Dominance Never Dies (Masters and Mercenaries #11)(79)

Please don’t take Mia. Please don’t f*cking take her.

He wasn’t sure who he was praying to, but the words pounded through his brain as he raced down the hall.

The lights were low in this part of the building. He could hear some shouting behind him and he could feel he’d gotten past Ian and Lawless. He was in front, but he couldn’t slow down. He wouldn’t lose them.

And then he stopped, his boots squealing on the floor as he came face to face with his brother for the first time in a year. Theo was standing in front of him, Mia held by one of the two men flanking Theo.

“Case!” Mia yelled.

He couldn’t take his eyes off his twin. “Theo? Theo, it’s me. It’s Case. I’m your brother.”

That was the moment that his brother, the man he’d spent his whole life with, who’d shared his world from the moment of their conception—that was the moment he lifted his gun and pulled the trigger.





CHAPTER ELEVEN





Mia screamed as the gun went off and Case went down.

A hand clamped down over her mouth and she found herself dragged through the darkened hallway. “Don’t make a sound or you’ll be next. I don’t want to hurt a woman, but I will if I have to.”

She wasn’t sure which of the two were talking. She’d been watching Theo and then she’d been hustled to the hallway, her communication device crushed under Theo’s boot. She’d known Case would come after her, but everything happened so fast.

Case was shot. Theo had shot Case. Oh god, was he dead? Case couldn’t be dead.

“Did you get the other one?” Theo asked, his voice a cold, dead version of Case’s.

“He’s already in the back,” the first guard she’d spoken to said. Robert. He was the one with his arm around her waist, pushing her along. “Victor handled him.”

She turned, trying to see Case. All she’d had was one glimpse of him. He’d stood there, but he hadn’t seen her. He’d been looking at his brother. Her heart twisted at the thought. It no longer mattered why he’d pushed her away. All that mattered was she loved him. All that mattered was Case.

“Please let me help him,” she whispered as the guard pushed her through a door. “Let me go and get back to him. You can get away. Just let me go to him.”

“I can’t.” Her captor’s arm tightened. “I won’t.”

She heard the door close behind her with a quiet thud, heard the snick of a lock turning into place.

“Who the hell was that?” Robert asked, turning with her still in his arms. “He looked like Tomas. Just like Tomas. How is that possible? Are there more of us?”

“I don’t know.” Theo stared at the door he’d locked as though he could see through, see to the brother he’d left bleeding.

“His name is Case,” Mia said, barely able to breathe for how tightly Robert held her. “Case Taggart. He’s Theo’s brother. Theo is Tomas’s real name. Theo Taggart. Please, Theo, you have to listen to me. Everything that woman has told you is a lie.”

Theo turned to her, his eyes glacial. “Stop calling me that. You’re the one who’s lying and it doesn’t matter that he looked like me. He’s dead now.”

Her vision suddenly seemed to waver. No. He couldn’t be dead. He couldn’t. Her heart threatened to seize and then she heard it.

“Theo!” The shout threatened to shake the walls.

Case. He was still alive. He was out there. He was hurt, but he wasn’t dead.

“Sounds like you missed,” the third man said. He was as big as Theo, his coloring dark and his eyes hollow. “Mother will be upset and you need your meds. You’re looking pale, brother.”

“I hit him, Victor,” Theo insisted. “Apparently he’s very stubborn. You can let her go, Robert. There’s nowhere for her to run. She can’t get out of this room and I doubt he’ll be able to get in.”

“We have to take them to Mother,” Robert insisted. “Did you do as she asked? Did you get rid of the microchip in his hand? She told us where it would be.”

Mia was released and she immediately saw what they were talking about. Who they were talking about. “Hutch?”

She hurried across the room. It looked like it was used for storage, with big industrial shelves on all sides. Hutch was on the floor, his body utterly limp. Mia slid to her knees, reaching for his hand. Case would come for them. He was out there and he wouldn’t stop looking. She had to make sure she and Hutch were alive when Case came.

She gasped as she got a good look at him. There was one light on in the back of the room, illuminating the damage done to the smart, funny man she’d come to like over the last week. Hutch’s face was swollen, his skin covered in blood. Only the sight of his chest moving up and down gave her hope. “What the hell did you do to him?”

Theo stood over her. “He resisted. Don’t act like this is my fault. You came into our house and tried to rob us. What were you looking for? Bank accounts? Do you work for the cartel? Because we’ve paid for our protection already. Don’t think for a second, we won’t defend ourselves.”

“Can we keep the girl for ourselves?” Robert stood beside Theo, staring down at her. “She wasn’t doing anything wrong. The guy was the one breaking in. You didn’t know anything, did you, sweetheart?”