She swallowed. She shouldn’t have found that growl sexy. The man was scary. Her mind should be screaming warnings at her and not slipping her little fantasies about the guy. Maybe she was going crazy.
He lowered her onto the bed. “I’m not that much of a dick, no matter what you think. Stay in the bed. I wasn’t planning on getting much sleep anyway.” Then he…he tucked her in. His hands were oddly tender as he arranged the pillow beneath her head and then pulled up the covers. She was still wearing her clothes—like she’d been going to ditch them—and his fingers skated lightly down her arms.
She thought he might try to kiss her. Try to touch her somewhere else. Try to—
“You’re safe.”
He turned off the lights.
She blinked a few fast and frantic times as she tried to adjust to the darkness. Then she saw his shadowy form lowering to the floor beside the bed. “Thank you,” she whispered.
Silence then… “Ah, there it is. I knew that, sooner or later, you’d get around to saying those sweet words.”
Tears wanted to fill her eyes because she realized that the man down there—the man who scared her—was actually her savior. “If it hadn’t been for you, I’d be dead.”
“Yes.”
Well, he wasn’t pulling any punches.
“And it wouldn’t have been an easy death,” Saxon continued, his deep voice filling that dark room. “The thing about Kurt Taggert…people don’t just hire him to kill. They hire him to torture. To make his victims hurt.”
His words chilled her. Elizabeth turned onto her side and found herself inching closer to him in the dark. “You sound as if…as if you’re speaking from personal experience.”
“He killed someone I know.”
She remembered what he’d said back at the bar. “Jenny.”
More silence. She didn’t like his silence. She liked the rumble of his voice. Elizabeth cleared her throat. “He killed your…friend, Jenny?” Because Kurt had called her an FBI turncoat. And since Saxon was FBI, too—
“He hurt Jenny. He found out that she was working undercover, and he took her…before I could do anything to help her.”
There was pain in his voice. She wanted to reach out and touch him, to take that pain away. Instead, her fingers fisted around her covers. “I’m sorry.”
“So the fuck am I. Jenny had a family. A husband who loved her. Now that husband has to bury her.” His words were growled out, his fury evident. “Jenny wasn’t made for undercover work. Some people just can’t handle it—becoming someone else for so long. She made a mistake, Kurt caught it, and he caught her.”
Her lips pressed together. I would have died if it hadn’t been for Saxon. The truth was sinking in and terrifying her now that they were cocooned in the darkness of the room. “You…you were working undercover.” Because Kurt had been afraid of Saxon when the guy first burst into that back room at The Blade.
“Yes.”
“How long have you been on this case?” A case that had obviously been designed to bring down Taggert.
“Long enough.”
That wasn’t an answer. “Is your name really Saxon?”
“My legal name? Hell, no, but legal doesn’t matter, does it? I’ve been undercover for so long, I’m not even sure I can remember who the hell I really am. Or what I really look like. My hair changes, my eyes change—everything changes with each case. Some days, I almost forget who is staring back at me from the mirror.”
She had the urge to touch him again. What was up with that? Elizabeth kept wanting to soothe him but the guy was definitely not the soothing type. “How am I supposed to repay you?” she whispered.
“You could fuck me.”
Her jaw dropped.
And he laughed. “I wish I could see your face right now.”
Her cheeks were burning again. “I’m not having sex with you as payment!”
“Good…because I don’t pay for sex.”
But he’d just said—
“Teasing you is so much fun.”
Her eyes squeezed closed. “Good night, Saxon.” Her words held an edge of their own.
“Good night, Elizabeth.”
She shivered. It was the first time he’d actually called her by name. Such a low, rough voice. A voice that seemed to perfectly fit the darkness.
“And if you get scared, just remember, I’m here.”
She kept her eyes closed and slowly, so slowly, she slipped into sleep.
***
“Victor?”
He turned at the voice and saw the two best agents on his team walking toward him. Tracy Adams and Gary Warren. Tracy had gotten out of the Academy just two years ago, but the redhead had more than proven herself on the cases she’d been given. Smart, dedicated, and not afraid to get her hands bloody, Tracy always got the job done.
In many ways, Gary was Tracy’s opposite. He’d been working for the Bureau over fifteen years, but he’d just joined Victor’s team a little less than two years ago. And field work, well, it wasn’t exactly his specialty. The guy preferred to work in the wings, hunched over a computer as he called the shots from a safe distance. He was Victor’s eyes and ears on so many of the undercover cases, thanks to all of his gadgets.
And those eyes and ears should have been watching Taggert. Victor glared at Gary. “How the hell did this happen?”
Tracy slanted a fast glance at her partner.
“All you had to do was keep the guy alive,” Victor said as his hands waved toward the stiff on the floor. “I mean, you were wired to this place. Why the hell didn’t I know he was dead?” He’d busted in the place, ready to take down Taggert, and the guy had been in a pool of his own blood.
Gary’s chin lifted and his face paled, but he held Victor’s stare. “Because someone cut my feeds. I was trying to get them back up and running, but then you pulled in and—you found him.”
Victor’s fury surged. “If someone cut the feeds, why didn’t you storm inside?” Right damn away?
Now Gary looked at Tracy.
She swallowed. “I did, sir. I did a visual sweep. The area looked secure, so I went back out and told Gary he had more time for the repair work. We were watching the front door and the back door, so the guy wasn’t going to get out—”
Victor’s hands dropped. “He was dead. There was no point in him going out.” But the killer had gotten out. Just waltzed right past them all. “Tell me you saw the man who did this.”
Tracy and Gary were silent.
“Not fucking good,” Victor snarled at them.
Gary backed up a step. Tracy’s chin lifted. She didn’t retreat, not ever. That was one of the things Victor liked about her.
“Saxon has Elizabeth Ward in protective custody now,” Victor said. Tracy and Gary hadn’t even realized that Saxon had been working the big Taggert case until about twenty-four hours ago. Saxon had been in deep cover, and his status had been on a need-to-know basis. But when it came time for Saxon to get wired up, Victor had informed the other two agents about Saxon’s role. When Victor had wired up Saxon, he’d needed to bring them into the loop.
Then things went to shit when we saw Taggert dragging Elizabeth Ward into The Blade.
But, hell, at least they’d managed to save the girl. “He got her out, and I set them up in the Moontree Motel.” He knew they’d both know the place. His team had used the location before because it was so very good at being an off-the-radar spot. “But we need to help Saxon. We need to find out why the hell someone is after Ms. Ward.” They had to find out and stop the SOB.
Gary nodded. “Yes, sir.”
“I’m on it,” Tracy said.
They rushed away, and Victor turned back as Taggert was hauled out in a body bag.
***
Saxon stretched out on the floor. His hands were behind his head, the only cushion that he had. He’d spent the night in much worse places. Much better ones, too.
Elizabeth was asleep. Her breathing had finally evened out, and she’d escaped her fears as she sank into her dreams. He wondered if she’d have good dreams or if nightmares would come to haunt her.
Saxon had one dream. The same dream he’d had for years.