by Lexi Blake
They had to go around the feds because he couldn’t trust that Petty would have friends who could take out Evans before he could talk. Ian was trying to talk to some of his contacts at Homeland Security for backup, but for now they were on their own.
In the distance, he watched Jake and Murdoch approach the hangar. Jake turned around and held up two fingers. Two cameras. He clenched his fist. Stationary. The cameras only watched the doors, didn’t swing or move to catch what was happening in the parking lot.
“I’m going in. Take a position.” He gripped his SIG, checking the clip.
Sean stepped up beside him. “Uh, I think I should follow you. I’m not sending you in there alone.”
He needed to make some things clear to his friend. “You’re not sending me in there at all. This is my operation and I need you in a sniper position.”
Sean’s jaw firmed stubbornly. “I’ll text Jake and get his ass back here.”
Alex shook his head. There was no time. He needed them both to do the jobs he’d assigned them. “I can’t trust Murdoch. Jake is the last line. I won’t let that fucker leave with Eve. I’m going to try to sneak in and get Eve out. Then the rest of you can do what you need to do. I’ll be taking care of my wife.”
He had no idea what had already been done to her. Had Evans gotten his hands on her again? Had he beaten her? Raped her? His heart ached at the thought of his precious wife brutalized again, but he knew one thing would change this time. This time she would be in his arms and he would do whatever it took to bring her back to life. He would give up anything to hold her and love her again.
“Alex, you don’t want to take down Evans yourself?”
He wanted to eviscerate the fucker. “Eve is the only important thing here.”
Sean put a hand on his arm. “Get your wife. I’ll take care of bringing in Evans and Petty. Alex?”
“Yeah?”
“When everything is out in the open, we can handle them both together.”
A nice, quiet assassination. A little weekend project to share with his brothers. “Yeah.”
He turned to the hangar. There looked to only be the one door on this side and no windows. It was very likely still open on the garage side. He would have to sneak in that way.
“Alex, uhm, I think Eve’s already gotten away herself.” Sean pointed to the northern side of the hanger where the field led down to the alligator farm.
Eve was sprinting across the grass still dressed in her pajamas, but her shoes were gone. He looked through the binoculars. She was bleeding, but she was alive.
He had to get to her. Where was she going?
He heard a loud yell and then four men ran out of the hangar, pursuing his wife.
“Take them out, Sean.”
Sean gave him a predatory grin and then hoisted the scoped rifle up. “With pleasure. What the fuck is she doing? Does she know what that is?”
Alex’s heart nearly stopped because his wife ran into the enclosure. She would be surrounded by vicious predators.
Without another thought in his head, Alex took off running.
* * * *
Eve’s hands started to shake as she looked around. Nausea rolled. She really didn’t like reptiles. Why the hell had someone willingly put a freaking pit of goddamn alligators right in the middle of a very nice field? Whoever did it, they were stupid, out-of-their-mind assholes who deserved to die and very slowly.
She held as still as possible as a gargantuan gator moved past her, his wicked looking claws sinking into the mud as it crawled to the pool portion of her own private hell. The late-afternoon sunlight shone on the creature and its pitch-black eyes. Those eyes were dead, nothing like life in them. It was an eating machine that had climbed right out of the dinosaur age.
She’d seen eyes like that before. Michael Evans had dead eyes, too.
“Hey, princess, do you like our little friends?”
Her pursuers stood just outside the enclosure. There were four of them, and now they appeared to be in no hurry to drag her back. These men were obviously Evans’s thugs. They were dressed for work in jeans and T-shirts, one of which had an oil stain on the front. They had likely been pulled away from their mechanical duties to run down the prisoner.
“You know, I heard those gators like to feed at twilight,” one said. He’d holstered his weapon, his hands on his hips as though just waiting for a show. “They get a little aggressive when they scent blood, too.”
She had no idea what alligators would and wouldn’t do. She’d never expected to be close to one.
