Mine to Hold (Mine 3)

No, Claire was pretty sure she might shatter into a million pieces at any moment. “Someone tried to kill us.”

Noah slid from the bed.

Skye came closer. She started to touch Claire, then hesitated.

She knows I don’t like to be touched. Skye understood Claire far better than any other woman had. Maybe it was because Skye had been through her own nightmare. Stalked, kidnapped, starved…Skye had managed to survive, but the horrific nightmare had marked her.

We’re both marked. On the skin, and deep within.

Skye’s hand hesitantly curved over Claire’s shoulder. “You’re safe now. Trace has two men guarding your hospital room door, and he’s going to keep a guard on you until we can figure out what’s happening.”

Claire glanced toward the doorway. Noah was leading Trace back out of the room. “Noah?” Claire called.

He glanced back at her. “Don’t worry, I’ll be right outside.”

There was something…different…in his eyes. A wildness. A fury.

It scared her.

The door shut softly behind him.

***

“She nearly died,” Noah snarled as soon as he was out of that hospital room.

The two guards near her door glanced at him with wide eyes.

He glared at them.

Trace caught his shoulder and steered him toward the corner. “She didn’t die. You got her out of there.”

Noah yanked a hand through his hair. He couldn’t cool the rage that burned him from the inside out. “Only because you called. If that phone had rung two minutes later, hell, even one minute later, we’d both be dead.”

Trace crossed his arms over his chest. “Then I guess it’s a good thing you answered your old friend’s call.”

Noah surged toward him. “I won’t lose her.”

Trace’s eyebrows flew up. “Shit, who are you?”

“What?” Noah’s hands fisted. He wasn’t in the mood for any bull. Not even from Trace. “Man, don’t push me, I don’t—”

“You’re losing your control right in front of me. This doesn’t happen to the Noah York I know.”

“Oh, yeah? Well, it’s happening. Claire was in my arms, and she wasn’t moving.” He swung away from the guy. He wanted to drive his fist into the nearest wall. He did. When a nurse shrieked, he snarled, “I’ll buy a new wing!”

Because he might be destroying this one.

Trace’s hand settled on his shoulder once more. “Talk to me.”

Noah whirled back toward him. “When that bastard had Skye, when you thought you’d lose her…how did you stay sane?”

Trace exhaled on a rough sigh. “Is it that bad?”

It was worse. Noah felt like he was ripping apart. “She was bleeding. I couldn’t get her to open her eyes.” That image would never get out of his head. “Fire was lighting the sky, glass was raining down, and Claire was too still.”

Trace took a step back.

“I won’t let her go,” Noah said. He couldn’t. “No one is going to hurt her again. I’ll make sure of it. I’ll find the SOB. I’ll—”

“Watch what you say,” Trace interjected, voice flat. A wave of his hand indicated the folks lurking close by.

Hell, half of the hospital seemed to be staring at them.

“And you aren’t doing anything alone.” Trace gave a grim nod. “Because you know I’ve got your back.”

***

“I haven’t seen you since the funeral,” Skye said carefully. She gave Claire a faint smile. “And I was sure hoping when we met again, it would be under better circumstances.”

Claire realized this hardly counted as “better” than anything. “I’m scared,” she admitted. Confessing that truth to Skye wasn’t hard. She’d only met Skye a few times, but Claire had never felt as if Skye judged her.

She knows what it’s like to be helpless.

“What can I do?” Skye asked her.

“Help me to get away.”

Skye’s eyes flared. “You don’t mean—”

“Noah could’ve died because of me. They’re all dying because of me. The senator, Ethan, Sloan Hall—they were all tied to me.” The senator who harassed her, the lover who nearly killed her, and the PI who stalked her. Their one common denominator—it’s me. “Noah was the one who was supposed to go into that old hotel. He was the one being set up to die.”

“And how will you leaving help him?” Skye shook her head. “It won’t. It will just drive the guy crazy!”

“Or maybe it will take a target off his back.”

Skye’s breath caught. “And do what? Put that target straight on you?”

Maybe. Claire was sitting up on the bed now. She really wanted to make a run for it. “If I leave, if I change cities, then, yes, perhaps this guy will come after me and leave Noah alone.”

A furrow appeared between Skye’s brows. “Just how hard did you hit your head, Claire? Because I’ve got to say, that sounds like a real piss-poor idea to me.”

Claire blinked at her in surprise.

“Noah isn’t just going to let you walk away. I saw the way he looked at you.”

“It’s sex.” The words sounded hollow. “Noah trades up his lovers all the time.”

“Really? And how long have you been his lover?”

Just a few short days. Not long enough for him to really care, and certainly not long enough for him to put his life on the line for her.

“Claire, I can’t help you run. That would just be putting you in danger.”

Then she’d have to do it on her own. “You felt this way, didn’t you?” Claire asked her.

Skye stared at her with a troubled gaze.

“You knew someone was out there, and you just wanted to get away.”

Skye’s mouth tightened. “Trace has the best security firm in the U.S. He’s got agents working on this case now. He’s going to find the person doing this. I know he will.”

But how long would it take? And would the man hunting out there, killing out there, have a chance to strike again?

I lose everyone…I can’t lose Noah, too.

Chapter Nine

“You’re not supposed to sleep,” Noah told Claire as he leveled a firm stare her way. “Not for a few more hours.”

So the doctors had said. They’d agreed to release her, as long as Noah made sure that Claire wasn’t alone.

He didn’t plan to leave her side any time soon.