Dominance Never Dies (Masters and Mercenaries Book 11) (48 page)

Yeah, Mia just bet they would. Or they would put a bullet through the doc and take over her clinic. She doubted there was truly honor among these thieves. If Hope McDonald thought her research would be served by murdering her business partners, she would do it in a heartbeat.

“Is everything arranged?” Santos asked, looking around.

The doctor nodded. “Of course. We’ve got a small holding cell for your new friend. I take it Dr. McDonald isn’t with you. I was so hoping to meet her.”

“We all were,” the mountain said in a thick Aussie accent. “She’s kind of become legend around these parts. There’s apparently a bunch of people in Liberia who definitely know her name.”

McDonald’s first trials had been on unsuspecting patients at her sister’s clinic in Liberia. Faith McDonald Smith had thought she was saving a small part of the world and her sister had been using her patients.

Santos’s eyes tightened slightly and that relaxed set to his body suddenly wasn’t so casual. “She’ll be along in a few days. I’m surprised. I thought there would be a few locals. Don’t we need someone to help with the plane? We need to make sure it’s ready to go at all times. That was part of our arrangement.”

The mountain moved in front of the doctor as though he could sense the change in Santos, too. “We thought you would want privacy for the girl.”

They stared at each other for a moment.

What was happening? Mia’s heart threatened to beat out of her chest. There was some tension running through the room that she didn’t understand.

“Tomas, would you please escort our guest back on the plane. Now.” The gun made an appearance.

Theo’s arm went tight around her waist and he started to back up.

What? Why were they getting back on the plane? She couldn’t get back on the plane. Case would come for her here. If she got back on that plane, he wouldn’t know where she was.

“Why? What’s wrong? Our orders were to settle in here and wait for Mother.” Theo simply picked her up when Mia tried to drag him down.

“This isn’t right. Something’s off. I don’t think we’re alone,” Santos said.

“Well, you always did have excellent instincts, you fucker.” Ezra stepped out from behind a barricade of boxes.

She felt her eyes widen. “Ezra?”

Santos, Theo, and Robert suddenly had guns pointed at her bodyguard, who was likely going to give her a pretty stern lecture.

“Ezra was his brother,” Santos said, his eyes firmly on his target.

The mountain of man with the doctor backed away, covering her as they retreated to what looked to be an office. When the door opened, she saw someone she never expected to see.

Her brother was standing there. Drew was here in Africa, waiting for her.

That meant Case was here. Tears pricked her eyes. He’d come for her. He was here and now she could practically feel him.

“Give me the girl. I brought her brother with me. We can split the money. He’s ready to transfer funds as we speak. You don’t give me the girl and that big guy will kill Drew Lawless and you get nothing,” Ezra said, his voice flat.

She went still. Could he be telling the truth?

Santos’s whole body was tense, ready for action. “I’m supposed to believe you’re turning on the Agency for money?”

Ezra didn’t seem freaked out to have so many guns on him. He strode forward. “Why not? I’m never getting back in the field. Fuck ’em. Isn’t that what you said? I thought about trying to get my hands on the drug, but there’s too much heat on McDonald. So when I realized you’d nabbed Mia, I decided it was time to make some cash. It was easy to tell her brother that I would arrange the transfer. He got on the plane himself. And it was very easy to figure out that you had to be dealing with Dr. Gibson. The Agency’s been looking into her, by the way. We suspect her of arms dealing.”

Bullshit. This was Case’s plan. What was Ezra doing?

He was trying to get her out of the line of fire. Case was trying to ensure her safety before he fought for his brother.

It would have been easier for the Taggart brothers to simply overwhelm them. They would have had the element of surprise, but Case had chosen to risk the entire operation to ensure she wouldn’t be stuck in the middle of it.

He was choosing her. Somewhere in this big hanger was a superhot cowboy who was so getting laid as soon as they got out of this mess.

He was getting married, too, because she was never letting that man go.

“Yes, she’s in trouble with some of her clients,” Santos replied. “It’s why she was willing to cut a deal with us.”

