Desert Devil (Old School Book 5)

by Jenny Schwartz

  That she knew about the Stag Agency was interesting, and she spoke of them confidently. “The contract to obtain the amulet led to the Stag agents crossing paths with Marcus—uh, with Marcus. One of their agents went rogue and Marcus took him out. Stag decided they were more scared of Marcus than Svenson, and heeded Marcus’s warning to steer clear.”

  “What sort of guy scares Stag?” Darius demanded.

  Donna looked at Rest, in a message just for him. “I’m friends with Marcus’s fiancé, Sadie.”

  Sadie was the finder talent who’d located him. Donna wasn’t about to reveal her friend to his team. But she’d trusted him with the information. He nodded fractionally, agreeing to respect the confidence. He refocused the conversation on the key issue. “Do you think Svenson is dangerous?”

  Her hands went back into her pockets. She was nervous. “I don’t have any evidence. He could be collecting fantastical creatures for some weird private zoo, but I think he’s actually collecting power.”

  “A lobbyist would think in terms of power,” Austin said. “Controlling a courier would give him a lot of influence.”

  Rest stood immovably. “No one’s going to control me, again.”

  “Doesn’t mean they won’t try.”

  Darius swore. “This guy Svenson mightn’t have anything to do with this.”

  “Assume he does,” Gabe said. “It opens up some interesting speculation.”

  They stared at him.

  “General Olafur retired into an expensive consultancy with a security corporation,” he said.

  “The general got knifed, same as us,” Darius said. “You know it was politics he was involved in that spilled over and compromised the mission. He apologized. He dealt with the leak and he got out.”

  “Into a very nice job.” Austin rubbed his chin. “We never questioned it because he presented himself as a victim, same as us.”

  Darius stood. “No.” It was a warning not to go down that path of suspicion.

  Austin held the captain’s gaze, then turned deliberately to Donna. “Our last mission was compromised. A desk jockey with gambling debts sold the mission briefing to an interested party. The details are classified, but international crime organizations use local militias to rip the riches from troubled regions, whether that’s from mines, forests, or the people themselves. Our mission crossed paths with their objectives. When Rest opened a portal, our enemies were waiting.”

  “Or that’s what we believed,” Rest said slowly. “Gabe is the hunter in our group. He sees a track before the rest of us.”

  They were all on their feet, all unsettled with that waiting feeling. The other shoe was about to drop.

  Gabe nudged it. “What if they weren’t waiting for us in the jungle because of leak? We walked into determined resistance. What if the commander was fed wrong information? What if we were set up?”

  Austin shook his head. “He was a jackass, but he wasn’t incompetent. He’d have double-checked the intelligence…”

  “Unless it came down as an order from the General,” Gabe concluded. Evidently, in their two years apart, he’d thought about the ambush a lot. This degree of suspicion hadn’t sprung from Donna’s mention of a lobbyist wanting to control a courier talent.

  “The commander got out fast after the mission failed,” Rest said. “We assumed it was his nature, clearing out before the sh-dirt could fall on him. But a man would also remove himself if there was danger. Like an investigation that might need a sacrificial goat if it threatened a general.”

  “It’s all speculation,” Darius said harshly. “Stupid speculation. Why would General Olafur sacrifice his own team? We were one of his key assets.”

  Donna sighed quietly. “I’m not saying Svenson was involved, but a skilled lobbyist would know how to tempt a man, and he’d have contacts in the military-industrial complex to deliver those temptations. Everyone has a price.” She looked at Austin, who nodded. She traded in rare, magical treasures. He sold real estate. They both knew about human greed and desperation.

  “No,” Rest and Darius said together.

  Donna looked at him sadly, as if she was sorry she had to disappoint him with the harsh reality of the world. “Rest, your price is others’ safety. Maybe the person who kidnapped Darius and had him delivered to Austin’s doorstep is nothing to do with Svenson. But they knew which buttons to press with you. That’s a lobbyist’s skillset. Think back. You were deeply embedded in the military. You couldn’t be sent on courier jobs at anyone’s whim. For someone to use your talent, they had to extract you from the military.”

