Mine to Protect (Mine 6)

Zoe wrapped her arms around her body.

“And the dead hitman? You got a name on him, too? You figure out why he was so familiar?”

Michelle needs you. Get the hell out of here.

She forced her legs to move as she hurried toward the door.

But Victor just moved to the side, blocking her path.

“Thanks for the intel, Russell. I’ll call you later and we’ll talk more.” He shoved the phone back into his pocket. “Your former lover—the guy who wanted to marry you—”

“I already told you about Tom.”

“You didn’t tell me he was still working for Luther.”

Shock ripped through her. “That’s because I didn’t think he was! The agreement—it was supposed to be a package deal. Luther told us that.” Bitterness rose, threatening to choke her.

“Well, then I guess your father lied.”

As if it would be the first time.

“Russell says that Luther’s new lawyer—Xavier Thomas Winters—has been visiting him an awful lot in the last few months.”

Chill bumps rose on her arms. “I need to start searching for Michelle.” Once more, she tried to move around him, but he just side-stepped, going with her.

“He’s here, Zoe.”

She blinked.

“Russell said Tom is in town. He’s in Vegas. You’re in Vegas. Isn’t that one hell of a coincidence?”

Uh, yes, it was. Only his voice was hard and his eyes were cold. “What are you implying?”

“We’d taken you off the radar. We’d made you vanish. Then you convince me to break all the rules and get you back to Vegas. When he’s here. A guy working with your father and—”

Wild laughter escaped her. “You think I’m setting you up? That this is some—some what? Some game? Some big ruse so that I could come out of hiding and go away with Tom?”

His eyes glittered.

“No!” She was pretty much yelling and she didn’t care. “No, I’m not lying to you. I’m not betraying you. I haven’t seen Tom since that day—the day I said he could have me and we could walk away from Luther, together. He could have me. But I wasn’t enough.” Humiliation burned through her at that stark confession. “He didn’t want me. He just wanted power.” She swiped her hand over her cheek. “Now get the hell out of my way. Because I have a job to do.”

She didn’t think he was moving. She was about to push that guy out of her way—

“There’s something else you need to know.” He hesitated. Still in my way. “The hitman has been ID’d. He’s a guy who used to be on your father’s payroll.”

“What?”

“Russell thinks the fellow went freelance after Bates went to prison.”

Okay, yes, she could buy that.

“Or…or maybe…”

She stiffened. Maybe he’s still working for Luther? “You said Luther wanted you to keep me safe. So it doesn’t make any sense that he’d hire someone to kill me.” Zoe shook her head. “It wouldn’t be the first time someone turned on Luther. Not the first time, not the last.”

“Zoe—”

“Michelle.” She nearly shouted the name at him. “She’s what I have to focus on right now, got it?” She already felt like she was ripping apart. “I can’t—I can’t do anything else. I can’t think about Luther or the hitman or anything else. I need to find her. Now either get out of my way or come with me.”

Without another word, Victor turned away from her. He opened the door. Held that door while she marched out.

He didn’t speak to her again, not until they were inside the elevator and heading down to the lobby. Then Victor said, “Tom was a damn fool.”

Her breath left her in a fast gasp.

“Any man in his right mind would have chosen you…You are enough. You are more than enough.” His hands fisted at his sides. “He should have known you were everything.”

The ache in her chest eased, just a little bit. The ache eased, but the fear—her new companion—stayed.

***

Getting into Michelle Lane’s apartment wasn’t hard. It also wasn’t exactly a legal entrance or search, but Victor figured desperate times…

Desperate times mean I break more rules for Zoe.

When they’d been in Drake’s hotel and tears had glistened in Zoe’s eyes as she’d said that she hadn’t been enough, when he’d heard the pain in her voice…I wanted to hunt down Xavier Thomas Winters and beat the guy’s ass.

Only Victor was supposed to be the good guy. The guy who didn’t use his fists to get some much needed vengeance for Zoe.

“It looks as if she hasn’t been here in weeks,” Zoe said, spinning around in the middle of the little den. “There’s dust everywhere. Michelle is a neat freak. Like, obsessively neat. No way would she be letting the place get this way if she’d been here recently.”

Not a surprise. They’d already known the woman had vanished from the radar, but Victor had wanted to search Michelle’s place just in case there might have been some clues there. Signs of a struggle. Notes about travel plans…clothes that were packed indicating she’d left willingly.

