Mine to Have (Mine #5)(32)

She froze. Her knees locked, and Elizabeth couldn’t move.

“Saxon, no!” Victor roared.

Gary was still alive, still making some horrible gurgling sound.

“He planned to kill us all,” Saxon said. His shirt was soaked with blood. “You know that. He was going to kill me, kill you, kill Elizabeth…then go right back to the FBI. Keep selling the…good agents out.” He was on his knees over Gary. “No more…selling them out, Gary.”

Victor didn’t rush up to Saxon. He approached the other guy slowly, cautiously. “We need him alive. If he’s alive, he can tell us who he’s been working with. He can tell us what the hell he has been doing all of these years. The dead don’t talk, man, you know that.”

“Saxon?” Elizabeth whispered.

His head turned toward her. He was so pale.

Too much blood.

“If he’s dead,” Saxon said, his words slurring a bit, “then I know he can’t ever hurt you again.”

“He’ll be locked up!” Victor promised frantically. “Don’t! Shit, I need him alive!”

And she needed Saxon alive. Elizabeth crept closer to him.

“He killed your parents,” Saxon whispered. “Doesn’t he deserve to die for that?”

And the pain of their deaths was a raw wound inside of her again. Her mom, her dad…but—

No. No, she couldn’t let Saxon do this. Her hand reached out. She touched his shoulder. “You saved us. We’re all okay. He’ll go to jail and pay for what he did to them.”

He shuddered and didn’t lower the weapon. His gaze drifted over her face. “You were…trading yourself. For me.”

Elizabeth nodded.

“Not worth it. Remember that.” He lifted the gun away from Gary’s head. “Vic…”

Victor took the gun from him. His hard stare raked over Gary. “Shit, how much damn longer can he live like that without medical fucking intervention?”

“Don’t know…” Saxon muttered. “But when you get the docs…make ‘em work on me first.”

And then he fell to the ground.

Something inside of Elizabeth splintered right then. “Saxon!”

***

She stayed with Saxon for as long as she could. She held his hand, kept pressure on his wounds, and she talked to Saxon the whole time that Victor was gone to call for help. Elizabeth wasn’t even sure what she talked to him about. She just kept whispering to him, over and over, and she prayed.

When the helicopter flew in to take him and Gary away, she jumped on board. Victor was beside her, but they weren’t able to talk with Saxon anymore. Medics had swarmed around him—him and Gary.

Gary was still clinging to life. So was Saxon.

“Save Saxon first!” Victor snarled at the medics. “Do you understand? You save my brother first!”

After what seemed like an eternity, the chopper landed on a helipad at a hospital. Doctors rushed out. And Saxon was taken away.

She stared after him, watching the hospital doors swing closed. Be okay, Saxon. Be okay. Elizabeth looked to the right. Victor was at her side. He was as stiff and hard as a statue, but his face was stamped with emotion.

Fear.

She recognized that emotion immediately because fear was eating her alive right then. She found herself reaching for Victor’s hand. Her fingers locked with his, squeezed. “He’s the strongest man I’ve ever met,” Elizabeth said simply.

Victor swallowed. “Even the strong can’t stop death.” Then he pulled from her. “I have to go call our sister—I have to call Jasmine. She needs to know about Saxon.” He hurried toward those swinging doors.

And Elizabeth was left there. She looked down at her shaking fingers and saw Saxon’s blood on her hands.

So many people had died in this mess. Wesley. The men at the motel. That bastard Taggert.

And even my parents—it’s all linked.

But Saxon, no, he couldn’t die, too. She couldn’t lose him. Not when she’d just found him.





Chapter Nine


“Have I ever mentioned…” Victor demanded, his voice rough and hard, “how much I hate it when you pull your hero crap with me?”

Ah, if Vic was pissed, then Saxon knew he was going to be just fine. With his eyes still closed, Saxon smiled. “’Cause you’re…jealous…when I get the glory.”

“And the bullets in your sorry hide.”

Yes, the bullets. Those would be why he felt so ridiculously weak right then. Saxon sucked in a breath and opened his eyes. Might as well see the damage. But when he looked down, he saw only the white hospital covers.

“They stitched you up. Had to give you some blood because you’d lost too much, but you’ll make it.”

He looked over at Victor. Vic was pale as he sat in the chair near the hospital bed. “You look…” Saxon managed. “Like hell.”

“Yeah, well, you look like shit, so I guess that makes us a pretty good match.” Victor’s lips curled faintly, but the smile didn’t reach his eyes. And, after a moment, the smile faded completely. “I had to call Jazz.”

Damn. “You shouldn’t have…worried her.” Jazz. Jasmine Bennett. Well, now Jasmine Archer. Once upon a time, Saxon, Victor, and Jasmine had come together on the streets. They’d relied on one another for survival, and, as time slid past, they’d turned into a family.