Mine to Have (Mine #5)(14)

Wesley’s breath heaved out. His eyes were shutting. “N-not…my hit…”

What?

Then Wesley’s hand twisted in Saxon’s grip and he held him—far too tightly for a man at death’s door. “Who are…you?”

“He’s an FBI agent,” Elizabeth rushed to say. “He can help you, he can—”

“Run!” Wesley gasped out the word. “Go, Beth…g-go!” And he tried to yank Saxon down on the floor with him. What the hell? Saxon shoved back at the guy but Wesley’s grip had already eased.

Because the man was dead.

“Wesley?” Elizabeth whispered. She inched forward. Her fingers touched the other man’s cheek. “Wesley?”

Saxon tried to find Wesley’s pulse. Nothing. The guy wasn’t breathing. No more heaving gasps. Only silence. Wesley wasn’t going to be telling them anything else. And right then, they had other priorities. Saxon pulled Elizabeth to her feet and tried to push her toward the door.

But she twisted in his arms, fighting to get free. “No, stop it!” she cried. “We can’t just leave him!”

“There isn’t anything we can do!” There was nothing that could be done to help him. His arms wrapped around her stomach, and he just picked her up and carried her out of there. “We have to cover our own asses!”

He took her out of that room even as she still struggled against him. Elizabeth didn’t get it. The cops would be there soon, thanks to that call she’d made. They’d bust in with a fury, and if they found Saxon there, with a loaded gun on him…a gun that he figured Tommy Haines had used probably far too many times in the past…they’d be hauled down to the station. And before Victor could appear to sort out all the twisted shit—like the fact that, to the Miami PD, I’m a criminal, not an FBI agent—Elizabeth would be taken from him.

She’d be on her own, and, right then, he couldn’t let that happen.

He’d almost reached the elevator when the doors opened. Only that elevator wasn’t empty.

He put Elizabeth on her feet even as he brought up his weapon. And he found himself staring straight at another gun. A gun held in the grip of— Victor?

Victor’s blue eyes widened in stunned surprise. “What the hell?”

Saxon lowered his weapon as Victor stepped out of that elevator.

“What are you doing here?” Victor demanded. “With her? You’re supposed to be at the motel, keeping her safe.”

“Yeah, right, a little problem with that.” Saxon gave him a grim smile. “Taggert’s goons found us. Three bozos that I knew—Tommy Haines, Flint Mayo, and Romeo Gustav. They burst in on us and I…” He glanced down at the gun he still held. “Had to get us the hell away from them.”

Victor swore.

“Tell me that Taggert is off the streets now,” Saxon urged. “Come on, man, you tell me—”

“He’s dead,” Victor said, voice tight. “Looks like a hit from someone who knew exactly what the hell they were doing.”

Wait, someone had just taken out the hitman? Saxon shook his head.

“He was carved up when I found him,” Victor continued.

Elizabeth gave a choked gasp. Saxon glanced at her and saw her shaking hands rise to cover her mouth. He knew exactly what she was thinking.

His gaze slanted back to Victor. “Yeah, well, you’re not going to like this…but Wesley Locke is dead, too.”

“You didn’t—” Victor began.

“No, someone beat us here. Someone who carved up the guy with a knife.” Just like Taggert. “Sure seems to me like someone is tying up loose ends.”

A muscle flexed in Victor’s jaw.

“H-he was alive,” Elizabeth whispered.

Both Saxon and Victor looked at her then.

“When we got there…”

“So was Taggert.” Victor’s voice was grim.

A killer who liked for his victims to suffer? Liked for them to linger with no hope of survival? That’s one sick bastard.

Horror flashed on Elizabeth’s face. “Wesley said it wasn’t him! He said he didn’t put the hit on me!”

With the bodies piling up, Saxon was thinking someone else had to be pulling the strings. But who else would want Elizabeth dead?

“I called an ambulance,” Elizabeth whispered.

Victor immediately pressed the button on the elevator, calling up that ride once more. “Get her out of here,” he ordered Saxon.

Damn straight.

Elizabeth tried to edge away from them. “But—”

There were no buts. He wrapped his fingers around Elizabeth’s wrist.

“I’ll take care of things here,” Victor told him. “You keep her safe.”

That was exactly what he intended to do. The elevator doors opened. He hurried inside, pulling Elizabeth in with him. He punched the button for the garage then looked back at Victor. Right before those elevator doors slid closed again, he heard Victor mutter…

“Just who are you, Elizabeth? Who are you really?”

And Saxon’s gut clenched.

He needed Elizabeth to be exactly what she appeared to be. A woman who was smart, kind, tough…strong. He needed her to be that.