Prisoner Mine (19 page)

G
reer’s head
shook before the vile words ever left Xavier’s mouth. She’d known she was the bait from the moment she realized the man hadn’t come to her rescue. Khani, Z’s sister, was the only person he had in this world. The only one he loved. She loved him enough not to make him choose between them. She loved him enough to sacrifice everything.

It wasn’t like Xavier would actually let her leave anyway. If Khani showed up, Greer would get a bullet in the head, a knife in the gut, or fracture into a thousand pieces with the rest of them. This wouldn't turn out. Not for any of them.

Xavier was as good as dead anyway. When she’d come to—stripped and tied to the chair—he’d sat across from her, holding pressure to his arterial nick. The injury was a blessing and a curse. He hadn’t had the strength to rape her or even touch her overly much. At the same token, what little will he had siphoned off him like rain water.

The moment he finally dropped, she’d go too. Z could save himself, as long as he didn’t come any farther into the cabin.

Panic bubbled up. The ropes bit into her flesh. Still she jerked and twisted her wrists and ankles. The last two hours of fighting hadn’t helped, but she’d be dead before she stopped.

“Greer.” Zeke’s voice called across the room. The utterly calm tone warmed her from the inside out.

Her gaze found his. Xavier jerked her head to the side, but his mangled hand didn’t have the force necessary to turn her away from Z’s quiet grey eyes. Truly, the collected serenity in his usually tumultuous gaze stole her breath.

“Awe. Isn’t that sweet. The lamb fell in love with the wolf.” Xavier shoved her head. A jarring
thunk
danced in her skull.

Again she didn’t look away from Z. If this was the end, she wanted to see him.

Her defiance incited the old man. His two fingers twined in her hair and yanked. Greer dug in, even as her scalp stung and roots gave way. She trained her gaze on Z.

The lips that had brought her rage, fulfillment, and love quirked into a wide smile. Hers dropped into a wide gape.
Trust me
, Z mouthed.

“Yes, she did and she does.” Greer smiled.

“What a pity.” Xavier sneered. “He doesn’t love you. He can’t love you.”

“Yes, he does,” Z barked.

A lone tear dropped off Greer’s eyelash.

Xavier jerked and turned to Z with a loose jaw and drawn brow.

Sparks spit from the barrel of Z’s Glock. The gun coiled and kicked another bullet, and then another.

They landed in a tight spread on Xavier’s chest.

Before Greer could rejoice in the declaration of Z’s love or the death of the man who’d tormented her, he lurched away.

The thin chain tightened around her neck. “Run!”

Z ran. His legs already stretched wide and contracted with speed reserved for four legged animals and olympians. Only he ran in the wrong direction.

Each stride gobbled the distance between them. Each breadth brought him closer to danger.

Xavier’s knees hit the floor. He collapsed face first onto the cold wood. The pin snapped from the grenade.

“No.” Greer reached to catch the live explosive. Her arms didn’t move.

A cold prick slapped her chest. The empty pin of wire weighted her more than the grenade.

When the thick metal crashed to the floor Greer flinched, tearing at her raw skin.

Z slid on his knees. He caught the grenade on a bounce. One arm lifted Xavier’s shoulder. The other stuffed the explosive under the corpse.

It wouldn't be enough.

The muscles in Z’s exposed neck and arms knitted. He lunged. Her chin met his chest with a hard knock. The icy floor disappeared beneath her toes. Z was up and running. Two strides and he slowed.

No. Farther. They were too close.

The cold intensified at her back. A bright white wall hit her right shoulder. Not a wall. A refrigerator. Could Z fit behind the shield with her in this chair?

Detonation ceased her thoughts.

T
he buzzing whined
wide and then honed to a sharp point. Zeke kicked the refrigerator door off his back. Jagged stars shimmied in his periphery. He shook them away, managing to replace them with a lancing headache. His vision blurred. A few blinks brought the screen of dust, curtaining the cabin into focus, and his sweet Greer.

Blood trickled from her nose. Long, matted lashes rested soundly on her bruised cheek. Her head lolled back, pointing her chin toward the ceiling. Her lips parted in the slow signature breathing of the unconscious. But she was breathing.

Zeke peeled himself from around her, straightened the chair to all fours, and heaved off his knees. The refrigerator door hung lopsided with its broken top hinge, giving him a straight line view to the mangled remnants of Xavier Grisha Filipov, senior.

When his gaze wandered over Greer’s naked, bound form he wanted to kill the man all over again. He yanked the knife from the small of his back. The ropes were so tight he wouldn’t chance wedging the blade between them and her skin. He sliced at the fibers from underneath the chair.

