Mine to Protect (Mine 6)

Victor lunged toward him.

“Stop it!” Zoe leapt to her feet. “Just—stop!”

All eyes were suddenly on her.

Don’t fall apart in front of them. Don’t. “Dice is…what, exactly? Some kind of cop front?” That didn’t sound right. There had to be another term for the joint but…

“It’s a relay space,” Victor told her. He was at her side now. Looking enraged. Looking strong. Looking as if he really wanted to rip someone apart. “When undercover cops need to deliver information, they head to spots like that one. Usually, they’ll have a teammate there. Someone who can make sure the intel gets into the right hands, without the undercover agent blowing his cover.”

His cover…

Her cover?

Don’t fall apart. Zoe turned her attention to Roy. “I’ve been looking for Michelle,” she said.

He met her gaze, unflinchingly. “I know.”

“She…we had a system in place. A way for us to stay in touch.” Because she was my friend. “I’ve been making my calls, but she isn’t answering. Her place is empty and—” She stopped because his expression had altered, for just a moment. There had been the briefest of cracks in his visage.

Pity.

“No,” Zoe whispered. But the truth was right there. All around her. All freaking around her.

“You weren’t supposed to come back here,” Roy said, shaking his head sadly. Then his gaze jumped to Victor. “Isn’t it your job to keep her in protective custody?”

Her hands had fisted. Her nails bit into her palms. “Michelle was working undercover.” No, no, no.

“Michelle was doing her job.” Roy’s lips thinned. “That’s all I’ll say about that.”

She jumped at him, more than ready to swing hard because the pain was so strong inside of her. Lie, lie, lie. It was all a lie.

“Zoe!” Victor locked his arms around her and yanked her back against his chest. “Look, baby, I get it’s tempting as hell, but I can’t let you attack a cop.”

Why not? It seemed like a pretty good idea.

“She vanished because she’s on a new assignment,” Victor said, his breath brushing near her ear. “That’s why there’s been no contact from her. Not because she was taken…”

Tears stung Zoe’s eyes. I thought...She jerked free of Victor’s hold and spun to confront him. “You knew, didn’t you?”

A muscle flexed in his jaw.

“When we were in her apartment. When you saw her clothes were still there but the food wasn’t…I-I saw your expression change, but I didn’t realize…”

He swiped his hand over his jaw. “I worked undercover plenty of times, so I’d been to scenes like that before, yes. They were keeping the place ready, in case she had to resume the role again. But the food was ditched because—”

“Stop.” She hated this little room. Hated the eyes on her. Hated the pity—pity that was even coming from Victor now. “Just stop.” She didn’t want to hear anymore.

Didn’t want to hear…

Michelle wasn’t my friend. She was using me, too. The way everyone does.

“She had a job to do.” Cain’s words were gruff. “We got word that a new player was moving into Vegas about a year ago and trying to take over. A guy with some powerful connections back East, connections tied to Luther Bates.”

And there it was. Every road to hell leads back to my father. Her eyes were stinging. “And I’m supposed to know who the new bad guy is? I was never involved in Luther’s world.” How many times could she say that? Scream that? Why wouldn’t anyone ever listen?

“Getting close to you put Michelle in a prime position,” Roy said. “She was able to…” His words trailed away.

“Able to do—what, exactly?” Zoe threw up her hands. “I had nothing to give her! I wasn’t involved!”

“No, Zoe,” Victor’s voice was soft. “You were her ticket. Her in.”

She shook her head.

“These guys…” He waved to the cops. “They aren’t after Luther Bates. They’re after the guy here in Vegas. A guy Michelle needed to get close to. And in order to get close to him, she got close to you.”

“That’s not true.”

But Victor kept talking. “If the man had ties with Luther, doesn’t it stand to reason he wanted eyes on you? And Michelle was those eyes. She got close to you. Learned your secrets. And then she used them to gain this sonofabitch’s confidence.”

She played me. Zoe’s gaze jerked back to Roy. Red stained his cheeks.

“I’m sorry,” he said, sounding stilted and uncomfortable as hell. “You weren’t supposed to find out.”

“Because I wasn’t supposed to come back?” Goosebumps were all over her. “I’ve been trying to contact her…again and again and…OhmyGod.” Her hand covered her mouth. I did this. Horrified, she backed up, hitting the table with her hip. “There was no new leak at the FBI. I’m the leak.”

Victor’s brows furrowed. “What are you talking about?”

“Back when you first pulled me out of that bus station in Kansas…you’d said that word had spread that I wasn’t dead.”

He nodded grimly. “I was trying to keep you safe.”

