Long Lost (Masters and Mercenaries: The Forgotten Book 4) Read online

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  Long Lost

  Masters and Mercenaries: The Forgotten, Book 4

  Lexi Blake

  Long Lost

  Masters and Mercenaries: The Forgotten, Book 4

  Lexi Blake

  Published by DLZ Entertainment LLC

  Copyright 2020 DLZ Entertainment LLC

  Edited by Chloe Vale

  ISBN: 978-1-942297-21-5

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination and are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or establishments is solely coincidental.

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  Acknowledgments

  I want to thank everyone who helped make this book possible. No novelist writes in a vacuum. Though the words might be mine, the emotions and feelings behind the characters are always influenced by the people around me. I think it’s why I write happily ever afters. I grew up around one, found one myself, wish for one for all of my loved ones. Some of us become obsessed with the things we don’t have, but I was always fascinated by what was around me—love. So this is for the people I love, the ones who love me and surround me with strength. To my friends and family. To my readers. To the ones who started it all for me—to my mom and dad who taught me forever is only the beginning.

  Table of Contents

  Acknowledgments

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Author’s Note

  No Love Lost by Lexi Blake

  Charmed by Lexi Blake

  About Lexi Blake

  Other Books by Lexi Blake

  Prologue

  Paris, France

  What the hell was she doing here? It was one thing to kiss the man, to go on a couple of dates with him, but this was something entirely different.

  Veronica Croft stared down at the street below and the question kept running through her head. She was alone in a foreign city with Steven Reasor, the pit bull of the neuro world. He was stunningly handsome—far out of her league—sexy as hell, and scary. People at Kronberg Pharma, where they worked, were scared of Steven, and she was worried it wasn’t simply because he could fire them.

  There were rumors about the man who was currently taking a shower after the short plane trip from Munich to Paris. Rumors that frightened her. Rumors that should have had her running away, not going on holiday with him.

  Vacation. That’s what they called it in the States. Had she been away from home so long she sounded European? Working alongside Brits and Germans and Swedes and French had taught her a lot, had forced her outside her South Texas roots. The girl she’d been mere years ago wouldn’t have found the courage to leave the safety of her suburban home, much less take a year to work for one of the most innovative companies in the world.

  The girl she’d been had also known that when a moth touched the flame, her wings burned away.

  “How do you like the place?”

  The deep voice sent a shiver down her spine that didn’t have anything to do with fear. His voice fascinated her because she could tell so much about his mood from it. When it went deep and had a rough edge to it, he was angry. When he was bored, he sounded pretentious and intellectual. He sounded like that a lot, like the world wasn’t quite enough for him, and neither was the person he was talking to.

  And then there was that voice he seemed to only use on her, the one that made her heart melt.

  Don’t believe what they say, Roni. I’m not who they say I am. It’s all for show.

  He’d whispered those words in her ear a month ago after he’d pretty much flayed the doctor who’d cornered her at a party. He’d been drunk and gotten handsy, and thanks to Steven Reasor, he was no longer employed.

  It had been the first sign that Steven might not be who he seemed to be, and that one incident had brought about the first crack in her barely-there armor.

  Her mom always sai
d she was too open. She trusted too fast and it burned her. She was afraid she was going to get burned again, and she couldn’t seem to help herself.

  She turned away from the scene outside where she could see the green of a park and tourists and locals walking by. The smell of espresso wafted up from the café at the bottom of the building. “It’s beautiful. This is a nice neighborhood.”

  “This neighborhood is known as the first arrondissement,” he explained. “One of the oldest, wealthiest neighborhoods in Paris. All the best shopping is here, and the Louvre is close by.”

  Yes, she’d already figured that out. It was part of the mystery that surrounded him. His place in Munich was fairly utilitarian. She had been surprised by how luxurious this space was. “It’s an amazing apartment, but it makes me wonder how you afford it. Most doctors your age are still struggling to pay off medical school.”

  Yeah, there were rumors about that, too. She didn’t believe them. He had a rough exterior, but he wasn’t some kind of criminal.

  He could be incredibly sweet when he wanted to be. And god, he was beautiful.

  She forced herself to stay cool and not to drool at the man. He’d come in dressed in nothing but a pair of jeans that clung to his hips. They showed off the fact that Steven liked to work out. A lot. She was around doctors all the time. One would think men and women in the medical profession would be in tip-top shape. One would be wrong. But not about Steven. He was six foot two, with a lean frame and broad shoulders. And abs. Lots of sculpted abs. Maybe she could handle the to-die-for body, but his face was damn near perfect, too. It was the face of an angel.

  It didn’t fit the man’s reputation at all.

  He grinned, a light expression she rarely saw. “It’s not exactly mine, but that’s another story. It belongs to a guy I sort of work with. Worked with. While I’m here in Europe, I’m free to come and go as I please.” He took a step toward her, his golden-brown hair slick from the shower. “But I’m probably going back to the States soon.”

  That surprised her. “I thought you were riding McDonald’s coattails all the way to the top.”

  A startled expression crossed his face, and for a second she could have sworn she’d hurt him. His lips curled up then and that split second of openness was gone, replaced with that gorgeous mask of his. “Hey, doctors have been doing it for decades. Centuries, really. We all climb on the backs of the great ones and then call ourselves giants. But no, I’ve got plans that don’t include McDonald. Or Europe. I want a bunch of American food and an elevator that doesn’t make me feel like I’m some kind of ogre.”

