Mine to Have (Mine #5)(64)

Her words ended in a pained grunt. Something hit her from behind and she went down hard. When she crumbled, Saxon lunged forward. He scooped up her gun and whirled to see…Elizabeth. Standing there, breath heaving, and a crowbar clutched in her hands.

Holy hell, but I love her.

“I’m not a clueless bitch,” Elizabeth muttered.

Hugh screamed at her, and Elizabeth whirled and slammed her crowbar into his arm, too. The bomb’s detonator fell from his hand, tumbling right to the floor.

But it didn’t hit. Victor’s cuffed hands flew out, and he grabbed the detonator. “Got it,” he growled.

Yes!

Tracy appeared to be unconscious from that hard crowbar hit, but Hugh was trying to grab for Elizabeth. “Get away from her!” Saxon roared as he tackled the bastard. One hit had Hugh on the ground, and then Saxon started pounding him. Again and again and again.

No one hurts Elizabeth. You sure as shit don’t trade for her life!

“Saxon.” Elizabeth’s hands closed around his shoulders. “Saxon, it’s okay. He’s not fighting back.”

He couldn’t. The guy was out cold.

“Would someone please get this freaking bomb off me?” Zoe’s yell had him glancing over his shoulder even as his hand was still poised in a fist—one ready to smash into Hugh once more. He’d broken the guy’s nose and blood covered Hugh’s face.

“Please,” Zoe said. “Before that psycho wakes up!”

Victor was already heading toward her, reaching out with his hands. The woman looked like she was equipped with some kind of vest, one that was fully wired with explosives. He’d actually seen a bomb just like that during one of his other undercover missions. Though he’d done everything he could, the victim hadn’t escaped alive.

“Oh, my God,” Elizabeth whispered.

Saxon surged to his feet and immediately staggered. Damn blood loss. But then he reached for Elizabeth, running his hands over her. “Sweetheart, are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” she told him, swallowing hard even as her fingers skimmed his jaw. “I just…I needed you.”

“And I need some help over here,” Victor shouted. “Sax, shit, you’re the one with the bomb experience! Help me!”

Saxon made his way to his brother. Zoe was still sitting in the chair, her face pale and her eyes—a shade very close to Elizabeth’s green—were wide with fear. “I really don’t want to die like this,” she told him.

Elizabeth was at Saxon’s side, holding him tightly. His blood was on her, and the wound just kept throbbing, probably because the bullet was still inside of him. He’d deal with that, later. One thing at a time.

First, the bomb.

Second…loving Elizabeth.

Third, the bullet.

He reached down to his ankle, and of course, the move just made the wound hurt all the more, but he managed to grab the knife from his ankle sheath. In order to get Zoe safely out of that vest, he’d have to slice through some of the wires. And hope that he didn’t slice the wrong ones.

“Good news and…bad news,” he muttered as he lifted the cover off the central control on the bomb.

Victor swore.

“Good news…the guy doesn’t seem to know bombs as well as his old man.” Because it would be easy enough to get the bomb off her. “The bad news…that SOB already started the timer.” He must have hit it when Tracy had shot Saxon.

“Saxon,” Elizabeth’s voice had gone hoarse. “Be careful.”

“Sweetheart, I’m not dying now.” He sliced through the wires. A sweet little red wire, then the blue wire did the trick. The timer immediately stopped. “I’ve got too much to live for.” Then he sliced through the straps of the vest, taking it slowly and carefully off the woman.

When the vest was off her body, Zoe shuddered. “Thank you.”

Moving inch by inch, he put that vest down. “Now, we all…we need to get the hell out of here…” Saxon licked his desert dry lips. “In case there’s a fail-safe on the thing.”

“F-fail-safe?” Elizabeth asked as her eyes seemed to double in size.

“Yeah,” Victor threw out as he yanked the other woman from her chair. “One that will kick in and make this whole damn place go boom!”

They all whirled for the door.

And Saxon saw that Tracy was rising to her feet. She took one look at the bomb behind them and ran toward the ladder.

Shit. There probably is a fail-safe. Saxon grabbed Elizabeth and urged her forward. He was leaving a trail of blood with every step he took, but he didn’t care. At least he was taking steps. Steps that would lead them to safety.

“No!” Hugh was trying to push to his feet. “They can’t…get away! They have to…to die!” Then he reached behind him and pulled a gun from the waistband of his jeans. A gun that he didn’t aim at Saxon. He pointed it right at Elizabeth. “Family…for f-family!”

Using all of his strength, Saxon lunged forward and put his body in front of Elizabeth’s.

“No!” she screamed as she tried to push him away.

But he wasn’t about to move. The bullet would have to go through him. I will always keep her safe.

Hugh’s face was a mask of rage. “You don’t even really know who she is! You’re gonna die for a woman you don’t—”