***
Garrick pressed the knife deeper into Eli’s side.
The guy was bleeding all over the floor, twitching, but…at least the spiders weren’t sliding off the fellow any longer.
“L-Luke?” Eli gasped out.
“Eli?” Luke Thorne’s voice seemed to fill the cell. Garrick had turned the phone on speaker. He wanted to hear every single word of this conversation. “Where in the hell are you?”
Hell is right.
“M-Mina James…” Eli trembled. “She’s…dangerous.”
Garrick nodded. Those were exactly the words he’d told Eli to say.
“Don’t…don’t trust her,” Eli added. “She h-hurt me.”
Garrick pulled the knife back. It made a wet, gushy sound as it left Eli’s side.
“Where are you?” Luke asked again, voice tight.
“I-I got out of the hospital,” Eli’s words tumbled out. “But I need help. Will you h-help me?”
Silence. Eli’s ragged breathing seemed far too loud. Why wasn’t Luke Thorne offering to help? Why wasn’t he promising to rush to the rescue or— “Agent McAdams,” Luke drawled, “I’m guessing you’re right there.”
Eli’s frantic gaze shot toward Garrick.
“If you’re torturing Eli, I have to say…you’re going to piss me off.” Luke’s tone was still mild. “And me pissed off? Not a good thing. Just ask Eli.”
It’s not. Eli mouthed those words.
Garrick’s gaze narrowed to slits.
“I’m not the kind of man you can threaten,” Luke continued. “I thought you’d learned that already.”
The bastard was about to be a dead man. Garrick shoved Eli away. “I know you have her!”
“And I knew you were there…I could hear your desperate breaths.”
Those breaths had been Eli’s!
“If you don’t bring Mina James to me,” Garrick blasted at him, “I will slice your buddy Eli into pieces.”
Eli was shuddering…and bleeding all over the damn place.
“Let’s see if the spiders can still crawl out of him when I’ve got him cut open.” Garrick’s hand tightened on his knife. “Because I will do it, if you don’t bring me Mina.”
Silence. No, shit, the guy should be begging to make a deal! He should be— “I’m coming for you, Agent McAdams,” Luke said. The words were so dark. And…hushed? “You’ll be the one cut open. You’ll be the one begging. And you will never, ever touch Mina again.”
The line ended. The bastard had hung up—on him.
A sigh came from behind Garrick.
“That didn’t go so well,” Madeline announced. Her high heels clicked on the floor.
Garrick turned toward her, smiling. “It went perfectly. He finally admitted that he has Mina. And he’s coming to us.”
“Without Mina.”
Garrick just laughed. “No way. She’ll be here. She’ll be with him.”
Madeline shook her head. “He just told you that you would never touch her—”
“I know Mina. She can’t stand the thought of someone being hurt.” The pool of blood on the floor was getting bigger. He might have cut Eli too deeply. Oh, well. “She’ll find out what’s happening. And Luke Thorne? He won’t be able to keep her away. When Mina wants something bad enough…” His hand rose and pressed to the scar above his heart. “She gets it.”
***
He wanted to crush the phone in his hand. Grind it to dust. Instead, Luke very carefully put the phone back down and he turned to face Mina.
A Mina who was already out of bed and frantically dressing.
Luke frowned at her. “What are you doing?”
“Going to the rescue…with you.”
The fuck she was. He shook his head. “No, you’re not.”
She kept dressing. Jerking on those jeans, doing a little shimmy.
“Mina…”
She hooked the bra. Searched a few moments for her shirt then yanked it over her head.
He stalked toward her. Luke caught her arm and turned her to fully face him. “You aren’t going anywhere.”
But her face was determined. “I heard enough of that phone call to know what’s happening, despite you trying to keep your voice all quiet.” Her gaze was stark. “That bartender, your friend, Eli, he’s being hurt…because of me.”
“No, he’s being hurt because Garrick McAdams is a dick.” They should be clear on that point. This wasn’t her fault.
Her jaw hardened. “If I return to Garrick, he’ll let Eli go.”
Luke cocked his head as he considered that. “Will he?”
She hesitated.
“Thought so,” Luke murmured. “He’ll just keep you and kill Eli. Time for me to stop the bastard. To end him.”
Her eyes seemed so very big and stark. “It’s my fight. I’m the one who brought him to you—to Eli. I’m not just going to hide when you face off. I can help—”
So cute. “I don’t need help.” But he did need her to be safe. Her safety mattered far more to him than anything else. That realization was unsettling. He wasn’t normally unsettled by anything.
“Everyone needs help, sometime.” Her hand pressed to his chest. “I’m not staying behind. I’m not going to be locked up again. I’m stronger than I look, far stronger. I beat Garrick once, and I can do it again.”