But…

There’s nothing. No broken furniture. No overturned chairs. All of her clothes are still hanging in the closet, precisely in place.

In fact, other than the dust, the whole place was…perfect. Too perfect.

He slowly turned around, studying all the walls. No photos. He opened a few drawers. Some were bare. Some had only the fewest of items—a screwdriver, matches. “Your friend…” he murmured. “She’s not exactly the sentimental type, is she?”

“What do you mean?”

He shut the drawer he’d opened. “No family pics. No mementos from trips.”

Zoe glanced at the walls. The empty walls. Then back at him. She rubbed her forehead. “I guess I never noticed. Is that…odd? That she doesn’t have things like that?”

It was certainly interesting.

“I never had them,” she murmured, rubbing her head a bit harder. “After my mom…died, it wasn’t like I wanted to put up pictures of Luther. And I don’t have any other family members.”

Fuck, yeah, baby, you do. Guilt twisted in his gut.

“I guess I never noticed Michelle didn’t have pictures because I didn’t, either. Seemed normal to me.” Her hand fell to her side. “She didn’t talk about her family to me, either. She didn’t ask me about mine and I didn’t ask about hers. I was just—glad to not have to lie to someone new, I guess.” She swallowed. “I should have asked. If I’d known more about her family, I could have contacted them. Could have found out if—”

“No next of kin was listed on her rental application.”

“What?”

He rolled his shoulders back. “I did some digging a while back when you first went looking for her. I got access to her rental application.” He’d pulled—or rather, yanked hard—on some strings he had. “She didn’t have a next of kin listed. It seems that her parents died when she was younger.”

“So we’re the only ones looking for her?”

Maybe…

He headed toward the refrigerator. He opened it, expecting to have the scent of old milk hit him. Food gone bad. But—

The fridge was empty.

His head tilted. Michelle’s clothes were still in her closet, her apartment—other than the dust—was completely clean. He shut the fridge door and strode toward her garbage can.

Empty. Very interesting. “She left willingly.”

“What?” Zoe’s voice rose, almost breaking. “How do you know that?”

He faced her. “Because your neat freak friend didn’t want the food going bad in her fridge. She took it all out. Didn’t just toss it in her garbage but probably walked it down to the dumpster.”

Her gaze darted to the fridge. “Maybe someone else did that…maybe the person who took her—”

“Damn unlikely. The abductor would just be focused on cleaning up any obvious signs of a struggle.

He wouldn’t give a shit about milk congealing in the fridge.”

Excitement flashed on her face. “Michelle would care about that. It would drive her crazy.”

“That’s why she got rid of it. She knew she wasn’t coming back here for a while. She ditched the food, emptied out her garbage, and just left the things that didn’t matter.”

Now Zoe surged toward him. “Her clothes are here. Are you really saying those don’t matter?”

Actually…maybe.

“There are other places we need to visit.” She nodded decisively. “A club off the strip. A quiet place with lots of dark corners. Michelle and I met up there plenty of times because it was a place where we could both vanish.”

Victor was getting a real bad feeling about Michelle Lane. He’d sent a few agents to look for her before but the guys had turned up nothing, fast.

How do you vanish so completely?

Maybe the question wasn’t how, though. Maybe it was…

Why?

Sometimes people vanished when they needed to hide their sins. In his line of work, he sure knew one hell of a lot about that.

***

Most tourists would miss Dice. The little club wasn’t flashy like the places on the strip. It didn’t have big, neon signs. It was tucked far away from the traffic, a small place with dark brick and tinted windows. A bouncer waited at the door, sitting on a bar stool, but he wasn’t exactly stopping people from entering the place.

In fact, no one was lined up to get inside.

“You sure this is the right club?” Victor asked, as he scanned the street. To him, it sure didn’t look like the kind of bar that would attract showgirls.

“I’m sure. Michelle…she even had a thing going on with the bartender. I want to talk to him. If anyone knows where she went, it should be him.” She strode toward the bouncer. A big, muscled guy with tats on his shoulders. His dark hair was long, a little shaggy. The guy’s hard gaze swept over her and he jerked his thumb inside.

Victor followed her. When the bouncer’s gaze darted to him, assessing, the guy seemed to stiffen. For an instant, Victor hesitated. The bouncer’s stare was too aware, too intense. It didn’t go with his casual pose.