  “So they risked him in an ambush?” Darius challenged her reasoning.

  She tilted her chin and spoke bluntly. “He survived. The ambush could have included a bomb to take everyone out. It didn’t.”

  There was a moment’s silence as they considered her point.

  Rest broke it. “We need answers. First from General Olafur. Then from whoever’s at the other end of this phone number.” He flicked the note that had been pinned to Darius’s unconscious body. The four people in the world that he cared about were here, at his ranch. For them, he’d go to war. Confronting a retired general would be the easy part.

  Chapter 5

  Donna braced her hands on the edge of the old sink and stared out the kitchen window. The land baked under the midday sun, heat shimmering in warning that going outside was a bad idea. The ranch house’s air-conditioning was surprisingly effective, but in a way, that just made the situation worse. She was stuck inside the small house with Gabe and Austin.

  Rest and Darius had used the portal to go and confront General Olafur.

  If she could have used her phone or a computer, she wouldn’t be feeling so confined, even with the heat. But until they knew who Rest’s enemies were, she couldn’t risk logging onto the internet and perhaps leaving a clue someone could follow to the ranch.

  Austin had changed out of his business gear and into a t-shirt and cargo pants, then simply dropped into a recliner and switched on the television in the living room.

  Really? That was his response to Darius’s kidnapping and the naked blackmail threat directed at Rest?

  Gabe ignored the heat and the respite offered from it by the air-conditioning, and sat on the porch, cleaning guns and sharpening knives. His response was every bit as unnerving as Austin’s focus on TV talk shows.

  Donna had retreated to the kitchen. She had no intention of cooking—besides, lunch had cleaned out Rest’s supplies. They needed to go grocery shopping. The kitchen was simply a place for her to get some space. She hadn’t had a vision and her seer’s intuition wasn’t shouting, but she felt twitchy. Change wasn’t coming. It was here.

  Canned laughter blared from the television in the living room.

  Having Rest’s old team here, as well as news of the threat against him, had interrupted her and Rest’s awkward but important reunion. They couldn’t go back to casual friendship, but she desperately wanted to hope that they could go forward. The easy nature of their time spent together over breakfast and meeting his animals gave her hope that they could. So she was on tenterhooks. She wanted to be alone, or at least, private, with Rest. Yet she couldn’t ignore the fact that the chance to observe Rest with his old team had removed the bitter edge to her anger that he’d left her behind two years ago. His interaction with his team made it clear he’d left everyone behind, including them.

  But that was the past. It couldn’t be allowed to decide the future. Despite her seer talent, or perhaps because of it, Donna adamantly believed in the power of free will. Every decision, little and big, created the life you made for yourself.

  She needed to think about the life she wanted. An advertising jingle blasted from the television. She grabbed her baseball cap and let herself out the back door, heading for Rest’s new adobe house to decipher what secrets of his soul it revealed and to give herself time to consider her choices.

  It was summer, but rained descended steadily on Cap
e Cod. Rest opened the portal to a back alley two streets from General Olafur’s holiday home. Darius had worked his magic on the darknet and located the general. Roughly. They didn’t know if he was at home, fishing or whatever, but they knew he was on Cape Cod. They’d need to stake out his house, without tripping any wards or mundane security systems.

  Or they could just stumble over the general as he exited a local store, carrying milk.

  Darius had a spell ready. He flicked it out. It was a look-away spell designed to enclose Rest and him in a bubble with the general.

  Rest’s magic was exclusively portal-related. He couldn’t sense the spell Darius used, but he trusted him. When Darius said “now”, Rest moved up on the general’s other side, staying just out of sight of the man’s peripheral vision.

  “Captain Selbourne?” General Olafur noticed Darius.

  “I left the army two years ago.” And unlike the retired general, Darius had left his rank behind.

