Mine To Protect (Mine #6) (9 page)

“There are other places we need to visit.” She nodded decisively. “A club off the strip. A quiet place with lots of dark corners. Michelle and I met up there plenty of times because it was a place where we could both vanish.”

Victor was getting a real bad feeling about Michelle Lane. He’d sent a few agents to look for her before but the guys had turned up nothing, fast.

How do you vanish so completely?

Maybe the question wasn’t how, though. Maybe it was…

Why?

Sometimes people vanished when they needed to hide their sins. In his line of work, he sure knew one hell of a lot about that.

***

Most tourists would miss Dice. The little club wasn’t flashy like the places on the strip. It didn’t have big, neon signs. It was tucked far away from the traffic, a small place with dark brick and tinted windows. A bouncer waited at the door, sitting on a bar stool, but he wasn’t exactly stopping people from entering the place.

In fact, no one was lined up to get inside.

“You sure this is the right club?” Victor asked, as he scanned the street. To him, it sure didn’t look like the kind of bar that would attract showgirls.

“I’m sure. Michelle…she even had a thing going on with the bartender. I want to talk to him. If anyone knows where she went, it should be him.” She strode toward the bouncer. A big, muscled guy with tats on his shoulders. His dark hair was long, a little shaggy. The guy’s hard gaze swept over her and he jerked his thumb inside.

Victor followed her. When the bouncer’s gaze darted to him, assessing, the guy seemed to stiffen. For an instant, Victor hesitated. The bouncer’s stare was too aware, too intense. It didn’t go with his casual pose.

“Victor?” Zoe pushed.

Victor shoved a twenty at the bouncer and kept walking.

Inside, Dice was like a cave. Candlelight sputtered on a few of the tables. There was no music playing. Just silence. The occasional clink of glasses.

This scene is wrong. The place is wrong.

All of Victor’s instincts were on high alert. Zoe had made her way up to the bar. She put her hands on the old, scratched surface. “Excuse me,” she said.

The bartender turned around. The bartender was a male, had to be pushing seventy, with a grizzled jaw and a bald head.

“I’m looking for Roy. Is he working tonight?”

The bartender’s face hardened. “Don’t know any Roy.”

“Uh, yeah, you do,” she replied, leaning toward him. “I’ve seen you…here…with him. He worked the bar.”

The bartender’s stare slid to Victor. “Better get your girl out of here. She’s confused.”

“She is
not
confused,” Zoe snapped right back at him. “I’ve been in here at least a dozen times with Michelle! She was dating Roy. Roy who worked here, with you. He’s a big, blond guy. She’s a tall, slim, gorgeous African American woman with—”

“Get her out.” The bartender pointed at Victor. “And don’t let her come asking about Roy again. Roy didn’t work here. He was never here.” He turned away. Went back to clinking the glasses behind the bar.

Zoe whirled around to face Victor. “What is happening here?
How
is this happening? First Michelle, now Roy. They can’t both vanish.”

Yeah, they could. He caught her hand in his. “We need to go.”

“No! We need to find them—both of them! That was the deal, right? That was—”

“We’re going.” From the corner of Victor’s eye, he’d just seen the bartender pull out his cell phone. The guy was talking fast now, whispering into that phone. Oh, hell, no, this scene wasn’t good. “And we’re going fast.”

He made sure to position Zoe so that he could still easily reach for his gun. He was worried he might be needing it soon.

They hurried for the door. He could feel the rage practically pouring off Zoe. She thought he was letting her down. Going against their little plan.

Screw that. He was trying to keep her alive.

When they burst out of Dice, the bouncer was gone. “Another fucking bad sign.”

“What’s a bad sign?” Zoe whirled and put her hands on her hips as she glared at him. “What are you doing? You know that guy was lying to us! Let’s go back in there and
make
him tell us what’s happening—”

“We’re getting out of here.” Only there were no taxis nearby. “Come on.”

“Victor—”

“Trust me. We have to go, now.”

She kept glaring at him. He thought about picking her up and just hauling ass. The silence stretched too long. Time they
didn’t
have to waste. He stepped toward her.
Sorry, baby, no choice here.

“Fine,” she gritted out before he reached for her. “But I am not happy about this crap.”

