Page 4 of Fighting for Lucy

And there was only one person it could have belonged to.

Damn it.

Lucy had also survived the crash.

Too bad for her. A quick death would have been preferable to whatever Raul Castillo was going to do once he got his hands on her.

The notorious weapons dealer was not a man who was known to give up on something he wanted. Especially when he had already invested a lot of time and money on it. If Raul had decided that he was going to own the Reactivator, a drug created by Scarlett, Lucy, and the other two members of their team, then he would keep going until he got his hands on it. It was a wonder drug if ever there was one. When finished, it would help to give injured soldiers in the field a better chance at surviving their injuries by helping to dull pain, encourage fast healing, slow bleeding, and provide extra adrenalin to keep them on their feet.

Initially, Raul wanted the drug to sell to the highest bidder, and he’d kidnapped Scarlett in hopes of forcing the formula from her. When his sister had refused to give up the intel she’d beenhorribly tortured. Even after she’d been rescued, Raul hadn't been willing to give up on his plans, and managed to kidnap her a second time.

Just because Scarlett had been rescued then, too, and she was surrounded by too many people to make a third attempt successful, Raul was still determined to get what he wanted.

Enter Zander.

This game had always been risky, but it had just gotten much riskier.

Now that he knew Lucy was alive, he had no choice but to take her with him.

“Damn it, sassy girl, why couldn’t you have just died and made both our lives so much simpler,” he murmured aloud.

Turning back to the front of the plane, he did a visual sweep of Lucy. Like himself, there was a gash on her head, and blood streaked her face. One of her arms hung limply at her side, the other was resting on her lap, from the angle of it there was no doubt it was broken. Still, at least it wasn’t a compound fracture. Out here infection would have gotten her for sure.

Strike that.

It would bebetterfor her if infection killed her before Raul got his hands on her.

Crouching at her side, he battled another wave of dizziness as he ran his hands up and down her body in search of other injuries. There was nothing that stood out to him, although since she wasn’t conscious there was always the chance of internal injuries he didn't know about.

Another moan tumbled from her lips, and her eyelashes began to flutter on cheeks that had lost their rosiness in the aftermath of the crash.

“Lucy? Come on, sassy girl, wake yourself up,” he encouraged, cupping her cheek and sweeping his fingertips across her cheek with a gentleness that could wind up beingdangerous. It didn’t matter how attracted he was to Scarlett’s friend, how attracted he hadalwaysbeen to her, there was no way he could allow it to develop into anything more.

“Mmm … Z … Zander …?” she murmured as her eyes finally opened. They weren't focused and he didn't have to ask any other questions to know that she also had a concussion.

“Yeah. I'm here.”

“You … did it. We’re … alive.” Clear incredulity was in her voice, and he smiled despite the awful situation they found themselves in.

“Yeah, told you I could.”

“You did good, ghost man.”

A flash of pain shafted through his chest, and it had nothing to do with the crash and his injuries.

Hewasa ghost now, and that was how it should have stayed. Scarlett should never have learned that he was still alive. She was never supposed to. There was no going back from the choices he’d made, and while it was fair that he had to live with the consequences it sucked that his twin sister had to as well.

But there was nothing he could do about that.

Nothing he could do about what was going to happen to Lucy either.

CHAPTER TWO

January 21st

11:04 A.M.

They were alive.