  “It’s good to see you. You’re looking well.” The general’s gaze skipped down to Darius’s right leg, the prosthetic hidden by his trouser leg. General Olafur juggled the milk to his other hand to shake hands.

  Darius maintained the hand clasp and drew the general off the street into an alley. The narrow space smelled of rain and ocean, but also of trash.

  “Problem, Selbourne?” The general’s voice remained calm. He remained calm—till he glanced back at the street and saw Rest behind him. “Sergeant Castillo!”

  “We have a question for you,” Darius said.

  The general ignored him. “So your team is still in contact with one another. I was told you’d dropped out of sight, Castillo. 13OPS couldn’t find you.”

  Rest remained blocking the street. The general had his back to one wall and opposite him stood Darius with his back to the other wall.

  The general lacked magic, and he’d lost muscle tone but gained weight since he’d retired from the army. His face darkened in a manner indicative of high blood pressure and current strain. Apparently it was obvious this wasn’t a friendly visit. Then again, friendly visits seldom included alleys.

  “Who gave you the false intelligence that sent our last mission south?” Darius asked.

  It was a smart question. Darius had left Arizona refusing to believe that the general could have sold them out, but Darius never let his emotions sabotage a mission. He’d phrased the question for maximum impact. It stated that they knew the general had betrayed them: they just wanted a name.

  If the general was innocent…

  General Olafur shook his head. “You’ll have to ask Commander—”

  “No,” Darius said harshly. “The order came from you.” He was bluffing. They didn’t know anything of the sort. It was Gabe’s guess. Darius was simply respecting the mission.

  However, the bluff worked.

  Olafur sagged against the dirty brick wall. “Paul Webb.”

  Disbelief blanked Darius’s face for a second. Then rage erupted. He sank a fist in Olafur’s gut before Rest could move.

  Then again, Rest wouldn’t have tried to stop him. He’d thought the general’s treachery possible, but he hadn’t truly believed it. Wayne had died because of this bastard.

  “Why?” Darius demanded.

  Hunched over, holding his stomach, Olafur looked at Rest. “You were a military resource. Someone wanted you shaken loose. I was told that it was a setup, but that no one would be hurt. They wanted to kidnap Castillo. A clean operation. Everyone rendered unconscious on stepping out of the portal, and Castillo extracted. It was plausible. No one was meant to get hurt.”

  “Except I’d lose my freedom,” Rest said.

  Olafur straightened, gaze going back to Darius. “I didn’t ask questions. My wife had debts. She wanted a life I couldn’t afford on a military income. Paul Webb offered me a way to start again.”

  “What else do you know?” Darius gritted out.

  “Nothing. I didn’t want to know anything more.”

  Darius regarded the general with an assessing expression. In the past, that fractional narrowing of his left eye had been a sign that trouble was brewing, and he was about to unleash it.

  “Captain,” Rest said involuntarily. It was a warning and a reminder. They weren’t in a warzone. There were civilians beyond the alley, and as treacherous a bastard as the general had proven himself to be, killing him would be murder.

  “Extend your ostrich act to us,” Darius ordered the general in a low voice. “You haven’t seen us, you haven’t spoken to us. You know nothing.” He practically spat the last words.

  “I won’t mention your reappearance,” Olafur promised.

  “If you do, you die.” Darius glanced at Rest, tipping his hand up in the old signal to open a portal and get them the hell out of the alley.

  Rest opened the portal, grabbed Darius’s hand, and they walked through, and out, back to the ranch house.

  Donna was gone.

  Gabe was on the front porch and Austin in the living room when Rest opened the portal there and he and Darius stepped out.

  “What happened?” Austin switched off the television.

  Gabe came in from the porch.

  “Where’s Donna?” Rest asked.

  “Kitchen,” Austin said briefly. “Darius, that’s your death face.”

  “The general’s still alive. He confessed, though. He did sell us out.”

  Rest ignored the resulting commotion as Austin shouted and Gabe swore. Donna wasn’t in the kitchen. “Donna!”

