Jack of Hearts (Aces & Eights Book 1)

by Sandra Owens

  The bottom drawer, big enough to hold files, was locked, but she’d seen a key in the mess of pens and pencils. It fit, and she pulled the drawer open. All the folders had tabs, and she flipped through them.

  “What’s this?” she said, seeing a tab with her father’s name on it. The only thing in the folder was an envelope with her dad’s initials on the front. It wasn’t sealed, and she frowned when she looked inside. Why would Ramon have a thumb drive that she recognized as one of the green logoed ones she’d given her father for Christmas? Was this the proof she needed?

  Unease slithered through her as she turned on Ramon’s computer, slipping the thumb drive in. Her eyes scanned the document, which she recognized as a draft of one of her father’s investigative reports. After reading Michael Parker’s investigation into Jose and Ramon Alonzo’s illegal activities, Madison sat back in the chair, her heart pounding. It wasn’t proof that her own family members had either killed or ordered her father killed. That the thumb drive—one her father would never have let out of his sight—was in Ramon’s possession was as damning as it got, though.

  How could they do such a horrible thing? Tears streamed down her cheeks as she thought of her beloved father. If it turned out to be true, it would devastate her mother. Hell, it was devastating her. She remembered a conversation she’d overhead between her parents a few days before he died.

  “Is there anything I could ever do to make you stop loving me, Angie?”

  Her mother had laughed. “Of course not, silly man. You are my heart.”

  Had her father been thinking of the story he’d written when he’d asked that question? Madison angrily swiped at her tears. She had to get out of here before she did something stupid, like demand answers from her cousin. The thumb drive seemed hot and heavy in her hand, as if it might burn right through her skin.

  She had two choices. Go straight to the police or go to her father’s editor. Convince him to run the story with her father’s byline. Would that be sufficient for the police to open an investigation into her father’s death? She needed time to calm down and think.

  “What the hell, Madison?”

  She jerked her gaze up to see Ramon standing in the doorway, his hair on end, wearing nothing but a pair of boxers. Shit. Shit. Shit. She palmed the thumb drive, and tried to delete the document still up on the screen, but Ramon was on her too fast.

  His eyes darted to the monitor, then to her. “Little girls shouldn’t be nosing into things that are none of their business, cousin.” His grip on her wrist tightened, and he pulled her toward the door.

  “I’m not going anywhere with you.” She tried to pull her arm away, but he dug his fingers into her skin, causing her to whimper.

  “I didn’t offer you a choice.”

  “You’re hurting me.” There was no warmth in her cousin’s eyes, no affection for her on the face of a man who had lost his soul. He scared the living hell out of her. She still held the thumb drive—her evidence—tight in her palm, and, not wanting to drop it, she kept her hand fisted. But she wasn’t going without a fight, so she lowered her face and clamped her teeth down on the flesh of Ramon’s upper arm, while aiming for his shin with the heel of her shoe the way Alex had taught her.

  “Bitch,” he snarled. “You’re going to pay for that.”

  When he let go of her wrist, she took advantage of her freedom to run for the door. She’d made it halfway down the hallway when Ramon grabbed her hair, yanking her to a stop. Tears stung her eyes, both from the pain radiating down her skull, where he twisted her hair hard around his hand, and from the defeat sinking into her heart. He walked past her, dragging her along behind him. She shoved the thumb drive into the pocket of her shorts and then grabbed on to his arm, trying to ease the pull on her hair.

  “Stop it, Ramon! You’re acting crazy.”

  Ignoring her, he kept dragging her, forcing her to bend over and stumble sideways. If she’d had any doubt that he’d had a hand in her father’s death, the cruel hands of her cousin vanquished it.

  “FBI! Open up.”

  Ramon froze. “Fuck.” He turned back the way they came, not letting go of her hair. “Did you call them, Madison?”

  The door burst open before she could answer, and she heard the pounding of feet and the yell of men’s voices as Ramon dragged her back into the office, kicking the door closed behind them.

  He pushed her against the wall, lowering his face to within inches of hers, his eyes blazing with fury. “Did you?”

