Mine to Protect (Mine 6)

“I don’t understand.” He was leaving her now?

“If I go to jail, I can’t protect you. If he releases what he knows about Elizabeth…she’s next on the kill list.”

They were almost at the lobby level. Above the elevator doors, she could see the shining lights counting them down.

“He’ll take you.”

What?

“It’s part of the deal. I am so fucking sorry.”

“You’re…leaving me?” How could the pain keep getting worse?

“When this elevator gets to the ground floor, I have to walk away. But I am coming fucking back. There’s no way I’m giving you up.”

Walking away…it sure sounded as if he were giving her up. “I was a case.”

“No.” Hard, rough. “You are everything. Remember that. To me, you are everything. Fuck the case. Fuck the FBI. Fuck Luther Bates.”

The elevator dinged. The doors opened.

“You are everything.”

Then he kissed her. A deep, hard, desperate kiss. One that made her ache for the things that they’d had. For what could have been. She wanted to wrap her arms around him and hold tight but she didn’t move.

Well…didn’t move except for the tear that slipped from her eye and slid down her cheek.

“Boss wants to know…”A nasally voice grated. “You make your choice?”

Victor’s head lifted. He looked over his shoulder. She saw the two men standing just past those open elevator doors. More guards with ear pieces.

“She’s my choice,” Victor said. He turned back to stare at Zoe. “She always will be.” He put his forehead against hers. “I am so damn sorry. I wish I could start over again. I’d do everything differently with you. Everything.”

The guard said, “Boss is going to—”

Victor let her go. He whirled to confront the guards. “Tell your boss we aren’t done. When it comes to Zoe, I’m never done.”

Then he strode forward. The guards slid away, opening a space for him to pass.

And he just…

Left her.

Left her standing in that elevator. Left her all alone.

Zoe pressed her lips together so that they wouldn’t tremble, and she tasted him. She could still feel him. Even though he was…gone.

Gone, without a second glance back.

She straightened her shoulders. Marched forward, but the guards didn’t let her pass.

They blocked her way. “Boss wants you back upstairs.”

“I don’t really give a shit what he wants.”

One of the guys grabbed her arm, tightly, in a grip that bruised. “Funny, we don’t really give a shit what you want, either.”

The other guard jammed a gun into her side. “You’re going back upstairs.”

“Victor!” she yelled.

He stopped.

The guards pushed her deeper into the elevator.

Victor had swung around to face her. She saw the fury and the pain on his face. So much emotion, but he wasn’t moving toward her.

“Victor,” she whispered.

“Those earrings are fucking gorgeous on you.”

The elevator doors closed.

Chapter Fifteen

He’d never wanted to destroy someone so completely. Victor stood in the casino lobby, people all around him, the whir of slot machines and the too high peal of laughter grating in his ears.

She loves me, and I have so fucked everything to hell and back.

His hands were clenched. Every muscle in his body was poised to attack.

Zoe had been afraid when she called out to him. He’d heard the terror in her voice. She’d been afraid, and he’d been helpless to do anything to save her.

Someone bumped into him. A hard hit in his shoulder. “Sorry, buddy,” the guy muttered and kept going.

Not just a stranger—Cain, doing his undercover work. Scoping out the casino. Victor whirled and grabbed him before Cain could go too far.

“Watch where the fuck you’re going!” Victor yelled at him. Then he jerked Cain closer. “Penthouse. Tom Winters has Zoe up there. I need eyes on her.” He shoved the guy away. Glared.

Cain glared back, but, knowing how to play his part perfectly, he whirled away, muttering about “Drunk assholes” as he headed toward the elevator bank.

Victor heaved out a hard breath. He tried to figure out his next move. Tried to think past the desperation and fear choking him. Then…his head turned. He found the security camera perched high on one of the white columns that lined the lobby.

Tom would be monitoring him through the casino’s cameras. Watching his every move. Victor stared into that round lens a moment. Then he said, quite clearly, moving his lips slowly so he could be sure that Tom would understand. “Zoe. Is. Mine. Hurt her…and you die.”

Then he headed out of the casino. As soon as he cleared those big, gleaming entrance doors, he yanked out his phone. He was going to have to move, hell fast. He dialed his brother—the man he thought of as his brother. Saxon Black. The guy who’d been at his side when they were desperate teens on the street. The man who’d followed him to the FBI when Victor had wanted to stop being a criminal and to fight against the bad guys out there. The agent who’d lost his heart to Elizabeth Ward…and who’d gotten out of the FBI because he’d wanted a normal life, with his new love.

The phone rang once, twice. Then…

“Vic? Hey, bro, long time, no talk,” Saxon greeted.

“Elizabeth may be compromised. Get her the fuck out of the country right now.”

Silence. Painful. Stark.

“Get her out,” Victor snapped. “Get a burner phone. When you’re someplace safe, call me to check in.”

“Vic…what’s happening?”

He turned back to stare up at the glittering lights of the Vine. “I fucked up. All those secrets I keep? The ones you warned me about? They’re coming back to bite me in the ass now.” And they were biting hard.

“How can I help?”

That was Saxon. That was his family. “Help by protecting Elizabeth. That woman is carrying my niece, and I damn well want them safe.” Another fucking secret. One that he hadn’t been able to tell Zoe.

Zoe, baby…I will make this up to you. I will find a way.

“We’ll be gone within the hour.”

Victor knew Saxon would do anything necessary to protect Elizabeth and the baby.

He ended the call. Kept walking. The street was full of traffic and Christmas lights and people laughing with their freaking holiday cheer. His world was imploding and everyone else just carried along with their business as if nothing was happening.

He needed help. So much help. Russell and new agent Lauren Ward

were waiting around the corner in an unmarked van. They’d expect a full report from him, but a full report was the last thing he could deliver. And the local cops working this case—they were already seething. That seething would just get worse. One of their own was missing, and he had no new information to give them on Michelle’s whereabouts.

He pressed another button on his phone. Sometimes, the FBI and the cops couldn’t help. Sometimes, the only people who could help were your family. He waited, with the phone pressed to his ear, until the call was answered.

“Victor…” Jasmine’s voice was soft, worried. “What do you need?”

I need Zoe back. “Help,” he managed. “I need you and Drake to help me.” Because he was about to cross too many lines. He was about to break the law. About to turn his back on the agency. About to do anything necessary…to protect Zoe. To keep his unborn niece and her mother Elizabeth safe.

To stop Tom Winters.

To stop Luther Bates.

To get Zoe back with me.

***

The gun stayed in Zoe’s side during the elevator ride. It pressed harder to her as the guards escorted her down the narrow hallway and toward the penthouse. One goon opened the door for her and pushed her inside.

Tom was leaning over his laptop when she entered the room. He looked up at her and a wide smile split his face. “You came back to me!”

“At gunpoint,” she responded. Her hand rose and pressed to her right earring. She sure hoped she was activating the device the right way. Victor had told her to just press down on the little diamond stud…Zoe tried to make the move just look like a nervous gesture.

Those earrings are fucking gorgeous on you. She’d gotten Victor’s message, loud and clear. Now she just hoped—I can get Tom to confess to me.

Tom motioned dismissively toward her guards. “Leave us.”

That was it? Leave us? No reprimand for the guns? The guards scurried out, shutting the door behind them.

Tom’s nose was swollen. Dried blood was on his face. And his jaw was bruised a deep purple. Hardly the suave man that she remembered.