Mine to Have (Mine 5)

Second…loving Elizabeth.

Third, the bullet.

He reached down to his ankle, and of course, the move just made the wound hurt all the more, but he managed to grab the knife from his ankle sheath. In order to get Zoe safely out of that vest, he’d have to slice through some of the wires. And hope that he didn’t slice the wrong ones.

“Good news and…bad news,” he muttered as he lifted the cover off the central control on the bomb.

Victor swore.

“Good news…the guy doesn’t seem to know bombs as well as his old man.” Because it would be easy enough to get the bomb off her. “The bad news…that SOB already started the timer.” He must have hit it when Tracy had shot Saxon.

“Saxon,” Elizabeth’s voice had gone hoarse. “Be careful.”

“Sweetheart, I’m not dying now.” He sliced through the wires. A sweet little red wire, then the blue wire did the trick. The timer immediately stopped. “I’ve got too much to live for.” Then he sliced through the straps of the vest, taking it slowly and carefully off the woman.

When the vest was off her body, Zoe shuddered. “Thank you.”

Moving inch by inch, he put that vest down. “Now, we all…we need to get the hell out of here…” Saxon licked his desert dry lips. “In case there’s a fail-safe on the thing.”

“F-fail-safe?” Elizabeth asked as her eyes seemed to double in size.

“Yeah,” Victor threw out as he yanked the other woman from her chair. “One that will kick in and make this whole damn place go boom!”

They all whirled for the door.

And Saxon saw that Tracy was rising to her feet. She took one look at the bomb behind them and ran toward the ladder.

Shit. There probably is a fail-safe. Saxon grabbed Elizabeth and urged her forward. He was leaving a trail of blood with every step he took, but he didn’t care. At least he was taking steps. Steps that would lead them to safety.

“No!” Hugh was trying to push to his feet. “They can’t…get away! They have to…to die!” Then he reached behind him and pulled a gun from the waistband of his jeans. A gun that he didn’t aim at Saxon. He pointed it right at Elizabeth. “Family…for f-family!”

Using all of his strength, Saxon lunged forward and put his body in front of Elizabeth’s.

“No!” she screamed as she tried to push him away.

But he wasn’t about to move. The bullet would have to go through him. I will always keep her safe.

Hugh’s face was a mask of rage. “You don’t even really know who she is! You’re gonna die for a woman you don’t—”

“I know who she is,” he said flatly. Saxon was using the pain that flowed through him, to fuel his fury and make him stronger. “She’s mine.”

“No!” Hugh screamed. “She’s his! His flesh and blood, just like the other whore! They’re both going to die, and then he’ll have nothing, nothing! The bastard will pay to have his own flesh killed—that’s the fucking best part! He’ll rot in that jail and have—”

Saxon leapt forward. Hugh tried to shoot, but Saxon knocked the guy’s hand to the side and then he drove the knife he held right into the bastard’s chest.

“She doesn’t die,” Saxon gritted out. Not on my watch.

Then his fingers locked with Elizabeth’s. They ran past the fallen man, with Victor and Zoe right on their heels.

Saxon pushed Elizabeth up the stairs. “Sax—”

“Go, sweetheart, go!”

Then Victor was there. Saxon stepped back as Victor said, “Zoe, get up those stairs and out of this house!”

Zoe grabbed for the stairs.

“Now you, bro,” Victor told him.

Locking his teeth, still using the pain that coursed through him, Saxon climbed that ladder. He cleared the top seconds before Victor came up after him.

Zoe was running for the door, but Elizabeth was waiting there. Waiting for me. And when Saxon’s legs tried to give out beneath him, she slid her shoulders under his arm and held him tight. “I’ve got you,” she told him. Victor was on his other side, also holding Saxon up and rushing with them toward the door.

At any moment, Saxon feared an explosion would rock the place, and he was praying hard because he needed Elizabeth to get out alive. She had to survive.

“Go,” he rasped to her and to Victor because he was slowing them down now that his strength was ebbing and—

“Just shut the fuck up,” Victor told him as both his brother and Elizabeth just seemed to move faster…and to tighten their hold on Saxon.

Then they were outside. They didn’t stop. They kept running—

And they were still running when the house exploded behind them.

Chapter Sixteen

“Saxon!” Elizabeth screamed. She’d flown through the air, the explosion propelling her away from Saxon and straight into the street. Her palms were scraped raw and bleeding. Her cheek was throbbing and—

There was a ball of flames where the house had been.

She staggered up to her feet, looking for Saxon. “Saxon!” Then she saw him. In the middle of the road, about ten feet from her. She started hurrying toward him.

And then the headlights hit her. She heard the SUV’s engine growling and her head snapped up.

The vehicle was racing right toward her!

Tracy didn’t leave. She just waited to see who survived. Now she was coming to pick off the last of her prey.

Elizabeth ran to Saxon. “Get out of the road!”

But he wasn’t moving. The SUV was coming closer. She grabbed Saxon’s arms and started dragging him. His eyes were closed and he was a dead weight.

“Elizabeth!” That was Victor’s voice. Her head jerked up and she saw him close to the burning house.

“Help me!” she screamed at him.

The SUV was so close. Too close. She needed to be stronger. She pulled again, straining with all of her might. Tracy was aiming right for them. Intending to kill both Elizabeth and Saxon.

But then Victor started shooting. She didn’t even remember him grabbing a gun before they’d gotten out of that basement. His bullets blasted into the driver’s side window of that SUV. Bam. Bam. Bam!

And the SUV started to veer. Only it was still too close. Too close!

She put her body on top of Saxon’s and heaved. They rolled. Once, twice, and she felt the rush of the SUV as it sli

d inches past her body. Then the SUV kept going. It drove forward fast and slammed straight into a tree. When the vehicle stopped, its horn was blaring—a long, continuous cry.

And Saxon was too still beneath her. “Saxon?” Elizabeth said his name as her trembling fingers stroked his face. “Saxon, please open your eyes and look at me.”

Footsteps thundered toward her. She didn’t glance up. She was looking at the only thing that mattered right then.

Only he doesn’t see me.

Her fingers went to his throat, and when she felt the beat of his pulse, her whole body shuddered. He’d been so still, hardly seeming to breathe, and she’d been so afraid that he’d left her.

“What can I do?”

It was the woman who’d been held captive in that basement. She was on her knees beside Elizabeth.

“I want to help,” the woman said again.

“W-we need to stop the blood flow.” Her hands slid down and pressed to the wound on Saxon’s stomach. “We have to get help! We need an ambulance!”

“Already called them,” Victor said as he rushed toward them. Then he, too, was on his knees beside Saxon. “They’re coming. So, Saxon, you just stay strong, you hear me? We’re out of that hell, and now you just need to stay—”

“Strong,” Elizabeth finished. She could feel tears on her cheeks. Saxon was always strong. What she wanted, what she needed most was… him. “Hang on,” she begged him. “Because you’re not supposed to leave me.”

His lips moved. So faint. She couldn’t hear him so Elizabeth leaned closer, desperate to hear the words he’d said—

“Never. Never leave…you.”

A sob broke from her. His blood was on her hands, and her Saxon was promising her—

“I love you,” she told him and Elizabeth pressed a soft kiss to his lips.

His eyes didn’t open, but he smiled.

***

The ambulance raced to the scene, with a line of cop cars behind it. Sirens were screaming and the swirl of lights illuminated the night. Fire trucks were there, too, like they’d be any good against the blaze.

“I’m FBI,” Victor called out as the cops emerged from their vehicles. “Agent Victor Monroe.” He flashed his ID. “And that man is to be given the absolute best care you got, understand?”