Mine To Protect (Mine #6)(67)

“I hear you’re opening a private firm. Good luck with that, man,” Cain told him quietly. “If there’s ever anything I can do for you, just say the word.”

The guy was a good cop. Solid. “Thank you.”

Cain stepped back. And Michelle…a tear slid down her cheek. “She was my friend,” she said, her voice husky. “Did she know that? Did she realize it? Zoe wasn’t just a case. She was always more to me. She cared about me.” Her breath hitched. “She was my friend.”

That ache in Victor’s chest grew worse as he stared into her tear-filled eyes.

“Tell me…” Michelle begged. “Please tell me that at the end…she knew. I don’t want her to have died, thinking—”

Victor swallowed. “She knew. She knew the truth about us both.” He hoped that Zoe had known when she was fighting to live and her blood was pumping out so quickly. “We loved her.”

Michelle nodded. Then she threw her arms around him, holding him tightly. “I’m so sorry that she’s gone.”

“Me, too.” He didn’t move within her embrace. He couldn’t. Pain held him in check. The pain in his heart—a heart that would never be the same after Zoe. “Me…too.”

***

Two days later…

Luther Bates.

Mob boss. Criminal mastermind. Prisoner.

Victor sat across the table from the famed killer, a cold knot heavy around his heart. He stared into Luther’s eyes…the eyes of Zoe’s father.

He hated the bastard.

“Is it true?” Luther asked him, tilting his head. “Is my Zoe dead?”

Victor stared back at him. After a long moment, he said, “Is it true…you once tried to kill my Zoe?”

Luther’s eyelids flickered.

Hold onto your control. Victor mentally counted to ten, then said, “Xavier Thomas Winters is the man who ordered the hit on Zoe. He’s the same man who wanted Zoe to come in this prison and slit your throat…the same way that you slit the throat of Zoe’s mother.” Beneath the table, his hands were tight fists. Zoe had been dealt so much pain in her life.

She’d deserved joy. She’d deserved freedom.

She’d gotten screwed by everyone. Used too much. Hurt too often.

I am sorry, Zoe.

“Did Zoe tell you about that?” Luther’s voice had gone low, ragged. Before Victor could respond, Luther leaned forward. He rested his cuffed hands on the table. “I try not to think about that day. She was going to leave me…going to take Zoe away. Never let me see my blood again.”

Like that would have been a bad thing.

“I’ve done plenty of dark things in my life. But Zoe…no matter what I did…no matter what I did to her, she stayed good.” Luther’s bound hands slammed onto the table top. “My one good thing.” He hit the table again, harder. “My one good thing.” Again, a hit hard enough to make the table top crack. “My. One. Good. Thing.”

The prison guard stepped forward, but Victor waved him away. “You should cooperate with the FBI now.”

Luther’s hands spread out over the cracked table.

“Cooperate with them,” Victor said. “A new agent, Lauren Ward, will be taking over your case. Tell her what she needs to know. You owe the FBI that much.”

Luther’s head snapped back. “A new agent? Where the hell are you going?”

“Someplace else. Someplace far the hell away.”

Luther’s gaze swept over his face. “You look like shit.”

“Huh. Yeah, I feel that way, too.” He forced his hands to unclench. Zoe’s face flashed in his mind’s eye. “She wasn’t just good. Zoe was perfect.” Too perfect for me, but I still wanted her.

“Heard you were there…at the end.”

Victor assessed Luther and said, “You hear a whole lot for a man living behind bars.”

“Tom Winters will pay for what he did.” A faint smile tilted Luther’s lips. “Perhaps he’s paying right now.”

Victor stiffened. Was the guy saying he’d already ordered Tom’s death?

“I disgust you,” Luther said, still with his head cocked as he studied Victor. “Yet you…loved her? My daughter?”

I will always love her. “Zoe was nothing like you.”

Luther’s gaze dropped to the table. “No,” his voice was soft. Sad. “She was like her mother.”

“The woman you killed, in front of Zoe. You sick f*ck. Zoe deserved so much better. She should have been happy. She shouldn’t have been hunted. She should have been living her life any way she wanted. With a safe home. With a family that loved her. With everything she wanted.”

Luther wasn’t looking at him. “We both knew she’d never have that while she lived. My daughter couldn’t.”

The hair on the nape of Victor’s neck rose. “Your daughter is dead, and we are done. You will never be seeing me again.” He pushed to his feet and stared down at Luther Bates.

Slowly, Luther looked up at him. Were the guy’s eyes wet? No way. No damn way. Not this guy—the guy who’d made Zoe’s life hell. Luther was a psychopath. He didn’t— “Thank you,” Luther whispered.