A scream leapt from her throat as she felt something scaly scratch across the back of her leg. A gator’s tail swished behind her as though she was a fly it was trying to warn away. She jumped, but came down hard on her ankle and fell in the mud, landing right in front of another monster.
A horrible hissing sound filled the air as the gator’s jaws opened, and she could smell fetid, rotten air.
The men outside the enclosure laughed as she scrambled away.
They were everywhere. So many of them. Fear threatened to choke her, but she forced herself up. They weren’t attacking. She tried to remember everything she could. These weren’t wild alligators. They were used to being fed by hand. And they were used to easy meals.
She wasn’t going to be an easy meal. The men sent to get her were betting on how long she would last before she begged them to save her.
She wasn’t going to be an easy meal for any of them.
There had to be another exit. Following the perimeter, she found the primary door across the enclosure. Could she make it? Or would they just run around and grab her on the other side? She was trapped and had no idea what to do. Think, Eve.
There was a shed close to the door, and then she saw it, the weapon she needed. There was an emergency phone on the wall of the shed, likely in case one of the workers got in trouble.
How fast could the police get out here? She wasn’t sure if it would help, but she wasn’t going down without a fight.
“Eve, my darling, I must say, you look very attractive all broken and bloody. You know it’s my favorite look on you, but it’s time to get cleaned up. We’re leaving in fifteen minutes. You don’t want to make your first appearance in South America all covered in mud, do you? After all, my slave’s hygiene reflects on me.”
Evans stood with his men now, Petty and Carlos beside him. He stared at her with a possessive look on his face.
She had to get to that phone. Fifteen minutes. They might not be able to save her, but at least Alex would know which airstrip the plane had taken off from.
And then the man beside Evans jerked as a loud bang cracked through the air. He fell to his knees as a red stain bloomed next to the oil stain on his shirt.
“Fucking sniper!” Evans screamed and everyone turned, guns in hand.
And that was when she saw him. Alex. He was running around the backside of the enclosure, away from the gunfire likely provided by Sean or Jake. Whoever was in sniper position had the higher ground, and another one of Evans’s thugs went down, blood splattering against the screen of the enclosure.
Rapid gunfire broke out, and the door slammed open.
She wasn’t alone with the gators anymore. She had to move. Evans, Petty, and Carlos were taking refuge in the monster pit. Eve ran, trying to sidestep the gators. One hissed her way, but she kept moving, trying to get to the other door. Alex was running for it, and she had to get to him before they got to her.
“Stop right now, Eve!” Evans screamed her way.
“We have to get the fuck out of here.” Panic sounded in Petty’s voice. “Let her go.”
“We can’t let her go. You get her back or I swear to god, I’ll kill you.” Evans was on the ground, staying out of the line of fire.
Alex made it to the door first, kicking his way in. His big body stood in the doorway, his eyes searching for her. He laid down a couple of rounds, forcing the other men to hit the ground.
A hig
h-pitched scream sounded through the enclosure. She glanced back at Carlos. He’d slipped and fell right into a pit of gators, and one seemed to have taken exception. There was a terrible huffing sound that Eve would have sworn she could feel vibrations from and then a nasty snap. “It’s got my hand!”
He began screaming in rapid-fire Spanish.
Alex seemed to dance around the large reptiles. They were restless now. Even she could smell the blood in the air. Their tails had started to twitch, brushing this way and that. Hisses and growls seemed to permeate the very air around her.
Alex grabbed her hand, hauling her close. “Stay calm. If one gets hold of you, punch, kick, and scream. Go for the snout and the eyes.”
He pressed her behind him as Evans walked up. Evans was holding a semiautomatic in his hand. “I see you came to get your bitch. You lied, Warren. I believe you mentioned Special Agent McKay was no longer with us.”
Carlos kept screaming, but Warren seemed to have gotten his panic under control. “It’s easy enough to remedy. You have to remember, he needs us alive. Don’t you, Alex?”