  There was silence from the living room. Then the three guys crowded into the kitchen.

  Rest opened the back door. “You were meant to watch over her.”

  “Or just watch her,” Darius said, ever suspicious and in an especially critical mood.

  Gabe strode out and crouched down, studying the ground. “She’s headed for the adobe house you’re building.” Evidently he’d been reconnoitering.

  Why wouldn’t she be waiting for news?

  “I’ll get her.” Rest didn’t wait for a response from the team. They could have taken this chance to discuss the situation without her, but his need to know she was safe overrode the opportunity to plan with his team.

  The track between the old house and the new one was familiar ground. He crossed it without thinking, and found Donna in the adobe house, sitting on the window seat. Relief that she was there and safe was disconcertingly sharp; almost as disconcerting as how right she looked in his home.

  She didn’t notice his entrance. She was sitting sideways on the bench seat with her feet up, staring out the window. If the desert heat bothered her, it didn’t show.

  “Your situational awareness needs work,” he said.

  She jumped. “Rest.”

  “Why did you leave the house?”

  She swung her legs down and he sat beside her.

  “I felt crowded. No.” She frowned at her toes. She was wearing sandals, her toenails painted a pretty pink. “That’s not fair to Gabe and Austin. We were giving each other space, I just…I guess I wanted to understand why you chose to live here. This land is so different to my home in San Francisco.” She shook her head. “It’s not important. What did the general say?”

  “He betrayed us.” But Rest was still musing on what she’d said. “You don’t like it here.” It shouldn’t matter, but the flatness in his voice revealed that it did.

  “I like it. There’s freedom, here. But you have to accept the land on its terms. The desert isn’t going to bend to our wishes. It doesn’t make allowance for softness.”

  “It’s not as harsh as it looks.”

  She met his gaze.

  He stood. “When the guys are gone, I’ll show you the reason why I built the house here.”

  There was an oddly tense silence between them, which she broke when she nodded and looked away.

  Belatedly, he realized that he’d invited her to stay on, to remain with him after the need for her to do so for safety’s sake, had pas
sed.

  And she’d accepted.

  “I thought it would take you longer to find the general,” she said.

  The change of subject, despite the heavy issues it carried, seemed safer ground than their suddenly shifting relationship. Rest described his and Darius’s encounter with Olafur as he walked back with her to the ranch house.

  “I can’t believe you let the bastard walk away!” Austin paced agitatedly around the living room, barely glancing at Rest and Donna when they walked in.

  “He gave us a name, somewhere to start hunting,” Darius said. “I’m as angry as you, Austin, but I want the puppet master, not the puppet.”

  Austin swore under his breath, but nodded.

  Darius reached for a laptop. “Good. We need to be ready. I want Rest to call my kidnappers, tonight.”

  Tension that was a quarter uncertainty and the remainder a hunter’s anticipation, invaded Rest’s body. “Are you sure?”

  Darius’s eyes were coldly merciless. “You didn’t recognize the name.”

  “Paul Webb?” Rest frowned. “Was he in the military? 13OPS?”

  Darius had switched his attention to the laptop. “Paul Webb was one of the list of people who tried to hire you, and Bo refused.”

  “Burner phone?” Gabe requested.

  “Third drawer,” Rest answered. “Tell Bo I’ll extract him, just give the word.”

  Gabe halted in the doorway to the kitchen. “Uncle Bo’s careful. He’s an agent for scarier people than you, Rest, and he has enough protections to keep away the Rougarou himself. Don’t worry about Uncle Bo.”

  Darius raised his voice. “We don’t just want to know why he rejected Paul Webb as a client. Find out who referred him to Bo to try and hire Rest.”

  “Got it.” The back door slammed as Gabe walked out of the kitchen.

  Austin glared.

  Rest understood the feeling. They boiled with anger and the need for action, and there was nothing for them to do. They weren’t the intelligence gatherers for this mission.