“Now she’s cut a deal with me because I might have mentioned just how big this deal would be. They were surprised since you’d promised them a five percent cut of a million. All I had to do was mention that 4L Software was involved and suddenly they were very open to a new partnership.” Ezra clapped his hands together. “So what do you say? Let’s reunite brother and sister and get this thing done. He won’t transfer the money until he’s with her. Let her join him in the office and we’ll talk about how we’re going to split the money. Let one of your guards take her. How about the blond one?”

Theo stiffened behind her. “I can handle that asshole.”

Santos moved back, though he never took his eyes off Ezra. “I suspect there’s more than one asshole waiting for you. Damn it. Does the bitch have a tracker on her? I never thought to look.”

“Give me the girl, Santos, and you might make it out of here alive.” Ezra lined up his shot.

“Back in the plane, boys. We’re leaving now,” Santos ordered.

A shot crashed through the hanger and Ezra’s body jerked around and he went to the ground as Theo dragged her back. Victor was on the stairs of the plane and he hopped down, ready to fire again.

Ezra was down. Oh god. She hoped Case stayed somewhere safe. She was right back where she’d been in Colombia and all she wanted was for Case to be safe. She would go with Santos, do anything, endure anything so Case would live.

And she suddenly realized he was out there thinking the same damn thing.

Case wasn’t going to protect himself. He was about to make himself a big damn target. And that meant she couldn’t get on that plane.

Ezra sat up and took his own shot and then chaos reigned.

Her world suddenly filled with gunfire as the team came out of hiding. She caught sight of Sean and Ian Taggart, but she didn’t see Case.

He would be there. He would be right in the thick of the fight.

Theo’s arm tightened around her waist and he hauled her up and back as he began to retreat.

To her right, Robert rolled away, firing as he looked for cover.

She had to get to cover, too. She needed to get to that office. It was where Ezra wanted her to go so that meant it was where Case wanted her. Out of the action so he could do his job.

He would sacrifice Theo to save her. She had to take herself out of the equation so her man never had to make that choice. She loved him too much to make him sacrifice.

Unfortunately, that meant getting the fuck away from Theo.

“Stay calm,” Theo whispered in her ear. “I’ll have you safe in a moment.”

Theo popped off two quick rounds his oldest brother’s way. Ian Taggart moved quickly for a big man. He rolled off to his left to the safety of cover the Humvee he’d been hiding behind offered.

Theo was the real danger because no one was willing to take him out, but he was damn good at his job.

She thought about everything Ezra had taught her. Defense wasn’t hot. It wasn’t emotional. It was a cool decision to win a battle.

She let Theo drag her, giving him nothing at all to work with but her dead weight.

“Damn it.” Theo forced her up, managing to get her to the stairs.

Mia watched as Victor laid out a pattern of fire to allow Theo to haul her up. She brought her elbow up and back, hitting his solar plexus hard. Mia’s knees hit the concrete. No time for pain, though it flared through her system. She had to make it to that door where the intensely large Aussie was no doubt holding her brother back. Thank god. The last thing she needed was Drew out here trying to get to her.

She shoved off the ground, trying to sprint for the door.

An arm wound around her, dragging her back up. “We have to get back to the plane.”

He was so stubborn. Just like his brother.

“Erin! Erin loves you. Erin misses you so much,” she screamed over the wail of gunfire.

It was mean, but she knew how to hurt him. Nothing affected him so much as the very sound of Erin’s name. She heard him hiss, but he kept moving. He dragged her up the stairs.

“Erin had your baby, Theo. She had your son and she’s on her way here.” She couldn’t let up. She wasn’t as strong as Theo, but she had other weapons at her disposal. “Erin wants to see you so badly.”

He stumbled back, briefly letting her go.

She immediately took off. The office. She had to make it there. If she could only make it there.

A dark object came out of nowhere, shoving straight into her gut. She heard someone scream, a masculine voice calling out her name. But she was falling backward, all the air whoosing from her lungs in a single, painful rush. She felt herself hit the ground and then she was looking up, the world a bit unfocused as Theo gripped her, hauled her up. Someone—she thought it was Robert—was giving him cover. Her world upended as Theo tossed her over his shoulder like a bag of grain. She had the briefest glance at what was happening around her and then her whole world stilled, slowing down and focusing on one point. Case. He was running toward her, his face a mask of horror as he tried to get to her.