Warren was coming up on their left side, Evans on their right.
Alex didn’t say a word, merely tried to back up.
“I can’t move.” Her heels were against something scaly. “There’s an alligator behind me.”
She could feel it breathing against her skin, its huge body coming halfway up her calves.
If they couldn’t back away, there was no escape.
“Yes, you’re right. He needs one of us alive. Well, let’s face facts.” Evans had a shit-eating grin on his face. “He needs me alive. I’m the only one who can put your dear brother away. He doesn’t want Edward Petty in the Oval Office now, does he? Petty here gave you up so nicely. I have to admit I was a bit surprised when he arrested me. I rather thought I was done for. And then he takes me to a little coffee shop and gives me his proposal.”
She felt Alex tense. God, they were right. Without any evidence, Edward would just go on with his career. Tears threatened. Alex was standing in front of her, his big gorgeous body ready to take any bullet that came their way. He wouldn’t give her up. And he couldn’t help but try for justice.
Evans stared at them. He didn’t move at all, a predator with his prey in his sights. “He would let me go if I did this one little job for him. Just one little clinic. He knew how much I hated them, you see. It all started to go wrong when women forgot their place. Clinics like that and those fucking shelters, they’re the problem. I don’t understand you, McKay. I think that’s why I find you fascinating. You really should be on my side.”
Eve took a long breath. She had to get them out of here. Very slowly, she brought her foot up and back, praying she could reach the other side of the gator. It seemed to have fallen asleep, unlike the rest of its brethren. They were all twitching and moving, but no, she had to back up to the lazy boy.
“Why on earth would I be on your side, you piece of shit?” Alex’s free hand reached back, giving her something to balance on. He kept his attention moving between the two men.
“Because of your lifestyle,” Evans replied. “McKay, you opened a whole world for me. In some ways, I truly do feel gratitude to you. I admit, I started to check out the lifestyle as a way to hurt you, but when I began training Eve, I realized that this was the life I was born to lead, one where women knew their place.”
Alex growled his response. “Her place is at my side.”
Evans shook his head. “Her place is at your feet, begging for your mercy. Women are weak. They need a man’s guidance and without it, they fail. They’re born whores, McKay. Everyone knows it. They aren’t smart enough to know how to properly live. They’re vain and ignorant. They require a Dom.”
“Which just goes to show me you have no idea what it means to be a Dom. My submissive is also the goddess I worship. Her trust and love are gifts to me. One that I can never properly repay. Stay back, Warren.” He shifted his firing arm toward Warren.
She wasn’t going to let Evans’s words get to her. He was a madman. Nothing he said meant a damn thing. Eve found the mud behind her and managed to step across the alligator’s big body. “About a foot and a half, babe.”
Alex jumped back as though his body could measure distance perfectly. He landed in the mud, but he never took his eyes off the targets.
Evans sneered their way. “What a disappointment you are, McKay. She is lovely, but she is nothing but a vessel. If you were half the man I thought you were, you would have killed her. She gave it up. All I had to do was slap her around a couple of times and her thighs spread wide.”
Humiliation flooded her.
“As she should have,” Alex said, his voice choking a little. “She knew what her Master would want. Death before dishonor is for idiots. My wife had one job to do when you took her. She had one order to obey. Stay alive and come home to me. That’s the difference between us, Evans. I don’t need to be the only man who’s had her body. I’m the only one who has her heart, and that’s what matters. You know nothing about being a Dom or being a man. And you know fuck all about loving a woman.”
His eyes narrowed. “I know that you need me, and either Petty or I are going to eventually take a shot at you. It’s inevitable. Oh, look, I believe Carlos has finally bled out. What’s going to happen when you take a couple of bullets to the gut? So why don’t we make a deal?”
Fear gripped her at the thought of Alex bleeding among the hungry reptiles.
“I’m not making a deal with you,” Alex said.
