Mine to Protect (Mine 6)

The lawyer straightened his already straight tie. “I can make sure you never see the inside of a prison.”

Now those words sure caught Roy’s attention. “Keep talking.”

“No, actually, you’re the one who needs to talk.” Xavier locked his gaze on Roy’s. “Tell me everything you know about Zoe Peters. Every. Single. Thing.”

***

“Was that everything you hoped and more?” Cain drawled as he and Victor marched away from holding. “Because to me, it sure seemed that we got jackshit out of the guy.”

Xavier Winters. It was no coincidence that the lawyer had shown up. “I got plenty I can use.” Just by seeing Winters. His eyes sharpened on Cain. “I want to see the shooter you arrested in that alleyway. Maybe he can tell us who hired him for the hit.”

Cain’s lips thinned. “Right this way.”

The guy wasn’t going to argue with him? No bitching about case territory this time? Victor hurried to follow Cain down the hallway, but they weren’t heading back to holding. Cain took him downstairs. Down, down below to…

“What in the hell?”

A body was tagged and bagged down there, and an ME stood to the side, tapping on a laptop.

“There’s the shooter,” Cain said, voice tight. “Within five minutes of him getting to booking, another prisoner had knifed him. The guy will be telling you nothing.”

Victor shook his head.

“That’s why Roy is in holding alone. Because we suspect there’s already orders pending to have him killed, too.” Cain rolled back his shoulders. “But, hey, I’m newer to this game than you are, so you tell me…you think Luther Bates could really have already heard about the attack on his daughter? Do you really think that man’s reach is so strong that he could’ve had the shooter killed the instant he came into this place? Or…” Cain blew out a rough breath. “Do you think someone else ordered the shooter taken out? Maybe the power player we’re after in Vegas?”

“Even Luther couldn’t get a hit moving on the shooter this fast.” At least, he didn’t think so. Luther couldn’t, but someone in Vegas could, someone pulling the strings in this city…puppet master. “Your power player is one busy asshole.” And Victor would be stopping him. “Better double the guards on Roy,” Victor advised darkly. “Or he may not make it through the night.”

Chapter Twelve

When the hotel room door opened hours later, Zoe felt as if she were about to explode. Victor strode inside, looking all tall, dark, and dangerous, and she wanted to rage at him.

Drake Archer had proven himself to be a very annoying opponent. She’d tried—at least three times—to give the guy the slip.

Not happening. Either Drake—or his security goons—had found a way to stop her each time. And he’d kept her trapped in the suite.

“I kept my promise,” Drake said as he rose languidly from the couch. “She didn’t get away.”

Victor gave a jerky nod. “You don’t even realize what an accomplishment that is.”

Her teeth were clenched so tightly her jaw ached.

“Yes, well,” Drake mused, “I learned from Jasmine’s work. Wasn’t about to make the same mistake again.”

Victor met Zoe’s stare. He winced. “So you’re seriously pissed?”

“Pissed doesn’t do me justice.” Not even close.

“Will it help if I say that I found out information we can use?”

She rose. Didn’t leap at him. Didn’t scream. Zoe just stood there and softly said, “You cut me out.”

“I wanted to protect you.”

“You cut me out,” she repeated. “Don’t ever do it again. If you do…”

Victor’s eyes glittered.

“I’ll walk.” He should know that she meant those words. “I’ll vanish. Sure, maybe Drake kept me here today, but we both know…I can eventually get away. I will always get away. So whatever intel you hope you’re going to get from me about Luther, it won’t happen if you shut me out again. I won’t be left in the dark.”

He rushed toward her. Reached for her but stopped. “You think I can’t see that I’m screwing things to hell and back with you?” His voice was low, ragged. “I see it. I know it, but I don’t know how to stop. I want you safe. I want to give you everything you need. I just don’t fucking know how.”

There was pain in his words. Pain and confusion and he seemed so lost.

As lost as she felt.

“What if another cop there had been tempted by the two million?” Victor asked. “I couldn’t do it, Zoe. I couldn’t risk you, so I went to the station on my own. I wanted to learn something that would help Michelle. Help you. I swear, baby, I never meant to hurt you.”

