by Dawn Ryder
* * *
The lights in her cell came on making Ginger jump. She growled when she landed on her backside in a jumble of arms and legs because half her body was numb and the floor slick. There was a click before the door opened.
She straightened up, leaning against the wall as a man entered the cell. She’d thought she was cold before but now, her blood chilled even more because she recognized him. She had a perfect recollection of him breaking Kitten’s neck and letting her body drop onto the ground like a bag of trash. He racked her from head toe and she ordered herself not to shift. She was practically naked, and the fact that he seemed to want to rub her nose in it just made her hate his guts. Well, if he was there to kill her, she wasn’t leaving the world wailing.
“Tyler Martin,” he suddenly called out like they were meeting in an upscale hotel lobby. The dude even extended his hand.
Ginger scoffed at him. “Yeah, I remember you, and I’d just as soon not touch you.”
His lips twitched, but what she noticed more was the way his eyes remained full of triumph.
“What is all this designed to get you?” She opened her hand wide to indicate her surroundings.
“Nothing too terrible,” he responded. “In fact, it’s the one thing you already agreed to do. Testify against Marc Grog.”
The glimmer of victory was still in his eyes, sending a ripple of alarm down her spine.
“And you just thought I needed to be locked in a freezing cell to help me understand … what?”
He offered her a half shrug. “The cell is a means of making sure you aren’t carrying a bug inside your body. The Hale brothers know their business, but so do I, and you will be under my control completely now. Since you’re cleared, I can offer you more comfortable accommodations.”
He remained standing between her and the door for a long moment, making it clear he controlled her life.
“Boy, you measure up pretty short compared to Saxon.”
Sure, it was a stupid thing to say, but it certainly was satisfying. Tyler frowned, her words hitting a soft spot. He appeared surprised to feel the sting.
“A little more time to consider your circumstances then.”
He flashed her a smile before he left, and she heard the door lock. A moment later the air conditioning kicked on full blast. Ginger sunk down and hugged her knees to her chest.
She wasn’t giving up.
Saxon never would, and she sure as shit wasn’t going to fold.
CHAPTER NINE
There was poking and prodding and then there was another form of poking and prodding. Ginger glared at the stylist messing with her hair but the man only rolled his eyes and went back to making little tsking sounds while using a comb to tease up her hair. It was a lost cause, one she’d accepted years ago, but the man seemed loath to cry surrender.
Likely that was due to the pair of burly men standing just a few steps behind him. Oh, they were there to keep an eye on her but she decided that it wasn’t personal as Carl Davis treated everyone like a piece on a chess board. She was being dressed and fluffed for his gala celebration dinner where she was expected to play her part as the rescued damsel.
That part was sticking because Saxon and his team deserved the credit.
Not that anyone cared.
“Well, I believe I’ve done as much as humanly possible,” he exclaimed dramatically.
“Thank you,” Ginger purred before abandoning the chair while the stylist rolled his eyes again.
He turned and looked at the two men. “She’s just so large … and honestly, real beasts like that just don’t stay where they should…”
Ginger felt her temper simmering but held it in check. There were bigger fish to fry tonight, and if she didn’t keep her focus, it just might be her sizzling on the grill before dawn. She wasn’t stupid. Tyler Martin was watching her like a hunter, just waiting to make the call on when was the right time to drop her.
She was going to have to make sure she made that harder than the man anticipated. Saxon certainly would. One of the men cleared his throat, and she realized he was holding the door open for her.
Show time.
* * *
“Step one inch out of line, and it will be the last mistake you make.”
Tyler Martin had a savage grip on her arm. His fingers were digging in, promising her a bruise as Carl Davis made a speech about making America safe through the efforts of Shadow operation teams. “Don’t think I’m your biggest worry. Marc Grog is hunting you.”
“Bring it,” she hissed under her breath.
She caught his lips twitching up a moment before he looked past her to listen closely to what Carl Davis was saying.
“And to that end…” Carl held his hands up to quiet the applause. “I want to introduce you all to a very special lady. One who has stepped up and refused to be silenced by fear. As you all know, the underworld boss known as the Raven has been riddling our fair nation with his thugs and crimes. This lady came face to face with this monster and is willing to brave the death mark proclamation he is so well known for putting out on those who testify against him. Ms. Ginger Boyce.”
“You’re on.” Tyler Martin escorted her toward the front of the room as the people gathered there cheered. Carl Davis never really turned away from them, reaching out to place his arm around her shoulders as cameras flashed. The fakeness of it all made her recoil and step back onto Tyler’s shoe.
“She’s shy,” Carl proclaimed, gaining a round of amusement from the assembled guests. “But not when it comes to justice…”
And just like that, she was back to being nothing more than a prop. Tyler Martin kept her in place as Carl talked some more.
“Help me in raising a toast to the end of the Raven!”
There was the clink of glasses before everyone happily went back to the business of enjoying the lavish spread laid out by Carl Davis and his supporters. Waiters carried full trays of wine glasses through the crowded room, and those in their expensive evening attire happily lightened the load of those there to work the event.
