Mine To Protect (Mine #6)(43)

He rushed toward her. Reached for her but stopped. “You think I can’t see that I’m screwing things to hell and back with you?” His voice was low, ragged. “I see it. I know it, but I don’t know how to stop. I want you safe. I want to give you everything you need. I just don’t f*cking know how.”

There was pain in his words. Pain and confusion and he seemed so lost.

As lost as she felt.

“What if another cop there had been tempted by the two million?” Victor asked. “I couldn’t do it, Zoe. I couldn’t risk you, so I went to the station on my own. I wanted to learn something that would help Michelle. Help you. I swear, baby, I never meant to hurt you.”

Drake cleared his throat. “Okay, so you two have lots to work out—obviously—but how about we focus on the part about Michelle for a bit? What happened when you got to the station, Vic? Did you throw your big, bad, annoying FBI weight around—as you and I both know you like to do—and find out anything else about the woman?”

The faint lines near Victor’s eyes deepened. “She went to work as a showgirl at the Vine.”

“Yes, yes, we know that,” Drake muttered. “I meant did you find out something new?”

“She went to work at the Vine, only she never danced,” Victor continued, his voice sounding tired. “I talked to Cain about her. Seems she spent all her time with upper management. Behind closed doors. She was working her way to the top. Trying to find out who was the power behind the corporate front…because that power is the new crime boss in town.”

“He’s the one she sold me out to,” Zoe said. He had to be the one.

Victor nodded. “And all signs at the Vegas PD point to him being the one who has the hits on you. That fool hitman that Cain stopped in the alley? He’s already dead because someone wanted to make sure he didn’t talk.”

Zoe’s hand rose to her throat. When would the bodies ever stop piling up?

“I did get that bastard Roy to reveal some information, and everything he said just pointed back to the Vine.”

“Then we need to get in there.” They should be storming the place right then. “We have to search there and see what we can find out about Michelle.”

Victor shook his head. “The cops can’t get in. Not yet. They’re waiting for orders from above.”

“I’m not a cop.” So she didn’t have to wait for any orders from above. “We can do this, Victor. You and me. We can get in there and help her. If you want to make this whole abandonment mess up to me…then we will work together on this. ”

Victor’s gaze was so bright. So intense. “Drake,” he said, without glancing away from Zoe. “Leave us, would you?”

“Already heading for the door.”

Zoe wrapped her arms around her stomach.

The suite’s door opened.

“Thank you,” Victor called out. The words seemed a bit rusty.

“Anytime.” Just like that, Drake was gone.

And she was locked in a face-off with Victor.

“I’m afraid for you,” he confessed.

Those words were the last she’d expected to hear from him. Zoe shook her head in automatic denial. She had a hard time imagining Victor being afraid about anything.

“The people in the Vine…they want to kill you,” Victor said.

“Yeah, I got that.”

“Zoe, you’re coming too close to death. Don’t do this. Don’t ask this shit of me.” Victor strode closer to her. His body wasn’t touching hers, but she could feel the heat that seemed to cling to him. “Cain and his crew can handle the search for Michelle. They’ve got this case covered.”

Zoe shook her head. “They don’t have me. Roy said he could trade me for Michelle. I’m the ticket we need to get her out alive.”

His eyes closed. “What am I supposed to f*cking do?”

“You’re supposed to be at my side, helping me stay alive.” She reached out and curled her fingers around his hand. “We can do this. Together. We can come up with a plan that will work, I know we can.”

He looked at their joined hands. “I won’t be able to handle it if something happens to you. When I couldn’t find you after the fire, I swear, it was like something flipped off inside of me. I wasn’t…I wasn’t quite sane.”

“How do you think I felt when I woke up in that little motel room, and I didn’t know if you were alive or dead?” She squeezed his hand. “The whole world went dark on me right then.”

His head snapped back. His eyes locked on hers. “Be careful, Zoe.”

She stood on her tip-toes and pressed a kiss to his lips. “Why? I’ve got a special agent to keep me safe.”

“Be careful with me. I’m wanting you too much.”

“Is it possible to want someone too much?” She wanted him right then. Wanted him in her. Wanted the reassurance that they were both safe. Alive.

Together.

“You don’t want me to lose control.”

Actually, that was exactly what she wanted. Zoe swallowed and said, “I didn’t think the great Victor Monroe ever lost at anything.”

“I do.” His voice was grim. “Trust me, I f*cking do.”