Gunfire thundered once more.
The gunshots had come from up ahead and to the left, but the shooter hadn’t been aiming for the cabin. Saxon edged closer just as a man burst from the tall grass.
“I got him!” Gary cried out. His breath was heaving out, his body shuddering “He’s down. Everything is safe.” He had a gun in his shaking hand.
And Saxon had his own gun aimed at the other FBI agent.
Gary bent low, sucking in a deep breath. “I was…” Another gulping breath. “With Victor…told me to stay out…here…while he…made sure you were safe.” Another breath. He looked up, sweat pooling on his forehead. “When I heard the-the shooting…” He exhaled. “I went after him.”
Victor hadn’t mentioned that Gary was with him. Hell, Vic really had come in with guns blazing. He’d exposed Saxon’s sanctuary, revealed it to the other agent. But what does it matter? I’ll be leaving this place soon enough.
But leaving Miami meant leaving Elizabeth.
“He’s down,” Gary huffed, “but not dead. Come on, let’s get Victor and we’ll question the bastard together.” With his gun lowered, he turned toward the cabin. His steps were fast, clumsy.
Saxon followed him, moving much slower.
***
Gunfire blasted. Elizabeth’s already tense muscles locked down even more when she heard the sound of those shots from outside. The shots didn’t hit the cabin, so…
Had they hit Saxon? Or had he been the one firing?
She kept staring at Victor’s profile and Elizabeth didn’t say a word. But she sure wished she had a weapon. A gun would be real handy right then. Or even a knife. Something.
Victor was staring straight outside, and his features were hard and angry. Only—shock flew across his face. “What the hell?” he whispered, then he was running for the door. Yanking it open.
His movement sparked her own, and Elizabeth jumped to her feet. Through that open doorway, she could see two men walking toward the cabin. One was Saxon and he’d just pulled up to the side of the other guy, a man with slightly stooped shoulders and a balding head. Who was that man? Saxon was so close to him and—
“Get away from him, Saxon!” Victor yelled as he aimed his gun.
His warning came too late. Gunfire thundered once more.
She was staring at Saxon when the gun fired. She saw the bullet hit Saxon in the side. He stumbled, fell to his knees, but he still tried to bring up his weapon. And that was when the other man—a man who seemed oddly familiar to her—put his gun to Saxon’s head.
“Drop your weapons!” The guy yelled.
Saxon still had his weapon in his hand—and he was bleeding, so much.
“Drop them!” The man screamed. Sweat had formed long, dark lines on his white shirt. “Throw down all your weapons or I will kill him right now.”
Victor kept his gun up. “You kill him, and you’ll be dead one second later, Gary.”
Gary? Even the name was normal. Ordinary. Not the name of a-a killer. A killer that Victor apparently knew.
“Send out the girl!” Gary ordered. “Or you can watch me put a bullet in your brother’s head.”
“He’s been fucking listening to my phone conversations,” Victor muttered. “Asshole.” He went right on with pointing his gun at Gary.
Hadn’t Victor heard the guy? He was going to shoot Saxon! That can’t happen. Elizabeth raced forward. “I’m coming out!” she shouted. “Please, don’t hurt him—”
She’d barely taken more than a few steps when Victor grabbed her and pushed her back into the cabin. He slammed back against the nearest wall, taking her out of Gary’s sight.
“Are you insane?” Victor demanded. “He is here to kill you.”
She got that but… “I’m not going to let Saxon die in my place!”
“Saxon is an agent! He’s trained for shit like this—”
His words were drowned out by the thunder of gunfire.
Saxon!
Then she heard laughter. “I just put a bullet in Saxon’s shoulder,” Gary said, voice carrying easily. “Since he wasn’t dropping his gun, I had to convince him. The next shot will be in his head.”
Victor’s forearm pressed over her chest. She saw the fury burning in his eyes.
“Send her out!” Gary’s voice was close to a shriek now.
She strained against Victor’s hold, but he wasn’t letting her go. Please, she mouthed the word to Victor.
His eyes were slits of fury. “I guess there was a rat in the FBI all along,” he shouted to Gary. “Fuck, you were the one with all the technical intelligence—and you were just, what? Selling it off to the highest bidder?”
“That’s what I do…now. But two years ago, before I was transferred to your team, I worked a slightly different beat.”
A muscle flexed along Victor’s jaw. “What beat was that?”
More laughter. “Come on out, and I’ll tell you everything.”
Victor still didn’t move.
“Victor!” Gary shouted.
“You fed me bullshit about that police report on her parents’ car crash, didn’t you?” Victor yelled back. “They didn’t think Luther Bates had set up that hit—”
“They should have thought that,” Gary blasted back. “Who do you think hired me to kill them?”
Her heart seemed to splinter. That man out there…he’d killed her parents? An image of their mangled bodies flashed in her mind. Nausea twisted her stomach, and, for a moment, Elizabeth thought she’d vomit.
“Guess who else is about to die?” Gary’s voice came again. Sharp. Angry. “Give you a hint…he’s an asshole undercover agent who is about to get a bullet in his head.”
No, that couldn’t happen. “We have to help Saxon,” Elizabeth whispered to Victor. “He needs us!”
“Saxon is a big boy. He can take care of himself.”
Everyone needed help sometime. “He’s been shot! Twice!” She kicked at Victor. “Let me go to him!” Because she was terrified that she’d hear another shot soon—a shot that had been fired into Saxon’s head. No, no, he can’t die for me. Her parents—Saxon—no!
Saxon…with his dark eyes and his scarred knuckles. His sensual touch and the laughter that seemed far too rusty. He couldn’t die. This couldn’t happen. She struggled against Victor with all of her strength. She kicked, she punched, she clawed, and she got loose.
“No!” Victor yelled.
But she was frenzied. Elizabeth ran through the open door and outside. “Let him go!”
Saxon was on the ground, slumped forward with his hands in the dirt, and the man—Gary—now stood behind him, the gun at the back of Saxon’s head.
At her cry, Gary’s head snapped up. He stared at her, then smiled. “You have been so much trouble. You should have just been in that car two years ago—you were supposed to be in the car—and all my loose ends would have been tied up.”
She ran toward him. “Don’t hurt, Saxon!” That man—she’d seen him before. She knew it. But she couldn’t remember where or when. She just couldn’t place him.
Victor’s footsteps pounded behind her.
Gary smiled. “Too late for that…”
His fingers were squeezing the trigger. She could see them.
“No!” Elizabeth screamed.
Victor tackled Elizabeth. They hit the ground and she waited to hear the sound of a gunshot, a shot that would end Saxon’s life.
His smile…I loved his smile. So beautiful. It changed him, made him look so—
She heard a strangled cry. Victor eased his hold on her and when he looked up, she rolled away from him as tears streaked down her cheeks.
But she wasn’t staring at Saxon’s prone body. Gary was the one on the ground. The gun had fallen from his fingers, and a knife protruded from his throat.
“Hell, yes,” Victor muttered as he leapt to his feet.
She staggered up and rushed toward Saxon. He’d just grabbed one of the discarded guns—Elizabeth didn’t know if it was Saxon’s weapon or Gary’s—and, as she watched, Saxon put the gun to Gary’s forehead. “My turn,” Saxon rasped.
She froze. Her knees locked, and Elizabeth couldn’t move.
“Saxon, no!” Victor roared.