Drake cleared his throat. “Okay, so you two have lots to work out—obviously—but how about we focus on the part about Michelle for a bit? What happened when you got to the station, Vic? Did you throw your big, bad, annoying FBI weight around—as you and I both know you like to do—and find out anything else about the woman?”

The faint lines near Victor’s eyes deepened. “She went to work as a showgirl at the Vine.”

“Yes, yes, we know that,” Drake muttered. “I meant did you find out something new?”

“She went to work at the Vine, only she never danced,” Victor continued, his voice sounding tired. “I talked to Cain about her. Seems she spent all her time with upper management. Behind closed doors. She was working her way to the top. Trying to find out who was the power behind the corporate front…because that power is the new crime boss in town.”

“He’s the one she sold me out to,” Zoe said. He had to be the one.

Victor nodded. “And all signs at the Vegas PD point to him being the one who has the hits on you. That fool hitman that Cain stopped in the alley? He’s already dead because someone wanted to make sure he didn’t talk.”

Zoe’s hand rose to her throat. When would the bodies ever stop piling up?

“I did get that bastard Roy to reveal some information, and everything he said just pointed back to the Vine.”

“Then we need to get in there.” They should be storming the place right then. “We have to search there and see what we can find out about Michelle.”

Victor shook his head. “The cops can’t get in. Not yet. They’re waiting for orders from above.”

“I’m not a cop.” So she didn’t have to wait for any orders from above. “We can do this, Victor. You and me. We can get in there and help her. If you want to make this whole abandonment mess up to me…then we will work together on this. ”

Victor’s gaze was so bright. So intense. “Drake,” he said, without glancing away from Zoe. “Leave us, would you?”

“Already heading for the door.”

Zoe wrapped her arms around her stomach.

The suite’s door opened.

“Thank you,” Victor called out. The words seemed a bit rusty.

“Anytime.” Just like that, Drake was gone.

And she was locked in a face-off with Victor.

“I’m afraid for you,” he confessed.

Those words were the last she’d expected to hear from him. Zoe shook her head in automatic denial. She had a hard time imagining Victor being afraid about anything.

“The people in the Vine…they want to kill you,” Victor said.

“Yeah, I got that.”

“Zoe, you’re coming too close to death. Don’t do this. Don’t ask this shit of me.” Victor strode closer to her. His body wasn’t touching hers, but she could feel the heat that seemed to cling to him. “Cain and his crew can handle the search for Michelle. They’ve got this case covered.”

Zoe shook her head. “They don’t have me. Roy said he could trade me for Michelle. I’m the ticket we need to get her out alive.”

His eyes closed. “What am I supposed to fucking do?”

“You’re supposed to be at my side, helping me stay alive.” She reached out and curled her fingers around his hand. “We can do this. Together. W

e can come up with a plan that will work, I know we can.”

He looked at their joined hands. “I won’t be able to handle it if something happens to you. When I couldn’t find you after the fire, I swear, it was like something flipped off inside of me. I wasn’t…I wasn’t quite sane.”

“How do you think I felt when I woke up in that little motel room, and I didn’t know if you were alive or dead?” She squeezed his hand. “The whole world went dark on me right then.”

His head snapped back. His eyes locked on hers. “Be careful, Zoe.”

She stood on her tip-toes and pressed a kiss to his lips. “Why? I’ve got a special agent to keep me safe.”

“Be careful with me. I’m wanting you too much.”

“Is it possible to want someone too much?” She wanted him right then. Wanted him in her. Wanted the reassurance that they were both safe. Alive.

Together.

“You don’t want me to lose control.”

Actually, that was exactly what she wanted. Zoe swallowed and said, “I didn’t think the great Victor Monroe ever lost at anything.”

“I do.” His voice was grim. “Trust me, I fucking do.”

Staring hard into his gaze, she said, “I do trust you.”

Surprise flashed on his face.

“I thought, maybe, it was time you knew that,” she whispered the confession to him.

His head lowered toward hers. His mouth pressed against her lips. Softly. Carefully. “What are you doing to me?”

I have no idea.