Mine To Have (Mine - Romantic Suspense Book 5) by Cynthia Eden

lot. Went for the drama. “It seems,” Gary revealed, excitement entering his voice, “that it’s not the first time a hit has been taken out on the Ward family.”
    “You’ve got my attention.” Every bit of it.
    “Her mother was a criminal defense attorney. She made some enemies in her time, and one of those enemies took out a hit on the woman and her husband. They went out in a fiery car crash that wasn’t an accident, at least not according to the police report I just accessed.”
    “Who ordered that hit?”
    “The police thought it was Luther Bates. Seemed Elizabeth’s mother refused to defend the guy…and he didn’t exactly like her rejection or the fact that she apparently got a little too chummy with a DA friend and spilled some of Luther’s secrets, legal code be damned.”
    Luther Bates.  The name instantly rang a bell for Victor—mostly because Bates was big damn trouble. The guy was rotting in a New Jersey prison right then.  He’d been tied to the deaths of four of his…associates. And the fact that the guy had been running a drug trade from New Jersey all the way to Florida? Yeah, the authorities had managed to catch him red-handed with that shit, thanks to an anonymous tip.
    A tip that came from Elizabeth’s mother?
    “I can’t figure why anyone would be protecting Elizabeth,” Gary continued, his voice growing thoughtful, “but the fact that both she and her parents had hits taken out on them? No way is that a coincidence.”
    No, it wasn’t. “Never believe in them,” Victor muttered.  There were no coincidences in this world.
    “Elizabeth Ward cut out from New England after her parents died and moved abroad. She’s been working in Europe, and she just came back to the states and settled here in Miami a few months ago.”  Gary was talking faster now. “You think maybe someone from her past found her?”
    “I think if you’re Luther Bates…you have a habit of not just taking out your enemies, but their whole damn families.” The FBI had suspected—but not been able to tie—Luther to a few killings just like that. Bates believed in destroying his enemies completely, and that seemed to mean taking out their families. As he mulled over Gary’s revelations, Victor said, “Maybe the original hit wasn’t just on Elizabeth’s mother and father. Maybe she was supposed to be taken out back then, too.”
    “Then why is she still living?”
    She might not be…not for much longer. Saxon hadn’t answered his phone.
    Worry gnawed at Victor. “I’m going to check in with Saxon,” Victor said flatly. “The guy didn’t answer my call, so I have to find out what the hell is going on.”
    “You don’t think…he’s all right, isn’t he?”  Alarm sharpened Gary’s voice. “I mean, we already lost one FBI agent in the last month—”
    And Jenny’s funeral had been brutal. “We won’t lose another,” Victor swore. “I’m going in after him.  I’ll call you once the situation is contained.” And contained meant that Saxon wasn’t off playing some lone gunman routine. They’d bring Elizabeth in, put her in a safe house, and go forward from there.
    Provided, of course, that he didn’t get out to that cabin and find Saxon’s dead body waiting for him.
    He didn’t just walk back to his car. He fucking ran. 
    ***
    Gary Warren stepped back into the shadows of the alley and watched Victor rush away.  A faint smile curved his lips. The guy was so clueless. He thought he was a big fucking deal at the Bureau. But the guy was all flash. He didn’t look beneath the surface enough, never saw anything without Gary’s help.
    And now, you don’t see me.
    Gary hadn’t needed to look up Elizabeth’s past. He was already real familiar with it.  Intimately so.
    But he had needed Victor’s help for one thing…finding her. And Saxon.
    Gary waited until Victor had left the lot, then he pulled out his phone again. He’d put a transmitter on Victor’s  car, an easy enough