Wasn’t he always? “You’d spread the word that I was dead. You were trying to take all the targets off my back, but I kept trying to find Michelle. I made the calls—I let her know I was alive. She didn’t answer me, but that doesn’t mean she didn’t get the messages. And she used them.” Her head hurt. “She turned the information over to this guy—whoever the hell he is—she turned me over to him, and that’s why the hitmen keep coming after me. She offered me up as her ticket inside…”

“I’m sorry,” Roy said again, miserably. Uselessly.

“Fuck sorry.” She stalked for the door.

“You weren’t supposed to come back!” Roy called after her. “I mean, hell, why come to Vegas? You knew this place was trouble! You—”

“Because I thought she needed me.” Zoe stopped at the door and looked back at him, disgusted. “I thought that was what a real friend would do.”

Cain swore.

“But I get the picture now.” She yanked open the door. They were on the second floor, so Zoe hurried down the stairs, her steps echoing in the building.

“Zoe!” Victor was rushing after her. Victor. Poor Victor. She’d forced him to Vegas for nothing. Put him in the line of fire for nothing.

She hit the bottom of the stairway.

“Wait, Zoe!”

She didn’t want to wait. She wanted to get the hell out of there so she could stop feeling like such a fool.

But he was fast. Damn him. His hands curled around her shoulders and he spun her back. “Stop.”

“I don’t want to stop. I want—”

“You didn’t do anything wrong. You were a good fucking friend to her. You risked your life for her.”

Her eyes burned. “We weren’t friends.” All along, Michelle had been using her. Not looking past the shadows that surrounded Zoe, not offering friendship in spite of Zoe’s criminal world ties…

Footsteps thundered on the stairs. She looked up. Cain was rushing down toward her. No, she did not want to deal with him then. “Let’s get out of here.”

“Michelle went completely dark over a month ago.”

Cain’s words froze her.

“She had been working undercover, making her way up the ladder slowly but surely as she gained the trust of that group. She was sure she’d get to meet the boss soon enough, one-on-one, and that was what we’d been waiting for.” He’d stopped on the second step from the bottom. Cain raked a hand through his hair. “This guy—he’s so sneaky. Smart. He’s some freaking shadowy puppet master who has plenty of fall guys to do his dirty work. Powerful guys who shouldn’t be bowing down to him, but they are. The drugs have tripled on the streets and the weapons—they flow in like a freaking river.”

Victor moved, positioning his body protectively in front of hers. Why? It wasn’t as

if Cain was going to attack her. He and his buddy Roy had already done their damage.

They all sold me out.

“Michelle used you,” Cain said and his words were cold and brutal. “It was her job. She needed an in with the guy, and you were that in. We heard rumbles that he wanted you. Probably for payback against Luther Bates. Isn’t that what everyone wants?” His gaze cut to Victor and his lips curled in a hard smile before he focused on Zoe once more. “Everyone. Being who you are, I’d think you’d have gotten used to that shit by now.”

“Watch your fucking mouth,” Victor warned him.

She put her hand on Victor’s chest. “If I can’t hit a cop, neither can you.” Her chin lifted as she faced Cain. “You think I’m supposed to just smile and say… ‘Okay. No harm, no foul. She was just doing her job?’” Beside her, Victor stiffened. “Screw that. She did do harm. I risked my life for her.” For nothing.

“She went dark.” Cain grabbed the wooden bannister. “You know what that means? It means no communication from her at all. It means we don’t know if she’s just in deep cover and can’t contact us…or if she finally made face-to-face contact with the puppet master and he figured out that she was a cop.”

Zoe didn’t move.

“If he found out, she’s dead.” Cain eased down another step, his expression tight and angry. “Do you understand? She’s—”

The second floor exploded. The boom was deafening, a roar that had her screaming even as the force of that blast picked Zoe up and tossed her through the air. And as she flew, as she screamed, she saw the flames rolling across the ceiling…

Oh, dear God…we’re all dead.

Chapter Ten

“Two million fucking dollars…” Zoe heard the whisper distantly. It was almost…giddy.

She cracked open her eyes, but she just saw fire. Flames rolling. She coughed and her whole body ached. She was trapped—her legs and lower body were beneath some heavy chunks of wood. The stairs? The bannister?

Someone grabbed her wrist. Held tight. Tight enough that she thought the bone might break. And then she was being dragged by that punishing grip on her wrist, yanked out from beneath the chunks of wood. She tried to turn her head and see who’d grabbed her. “Vic…”

“He’s dead. Not going to save you this time.”

The voice was familiar, but it was hard to hear the male clearly because the flames were crackling and roaring. Heat lanced across her skin. Had he said…

Victor is dead?

“No.” Her legs kicked out. He was dragging her by the right hand and her left flew up and yanked at his fingers. “Let me go!” Victor couldn’t be dead. He was wrong. She’d heard wrong. Victor was fine. Victor was—

Lying a few feet away. His eyes were closed. His body still. Blood slid from a wound on his forehead. “Victor!”