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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.
They weren t playing house. A faint sound reached Elizabeth s ears. She glanced over at the
window. But& then she didn t hear the sound again.
We re damn aware there is a target on her, Saxon said as he took a step toward Victor. And I m
doing you a favor by keeping Elizabeth alive.
Wait. Hold the freaking phone. Did you just say I was a favor? Hurt was there, splintering
across her chest. Because she d thought& never mind.
Saxon s head jerked toward her. Elizabeth& He looked lost for a moment. Confused. No,
that s not what I meant. His hand raked through his hair. Look
Victor holstered his gun and shoved Saxon in the chest with his hand. No, you look. Those three
bastards who came after you at the motel? The ones you wanted me to find? I already found them. It
was real easy, considering their bodies were left in room number thirteen.
No, that wasn t possible. Elizabeth shivered even as she said, You re lying. They were alive
when we left.
No, Ms. Ward, I m not lying. He didn t glance over at her, but kept his attention on Saxon.
Those men are dead. They were all shot, and their bodies were dumped in your motel room.
Someone killed all three of them and took out the kid who was working at the check-in desk.
This was horrible. Why? Elizabeth demanded as a fist seemed to squeeze her heart. So many
people& dead.
Victor didn t answer her. Just kept right on glaring at Saxon. So she marched across the room,
grabbed his arm, and whirled the guy around to face her. Why were they killed?
A muscle flexed in his jaw. At first, I thought someone might be protecting you. Eliminating
anyone who might threaten you.
The check-in clerk wasn t any threat. She d never even seen him.
If he could identify the killer, he was a threat.
This was out of control. Six people were dead now six! Taggert, Locke, the three men at the
motel and& a desk clerk some poor soul that I never even met!
That s what I thought, at first, Victor continued. That maybe someone was out there, eliminating
any danger to you.
By killing?
His head tilted as he studied her. Then I learned about your parents.
It was her turn to shake her head.
Saxon surged forward. What do Elizabeth s parents have to do with anything?
Luther Bates took out a hit on them.
Those goosebumps on her arms turned into a full-on chill. What? Luther Bates? Yes, she knew
the name. Who didn t? The guy had made serious national headlines when he d been arrested. It
wasn t every day that a drug kingpin like him went down.
Drop the act, Victor ordered. You had to know he was the one who went after your mom. She
tipped off the DA about him, and he sent out the hit on your whole family.
She thought about slugging him because there was so much fury and pain twisting inside of her.
My parents died in a car accident! And this guy was going to try and tell her that some drug kingpin
had killed them? No way. No. Car accidents happened. They were sad and tragic but they just
happened.
Their brake line was cut. It was no damn accident, and you know that. The cops said
They said nothing to me about a hit being placed on my parents! Elizabeth was yelling. She had
to stop that. She had to get her control back. Her hands clenched into fists at her side. They told me
it was an accident. That s all. Accidents& they happen.
Then maybe they didn t say anything to you because they didn t have proof& maybe they thought
you d be safer if you didn t know that Luther Bates had been gunning for you. Hell, ignorance can be
bliss, right? His face hardened. But if it was just an accident, then why did you run out of town?
You ran fast and you ran hard and you didn t go back.
Saxon was watching her, his gaze carefully guarded now. He was staring at her almost as if& as if
she were a suspect or a criminal. Not the woman that he d just made love with.
No, we didn t make love. We had sex. We fucked. Nothing more. Nothing less.
Nothing more&
There wasn t anything for me there. Why would I stay? They were gone, and being there without
them hurt. She d felt haunted in that old house. So she d gone away, trying to run from the pain. Too
late, she'd learned the pain followed her wherever she went.
You had a hit on you, and you ran to stay safe, Victor charged. Only the bounty stayed on your
head, and when you turned up here in Miami, someone made the connection and decided to collect.
I m betting Locke is the one who put the pieces of the puzzle together. He was a junior man in
Luther s organization a few years ago.
It felt as if her head were about to split open. A-a bounty has been on my head? For two years?
Impossible.
His lips thinned. His stare met Saxon s in some kind of silent, suspicious communication, then
Victor glanced back at her.
Say something! Elizabeth yelled.
And that was when it happened. Gunfire. The sound was familiar to her now, thanks to that
horrible experience at the motel. Like fireworks exploding right outside the cabin. No, tearing into
the cabin.
The window shattered. Victor spun to pull out his weapon and Saxon Saxon grabbed Elizabeth
and threw her to the floor. Then he covered her with his body as the bullets kept hitting into the side
of the cabin.
You led them to her! Saxon accused Victor. You brought them here!
Victor fired a shot through the window. The hell I did! No one followed me.
More gunfire erupted. Elizabeth stared up at Saxon, her heart racing. Do we run? Where were
they supposed to run? To the swamp?
And then& the gunfire stopped. There was an absolute silence that was chilling. Elizabeth caught
her breath as she waited. What would happen next?
The silence stretched. She felt like her nerves were about to shatter.
Saxon& His name was a whisper from her.
But his hand lifted and pressed to her mouth. He gave a slow shake of his head even as he moved a
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