She’d thrashed against the bindings so hard it gouged her tender flesh. Zeke’s stomach churned. His hands shook. His hands never shook. He tightened his grip on the blade and freed her ankles, torso, arms, and wrists. She slumped forward. The suppleness of her body pillowed against his chest.

“I shouldn't have left you.” The whispered words blew whisps of her hair. He sheathed his knife and breathed her into his soul.

The
whop
,
whop
of helicopter blades vibrated the cabin. It sounded far away in his abused eardrum, but it wasn’t.

Through the busted out window Zeke watched the Base Branch HELO descend on the uneven gravel drive. He cradled Greer against his chest, covered as much of her as he could with his arms, and bolted for the Blackhawk.

To the men’s credit—or his half-hinged scowl—they didn’t gawk at the naked woman—at his naked woman. He sprinted across the lawn and carried her into the belly of the war plane. The moment his feet met metal they lifted off.

Eton averted his black eyes and busied his hands, lowering the stretcher from the wall. The other member of the flight crew shoved headphones onto his ears, opened a wool blanket, and secured it around them with an upturned chin.

“What’s her condition?” The pilot’s voice crackled over the air waves.

His fucking lips moved like brittle clay. “Solid pulse and respiration. Unconscious. The nearest hospital.”

“We’re ten minutes out, but it’s civilian. Closest military hospital is twenty-three minutes away.”

“Civ—” A small, cold hand on his days’ old scruff cut him off.

“I don’t need to go to the hospital.” Greer offered him a smile too brilliant for their environment.

His cheeks knotted into the goofiest grin. “You look like you’ve been through battle.”

“I have been,” she agreed.

“Why do you look so damn happy about it?” He gently lowered his forehead to hers.

“I won.” She shifted his chin down. Her lips molded to his.

“Sir?” Eton knelt next to the cot with his box of first aid supplies opened by his knees. The other crewman, Bradfield, hooked an IV to the low metal peg and unkinked the length of tubing.

Greer’s hand dropped from his face to the front of his shirt. She bunched the collar in her fist and yanked him down for a wearing kiss. “Don’t put me on the stretcher. I’m fine right here. Just a few cuts and bruises. No big deal.”

“Kiss me all you want. You’re still going to the hospital.”

“Ruthless.” She grinned against his lips.

Zeke shook his head to the men. “Thank you.”

They snickered while they pulled down seats and reclined into them. One of them said, “Whipped.”

He braced his back against the cockpit wall, spread his legs wide, and nestled Greer onto his lap, not caring one damn bit what they thought.

“Where to?” the pilot asked.

“Take us to Basement Underground,” Zeke said.

“Sir, I’m ordered to deny your request. We have a civilian on board,” the pilot countered.

“She’s not a civilian. She’s a marine, the woman who dethroned Stockton, and I’ll keep her occupied on approach. Clear it with Hawk and take us to the Underground.”

“Yes, sir.”

“How exactly are you going to occupy me?” Greer’s blue gaze rolled toward the men across from them. “We do have company.”

“I’m going to bandage your wrists and ankles.” He kissed the end of her nose.

“That doesn’t sound like fun.” Her lips plumped into a pout.

“I’ll make it up to you.”

“Oh yeah?” A hint of sadness crept into her bright gaze. It slid to his neck, and then drifted out the dull cargo window.

Zeke pulled the headphones from his ears. “Greer?”

“Filipov’s dead?”

“Yes.” Lord, he sounded like a mythical forest creature.

“The Stas?”

“Being dismantled.”

“What about US Elite?”

“The same.”

She nodded. “My uncle?”

“Is discovering the joys of captivity and intensive interrogation.”

“Torture?”

He shrugged.

“What about Raisa?”

Finally, he could impart some good news. “Someone’s being sent to pick her up.”

“Someone?” Her brows and red cheeks widened.

“Someone trusted with several countries’ security secrets. I think he can deal with an orphaned Russian girl.”

Greer blew two swollen cheeks’ worth of air through her lips and squinted.

“That doesn’t look good,” he groaned.

“It’s complicated.”

“How complicated?”

“I know you can keep a secret.” While she stalled his stomach sank. He narrowed his gaze. “Okay.” She held up a hand and leaned in conspiratorially. “She’s Roman Everly’s daughter.”

“Jesus.” His head smacked the cockpit. When he regained his wind and looked at Greer he saw the sadness clouding her eyes. “She’ll be protected. Don’t worry about that.”

