Chapter Twenty #2
“Yeah, and it was funny as hell too,” she said, as they slid down the last embankment and into a gully where they were going to check out the target’s home. “I think we all know why Stella is always smiling and getting pregnant,” she joked.
“Assholes,” he muttered. Then, he grinned because he also knew why Stella was always smiling and pregnant. That was a point of pride with any man.
Gene couldn’t help but enjoy annoying the big Native mercenary. That was the fun part of working with Zayn.
You got to bust his ass unmercifully.
Tapping her com, Maura connected with Rogue.
“We’re at the point of entry. Give us ten, and then access the gate. Bypass security, and meet us at the pickup point. We’ll have him contained.”
Rogue’s voice came over the com.
“Copy, Major.”
Elizabeth was staring at the house, and it was a nice place. There was no doubt that Devon believed he’d be safe there.
Spoiler.
He.
Was.
Not.
“Okay, team,” Maura said, whispering. “We have to get in, get him, and have pickup without anyone seeing us. It’s still semi-light out, and we don’t need him screaming.”
Zayn shrugged.
“So, let’s pop him right now,” he stated.
Elizabeth wasn’t having it.
“No. He gets grabbed alive and taken to the warehouse for later,” she said, not mincing words.
Zayn sighed.
“It would be easier to…”
She stopped him.
“He killed a Marine, dug up my parents’ bones, and threatened my family. What would you do if he threatened to hurt Stella or your kids?”
He got it.
That was a no-brainer.
“I’d fucking beat his face into a bloody pulp, stick acid up his ass, and watch him dissolve from the inside out.”
Well, then, he knew how she felt at that point.
“He has a little present waiting for him,” she said. “We take him alive. I don’t care if you beat his ass first,” Elizabeth said. “In fact, I hope he fights, but he stays alive until I’m done with him.”
They all agreed to give her that.
“Okay, Boss,” Maura said. “We’re all on the same page. Zayn, don’t kill him.”
He patted Elizabeth on the back.
“I’ll get him for you,” he offered. “He’s going to get what he has coming to him. If you can’t do it, I’ll be more than happy to handle it for that pussy Gene.”
She thanked him even as the man in question flipped him off with two birds—not one.
“I appreciate that, Zayn.”
And she did.
Gene pointed at the bars on the fence, wanting to get this dude just as much as Elizabeth.
“How are we getting past them?” he asked. “That’s eight feet high, and if we try to climb it, someone is seeing us.”
He had a point.
Maura knew how they were getting in.
“Zayn, spread them.”
The big man moved toward the fence where a tree was blocking most of the view, and then, he put his big boot on one bar and grabbed the one next to it. Using his full body weight and strength, he stretched the bars out.
It wasn’t much, but it was enough for them to slip through the opening.
When he was done, they all headed his way, and sure as shit, they were able to squeeze through. Gene and Zayn both barely fit through, but by taking their vests off, they made it.
Now, they were in the man’s backyard.
Not far away, he was sitting on his luxury-covered porch, his back to them as he had his feet up by the fire pit.
It looked cozy.
And it was going to be his last luxury if Elizabeth had anything to say about it.
Maura made hand signals, and they split up, moving along the perimeter. Gene and Zayn went one way, Maura and Jagger went the other.
And Elizabeth crept up behind him going through the middle of the yard.
As she approached, she heard him on the phone.
“Good job. Thank you for deleting that information. I should be good for now. If I need your services, I’ll call you.
I’m thinking about one last job, and it’s a big one.
I might need you to hack into some bank accounts.
I have a target that I want to be so poor, that he eats his gun.
I mean all of his money. He’s a businessman, so I know how he’ll crash. ”
Elizabeth knew what he was planning.
He was going to go after Chris’ money, and then likely Callen’s next. Well, he wasn’t doing that.
“I’ll call you if I decide to do it. Thank you. Money is transferred from my other account. Go in and delete that one too.”
Then, he hung up.
“Oh, Elizabeth, how will your husband afford his expensive doctors for HIV when I steal all of his money?” he said, not realizing she was literally right behind him.
Oh, was he in for a big surprise?
Yeah, she couldn’t wait to see the look on his face.
“Women shouldn’t play games with men,” he said. “They just aren’t smart enough.”
That’s when she made her move, putting her gun to the back of his head.
“Are you sure about that, Devon?” she asked. “Because I’m pretty fucking smart, Ms. Sara Bishop.”
His whole body froze.
“Oh, Jesus,” he whispered.
When he went to move, she put her hand on his shoulder so he couldn’t.
