Alex felt a searing pain in his side, but he ignored it as he took Diesel to the ground like a linebacker to a quarterback. He wasn’t too gentle about slamming the man’s head into the floor a little more forcefully than needed. Diesel raised his gun in retaliation, but Alex batted the gun from the man’s grip as if it were no more than a pesky fly in his face.
“Not as dumb I thought,” Diesel commented before digging his fingers into Alex’s grazed side.
He hissed in pain then delivered a devastating blow to the man’s face. Right in his bloody nose. It looked like Payton had already broken it. Good girl. “Smarter than you.” Alex rolled on top of him trying to pin him, but the man was more slippery than an eel.
“Hardly,” Diesel grunted as he tried to fling Alex off of him. He thought his large frame would be in his favor, but it wasn’t. Alex outweighed him in muscle mass and pure determination. “I’ve always been one step ahead. You’re not match for me.” Diesel faked punching from the right then brought both fists down on Alex’s stomach just before he threw his weigh to the side sending Alex crashing to the floor.
Alex hadn’t been prepared for the double move. He really needed to stop underestimating this man. He’d allowed his small demeanor from previous encounters to cloud his judgement. Diesel scrambled to his feet looking for the gun. Alex didn’t know where it was, but he couldn’t allow the man to get anywhere near it.
He hooked his foot in front of Diesel’s and pulled, bringing the man back down to the ground. Alex reached for him to pull him to his feet when a foot flew out and connected with his jaw. Alex stumbled back crashing into the desk. Diesel pounced on him and wrapped his meaty fists around his neck.
Air ceased to reach his lungs. Alex instinctively reached for his neck and tried to pry Diesel’s death grip from it. Diesel had the upper hand, but he was no match for him. Alex released Diesel and used his remaining strength to hit Diesel’s arm and break his grip. Then he drove his knee into Diesel’s stomach. The man groaned in pain. Good. He hoped it hurt like hell. Alex delivered an upper cut, snapping Diesel’s head back. Spittle went flying.
Alex flipped them around, so Diesel was the one leaning over the desk, and it was his hands choking the life out of him. Oh, Alex still had no intention of killing him, but he wouldn’t loosen his grip until the old man passed out.
Diesel’s eyes started to bulge and his face turn red. Any moment now he would pass out. Alex just kept up his punishing grip. As his struggles slowed down.
“Ask your friend Colin,” Diesel choked out. “He knew of my plans all along.”
That pulled Alex up short and eased his grip. What? That moment’s distraction caused Alex to leave himself vulnerable. Diesel grabbed the phone off the desk and brought it across Alex’s face.
Alex was stunned not only from the blow but Diesel’s words. Colin had known about this? No, he didn’t want to believe it. He couldn’t. Colin was his oldest friend. He would never do something like this. Betray Nick. His fellow service members. Never.
Too little too late to realize it when Diesel brought a desk phone up under his chin, knocking him on his back. Damn, that hurt.
Diesel tossed the phone to the side and grabbed the knife off the desk, towering over him like a conquering warlord. He thought he had the upper hand now. But Alex was far from defeated. Even with a knife gripped in Diesel’s hand, Alex wasn’t afraid.
“I told you, you were no match for me,” Diesel crowed like a victor, thinking the battle already over. “How does it feel to know you were betrayed by your best friend?” Diesel taunted.
“I would never,” Colin said from the side of the desk hovering over Duke while applying pressure to his wound. “Alex, it’s not true.” His voice pleading for Alex to believe him.
“There’s no point in denying it now,” Diesel continued with an evil grin. “Colin was with me from the beginning. Helping every step of the way. He helped plan it. He really was the mastermind—”
Diesel stopped in midsentence and collapsed to the ground. Alex rolled out of the way before the man could fall on him and popped on his feet to stare at a ghost. At least he was pretty sure it was a ghost. Though one would think a ghost looked better than the man standing before him.
“He always did like to talk too much,” Nick grumbled, holding a gun in his hands, staring down at Diesel who was finally unconscious.
“Nick,” Alex whispered his name as if afraid saying it too loud would cause the apparition to disappear.
Nick tucked his gun in the back of his pants and smiled warmly at him as if this were a normal form of greeting. “It’s good to see you, son.”
“I can’t…I mean…this can’t be.” Alex was at a loss for words. Nick was standing in front of him. “You’re supposed to be dead. Everyone said you were. Even Diesel.”
Nick gave a snort. “That man couldn’t kill me if he had a whole army, and he didn’t have half of that.”
Alex was still reeling from discovering Nick was alive, if looking worse for wear, as MP’s came storming into the room with a medical team. They took over for Colin as he explained the situation.
Nick leaned closer and whispered as if telling a secret. “It was a reconnaissance mission. I knew someone was behind the deaths. I knew I was the next target, so I set a trap and waited. I was hoping to get Simon to reveal his plan, but he pulled out an ace I hadn’t accounted for. I knew it was time to escape before they killed me. So I got away and we set up the dead body,” Nick explained pointing with his chin at Colin.
“Wait, Colin? You knew he was alive?” He looked at his friend as if seeing a stranger who came up to join them.
“Yeah, Nick called me this morning and told me everything.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” He felt a sense of betrayal not only by his mentor but his friend. To keep something like this from him was a knife in the stomach.
It was Nick who answered. “The less people that knew about it, the better. I had hoped my death would flush Diesel out of hiding. And it worked. Colin was convincing enough of making sure it was known Payton was here as well. It stood to reason Diesel would come after her next. I just never factored in she’d be in the room at the time he’d show up, but at least now it’s finally over.” Nick gave him a half smile. Alex was still in shock that Nick was alive and Colin knew about it. His whole world was spinning, and he felt suddenly lightheaded.
“Alex,” Colin said softly coming up to him. “About what Diesel said. About me betraying you and Nick.”