  “No. I swear it.”

  Cursing, he jerked her around, snaked his arm around her throat, and backed up to the bookcase. From a humidor, he pulled out a gun, putting it to her head. With his arm squeezing her throat, and the barrel of the gun digging into her skull, Madison feared this was the day she would die.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  Because he knew the layout of the Alonzos’ house, Alex was the first in. Movement in the hallway caught his attention, and his heart stuttered painful beats. He would know that flash of red hair anywhere.

  “Ramon’s got Madison,” he growled.

  “You sure?” Nate said from beside him.

  “Yes. Jose’s bedroom is up there, second door on the left.” He lifted his chin toward the stairs. “Court, you take some men and get him. Nate, just you and me are going after Ramon. We go busting in there, guns blazing, God knows what he’ll do.” As Court and a handful of men made their way up the stairs, Alex told Rand and Taylor to split the remaining agents between them and start searching the house.

  “I don’t know if the housekeeper’s a live-in or not. Her name’s Mrs. Gutierrez if you run across her.” He forced himself to do his job as lead on this operation instead of racing down the hallway and killing Ramon for touching Madison.

  When he reached the door to Ramon’s office, he glanced at his older brother. “If he hurts her, I’m going to kill him.”

  Nate put a hand on his shoulder. “Understood, baby brother.”

  “Let’s do this,” Alex said. He flattened himself against the wall on one side of the door, while Nate did the same on the other. Because he worried about Madison’s reaction to hearing his voice, Alex used his mimicking skills to make his voice sound like Rand’s.

  “Ramon Alonzo, it’s the FBI. We have a warrant for your arrest. Come out with your hands on your head.” When there was no response, he chanced turning the knob, pushing the door open. Peering around the doorjamb, his blood turned to ice at seeing Madison held against Ramon with a gun at her head.

  “He’s got a gun on Madison,” he whispered. What the hell was she doing at Ramon’s at this time of the morning? “Give it up, Ramon. You’re not getting out of here.”

  “Back away from the door, and I’ll come out.”

  Nate shook his head, and Alex gave a nod that he understood they couldn’t let Ramon control the situation. A commotion sounded from the living room, and he heard Jose Alonzo demanding a lawyer.

  “Papa!” Ramon yelled.

  The team pushed Jose out the front door, and it got quiet again. Rand and Taylor came down the hall, stopping a few feet away. Nate backed up to them, quietly bringing them up to speed. When Nate returned to his position, he nodded, and Alex slipped around the doorway, Nate at his back, both their weapons pointed at Ramon.

  “Drop your gun,” Alex ordered, still using Rand’s voice. Madison furrowed her brow, giving him a hard look. Although he wore a black ski mask, he saw the recognition hit as she stared into his eyes. He gave a slight shake of his head when she opened her mouth. Ramon would probably go crazy if he realized the man he’d thought was his friend was actually FBI.

  She pressed her lips together, and the betrayal in her eyes was a punch to his gut. But he’d expected it, thought he was prepared for it. There was so much fury in her expression that he wasn’t even sure she remembered there was a gun to her head. Whether she would ever forgive him didn’t matter at the moment. Getting her to safety was all he could allow himself to thi
nk about.

  Alex took another step into the room. “You’re not getting out of this. Lower your gun to the floor, nice and easy.” He kept his gaze on Ramon. “Do it now.”

  “Hell no.” Ramon held Madison in front of him, his finger on the trigger of the gun. “Unless you want to see her dead, you’ll get out of my house.”

  “You pull that trigger, man, it’ll be the last thing you ever do.”

  Ramon turned the gun on Alex, and the minute he did, Madison kicked his shin just the way he’d taught her, and then fell to the floor.

  That’s it, Grasshopper, Alex thought right before Ramon pulled the trigger, the sonofabitch shooting him above the edge of his Kevlar vest. A weapon fired next to his ear, and a second later, blood colored Ramon’s chest red.

  “Good shot, bro,” Alex muttered before crumbling to the floor.

  “Alex!”

