I rolled my eyes. “What I don’t understand is that if you were working on the dig site under an alias, and you stole the box right out from under Devich’s nose, why are you still looking for the damn thing? And why didn’t he tell me who took it, if he knew?” The cargo would be much easier to find if I knew where to look and who to talk to.
“Lex, Devich has no idea I was ever on Oak Island.”
“What? Why is he hunting you, if he doesn’t know you stole his cargo?”
“He…wants me to work for him.”
“With no idea you were already working against him.”
“Devich knows that in the grand scheme. Thus the hired goons. But he has no idea about the specifics of this particular incident.” Cale spread his arms to indicate the entire plane and its missing cargo. He frowned, and I noticed in the deep shadows that his left cheek had a tiny dimple to match the one on his chin. “You can’t give it to Devich.” His arms dropped to his side, and the flashlight beam swung across the floor in a broad arc. “He’sdangerous, Lex. Whatever you do, you cannotgive the box back to him.”
The hell I couldn’t.
Devich’s information about my afterlife was the closest I’d come in more than two and a half centuries to finding out what really happened when I died and how I could escape this physical perpetuity. I wouldn’t give up that opportunity for anything, no matter what I’d threatened Devich with. Yes, I was pretty sure I could find the Gatekeeper if I had to, but delivering the stupid sarcophagus would be much faster. And probably easier.
But I couldn’t tell Murphy any of that.
Something scraped the floor at my back, and his focus snapped past me. His eyes narrowed, shadows shifting on his face to make him look furious. Anddangerous.
Thunder roared all around us, echoing within the plane. Dread drenched me like a sheet of freezing rain. I dropped the open bottle of water and drew my gun as I turned, and I was staring into the black void at the back of the plane when the voice spoke.
“Well, isn’t this a surprise?Bothof you. Together…”
My flashlight searched the dark in short, frantic sweeps. One impossibly long second later, the light found a pair of black pants—linen from the looks of them—and a matching embroidered blouse. Not my idea of work clothes.
Then again, blood would barely show against the material, if I got the chance to shoot her. But since she had a nine-millimeter pointed at my forehead, my chances weren’t looking very good.
I aimed at her oversized chest, my finger on the trigger as I raised the flashlight, searching out her face to confirm my suspicion. She came into view all at once.
Lori Crow, the Jeep-driving, over-endowed, lust-sucking parasite who’d tried to snack on Lacey in the back room of my office.
What theactualfuck?
“Hello again, Ms. Walker.” Her honey-sweet voice oozed over my skin in thick, sticky rivers of sound. “I just want to tell you how much I admire your work. And how honored I am to be the last person you’ll ever see.”
SIXTEEN
Lori’s barrel flashed in the dark and I dove to the left, already returning fire. Her gun bucked up from the recoil. My flashlight beam zigged wildly across the plane, but Murphy kept her spotlighted with his.
Pain ripped through my right arm, just below the shoulder. My arm went numb, and my hand fell to my side. The flashlight clattered to the floor, lighting a wedge of Lori’s black boots. In a blink, the succubus stepped six inches to one side, and my bullet thunked into the metal wall at her back. I hit the floor on my side, bruising my left hip and jarring my shoulder.
From above me came a series of harsh shuffling sounds, a loud thud, and a feminine grunt. Murphy’s light sliced through the dark.
I rose to my knees, taking aim again with my good hand, but he stood in my line of fire, completely blocking Succu-bitch from view. “Murphy, get out of the way!”
I heard a familiar metallic slide-click, and he stepped back an instant later, flashlight wedged under one arm, Lori’s gun in his left hand, her full magazine in his right.How the hell did he do that?I lurched to first one foot then the other, grateful that I couldn’t feel my arm. Steady now, I re-aimed at Lori’s newly bruised cheek, pleased to find her against the wall, arms at her sides, hands pressed to the metal at her back.
“Wait.” Murphy thumbed the first four bullets from the end of the magazine, one after another. They fell to the floor with a pinging sound, and one rolled through the dark to land against my boot.
Why empty the magazine? Why not just keep her gun? That’s whatIwould have done.
“Don’t shoot her yet,” he insisted, as another round hit the floor. If he hadn’t added the “yet,” I might have had to shoothiminstead.
I swallowed a moan as feeling rushed back into my arm, bringing with it a searing, throbbing pain. “Give me one good reason.”
“I want to talk to her first.”
Not good enough.“She’ll still be able to speak with a hole in her gut. For a few minutes, anyway. Get ready to talk fast.”
