Page 33 of Fighting for Lucy

Now someone wanted to touch a woman he felt down to his bones was his even though he knew, in reality, he could never have her.

Nobody touched what was his.

Without conscious thought, Zander ran down the hall and threw open the doors.

The sight before him unleashed that dark beast of rage and he made no attempt to rein it in as he launched himself at the man with his hand down Lucy’s pants.

CHAPTER NINE

January 24th

8:00 P.M.

One second,she was out on the patio, one of Raul’s men gripping her bicep in a crushing hold while his other hand fumbled its way into her pants.

The next, a shadowy figure was flying at them.

When it connected with them, it knocked both her and the man assaulting her to the ground.

Pain zinged along her broken arm and battered body at the impact, but honestly, by this point Lucy was so used to being in pain that it barely even registered.

Not when there were other more important things to worry about.

Like the fact that Zander was currently beating a man to death right in front of her.

Violence had never been part of her life. She’d been lucky to grow up in a family where they were comfortable, not well off necessarily, especially with five kids, but her parents had good jobs and were able to provide everything their family of sevenneeded. School had been tough because of her epilepsy, but it hadn't been physically dangerous in any way. And her work at Prey was mostly lab work with occasional field trips with some of the guys.

No danger.

No violence.

Nothing like what she had experienced over the last few days.

Nothing like what she was witnessing right now.

There was so much anger rolling off Zander as he delivered blow after blow to the man who had assaulted her. It didn't seem to register to him that the man had long since stopped moving, that he was nothing more than a bloody pulp of flesh, likely already dead.

If they were found like this by any of Raul’s men, it would be game over. Zander’s cover would be blown, they’d discover in a day or so that the formula she’d given was a fake, and they would both be killed.

Despite a little lingering anger toward Zander for lying to his sister and hurting her by pretending to be dead, Lucy didn't want him to die. Whatever his reasons—he’d shared only that he was here because his team had been murdered and he wanted to catch the people responsible—for faking his death, they ran deep, she could see the pain he was in. He needed this mission to be successful if he was going to have any chance at healing.

Scrambling on her backside toward the two men, Lucy tentatively reached out a hand and laid it on Zander’s back. He was in the zone, focused only on unleashing his anger, and he might not react well to her touch, but she sensed his need for a connection in this dark moment, so she trusted her gut and left her hand there.

“It’s okay, Zander. He’s dead now. He can't hurt me or anyone else,” she whispered soothingly. With her heart hammering in her chest, and her fear that they could bediscovered at any second, it wasn’t easy to cling to calm, but Zander needed her, and he’d been there for her earlier when she needed him so it was only fair that she return the favor.

“He touched you,” Zander growled as his fist slammed into the man’s head again.

“Yes, but you stopped him before he did anything more than put his hand in my pants,” she assured him. Only by a second, she’d felt the man’s finger prodding at her entrance right as Zander had come flying out of nowhere. “Please stop. I'm scared, Zander.”

Making the admission wasn’t easy because she had clung to the idea that she was strong enough to survive this ever since those men found her in the jungle. Scratch that, she’d been playing the strong game ever since that alarm went off in the plane and she realized they were going to crash.

But it was just that.

A game.

Because she was nowhere near as strong as she believed herself to be.

Right now, she needed someone. Needed the only person around who she trusted. That person was Zander. He was risking everything to get her out of there alive and she didn't want him to lose his life because of it.

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