You Only Love Twice (Masters and Mercenaries #8)(75)

He’d been beaten thoroughly for that quip. Apparently Ace liked them inexperienced and in mass quantities.

The sirens were right outside. Any second the first responders would race in, likely firefighters because smoke was starting to fill the place now.

Seconds. He had seconds before Ace started taking out the first responders.

“Give it the f*ck up, *,” a familiar voice yelled out.

Jesse breathed a big sigh of relief. “He said you were dead, Dean.”

“I’m not letting some f*cked up radical kill me,” Dean said as Ace unleashed another volley. He dove for the sofa and rolled beside Jesse. “I do have a nice-sized hole in my gut though. If Case hadn’t shown up with his truck, this whole place would have gone up.”

“Is he alive?” Jesse whispered as he started to peek around the sofa.

“Think so. He and Theo jumped out of the truck before it hit. Pretty sure Case broke something. He better have with all his cussing.” Dean’s T-shirt was covered in blood. “We have to make a move or he’ll take hostages. Shit. Shouldn’t you have locked her up somewhere?”

Phoebe was creeping out of the hallway. Well, she’d told him to work fast. They were going to have a long talk about the definition of the word fast. His hand would be talking to her ass before the day was through.

Ace stood, firing toward their hiding spot. That was when Jesse realized Phoebe didn’t intend to simply come out of hiding. She was going to help. Shit. She had a thick cane in her hand and she brought it down on Ace’s head. He heard it hit, but Ace didn’t go down. He turned on her.

“Drop!” he screamed as he stood and fired.

Ace’s body froze, suspended for a moment, and then he fell forward.

Jesse ran, praying he hadn’t hit her. He knelt down next to her. “Phoebe?”

She reached for him. “You took too long.”

Thank god. “We’ll have a talk about that. Go out to the front, hands up. The cops are here. Explain what’s going on and that we have injured. We need at least one bus. Jake took fire and he’s going to need surgery.”

“Where’s my brother?” Phoebe asked, her eyes wide.

“I’ll get him out. I promise. Go.” He helped her up and she strode to the entrance, her hands up.

Jesse felt something snake around his ankle. He looked down and Ace was barely alive, his eyes staring up. Sympathy crept into Jesse’s gut. This man hadn’t asked to be tortured and turned. He knelt down. Ace’s gun was well out of range and it was easy to see he wasn’t long for the world. “It wasn’t your fault.”

“Was,” he managed. “Should have found you sooner. Should have killed you. But there are more of us, brother. My master will send more. He will never stop.”

Ace’s eyes went blank.

“Is he dead?” Dean asked, staggering over. “Because I would really like to kill that motherf*cker again.”

A loud crash rattled what was left of Sanctum as Tag pushed through the rubble. He was bloody and battered, but alive…and pissed off.

“You’re paying for this Ten,” he bitched as he pulled the other man through. “The US government can write me a big fat f*cking check. Do you see what he did to my club?”

“Where’s my sister?” Ten ignored him, his eyes finding Jesse. “Where’s Phoebe?”

“I sent her out to make sure the police don’t come in guns blazing. She’s fine, though she’s in serious trouble.”

“He dead?” Tag nodded to the body on the ground.

“Yeah.” Jesse took no pleasure in Ace’s death. There was no triumph, just a weary truth.

This wasn’t over and it wouldn’t be until he took the Caliph down. He had to face his demons. There was no more hiding. He had to end this.

“Kai? Do you have it?” Tag started to pull Kai free.

“I have it, you freak.” He passed Tag a package and dusted himself off. “My home just blew the f*ck up and do you know what Big Tag was concerned about?”

“His dessert.” Jesse knew the man well.

“One good thing is going to come out of this,” Tag swore. “Dean, you look half dead. Let’s get you to the hospital.”

Dean swayed on his feet. “Don’t tell Serena. It’s not that bad.”

Jesse caught him just as he passed out. He eased Dean down to the floor. His pulse was strong, but they weren’t going to be able to hide a couple days worth of hospital stay from Serena. “Get the EMTs in here. The quicker we get him to the hospital, the better.”

Ten started toward the door, and Tag looked down at Jesse.

“I’m taking you out the back. Ten is going to smooth things over, but you understand what has to happen, right?”

He did. “I died here. The Caliph needs to believe Ace did his job. And then I need to do mine.”

In Dubai. Where he would finally end this.





CHAPTER THIRTEEN





Phoebe felt numb as she stepped inside the large suite. Three days had passed since almost losing Jesse, but they’d flown by in a blur of preparation and travel. Even as Ten had driven through the streets of Dubai, she still couldn’t quite believe she was here. Now she was led into the king of Loa Mali’s suite at the Burj Al Arab Jumeirah, one of the world’s top luxury hotels. Everywhere she looked there was something sumptuous and beautiful, and all she could think about was hearing that gunfire and knowing that she would find Jesse bleeding and dying.