Chapter 42
Chapter Forty-Two
Alex
“What the devil?” Mr. Federline slammed his fist into the steering wheel as he attempted to start the engine once again.
From outside the motorcar, Theo lifted his head from the open bonnet and tilted his torch toward the windshield. “I don’t see anything—but I don’t know what to look for, either.”
Mr. Federline threw the door open and stepped out to join Theo.
From his seat, Alex noticed Ruby shift, her eyes darting toward the keys.
She caught his stare, then frowned. “What are you doing here, kid?” she hissed under her breath. “You have no idea what you’re involved in, do you?”
Her words struck him with equal parts misery and worry. “No,” he admitted at last. “I don’t. Mr. Federline dragged me here.”
Ruby gave him a long, hard look, then pinched the bridge of her nose. “You didn’t by any chance have something to do with the car stalling, did you?”
Alex swallowed hard. “N-no.”
“You’re going to have to learn to lie better than that.” Ruby tsked and shook her head. “What’d you do?”
Something about the way she was talking to him made him want to tell her. To trust her. Mr. Federline didn’t entirely seem to hold her in his favor, either.
When he didn’t answer, her lips curled into a smile. “You’re a smart kid, clearly. But you’re in over your head.”
Ruby looked away for a moment, jaw working.
When she turned back, her voice had softened, but her eyes were hard.
“If you get the chance, you need to run. Run and don’t look back, understand?
Get to Jerusalem and find a café Abu Kadesh—there’s a man named Felix Carrington waiting there who can help you. ”
Alex’s brow furrowed, his fingers curling tighter around the edge of the seat. Why is she telling me this? “And you think I’ll get far if I run?”
“I’ll do my best to help make sure you escape. Go straight into Jerusalem. We’re only a couple of miles outside of the Old City.”
He ventured cautiously. “Who are you?”
The bonnet slammed shut.
“A friend of your father’s,” she whispered, tearing her gaze from him. “Please. Listen to me. If Prescott finds out you sabotaged his car, he might kill you.”
Could he trust her? She seemed to be working for Mr. Federline.
The door swung open once again, and Prescott sank into the driver’s seat.
Ruby perked up. “Where’s Theo?” she asked, glancing outside.
“He’s going back for your car,” Prescott said, glowering at her through the rearview mirror.
“What are we doing here?” Alex asked, slipping his hand into his pocket. His fingertips brushed against the handkerchief, which offered a fleeting comfort. “Ivy’s going to be—”
“Enough noise,” Mr. Federline said sharply. “I need to think.”
Alex’s jaw clenched with satisfaction. He’s rattled.
Good. He needed to try to push carefully—get this man to reveal himself enough.
That’ll help me know where I stand. Still, he didn’t want Mr. Federline to think he was suspicious of him.
“Do you want me to look at the engine? I know a little about mechanics.”
“I’m sure you do, you …”
Mr. Federline froze.
Ruby stiffened, and Alex’s breath slowed. Dammit. I shouldn’t have said anything.
Mr. Federline turned, slowly, then reached out into his breast pocket.
He withdrew a pistol and aimed it at Alex, his eyes narrowing.
“You do know quite a bit about mechanics, don’t you, Alex?
You convinced my men in Port Said that a boiler had exploded on that cargo ship.
” His lips curled with a cruel smile. “You think they didn’t find your little sabotage? ”
The ship?
Alex’s fingers dug more tightly against the handkerchief.
No.
No, no, no.
Mr. Federline was involved with Ivy’s kidnapping? And not just involved—he seemed to have ordered it. Alex’s throat dried as he stared at him, understanding dawning on him with a dull snap.
“Prescott, relax—”
“Keep out of this, Ruby,” Mr. Federline spat. His cold blue gaze moved back to Alex. “You’ve been causing nothing but problems for me since the moment you left England. Now what the hell did you do to my car?”
“Problems?” Alex smirked, despite the fear sliding down his core. “I solved your damned puzzle, didn’t I?”
“You did. That’s why you’re alive.” Mr. Federline cocked his head to the side. “It’s a shame, really. You’re clearly talented. If I were a younger man, I would have recruited you to work for me. Made you wealthy beyond your imagination. But I’ve learned my lesson on trusting anyone named Darby.”
From the corner of his eye, Alex saw Ruby’s hand moving slowly toward her pocket. Maybe she had a gun too.
Maybe, just maybe, she might help him after all.
He raised his chin. “If you shoot me, you won’t get the last of that code. I didn’t give it all to you.”
“You gave me enough. Talitha Komi in Jerusalem—it’s where your Aunt Alice is hiding.
But don’t worry, after I turn her over to Sharif al-Rashid, I’m sure he’ll make quick work of getting rid of her.
He’s paying a high price for her. And then I’ll take care of your father.
