Mine to Have (Mine #5)(28)

But he was rather cute when he slept.

Then she heard the unmistakable growl of an engine, one that was driving far too fast. Coming far too close.

Saxon’s eyes flew open. There was no sleepiness in his stare. His gaze was completely aware—and deadly. Before she could speak, he leapt from the bed. He yanked on his jeans and grabbed a gun from under the table.

Wait, under the table? The guy had actually taped a gun beneath his table?

“Saxon?” She rose, her own movements slow and jerky as she searched for her clothes. She put on her skirt, blood-stains and all, but she didn’t grab her shirt. She used his, instead. Then she hopped and put on the tennis shoes he’d brought her. “What’s going on?” That growling engine was getting louder and louder. Closer and closer.

He peered out the window. “I fell asleep.”

“Um, we both did.” After earth-shattering, mind-numbing sex. The first time in her life that she’d had the mind-numbing variety of sex.

“I never fall asleep with a lover.”

His words hurt her. Why, she wasn’t sure. Maybe because it sounds like I’m just one in a line.

“Missed my damn check-in with Vic. Now either he’s hauling ass out here…” His gaze slashed over to meet hers. “Or someone else has found us.”

Please let it just be Vic.

He whirled back toward the window. He searched the area outside. “I don’t have a visual on the vehicle, not yet.”

She inched closer to him. The floor creaked beneath her feet, and she saw Saxon’s shoulders stiffen. He had scars on his shoulders. On his back. She hadn’t even noticed those before. They were slashes. From a knife? Her hand reached out to touch him.

“Go in the bathroom and shut the door. Don’t come out unless you hear me call for you.”

He was still staring out the window.

“I won’t let them get you,” he promised.

But…what about him? He’d handled himself easily back at the motel, but the guy wasn’t immortal. The scars on his back were testimony to the pain he’d endured. “Let me help you.”

He shook his head. “Help me by getting to cover and—” His breath expelled in a rush. “Victor’s rental car.”

Relief made her a little dizzy. “Then we’re okay.” No bad guys had found her location. They were still safe.

“You’re okay,” he muttered. “Vic is probably about to rip me a new one.”

The engine died. She heard a car door slam.

“Yeah, it’s Vic,” Saxon said as he leaned closer to the window. “And he looks pissed.”

Wait, didn’t he always look that way? Elizabeth wasn’t sure if she’d seen other expressions cross his face.

“And he’s coming in armed.” Saxon swore and hurried to open the cabin’s door. “Vic, it’s all right, man! You don’t need to rush in, guns blazing!”

But Victor did rush right in. He shoved Saxon back over the threshold of that cabin, then he slammed the door shut. “What. The. Fuck?” Fury was stamped on his face. “You had a check-in. You never miss a check-in with me.”

Saxon slanted a look at Elizabeth. “I fell asleep.”

The fury on Victor’s face warred with shock. “You did what?”

Saxon shook his head. “I’m sorry, man. I made a mistake.”

Elizabeth inched back a bit. The floor decided to creak beneath her once more.

And that little creak had Victor’s gaze snapping toward her. “You.”

Oh, hell.

Victor took a menacing step toward her. As she stared at his face, she thought “pissed” might have been the wrong term to describe him. Enraged worked far better.

‘”I thought my brother was dead.”

“Your brother?” Her voice came out as a rasp. She was confused and growing more nervous by the moment. “Look, Agent Monroe, I don’t know your brother.”

He growled then. Growled. “I think you were fucking him…and that’s why my brother forgot to check the hell in. Not because of some bull about falling asleep.”

Saxon and Victor were brothers? She’d got that the two men were friends, but—brothers?

Before she could question him further—and tell the guy that any fucking was not his business, brothers or not—Victor whirled back toward Saxon. “You’re a federal agent. Protocol demands—”

“I’m not an agent, not anymore. I already told you that Taggert was my last job. Since he’s dead, I’m out.”

Only…he’d been staying there with her. Protecting her.

“Sorry I didn’t check in, but mistakes happen.” Saxon shrugged, not looking the least bit intimidated in the face of Victor’s glare. “Elizabeth and I are alive, so you need to calm the hell down.” And some anger—hot and heavy—entered his voice as he said, “And I don’t like the way you just talked to her, either.”

“Neither did I!” Elizabeth snapped.

Victor glared over at her. She glared right back. “Don’t yell at me, and don’t talk about my sex life!” Her chin notched up. “You don’t know me well enough for crap like that.”

Victor shook his head. Then he shook it again, as if he just couldn’t make sense out of what was happening around him. “People are dying,” he said, “while you two are out here playing house.”