  She laughed at that. The lifts here could make a person feel like they didn’t fit. “I miss crisp bacon. The pancakes at the cafeteria are pretty good, but why can’t they actually cook the bacon? And the Brits…”

  “Who the hell eats baked beans for breakfast?” Steven finished her thought. “And tomatoes. I kind of want a Pop-Tart.”

  “Me, too,” she said with a grin. “And I swore them off a long time ago. I pretty much ate them exclusively during my undergrad years. Pop-Tarts and ramen noodles.”

  “And when I had some cash, I would buy the good mac and cheese,” he added, that grin still lighting up the room.

  Sometimes they connected, and that was what kept her flying so close to the flame.

  That and the fact that she was almost certain he was involved in something criminal. Not that he was behind it, but that he was going to get caught up in it. Something was going on at Kronberg. Maybe not at Kronberg as a whole, but definitely with Dr. Hope McDonald’s group.

  According to her sister, McDonald and her father might be doing things they shouldn’t. Katie was certain there was a story here, certain she could blow up the pharmaceutical industry. Roni didn’t intend to become an undercover informant. Her sister was a brilliant writer and an excellent investigator, but she also tended to believe every kooky theory the Internet put out in the world. The idea that a group of companies had formed a shadow agency that ruled the globe was one of her older sister’s favorites.

  But Roni had been worried about what was happening with Dr. McDonald ever since Rebecca Walsh had left. Dr. Walsh had been one of the smartest, nicest people she’d worked for here, and the fact that she’d quit without notice felt wrong to Roni.

  None of which explained why she was standing here with the hottest, most potentially dangerous man she’d ever met. It didn’t explain why she thought about him all the time, why he haunted her every fantasy.

  “Yeah, they don’t have as much processed food as we have in the States.” It was a stupid thing to say and she was feeling completely awkward.

  A long moment passed and he turned to her, his eyes warm for a change, but then somehow they always seemed warm when he looked her way.

  “Why did you agree to come to Paris with me, Veronica?”

  There it was. The deep, rich tone that got her every time. She could give him some bullshit excuse, but she thought they were past that now. “You know why.”

  “I know why I asked you to come with me. I don’t know why you said yes.” He stared at her for a moment as though he could see through her every mask. “Are you afraid of me? If you’re here because you think sleeping with me will protect your job, then I’m going to go get dressed and we’ll have a long talk. I’m not threatening you in any way. I know you won’t believe this, but I want to protect you.”

  The crazy thing was, she did. He seemed to be two completely different people. There was the ruthless head of research and the man who softened when they were alone, the one who’d kissed her three nights before like he was dying of thirst and she was a tall glass of water.

  No one in the world had ever made her feel the way this man had, and she hadn’t been able to stop herself from exploring that.

  “I’m not here because I’m afraid of you. If I was afraid of you, I would have said no. I would have made sure I was never alone with you.” She’d had a few colleagues who she’d been wary of over the years. Somehow, despite his reputation, Steven hadn’t been one of them.

  “I’m glad to hear that because the last thing I want is for you to be afraid of me.”

  “I don’t understand you,” she admitted. “I get that you have to be stern at work. Our business can be a little cutthroat.”

  “You have no idea,” he said quietly, his smile going dim. “At this level it’s beyond ruthless, but I don’t have to always be at this level. When I was younger, do you know what I wanted to be?”

  She shook her head. It already felt comfortable. This was how it went with him. She was anxious until they started talking and she forgot who he was at work. “I don’t know. A marine biologist? Don’t we all want to be that until we figure out there are sharks out there?”

  “An astute metaphor for our business, too. No, I always wanted to be a doctor. I wasn’t the kid who played at being a fireman or police officer. My brother and his friends always played soldiers and I was the medic. My granddad was a doctor. He died when I was a kid, but I remember watching him. I would hang out in the office. He was a GP for a small town. I wanted to be one, too.”

  She couldn’t see it. He was so ambitious. It burned there in his eyes. Being a general practitioner required a patience he wasn’t known for, and it had next to none of the acknowledgement he seemed to crave. “Then why go into research?”

  He stopped for a moment and then shook his head. “It doesn’t matter now. What does matter is that we’re here alone together. Veronica, I don’t want you to be afraid of me. And I don’t want to be friends. I kissed you the other night because I couldn’t help myself even though I know damn well I should.”

  “Why should you?” This was another thing she didn’t understand. She thought he wanted her. She could sometimes feel him watching her with the focus of a predator, but he’d stayed away until very recently. He seemed like a man who went after what he wanted.

  “Because you think I’m an asshole. It’s not exactly the best
place to start a relationship.”

  She couldn’t deny it. He acted like an asshole most of the time, but she also thought there was something beyond his work persona. “Is there more to you than the man I see at Kronberg?”

  He moved closer to her, obviously pleased to be able to answer the question. “Yes. A lot more, and I want to talk to you about it this weekend, but it has to wait. Can you trust me for one more day? I’ve got a meeting tomorrow morning. If that goes well, we’re going to have a long talk. Everything changes if this meeting goes well.”

  Was he leaving Kronberg? Somehow the idea that he was getting out made her way more comfortable with him. “Are you interviewing?”

  “I can only say that I’m definitely looking to go home to the States and soon,” he said. “I would like for you to think about going with me.” He held up a hand. “Again, no pressure at all. I can only promise you that I’ll take care of you if you leave with me. I’ll handle everything, including getting you out of Kronberg.”

  “My internship is only through the end of the year.” She had another couple of months. She was already applying to hospitals back in the States. She enjoyed research but she missed having patients, missed the connection that came from dealing with people. She needed to start her life. This year had proven what she didn’t want.

  Unfortunately, it also proved what she did. