Now he was simply a predator to be put down. Anger had no place here. Cool precision would win the day. His opponent was desperate. Jesse had to be the opposite.

“Turn off the light and follow me. Whatever happens, don’t let go.”

The light went out and he opened the door. Pure darkness surrounded them as he took his first tentative step out into the hallway. This was the hall with the privacy rooms. There were three of them. Two on his left. One on his right. He put his left hand out and felt for the wall before moving forward. One door brushed under his fingers. He walked forward slowly but steadily. Door number two. His heart rate calmed. His breathing got back to normal. He could feel the adrenaline, but it wasn’t affecting him the way it used to.

He stopped where the hallway ended and listened. Up ahead he could finally see some light. It was where the doors had blown open and the afternoon was now shining through. Once they left the hallway, anyone waiting would be able to see them.

There was a crash ahead, a piece of the ceiling dropping, and he saw something that terrified him.

Smoke. He took a deep breath and could smell it. Some part of Sanctum was burning. He had to get her outside.

“Murdoch!”

Phoebe tried to pull him back, but he stood his ground.

“I’ll kill everyone to get to you. I already took out Dean. I don’t feel bad about any of it. They’re all perverts of the worst kind. Infidels. But you’re worse because you’ve seen the truth and you still turn from it.”

“I think that’s Ace,” Phoebe whispered in his ear.

He took a step back. The door they needed was across the dungeon, where they would be completely exposed. But he could stash her in one of the rooms. If Ace was telling him the truth, this was between the two of them and he would leave Phoebe out of it. He just had to convince Phoebe. He found the first privacy room and thanked god it was unlocked. As quietly as he could, he opened it and drew her inside. “Stay here.”

“No,” her voice came back as a whisper but there was no way to miss the outrage there. “I’m not leaving you.”

“It’s me he wants. I can’t deal with him and you at the same time. He says Jake is dead, but I can’t believe it. If he’s bleeding somewhere though we have to get to him, and that means going through that f*ckwad out there. Please, Phoebe. Stay here and I’ll come for you.”

Arms went around his middle. “Work fast, Murdoch. I won’t stay here for long.”

He did believe that. She might be able to follow orders for a few minutes, but after that she would go looking for her brother and then he would have to worry about her.

So he needed to get this done and quickly. He turned and quietly went out the door.

“Come on, Murdoch. Your friends are dying.” Ace’s voice echoed through the space.

Jesse concentrated, trying to figure out where the f*cker was. His eyes were useless so he focused on the sounds. He could hear the thwack of falling metal. Something was moving to his left. The conference room was that way. From the sound of it, his friends were trying to dig out. Every instinct told him to rush to help them, but then he would be a target. Of course, they would be targets, too. The minute they made their way out, Ace would start picking them off.

“How could you see the truth and turn from it?” Ace’s voice was different. In previous meetings, he’d had that laid-back, easy Western drawl it seemed to Jesse that most pilots had. Now there was a harshness to his tone, a certainty that he couldn’t mistake. This was the real man who existed in Ace’s body. “I’m happy to kill you myself. I’m happy to perform this duty for my master.”

Jesse felt for the wall and crept out. Ace had to have come through the blown out eastern section. As he moved into the club, light began streaming in. He let his eyes adjust. In the distance, he heard the sound of sirens. They wouldn’t move Ace. The DPD could swarm in and Ace would hold his position. He would shoot the cops and not have a single regret as long as he got his target.

Jesse couldn’t let those cops walk into a trap. He had to bring Ace out into the open.

He clung to the wall, his eyes adjusting to the new light. Sanctum was in ruins. All around him the usually neat club was utterly destroyed. One of the big sofas from the bar area was on its side in the middle of the dungeon floor.

“Once I’m finished with you, I will return to our master in glory and he will cover me with Allah’s blessing.”

Crazy motherf*cker. Jesse took cover behind the sofa. That voice was to his right. Behind him, he could hear something heavy moving. Any minute now Tag was going to find a way out and then all hell would break loose.

“You’re going to die. He sent you in here to die,” Jesse called out.

A shot rang out, but it went wide. Ace didn’t know his exact location and there were more than enough places to hide since the dungeon was strewn with tables and big pieces of the locker room for him to take refuge behind. Ace would have to come out to look for him.

“I will die a hero’s death. I will gain my place in heaven.”

Yeah, yeah, Jesse had been fed the seventy-two virgins line, too. He could remember looking up at the Caliph and explaining that he never really had a thing for virgins. He preferred dirty girls. Now if he could promise him seventy-two fully experienced women with a taste for the nasty, they still wouldn’t talk because having all those women to please sounded a little more like hell than heaven.