Then they were both rushing away—pretty much running—and they hurried toward the narrow alleyway on the right. He could see the flow of traffic on the other side of that alley. Once they got through that little space, they’d burst out on one of the main roads. They’d get a taxi. They’d get their asses to a safer place, then he could figure out exactly what had just gone down in Dice.

He could—

A man appeared in the mouth of that alley, a guy wearing a big coat, gloves, and with a thick scarf wrapped around his neck. Even before that stranger lifted his right hand, Victor knew—

Gun.

He pushed Zoe to the side even as he threw his body down on top of hers. He heard the sharp blast of the gunfire, but he didn’t feel the burn of a bullet hitting him—a good thing. He’d slammed hard into Zoe, and he hoped like hell that she was all right. He grabbed for his weapon, ready to return fire.

“
Ow! Fuck! Sonofabitch—let me go!
”

At that scream, Victor tensed even more. He risked a quick glance around the giant garbage bin near him—his current cover—and saw that the guy in the scarf was on the ground.
He
was the one doing the screaming. Mostly because the big, hulking bouncer they’d seen before—the guy with tats on the side of his neck who’d been slouched with such unconcern at Dice—that fellow had his foot on the shooter’s neck. The bouncer also had a gun out and aimed at the fellow on the ground.

“Stop your screaming,” the bouncer ordered. “Or
I’ll
stop it.”

The guy wisely clamped his lips shut.

Victor took aim at the bouncer.

The bouncer looked up at him. “See what twenty bucks can get you?” His voice was mocking. “I’ve got to be the cheapest protection you’ve ever bought.”

Zoe was dead silent near Victor. He didn’t risk looking at her. He was afraid to take his eyes off the two men.

Were they both his enemies?

Or…

“I’m a federal agent,” Victor called out. “So you really want to lower your gun right now and let me take over this situation.”

Laughter answered him. “Right. Like you think I didn’t tag you for a fed the first time I saw you?”

“And you think I didn’t tag
you?
” Victor threw back. “Like I’m going to walk into a place like Dice and not realize what the hell is going on.”

“Victor…” Zoe’s voice was hushed, barely reaching his ears. “What
is
going on?”

As he watched, the bouncer tucked the gun into the waistband of his jeans. He lifted his hands, holding them toward Victor, palms up, but he
did
keep his foot firmly planted at the back of the shooter’s head.

“The bouncer is on our side,” Victor said. But a heavy weight had settled onto his chest. Yes, he’d looked at the bouncer and hesitated.
Tagged you, too.

“Our side?” She inched closer. “What the hell does that even mean? That he’s not a hitman?”

“Not a hitman.” Not if his suspicions were right. “A cop.” Hell, and if the bouncer was a cop…if that whole place was a front, like he suspected…

Zoe is about to be in for even more betrayal.

The building was non-descript. Two-story, brick. The windows were covered. There was only one main entrance and…

The place was some kind of safe house for cops.
Cops.

Zoe’s palms were sweaty as she glanced around the little room. An interrogation room, if she guessed right. With
cops.
She’d never gotten along so well with them. In her general ranking of law enforcement personnel to avoid, well, cops were at the top of the list.

FBI Agents were immediately ranked second beneath them.

She sat in a slightly wobbly wooden chair. A square table was in front of her. One of the cops—the bouncer, actually—had poured her a glass of water and put in on the table.

The bouncer didn’t look like a cop. He was far too dangerous for that. But he’d shown her his badge. Victor had called Russell and vetted the guy.

Cain Blair.
Undercover cop extraordinaire.

Only he wasn’t the only undercover cop in the room. Her gaze slid to the left.

Roy Duncan stood there, frowning. Michelle’s Roy. Roy the missing bartender.

Only he wasn’t missing any longer.

Because when Cain had delivered her and Victor to this place, Roy had been waiting there for them. Roy, with his sun-streaked blond hair and his icy blue gaze. Roy who’d pulled out his own badge and ID when Zoe had just stared at him in shock.

He was a cop. All along. Did Michelle know?

“I’ll want the prisoner,” Victor said. He wasn’t sitting at the little table. He was pacing to the right and looking very much like some kind of angry predator.

“Sorry, not happening,” Cain told him, sounding not the least bit apologetic. “The Vegas PD has dibs on him.”

“He tried to shoot me!” Victor snarled.

“No, he tried to shoot her.” Cain pointed at Zoe. “And really, she should have known better than to come back to this town again. Seriously, what do you have, lady, a death wish?”