Tyler suddenly reached out and grabbed her arm. She gasped as pain went shooting up into her shoulder because of the way he twisted it. Carl took a step toward his man.
“Miranda Delacroix is here,” Tyler said softly.
But it wasn’t low enough that Ginger didn’t hear the concern in his tone. Hope burst inside her and right on its heels came fear, the same bone-deep feeling that had sent her walking away from Saxon.
“The Hale brothers won’t be far behind,” Carl said under his breath. “It’s for sure that bitch doesn’t support me.”
Tyler was pulling her back as Carl waved. Ginger was torn. The moment had arrived, but she worried her lip in indecision as she tried to decide if staying in public was a better plan. The music changed as she was making ready to fake a rolled ankle and hit the floor to keep Tyler from taking her into some corner and killing her. The live band suddenly broke into “Blue Suede Shoes.”
She instantly opened her mouth and released her lower lip.
* * *
“Good girl,” Saxon remarked under his breath. There was a tiny microphone hidden in his bow tie. “We’re in business. Move to second position.”
Saxon was in motion, moving away from the gathering as Carl Davis and Tyler used an exit concealed behind the podium. Vitus was there, falling into step with the Secret Service escort. Tyler pulled Ginger along, moving to a location he’d selected before the event started.
Saxon was counting on his former lead to operate according to his training. Tyler didn’t disappoint him, moving Ginger into a back service area that was locked down while Carl Davis was there.
Inside, they would be alone without any witness. Carl ordered his escort to stay outside the door.
* * *
“Ease up,” Ginger groused. “Some of us are wearing heels.”
She earned a grunt for her effort. Tyler Martin kept muscling her along until they were inside a h
alf-lit storage area. Her heart started accelerating and the memory of the way Tyler had snapped Kitten’s neck was replaying inside her brain like a bad horror movie. She was poised on the edge of panic, the need to escape overriding everything else. Time felt like it was speeding up along with her heart rate, making it impossible to think things through because her thoughts were spilling over the boundaries of her mind.
She drew in a deep breath and tried to grasp the threads of her composure.
Think!
Otherwise, she was going to get cut down like a startled doe.
“I hope you have a plan to deal with the Hale brothers,” Carl said.
“She’s the bait,” Tyler remarked. “Sullivan says Grog is here.”
Ginger suddenly turned on him, jabbing at his throat, the way some of her prepper friends had taught her. He recoiled and struck her across the face in response. She went reeling but that pleased her because she was out of his reach.
“Don’t be too proud of yourself.” Tyler Martin leveled his gun on her.
Ginger stayed on the floor for a long moment. She hoped she was doing a decent job of looking scared to death. It afforded her a few precious moments to look at her surroundings.
“A little mouse makes good bait…”
Ginger stiffened as another part of her nightmare rose up near her. Marc Grog came out of the shadows, a gun in his hand. Her dress was a long one with a tulle slip. She reached down and slowly slipped her shoes off while Marc boldly walked toward Tyler Martin. Carl shifted off to the side, out of the line of fire.
“Even when you hamstring me, you’re still playing along with my tune.” Marc looked around the storage room. “Couldn’t have picked a better place to take care of business.”
She watched Marc shift the aim of the gun toward her. Those moments were the longest of her life as she tried to move but it felt like she was weighed down and stuck to the floor. She heard each of her heartbeats, felt her muscles straining to perform and get her out of the line of fire. Her eyes widened as she saw the flash of fire at the end of the gun, and she waited to feel the bite of the bullet.
It never came. There was a blur of motion, a man moving between her and the bullet as she finally managed to push herself into action. She came up and off the floor and then landed hard on her face as she stepped on her dress. But she was sliding across the concrete, being pulled by Bram Magnus. She stared into his face, confused because her mind wasn’t processing details fast enough.
But when her brain kicked in, what she heard was the fight going on behind her. She whipped her head around to see Saxon grappling with Marc, the pair of them struggling over control of the gun.
And then she lunged back toward them because Saxon’s shoulder was covered in blood.
“Shit!” Bram cussed as he went after her and caught her around the waist. The agent proved himself worthy of being on Saxon’s team by slinging her up and over his shoulder as though she weighted about as much as a gallon of milk.
“No … wait!” In some part of her mind, she really did realize Bram was doing the most logical thing. But in the other, all she saw was Saxon fighting for his life. It was a horrifying moment, time slowing down again to allow her to see Tyler Martin leveling his gun and pulling the trigger.
“Saxon!”
She felt like the word was torn from her soul. Vitus was suddenly there, returning fire as Bram passed him and dropped her in a heap against the far wall. She struggled to get on her feet and then it was over.
Silence surrounded them, the scent of gunpowder mixing with fresh blood. It was gut wrenching, her stomach heaving, but she resisted the urge to throw up because she need to see Saxon. She ended up making it only to her hands and knees and looking through Bram’s feet. Saxon’s face was turned toward her, his eyes closed, while Marc was sprawled on his back, his lifeless eyes staring at the ceiling. She must have let out a cry because Bram turned around and hooked her around the waist as she tried to pass him again.
“Let me go!” she hissed trying to tear his arm away.
