“Did he? Well, no wonder Drex’s name didn’t ring a bell. In any case, I bored of tracking them.”
“You didn’t get bored, Jasper. You failed. Drex, on the other hand, was tenacious. He kept at it until he found you.”
“Which only underscores what a sad, wasted existence his has been. To fritter away one’s life in pursuit of vengeance for a mother who abandoned him?” He shook his head and tsked. “And the really pathetic thing? He’s only begun.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, Talia, that he’ll have a real bloodlust for me after I kill you.”
With no more warning than that, he rushed her.
Acting on instinct, she turned and tried to make it into the bathroom, where she could put a locked door between them. But she soon realized that turning her back to him was the worst thing she could have done. From behind, he enwrapped her in a hug that pinned her arms to her sides and made her neck susceptible to the arm he crooked beneath her chin.
“Let her go, or I will kill you.”
Drex’s voice!
Jasper swiveled around, hauling her with him.
Drex hadn’t shouted. He’d made a controlled and imperative statement of fact. He certainly looked deadly enough. His tiger eyes were fixed on Jasper. In his outstretched hands, he cradled a handgun. It was aimed at a spot slightly above and behind her: Jasper’s forehead.
Jasper said, “I’ll snap her neck.”
“The bullet will get there first.”
“You’re not going to kill me.”
“You don’t think?”
“You’re restricted by code. FBI rules. Law and order.”
“If you don’t let her go, there’s no code, no rule, no law, nothing that would stop me from blowing your brains out.”
“You do that, you’ll never know where your mother is buried.”
Drex grimaced.
Jasper laughed. “Ah, I’ve presented you with a dilemma. You want to save Talia, which is romantic to the nth degree. But, if you kill me, you’ll never know your mother’s final resting place.”
“You’re right,” Drex said, lowering the pistol. “I’ll just shoot you in the leg instead.”
He pulled the trigger. Jasper’s body jerked. He cried out. When his leg buckled, he dragged Talia down with him. She used that nanosecond of weakness to lunge away from him.
He caught her by the hair and tried to jerk her backward.
Rapid gunfire erupted.
His grip on her hair was released so abruptly, she fell forward, landing hard on her knees, gasping for breath, deafened by the barrage.
Then Drex was there, kneeling beside her. He took her by the shoulders and gently pulled her into a sitting position. Her hearing was still muffled, but his lips were moving, asking repeatedly if she was all right.
Dumbly, she nodded.
He kissed her forehead, then eased her toward Menundez, who was at her other side, down on one knee. A number of uniformed officers had crowded into the open doorway. Locke was motioning them back, keeping them from entering the room.
She took all this in, but her gaze followed Drex as he walked over to where Jasper had collapsed. He had crumpled against his closet door, listing at a severe angle. He was bleeding from numerous wounds in his chest and abdomen.
Drex crouched in front of him.