“I trust you.” Her gaze danced off again. “Then it’s over.”

“You don’t look happy about that.”

“It was the only thing holding us together.” She said it so quietly he almost didn’t hear.

He buried his hands in her hair and tilted her face.

The blanket shifted. She hauled it up to her chin, but refused to meet his gaze. “I won’t make things hard.”

“Since when?”

Her gaze snapped to his. “That’s why you want me to go to the hospital. You could slip out and know I’d be taken care of. It’s fine. For the best, really.”

“Greer?”

She looked at him, her lips pinched between her teeth.

“I work for a clandestine sector of the special operation force for the United Nations. They recruited me after I dropped off the grid, after my father. I haven’t had a place to call home in almost five years. Every week brought a new mission. They kept me busy, kept me moving, disconnected. I liked it.”

Her gaze slid away.

“Greer?”

“What?” She snarled at him and probably the tears tracking down the side of her face.

“I liked it until I made a connection…with you.” His lips grazed her mouth, her wet cheeks, her forehead. “I love you.”

She grabbed his hands, covered them, and pressed them against her face. Her eyes closed. Fresh tears leaked out from her lids.

“The mission wasn’t the only thing holding us together. We were both held prisoner by our pasts. You set me free, Greer.”

“We set each other free.”

“I’m so used to being caged. I don't think I can handle life without a little bondage.” Her lids flew wide. One brow kicked high. He smiled and pressed on through the thunder of his heartbeat. “I might like a ball and chain, if you’re the one with the key.”

Greer buried her face in his shirt. Sobs shook her shoulders. The guys murmured across the way.

Way to bomb. It wasn’t the reaction he’d hoped for

“Talk to me,” he begged. “What do you think?”

“I think you’re crazy.” Her breath steamed his chest.

“I’m serious.” He sat her in his lap and pulled the blanket high around her shoulders. “After we get you checked out, make sure everything is in order to annihilate your uncle, and handle the arrangements for your father—”

“My grandparents will disown me as soon as they talk to my uncle.”

“They won’t talk to him. Not for a long time.”

“We weren’t close before, but now, I don't have any family.”

“Pay attention, Greer. I want you to be my family. Marry me.”

“I can’t marry you just because I don’t have a family or a house or a job.”

“I don’t want you to marry me for any of those reasons.” He pulled her close. “Tell me what you told me last night.”

“I love you,” she whispered.

“Did you mean it?”

“With my whole heart.”

“Marry me. We’ll go to London. I need to tell my sister about what I did to our father, and I want her to meet you. We’ll figure it out from there.” He tugged her closer. “Be my future, Greer.”

“Z?”

“Cor blimey, woman, what?”

“Did you really think I’d let you ditch me? If that bastard, Xavier, hadn’t shown up, I’d have had that BMW shoved right up your keister, right after I dealt with my uncle.”

“I took the keys.” He winked.

“I hot-wired it.”

“No shite?”

“Almost.”

She rubbed the smirk off his face and pulled his mouth to hers. “You’re my future. Why wouldn’t I be yours?”

“Not going to give me a straight answer, are you?”

“Ask me again.”

“I asked you twice already.”

“Three times,” Eton shouted.

“No.” Her head shook, pulling her wet hair from the blanket. “He demanded I marry him. He didn’t ask.”

The men groaned in unison.

Zeke sighed, and then placed his hand over Greer’s bare heart. “Greer Britton, angel I never deserved, will you marry me?”

“Yes, Zeke Slaughter, I’ll marry you.”

P
ristine waters and purified evil.

T
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After fleeing her troubles in the United States for the quiet life of a school teacher on the island of Tortola, Madelyn Garrett never imagined she’d be fixated upon by pure evil.

In a fight for her life—with a dwindling number of friends—she must rely on her cunning and Nathan’s skills for survival.

Megan Mitcham
was born and raised among the live oaks and shrimp boats of the Mississippi Gulf Coast, where her enormous family still calls home. She attended college at the University of Southern Mississippi where she received a bachelor's degree in curriculum, instruction, and special education. For several years Megan worked as a teacher in Mississippi. She married and moved to South Carolina and began working for an international non-profit organization as an instructor and co-director.

In 2009 Megan fell in love with books. Until then, books had been a source for research or the topic of tests. But one day she read
Mercy
by Julie Garwood. And oh, Mercy, she was hooked!

The
USA Today
Bestselling Author lives in Southern Arkansas where she pens heart pounding romantic thriller novels and window-steaming erotic romance. For information on releases and giveaways subscribe at
meganmitcham.com
!