“I—”
“Stay by the ride,” Tracy snapped. “And this will all be over in a few minutes.”
Tracy turned away.
“Saxon?” Elizabeth called.
He hesitated. “You won’t be risked.”
Then he, too, turned away, and Elizabeth was left by the car.
“You really need to get to know me better,” she whispered. “I don’t like being left behind.” She opened the SUV’s door and started looking for a weapon.
***
Saxon didn’t look back as he headed toward the decrepit house. He had to put Elizabeth out of his mind because he couldn’t afford any distractions, not then. He had a job to do.
Saving my brother.
“I never realized how close you and Victor actually were,” Tracy murmured.
The house was dark before them.
“But you’re risking your life for Victor, so I guess that bond has to be pretty deep, huh?”
“He’s my brother,” he said, the words a low growl.
“Ah. Now that is interesting.” She paused. “Family. Can’t live with them…can’t let someone else kill them.”
He slanted a fast glance at her. They were getting close to the house now. Tracy needed to keep silent.
“Do you think he’d give up his life for you, if your positions were reversed?” Tracy asked softly. “Because I don’t think he would. I’ve started to realize that he isn’t the man I believed he was. Brother or no brother.”
They crept onto the old porch. The lock on the door was broken—it looked as if someone had smashed the thing—so they headed inside without any problem. But the place looked deserted. His pen light swept the area, and he didn’t see anything or anyone.
“I don’t think…” Tracy whispered, “that Victor really has a heart at all.”
They were now in what looked like the kitchen. Tracy took a step forward, but he stopped her, pointing to the trapdoor that he’d just seen on the floor. His light swept over it.
There might not be anything happening in the main level of that old house, but downstairs…downstairs, I’ll find my brother.
He opened the trapdoor. It gave a long, low creak.
“I did some research on Titus Rowe,” Tracy told him as she crouched at his side. “You know Titus used to work for Luther, back in the day.”
He started climbing down the ladder.
“But then Luther betrayed him. You see…Titus was his explosives guy. He could blow up anything, anywhere.”
Saxon stilled and stared up at her. Tracy was making no move to follow him down into the basement.
“But one day, Luther double-crossed him. Titus’s wife was caught in the cross-fire. She died and Titus—well, I guess that pissed him off.”
He wanted revenge against Luther Bates. Another eye-for-an-eye asshole.
“Titus had a son. This house belongs to that son—to Hugh Rowe. And guess what? He’s real pissed, too.”
There was something in Tracy’s voice, a low, cold note that put him on high alert. And she still wasn’t coming down the ladder into the basement. “Tracy…” He stared up at her. “What have you done?”
She smiled at him and then she lifted her gun. “Keep going down the stairs, Saxon. If you don’t, I’ll just shoot you right here.” She gave a little laugh. “By the way, you might as well just drop your weapon. It won’t work. I made sure that it wouldn’t fire before I gave it to you.”
***
The house was still and dark…and she’d found a crowbar in the back of the SUV.
Elizabeth crept closer to the house. She was way, way out of her league but…Saxon was in there, and every instinct she possessed told her that she should be in there, too.
She loved him. She needed him. And she was not letting the guy die for her. He’d already suffered too much. They were supposed to be safe now. But, no, because of her, Saxon’s brother was in danger.
She crouched near the bushes that surrounded the house. She needed a sign, something to show her if Saxon was safe. And if he wasn’t safe, then she really needed some tip-off to indicate she should run in there like a mad woman, swinging her trusty crowbar.
She just needed a sign…
***
“Saxon!” Victor shouted when he saw his brother. He lunged up out of the chair, his hands cuffed in front of him. “Dammit, man, you—”
“He didn’t come alone,” Tracy said as she stepped from behind Saxon. Her gun was pointed at his brother. The light in that little room shone down on them, so very brightly.
And, too late, Victor realized that Gary hadn’t been the only traitor in his department.
I am so fucking blind. Had Tracy been working with Gary all along?
“Um, who are they?” a woman with dark hair and scared green eyes whispered.
Saxon’s gaze had shifted to Zoe and his jaw hardened when he saw the bomb wired to the woman’s chest.
“Hey, baby…” Hugh stepped from behind the door. He’d been waiting, biding his time as Saxon and Tracy entered the home. “I see you came with company,” he told her.
Then Tracy leaned forward and kissed the bastard.
What. The. Hell?
Saxon used that moment, though, the brief distraction that it was. He spun quickly, and he grabbed Tracy’s wrist. He yanked the gun from her hand and, in a flash, he’d aimed it right at Hugh’s face.
And Hugh…as per usual…laughed. Hugh lifted his left hand, revealing the trigger he had there. “One touch, and your brother will be blown to bits. We all will be.”
Tracy pulled away from Hugh.
And Saxon didn’t fire his weapon, but he also didn’t lower the gun, either. “Vic, I want you to get the fuck out of here,” he ordered without looking over his shoulder. Victor knew the guy wasn’t about to take his stare off Hugh, not when the man with the detonator was the main threat in the room.
Victor heard Zoe’s breath catch.
“Run up the stairs and get out of here!” Saxon barked. “I’ll hold them.”
Hugh pushed Tracy out of his way. “Drop the gun! Drop it or we all die!”
But Saxon shook his head. “No. I don’t think you’ve got the balls to hit the button. There’s a timer hooked up to her bomb.” Saxon knew his bombs, thanks to a few undercover missions that had put him right into the line of fire—literally. “You think I didn’t see it? You’re planning to kill us, but not until you’re safely away. Too bad, asshole. Too bad…because if you don’t let my brother walk out of this pit, you won’t ever get away! I will kill you right here!”
Hugh’s finger was poised over the trigger.
“Please,” Zoe begged Victor, “don’t leave me. I don’t…I don’t want to die here.”
He turned and his fingers caught hers. “You won’t.” None of them would die there.
But then a gun blasted. He whirled back around, expecting to see that Saxon had just shot Hugh…but Saxon was the one staggering back. Saxon was the one with blood pouring down his shirt.
And Tracy raised her gun and aimed it at Victor. “Backup weapon,” she said, giving a grim smile. “Guess he should have checked for that.”
Saxon!
“Do you know…” She asked Victor, her voice oddly calm, “how much I really hate you?”
Saxon groaned and tried to lift his weapon.
Tracy advanced and put her gun right to his head. “I hate you so much,” she told Victor without looking at Saxon, “that I’m going to make you watch while I put a bullet in your brother’s head, and then I’ll let Hugh here kill you.”
***
When she heard the gunshot, Elizabeth’s whole body jerked. She was racing toward the house before she could even think to stop herself.
Not Saxon. Not Saxon. Not—
She couldn’t see anything in that house. It was too dark. She stumbled around, gripping the crowbar too tightly as she searched desperately for Saxon. She wanted to call out to him, but she was afraid—afraid of making him more of a target. Afraid of distracting him.