“Oh, please give me a reason,” she said. “My regret is I didn’t bring some poison from that cute little flower shop to really watch you squirm. I hope you didn’t leave any in that rental you returned earlier.”
The artery in his neck was throbbing, and the chase was now on the other foot. Someone else was prey.
HIM.
To really scare him, she whistled.
When she did, four individuals moved from the shadows, ski masks down, and guns out.
Because it was time to transport this piece of human garbage, Elizabeth shoved him, and he fell onto the floor of his lanai.
That’s when she pulled off her mask so he could stare up at her.
“What’s wrong, Devon? Or is it Slater J Devon?” she asked. “Is that what the mercenaries you paid on The Dark Web call you? You’ve been fun to chase, but know what’s going to be even more fun?”
He swallowed.
“Putting me in jail?” he asked.
She laughed.
And laughed.
And laughed.
“Oh, that you think I’m putting you in jail so you can use what you’ve planted to ruin my career? Yeah, no. I saw that coming too. I know how you use mercenaries to take out your apprentices.”
Now, he looked terrified.
“We’re going on a little field trip, Devon. You, me, and my merry band of fucking mercenaries.”
He was so confused.
“How?”
Elizabeth told him.
“You assumed I wouldn’t do the same thing you did. I paid hackers. I paid mercenaries, and I played the game exactly as you were, Devon. You assumed I’d stay in the legal lane and not leave it.”
She crouched down and put the gun under his chin.
“You were wrong. Tag, you’re it.”
That’s when she punched him in the face so hard, his teeth broke out.
The man gasped as blood splattered.
“You thought that I wouldn’t break the rules. I have bad news for you, Devon. Following the rules made me a monster a long time ago. That was your miscalculation. I would toss my badge for the people I love, and when I kill you, you’ll wish you never started this game.”
Standing up, she kicked him so hard in the face, his head snapped back, and he went out cold.
That’s when Gene pulled off his mask.
“You got him, Boo.”
Yeah, she did.
Only, she wasn’t kidding before when she told Zayn he was going with them alive. She was about to make him pay for every little game he and his father planned for the last twenty years of their lives.
“Bind him and gag him. I want him locked down so tight but awake. I want him to feel every single second of terror. Like his victims felt. Like Rayna felt.”
They didn’t question it.
This wasn’t their rodeo, and it was crystal clear that Elizabeth had this planned out.
When she looked over at Maura, she was ready.
“We need transport.”
They all heard Rogue.
“Food delivery coming up. I just cleared the gate,” he said. “Get me into the garage.”
Oh, they would.
As Gene and Zayn bound the man, they made sure he was so tightly wrapped up that nothing was getting him free. While they handled that, she wandered the house.
Inside, there were files on her.
There were boxes of things that he planned on using to set up scenes with clues.
Maura was behind her.
“He’s been a bad little asshole,” she stated.
Elizabeth nodded.
Picking up her file, she saw what he was planning next.
“He has people in DC picked out,” she said. “These he was going to do himself. It looked like he was hopping a flight back there.”
Maura was curious.
“Who?”
She read off the names.
“Tiffany Westworth, Gabe’s head of the Secret Service, and Jacob Landmere, Callen’s publicist.”
Maura considered it.
“You would have headed back there.”
She nodded.
“Because Tiffany is my friend. That would be the distraction,” she said. When she picked up the ticket on the table, she showed Maura.
That wasn’t his real plan.
“Then, he was heading to Fiji. My kids are there at one of Chris’ houses. He must have access to all of the locations of our properties.”
Maura was sick over that.
“He was going for one of your kids.”
She saw the list on the table, and circled was one name, and only one name.
The list?
It was of her kids. He was specifically focused on Charlie, and that pissed her off.
“She was his target.”
Maura reassured her.
“Yeah, but we beat him to the punch.”
Yes, they did.
As they were standing there, the men walked by carrying a bound, wide-awake Devon. His eyes were huge, and he was crying.
Oh, he’d not seen anything yet.
“Oh, Devon, I’m going to make you wish you were dead. Trust and believe that, Pumpkin.”
With that, they carried him into the garage, and as they were loading him up, and she knew what they needed to do.
Burn this place to the ground.
Everything here was a way to take her out. There was no way she could let anyone see anything here. They also couldn’t transport it all.
It pissed her off that all of this was found in the first place, and it scared her.
Elizabeth’s children weren’t safe.
And that was on her.
When Zayn came in, she pointed.
“I want the mother of all explosions. I’m talking so big, it’s on the news in foreign countries. I want a burning crater that leaves nothing to be found. No one sees my psych profile, or all of the information on our homes and kids.”
He grinned.