Eliminate all the Darbys once and for all.
” He aimed the gun at Alex’s chest. “One last time. What did you do to my car?”
Alex’s fingertips reached the ashkhar leaf and tugged it from the handkerchief. He snapped the leaf between his thumb and forefinger, smearing the latex on his skin. “Cut the fuel line,” he said with a shrug. “You won’t be going anywhere in this car.”
“Such a shame.” Mr. Federline cocked the hammer of the pistol.
Ruby withdrew a tiny Derringer no bigger than her palm. The metal caught a sliver of moonlight as she lifted it.
Alex blinked. Was she—
“Alex, run!” she cried.
Crack. Crack.
Two gunshots split the night open, the sound piercing Alex’s eardrum.
Mr. Federline flinched, his arm jerking away from the wheel as one bullet struck his forearm, slicing through flesh.
The pistol he’d aimed at Alex veered sideways.
The other bullet hit the motorcar’s side window, shattering the glass behind him.
A howl ripped from Mr. Federline’s throat, sharp and animal-like in quality as the window glass fractured outward in a spiderweb. It collapsed with a crystalline crash.
Alex’s ears rang.
Time lurched.
His body moved before his thoughts could catch up.
Alex lunged over the seat, hitting against the gearstick, and slammed into Federline. His elbow knocked against the dashboard as he clawed for the man’s face.
“You little—”
A second shot—louder, closer—fired so near to Alex’s ear it left nothing but a high, buzzing void behind it.
He couldn’t hear. The ringing in his ears made it barely possible to think. Who had fired the gun? Where had the bullet struck?
Then his fingers found their mark—Mr. Federline’s eyes. He jabbed hard with his thumb.
Federline screamed, the sound dulled and underwater in Alex’s ears.
The man thrashed, swatting at air, at pain, at anything that moved.
His pistol slipped from his grasp, landing with a thud near the pedals, out of Alex’s reach unless he dared to dive that close to Mr. Federline’s legs and risk being kicked.
Alex gasped for breath, tasting gunpowder in his mouth. He scrambled over the front seat and reached across the leather of the dash—Theo’s matchbook. Still there.
He snatched it. If the car was still leaking fuel, he might be able to use this.
Federline was wailing behind him now, cupping his face. “My eyes! What the hell did you do?”
Alex kept moving, pushing against the passenger side door. He shoved it open, letting in a rush of cold desert air. The wind bit at his cheeks. Dust scraped across the road outside in whispering spirals.
He turned. Ruby.
She was still in the backseat, slumped awkwardly against the door, one leg twisted beneath her.
Blood ran in a sluggish stream from her thigh, soaking through her trousers and pooling under her hand.
That’s where that third shot had gone. The gun in Mr. Federline’s hand must have discharged while Alex had fought him.
Her breaths were shallow. “Go,” she whispered. “Don’t be stupid, Alex. Run. I’m out of ammo.”
Alex didn’t know if he could get far with her—but he was several inches taller than her, even at his age.
“Get out of here!” she gasped.
His legs twitched.
His heart screamed at him to obey.
Run.
Run!
Instead, he climbed into the backseat, hooked one arm under her shoulders, and hoisted her upward. She gasped in pain, nearly doubling over.
“Dammit, kid,” she groaned. “You’re going to get us both killed.”
“Better than leaving you behind.”
They tumbled out of the car together. Ruby staggered as her injured leg buckled, and Alex threw his arm around her waist to keep her upright.
The chill cut through his shirt, biting deeper now that adrenaline thinned his blood.
He turned back toward the car, eyes searching. There. Just beneath the rear wheel—a dark puddle, glinting faintly in the moonlight.
Fuel.
His hands shook as he fumbled the matchbook open.
One strike. Two. The third caught—a thin flame blooming from the tip.
He hesitated for half a breath.
Then threw it.
The flame tumbled end over end—then vanished into the fuel.
Whoosh.
The flames bloomed like a living thing, a brilliant ball of fire and force that consumed the motorcar with ravenous hunger. The heat hit them seconds later, an invisible fist slamming against their backs with a boom.
Alex covered Ruby as best he could with his body, shielding her from flying debris.
Then—silence, except for the crackle of burning metal and the stutter of flames licking through rubber and leather.
He looked back. Against the blaze, he thought he saw a figure moving.
Federline couldn’t have survived … could he?
Alex didn’t wait to find out.
He crouched, threw Ruby across his back, and stumbled away from the wreckage.
Her breath was hot and uneven against his neck. “God,” she rasped, “you really are Jack’s son, aren’t you?”
Alex’s steps faltered, his heart lurching hard.
The name cut like ice.
Jack’s son.
Whose son?
He didn’t know anymore. And he no longer cared, either.
He just wanted to survive.
I just want to go home.