And then he stopped and dropped to the ground as a bullet hit him squarely in the chest.

Mia screamed as she watched him fall.

Theo moved more quickly this time. Mia used her fists, pounding at his back, her only thought to get back to Case. She held her head up, trying to see what the hell was happening. The gunfire was rapid, filling the world with rage. She watched as Victor’s head ripped back and his body fell. Liam O’Donnell was advancing, a gun in his hand as he took down Victor and seemed to be heading toward Case’s body.

His body. That had been a solid heart shot.

Someone was screaming. They were louder than the damn gunfire. That wail was terrible and she tried to close her ears to it.

“Please stop.” Theo shoved her down on the seat she’d occupied before. “Stop screaming.”

She looked up at him. His face was white and there was blood on his shirt. She wasn’t sure where it had come from.

“Theo, please.” Her voice sounded cracked and tortured even to her own ears. “You have to help Case. Your brother is out there. Please.” She couldn’t stop the tears that were streaming down her face. “Please help him. Let me go to him. I love your brother so much.”

“Hutch, get this bird started,” Theo said, holding his head. “We have to get out of here.”

She hadn’t realized Hutch had gotten back on the plane. He was standing there, his eyes completely hollow.

Santos stepped in, firing out the door of the plane. “Get us moving, now.”

Theo turned back. “Sir, Robert isn’t here.”

“Robert’s been shot and Victor’s dead. Get this fucking plane moving or we will be, too.” Santos fired out again.

She looked up at Theo. “Please. That’s your family out there. They’re trying so hard to get you back, to save you. Please don’t let them take us again. Your brother is lying out there. Your twin. His name is Case and I love him. You have a woman who loves you. You have Erin.”

“I don’t know who the fuck you’re talking about,” Theo growled. “I don’t know anyone named Erin. Stop it. Stop talking. It hurts.”

It sounded like the world was coming to an end outside the airplane.

She couldn’t stop. Santos was pulling the stairs up. It was obvious he’d been hit, but he was still moving.

He closed the door and turned that gun on Hutch. “Get us out of here or I’ll kill you.” He turned toward Mia. “As for you…I’m going to shove your dead body out at our next stop and maybe then they’ll think about fucking with me.”

He lifted the gun and Mia knew she was about to die. She took a deep breath and all she could think about was Case—the way he’d held her, the way he’d touched her, those messages on her phone, how he’d held them together even over the distance. She’d been loved. It was all that mattered. She could see him again. She could be with Case.

And then Santos stopped, his body shaking as he looked down at the bullet that pierced his chest. He stared at it dumbly before looking up at Theo. His mouth moved, but it made no sound, and he finally hit his knees and then the floor.

Theo stared for a moment as though he couldn’t believe he’d pulled the trigger on his own teammate. His face was pale as he turned to her.

“I’ll get you to Mother. She’ll know what to do. Hutch, we need to leave.”

His inner soul, that piece of himself that lay unchanged, couldn’t handle allowing her to die, but he reverted to his training very quickly.

Hutch groaned. “Or you can take a fucking nap.”

Hutch brought the case he was carrying down on Theo’s head. Theo spun and then slid to the ground, unconscious.

Hutch stared down at him. “I’ve wanted to do that every fucking day for months. He’s the most obnoxious Patty Hearst clone in the history of fucking time. I want a goddamn milkshake and a fucking raise.”

Her hands were shaking as she stood.

The door came open with a thud. “Mia!”

Case rushed in, his eyes wide as he looked for her.

She stood and found herself in his arms in a heartbeat. “I thought you were dead.”

He held her tight. “Body armor, princess. I don’t leave home without it. I get shot way too often to do anything else.”

Ian Taggart’s massive body came through next. “Who killed the douchebag?”

“Theo did,” Hutch said. “He wouldn’t let him kill Mia, but then he was an asshole and I knocked him out. My shit better be where I left it.”

Ian put a hand on his shoulder. “Everything was taken care of, brother. And I’ve got a pound of Milk Duds calling your name. Come on, man. Doc is looking at the wounded. I want her to take a look at you, too.”