Dominance Never Dies (Masters and Mercenaries #11)(31)

Play it cool. Don’t give him anything. Mia crossed her arms over her chest because he didn’t deserve to see her un-bra’d breasts. “He came in, tried to get in my panties, and I sent his ass out.”

Such a lie. He’d gotten his deeply talented hands way down her undies and he’d been a motherf*cking revelation. Case Taggart was amazing. He knew exactly how to touch her, and his mouth was so filthy she could barely stand it. Dirty. He was a damn dirty Dom and she was already half in love with that man. This douchebag wasn’t going to murder him before she’d managed to get that cowboy in bed.

“Sure, he did.” The copilot glanced around the room. “Why is your bra on the floor?”

“Because it’s late and I never leave the poor girls pent up. Tell me something, have you ever worn an underwire?”

“Get your back up against the wall.” His voice was a little shaky, like this assignment hadn’t gone as planned.

It hadn’t, she suddenly understood. This particular assignment had begun the minute she’d requested the jet. It had been over a year since she’d asked for one by herself. She’d been holed up in Austin or gone out with a large group of 4L workers for the last year. Since Case. She’d been mooning over that man and hadn’t followed her habit of traveling at every given opportunity. She’d taken some assignments close to home and worked on a book she was writing about a local murder. She’d gone out of the country exactly once and she was a girl who filled her passport quickly. She hadn’t been herself at all. Had they been waiting all this time to try to take her? Were they looking for a quick buck? Or on assignment for The Collective and trying to find a way to force her brother into working for them?

Mia moved, bracing herself against the wall. The people at stake belonged to Case and she was going to trust in that smartass, competent cowboy to get them out of this situation.

Unless she found a way out first, of course.

“What’s back there?” The man frowned at the partially opened door.

“The bathroom.” And Case, who hopefully had found a weapon. The pickings would be slim. He could splat the guy with toothpaste or maybe hit him with some shaving cream. She was fairly certain Drew kept a razor in there, but it would be small.

“Don’t you move. If you run, I’ll have to come after you. We’re trying to keep you in decent shape, but I think our boss would understand a few bruises. After all, he’ll likely let us sample the goods while we’re waiting for your brother’s answer.”

Yep, because she’d never been threatened with that before. It was a universal truth that men with small egos always threatened a woman like that. She flipped him off. “We’ll see who gets bruised if you try to touch me, *. Ask Taggart what happens to men who treat me wrong. He’s somewhere hiding and holding his balls and crying like a little boy.”

The man turned on her, his face flushing a florid red. “I won’t be so easy as Taggart, bitch. You might think you’re some almighty rich girl, but after I’m done with you, you’ll know your f*cking place.”

He waved that gun in her face. It was all very threatening and scary, but she saw what he didn’t. While Criminal Asshole was busy trying to intimidate her, Case was stalking him. He slipped out of the bathroom and she caught the faintest glimpse of metal in his hand.

It wasn’t a gun, so their erstwhile horny criminal still had the advantage. All Case had was surprise. She had to keep that for him.

Sometimes it all came down to giving a guy what he wanted. She let her arms drop, her body quiver the slightest bit. When she spoke, she put a little tremor in her voice. He wanted her scared? She could give him that. “My brothers won’t ever stop looking for me.”

His lips curled up as though her fear excited him. “Don’t worry, sweetheart. When I’m done with you and the boss is satisfied, you can go home to your brothers.” He lowered the gun and moved in close, like a predator scenting easy prey. “But you’ll be with us for a while. I can make that easy on you. Or it can go hard. Do you understand what I mean? I’m not going to let you send me off the way you did that * Taggart.”

Case was moving in, his big body more silent than any man that size should be.

Mia winced as her captor’s hand cupped her breast.

And then she bit back a scream because Case buried one of her nicer nail files in the jerk’s jugular. She closed her eyes because it got messy fast.

Mia shuddered as the body slipped away from her, heard the sound of a thud as it hit the floor.

“Mia?” Case’s voice was a mere whisper. “Baby, you can open your eyes. It’s okay. He’s dead. Actually, maybe you shouldn’t open your eyes. Give me your hand and I’ll get you out of here and I’ll stash you someplace safe. I’m so sorry. I couldn’t find anything else and I couldn’t risk the gun going off if I’d fought him for it. You’re going to be all right. I’m so sorry you had to see that. Don’t be afraid of me. Please.”

She opened her eyes because he was treating her like a girl who’d never witnessed a little violence before. Was this why he’d held her off? He hadn’t thought she could handle his world? She stared at him for a moment before wiping the blood off her cheek. “Next time strangle the motherf*cker. You got blood everywhere. Do you know how hard it is to get a steam cleaner in here? And this was my favorite shirt and now it’s got gross stuff all over it.”