“You’re my primary responsibility,” Bram informed her as he locked her arm up, making even the smallest motions impossible. “Tyler is unaccounted for.”
Vitus had skidded to a knee beside Saxon and pushed two fingers against his neck. Ginger held her breath as she waited. He suddenly nodded. “Thais!”
There was a patter of stocking-clad feet as the female agent came into sight. She’d kicked her heels off, too, and didn’t hesitate to drop down next to Saxon in spite of the ripping sound that came from her evening gown. Vitus shifted his focus to Bram, giving the man a nod before he was gone into the shadows with another man flanking him, both of them with their weapons drawn.
“Okay, it’s clear now,” Bram said as he released her. She made it across the space between them in record time, her skirt going over Saxon as she slid in like she was hitting third base. Ginger started to jerk it back but Thais had other ideas.
“Good. Use it to put pressure on the wound,” Thais ordered her as she was pressing buttons on her phone.
At last her brain didn’t let her down. She was in motion the moment Thais’s instructions were past her lips. Ginger gathered her skirt up and shoved it down onto Saxon’s shoulder as Thais flipped open a knife and cut it away at the waist.
“Fucking hell!”
Saxon’s profanity was sweeter than anything she’d ever heard. He jerked and tried to buck her right off him but she used her body weight to keep pressure on his shoulder.
“Magnus!” he growled. “Get your target under cover.”
“It’s clear.” Bram got on his knee so that he could make eye contact with his boss. “Marc is dead.”
Bram jerked his head to the side. Saxon rolled his over so that he could see the body. Ginger watched a flicker of satisfaction appear in his eyes before he was wrapping his fingers around her hip.
“I’m fine,” she said softly. “You kept your promise. You came for me.”
He nodded once before looking back at Bram. “Martin?”
“Your brother took off after him. Bastard slipped out.”
There was suddenly the pounding of footfalls, that unique tone of dress shoes hitting a hard surface as members of the Secret Service came to Carl Davis’s aid. There were guns everywhere, but there was no way Ginger was going to raise her hands. Bram was flashing his badge, using his body as a shield while he argued with them.
None of it was able to penetrate her focus on Saxon.
Nothing mattered beyond him at all.
Nothing.
* * *
Saxon wasn’t dying.
At least, if he was, he was doing it his way. Bram pushed her up into an ambulance beside him against the paramedic’s warning and shut the door before he pounded on it twice to let the driver know he could roll. It was a bumpy ride as the flashing lights on the top of the emergency vehicle made for an eerie disco sort of setting.
At the hospital though, she discovered that all of Saxon’s men had followed them. The emergency crews shoved her back and Saxon let out a snort as he flipped right over and caught Vitus in his sights.
“Right,” Vitus muttered. He reached out and settled a hand on Ginger’s shoulder. Saxon contemplated his brother for a long moment before he relaxed and let the doctors roll him onto his back again.
“He’ll be all right?” she asked.
Vitus didn’t answer her but the worry in his eyes chilled her blood. She felt numb as a nurse guided her into another treatment area to clean up the cuts and scrapes Ginger hadn’t had time to feel.
Honestly, there was nothing except Saxon.
* * *
Two days later, Ginger woke up and blinked.
“What are you doing?” she demanded as she kicked at the blanket she’d slept under. Vitus had managed to get a cot delivered to Saxon’s hospital room.
“Getting dressed,” Saxon informed her.
He already had his pants on and had shrugged into h
is shirt. His wound was still fresh enough that the effort of moving his shoulders had made him groan.
“You are going right back to bed, as the doctor instructed you.”
He pushed the last button through its hole and tucked the tail of his shirt in while sending her a look that she recognized.
“You’re damned frustrating. Know that?”
His lips twitched, but there was tension in his eyes that stilled her words. Suddenly, being playful with him wasn’t sitting right. The reason was clear. He was crawling back into his shell, resuming his life, and she hated it because he was leaving her, but there was still part of her that was just so damned happy to see him alive.
Even if it meant he was going to walk out of her life.
“The doctor really did tell you to rest.”
He was finishing his tie, watching her as he perfected the knot and tightened it. He took a moment to look at himself in a mirror that was attached to the inside of the closet door before he turned to face her.
She felt her belly knot, but she stood steady, ready to face what her actions had brought her.
“I am not going to declare my love for you wearing a hospital gown and lying on my back.”
Ginger blinked, stepping back because she was just having too hard a time grasping what he’d said.
Saxon caught her chin when she started to look away. “We’re discussing the elephant in the room, Gin. So stop trying to avoid it.”
Sure, she could have stepped away from him but that would be pretty low of her considering the guy was sporting a gunshot wound that he’d received while protecting her. But standing in place left her feeling like she was in the middle of a shopping mall on Christmas Eve, buck naked.
Saxon’s lips slowly curled upward. She knew this grin. It was pure determination, a promise that he fully intended to get his way.
Damn if that didn’t hit her straight in the heart.
“What I can’t do,” he stated firmly, “is deal with a future without you in it.”
Ginger stepped back as he walked toward her. “Um…”
He pressed a fingertip against her lips to silence her retort.