Victor lunged toward him.

“Stop it!” Zoe leapt to her feet. “Just—
stop!”

All eyes were suddenly on her.

Don’t fall apart in front of them. Don’t.
“Dice is…what, exactly? Some kind of cop front?” That didn’t sound right. There had to be another term for the joint but…

“It’s a relay space,” Victor told her. He was at her side now. Looking enraged. Looking strong. Looking as if he really wanted to rip someone apart. “When undercover cops need to deliver information, they head to spots like that one. Usually, they’ll have a teammate there. Someone who can make sure the intel gets into the right hands, without the undercover agent blowing his cover.”

His cover…

Her
cover?

Don’t fall apart.
Zoe turned her attention to Roy. “I’ve been looking for Michelle,” she said.

He met her gaze, unflinchingly. “I know.”

“She…we had a system in place. A way for us to stay in touch.”
Because she was my friend.
“I’ve been making my calls, but she isn’t answering. Her place is empty and—” She stopped because his expression had altered, for just a moment. There had been the briefest of cracks in his visage.

Pity.

“No,” Zoe whispered. But the truth was right there. All around her. All freaking around her.

“You weren’t supposed to come back here,” Roy said, shaking his head sadly. Then his gaze jumped to Victor. “Isn’t it
your
job to keep her in protective custody?”

Her hands had fisted. Her nails bit into her palms. “Michelle was working undercover.”
No, no, no.

“Michelle was doing her job.” Roy’s lips thinned. “That’s all I’ll say about that.”

She jumped at him, more than ready to swing hard because the pain was so strong inside of her.
Lie, lie, lie.
It was all a lie.

“Zoe!” Victor locked his arms around her and yanked her back against his chest. “Look, baby, I get it’s tempting as hell, but I can’t let you attack a cop.”

Why not? It seemed like a pretty good idea.

“She vanished because she’s on a new assignment,” Victor said, his breath brushing near her ear. “That’s why there’s been no contact from her. Not because she was taken…”

Tears stung Zoe’s eyes.
I thought...
She jerked free of Victor’s hold and spun to confront him. “You knew, didn’t you?”

A muscle flexed in his jaw.

“When we were in her apartment. When you saw her clothes were still there but the food wasn’t…I-I saw your expression change, but I didn’t realize…”

He swiped his hand over his jaw. “I worked undercover plenty of times, so I’d been to scenes like that before, yes. They were keeping the place ready, in case she had to resume the role again. But the food was ditched because—”

“Stop.” She hated this little room. Hated the eyes on her. Hated the pity—pity that was even coming from Victor now. “Just stop.” She didn’t want to hear anymore.

Didn’t want to hear…

Michelle wasn’t my friend. She was using me, too. The way everyone does.

“She had a job to do.” Cain’s words were gruff. “We got word that a new player was moving into Vegas about a year ago and trying to take over. A guy with some powerful connections back East, connections tied to Luther Bates.”

And there it was.
Every road to hell leads back to my father.
Her eyes were stinging. “And I’m supposed to know who the new bad guy is?
I was never involved in Luther’s world.
” How many times could she say that? Scream that? Why wouldn’t anyone ever listen?

“Getting close to you put Michelle in a prime position,” Roy said. “She was able to…” His words trailed away.

“Able to do—what, exactly?” Zoe threw up her hands. “I had nothing to give her! I wasn’t involved!”

“No, Zoe,” Victor’s voice was soft. “You were her ticket. Her
in.”

She shook her head.

“These guys…” He waved to the cops. “They aren’t after Luther Bates. They’re after the guy here in Vegas. A guy Michelle needed to get close to. And in order to get close to him, she got close to you.”

“That’s not true.”

But Victor kept talking. “If the man had ties with Luther, doesn’t it stand to reason he wanted eyes on
you?
And Michelle was those eyes. She got close to you. Learned your secrets. And then she used them to gain this sonofabitch’s confidence.”

She played me.
Zoe’s gaze jerked back to Roy. Red stained his cheeks.

“I’m sorry,” he said, sounding stilted and uncomfortable as hell. “You weren’t supposed to find out.”

“Because I wasn’t supposed to come back?” Goosebumps were all over her. “I’ve been trying to contact her…again and again and…
OhmyGod.
” Her hand covered her mouth.
I did this.
Horrified, she backed up, hitting the table with her hip. “There was no new leak at the FBI.
I’m
the leak.”