Evans took a step closer. “I think you will. I’ll take Eve off your hands. She gets to live. You get to live, too. We begin our game all over again. The other option is that you both die here and now. Let me see if my partner can persuade you.”
A shot rang through the air, and she felt Alex’s body jolt as though struck by lightning. His arm came up, shifting around and firing.
Warren Petty gave a loud gasp and then Eve watched as he fell over into the pit, a hole in his head. He slipped under the surface.
God, Warren. He was a horrible human being, but she’d seen his children born.
Alex stumbled back into her, his weight slamming into her. She stayed on her feet, but only just.
“Alex?” Her heart stuck in her throat. She wrapped her arms around his waist and felt warm liquid begin to coat her skin. Alex’s blood. Oh, god. No. No. No.
Alex fired, but his aim was off. Because he has a bullet in his gut. Eve bit back a scream as Evans pulled the trigger and Alex’s body jerked, sending them both to the mud. She cradled him, trying to protect him, but he wouldn’t let her.
“Stay alive, baby. Sean will come for you. Ian will come for you,” he said. He seemed to have lost control of his arm. The second bullet had lodged into his shoulder. The SIG fell down, slipping into the mud. “Love you so much. Love you, baby. Forgive me.”
“Don’t you go.” Her heart threatened to stop. He was right there. He was in her arms. He couldn’t be dying. He couldn’t be bleeding out in the mud and the dirt.
She couldn’t live without him and that meant one thing. Eve had spent so much of her life allowing events and the actions of others to mold her world. She’d clung to her own submission because it was her nature. But she finally understood. She might be Alex McKay’s submissive, but she was his woman, too, and he was not allowed to die. He was not allowed to leave her alone on this earth. A well of strength possessed her. She was the passive one, the observer. It had been her life for so long, but she was surrounded by women who never gave in.
She had Alex’s strength, but she had her sisters’ strength, too.
Grace, who quietly fought for her place.
Serena, who never accepted less than a happy ending.
Avery, who refused to allow tragedy to mold her life.
And Kristen. Somehow Kristen had become her sister, too. Kristen had stepped in front of a bullet to save Alex. She was fierce in her will to do good.
&nbs
p; They were all with her, a great sisterhood of strength.
“I guess it’s just you and me again, Eve. I’ll be the right Master for you.” Evans stood over her.
Her Master needed her. The SIG had slid beside her. She finally knew the truth. She’d almost seen her own death, but the truth had evaded her. Now it was clear. Justice didn’t really matter in that moment. Righteousness slipped away.
At the end of everything—there was only love. And it was worth fighting for.
Eve picked up the gun and fired without hesitation. No warning. No forethought. He was evil. He threatened someone good. And she was suddenly a warrior for good.
Michael Evans, terrorist, rapist, tormentor of women, stared down at the hole in his chest.
Eve fired again.
Evans fell to his knees, raising his gun.
Again, the kickback made her shudder, but she clicked again and again because justice didn’t matter. Revenge didn’t matter. Only her man mattered. He needed her.
“Sweetie, I’m pretty sure he’s dead. Please stop shooting so I can get Alex out of here.” Sean’s voice penetrated her primal brain.
She dropped the gun. Sean was here. She could move from warrior to wife again. She placed her hand on Alex’s stomach, trying so desperately to staunch the bleeding. Tears poured from her eyes, pain from her soul. “Please help him.”
She could lose him. God, she’d just gotten him back. Tears poured from her eyes. She just couldn’t lose him.
“I fucking hate reptiles.” Sean kicked at a gator, pushing it back. He knelt down in the mud beside her. “Alex! Alex McKay! You wake the fuck up right goddamn now!”
She heard the door slam again and then Jake was suddenly in her line of sight. “Evie? Are you hit?”
She shook her head. “He wouldn’t let them touch me.”
Her husband. Her Master. Her Alex. He wouldn’t let them get her. He’d sacrificed himself. God, he couldn’t die.
Please. Please. Please. She made a thousand deals with the universe in that moment. Anything to let him live.