  That was Madison’s voice, and she sounded worried. Did that mean she forgave him? When he felt her hands touch his face, he tried to reach for her, but he couldn’t see her. Had someone turned out the lights?

  “Alex,” Madison pleaded, tears streaming down her face as she crawled to him. She pulled off his ski mask, searching his face for any sign of life. She’d known those eyes almost from the minute he’d walked into the room, dressed in black with the FBI letters on his vest. All she could think while standing there with a gun stuck to her head was that Alex had used her to get close to Ramon.

  Never had she felt so betrayed. As she watched him try to talk Ramon into surrendering, she’d looked for any warmth for her in his eyes, and all she’d seen was cold determination to get his job done. And as she’d waited to learn how it would feel to have a bullet blast through her brain, her heart—already broken in half—had shattered into a thousand pieces.

  And now, he was dying. “Don’t die, Alex. Please don’t die.” She took his hand and brought it to her face.

  “Hold this over the wound.”

  A piece of cloth torn from someone’s shirt was thrust at her. She grabbed the material and pressed it to Alex’s chest where blood gushed out. There were other people in the room now, she could hear them talking, their voices terse. A man dropped to his knees on the other side of Alex, and he tore off his face mask.

  He put his hands over hers, pressing her palms harder against Alex’s shirt. She peered up into the tear-filled eyes of his older brother, Nate. “Please don’t let him die.”

  “Never,” Nate said, sounding as if he meant it with everything he was.

  Another man joined them, and she recognized Alex’s brother Court.

  “Dammit, Alex,” he said, his voice cracking. “You fucking die, I’ll kill you myself.”

  The pain radiating from him turned what was left of her heart to ashes. Alex wasn’t going to make it. Did she even belong here with them at such a tragic time? Should she leave him to his brothers? Even if she should, she couldn’t make herself step away from his side. The two brothers shared a look, and despair flooded their eyes. She understood. Her heart was breaking, too.

  “I’ve got him,” a man said, pushing his hands under hers. Startled, she fell onto her butt and was pushed out of the way by a trio of EMTs. Alex’s brothers surrounded the EMTs, who were doing CPR. Unable to watch, she ran out the door, hitting the hard body of a man she’d never seen before.

  “Whoa. Easy, Madison.” He circled his arm around her waist, pulling her with him toward the front door. “I’m Rand.” He handed her a wet washcloth he’d gotten from who knew where, and she stared at her hands as she tried to scrub Alex’s blood away.

  A woman fell into step at her other side. She recognized her as Alex’s date from the night he’d met her and Ramon at the Flamingo Bar. What was she doing here? Madison glanced at the gorgeous woman, who had tears rolling down her cheeks.

  “Do you love him?” she asked, thinking she should just shut up, but she had to know.

  The woman leaned her head down, resting her chin on Madison’s hair. “As a brother agent, yes, I do. As a lover, we’ve never gone there and never would have. He’s yours, Madison. Don’t think otherwise.”

  Did everyone know about her and Alex? “Doesn’t matter anymore, does it?” she said, wishing she could stop crying. She had seen him take his last breath, had seen his body go slack, had even seen one paramedic glance at the other two, giving a shake of his head.

  As soon as she walked outside with a wall of those who loved Alex surrounding her, she broke away and ran to the end of the house, losing everything left in her stomach. Too much blood had poured out of his chest for him to survive.

  She hated him for using her to get close to her cousin, and she loved him with every fiber of her being. The front door of her uncle’s house flew open, and two EMTs rushed by with a gurney while the third one straddled Alex, pushing on his chest.

  “He’s dead,” she whispered as her knees gave out. Someone picked her up and carried her away, but she was too lost in her heartbreak to know who, much less care.

  “I’m not leaving,” Madison said, refusing to be daunted by the room full of what she assumed were Alex’s fellow FBI agents, some sprawled over chairs in the hospital waiting room, others holding up the walls.

  “Only family can see him,” the woman she remembered as Taylor said, kindness in her eyes.