Victor’s brows furrowed. “What are you talking about?”

“Back when you first pulled me out of that bus station in Kansas…you’d said that word had spread that I
wasn’t
dead.”

He nodded grimly. “I was trying to keep you safe.”

Wasn’t he always? “You’d spread the word that I was dead. You were trying to take all the targets off my back, but I kept trying to find Michelle. I made the calls—I let her know I was alive. She didn’t answer me, but that doesn’t mean she didn’t get the messages. And she used them.” Her head hurt. “She turned the information over to this guy—whoever the hell he is—she turned me over to him, and that’s why the hitmen keep coming after me. She offered me up as her ticket inside…”

“I’m sorry,” Roy said again, miserably. Uselessly.

“Fuck sorry.” She stalked for the door.

“You weren’t supposed to come back!” Roy called after her. “I mean, hell, why come to Vegas? You knew this place was trouble! You—”

“Because I thought she needed me.” Zoe stopped at the door and looked back at him, disgusted. “I thought that was what a real friend would do.”

Cain swore.

“But I get the picture now.” She yanked open the door. They were on the second floor, so Zoe hurried down the stairs, her steps echoing in the building.

“Zoe!” Victor was rushing after her. Victor. Poor Victor. She’d forced him to Vegas for nothing. Put him in the line of fire for
nothing.

She hit the bottom of the stairway.

“Wait, Zoe!”

She didn’t want to wait. She wanted to get the hell out of there so she could stop feeling like such a fool.

But he was fast. Damn him. His hands curled around her shoulders and he spun her back. “Stop.”

“I don’t want to stop. I want—”

“You didn’t do anything wrong. You were a good fucking friend to her. You risked your life for her.”

Her eyes burned. “We weren’t friends.” All along, Michelle had been using her. Not looking past the shadows that surrounded Zoe, not offering friendship in spite of Zoe’s criminal world ties…

Footsteps thundered on the stairs. She looked up. Cain was rushing down toward her. No, she did not want to deal with him then. “Let’s get out of here.”

“Michelle went completely dark over a month ago.”

Cain’s words froze her.

“She
had
been working undercover, making her way up the ladder slowly but surely as she gained the trust of that group. She was sure she’d get to meet the boss soon enough, one-on-one, and that was what we’d been waiting for.” He’d stopped on the second step from the bottom. Cain raked a hand through his hair. “This guy—he’s so sneaky. Smart. He’s some freaking shadowy puppet master who has plenty of fall guys to do his dirty work. Powerful guys who shouldn’t be bowing down to him, but they are. The drugs have tripled on the streets and the weapons—they flow in like a freaking river.”

Victor moved, positioning his body protectively in front of hers. Why? It wasn’t as if Cain was going to attack her. He and his buddy Roy had already done their damage.

They all sold me out.

“Michelle used you,” Cain said and his words were cold and brutal. “It was her job. She needed an in with the guy, and you were that in. We heard rumbles that he wanted you. Probably for payback against Luther Bates. Isn’t that what everyone wants?” His gaze cut to Victor and his lips curled in a hard smile before he focused on Zoe once more. “
Everyone
. Being who you are, I’d think you’d have gotten used to that shit by now.”

“Watch your fucking mouth,” Victor warned him.

She put her hand on Victor’s chest. “If I can’t hit a cop, neither can you.” Her chin lifted as she faced Cain. “You think I’m supposed to just smile and say… ‘Okay. No harm, no foul. She was just doing her job?’” Beside her, Victor stiffened. “Screw that. She did do harm. I risked my life for her.” For nothing.

“She went
dark.
” Cain grabbed the wooden bannister. “You know what that means? It means no communication from her at all. It means we don’t know if she’s just in deep cover and can’t contact us…or if she finally made face-to-face contact with the puppet master and he figured out that she was a cop.”

Zoe didn’t move.

“If he found out, she’s dead.” Cain eased down another step, his expression tight and angry. “Do you understand? She’s—”

The second floor exploded. The boom was deafening, a roar that had her screaming even as the force of that blast picked Zoe up and tossed her through the air. And as she flew, as she screamed, she saw the flames rolling across the ceiling…

Oh, dear God…we’re all dead.