  “Then I’ll just sit over here.” Madison moved to a far corner, away from the curious stares of some of the most intimidating people she’d ever seen. Nate had been the one to call and tell her that Alex was hanging on to life by a thread, and he would always have her gratitude for thinking of her during what had to be one of the hardest times in his life. She clasped her hands together, bowed her head, and prayed for God to save Alex’s life.

  “Madison.”

  A gentle hand cupped her knee, and she opened her eyes to see Court kneeling in front of her. “Is he . . . is he . . .” She couldn’t finish the question, certain that Alex was gone.

  “He’s still the same. Will you come with me to see him?”

  “I thought only family could go in.” Why was she questioning the offer when she needed to see him more than she’d needed anything in her life? Court smiled, and it was so much like Alex’s that tears pooled in her eyes.

  “I’ll flash my badge if a nurse tries to stop you.”

  “Or you could just smile at her. That should do it.” Oh God, had she just said that? It was only because there was so much about him that reminded her of Alex, plus all the brothers had lethal smiles.

  He chuckled. “I think you’re giving me more credit than I deserve. Come on.” Taking her hand, he pulled her up. “Come talk to him, Madison. Bring him back to us.”

  Why would he think she could do such a thing? Alex didn’t care for her. She’d only been a means to an end, a link to Ramon. After an ambulance had whisked Alex away, Taylor had taken her home so she could wash off the blood and change her clothes. In spite of her resolve not to like the woman, she had. Although she’d dreaded it, she’d broken the news to her mother that Jose had been arrested and Ramon killed, staying with Angelina to console her until Nate had called.

  The biggest surprise had been Angelina. She’d shed endless tears for her twin brother’s arrest and the death of his son, but she’d placed all the blame on the two of them for the way things had gone down. As for Jose, all Madison knew was that he was in federal custody, right where he belonged.

  She hadn’t the heart, though, to tell her mother that it appeared Uncle Jose had a hand in her husband’s murder. Maybe she would someday; she hadn’t decided. Ramon was dead, and if Uncle Jose got sent away for life, what would be the point in telling Angelina? It would only add to her grief.

  Court kept her hand in his as they walked to Alex’s room, and it seemed a brotherly type of gesture. What would it be like to have been with Alex and have Nate and Court as her brothers? It wasn’t going to happen, and she still didn’t understand why he thought her presence would help.

  “A
lex ended things between us,” she said, wanting to make sure he knew. “I doubt he’ll want me here.”

  He just gave her a mysterious smile, as if he knew things she didn’t. They walked into the room, and she gasped. The man on the bed was deathly pale, and she wondered if it was only the machines hooked up to his body that kept him alive.

  Nate sat in a chair pulled up to the bed, his head bowed as if in prayer. Court let go of her hand, and tears fell freely down her face as she approached. Nate lifted his head, and she saw the fear and pain in his eyes, thinking it must mirror her own.

  “Come sit, Madison.” He stood, motioning her to the chair he’d been sitting in.

  Her throat closed, making it impossible to swallow. How could the man on that bed be her vibrant, beautiful Alex? She sat in the chair Nate had vacated, taking Alex’s hand. It was cold and lifeless, and a sob escaped her lips.

  “We almost lost him three times, twice in the ambulance and once in the emergency room.” Nate put his hand on her shoulder, giving her a gentle squeeze before moving away.

  There was so much pain in his voice, and she didn’t know if she could bear it. They seemed to think she was important to Alex, that she could perform some kind of miracle, and the weight of their faith was a burden she wasn’t sure she could endure. She exhaled a shuddering breath as tears flowed like a river down her face.

  Court handed her a handkerchief, then moved to the foot of the bed next to his brother. The two of them stood with their shoulders touching as if drawing strength from each other, or maybe they were simply leaning on each other for support. She didn’t know, only that there was incredible love between the Gentry brothers. That they were FBI agents was still something she was trying to process.

  “He was only with me to find out if I knew anything about my cousin’s activities.” She didn’t know why she needed them to understand she’d meant nothing to Alex, but they seemed to think all she had to do was talk to him and he’d wake up.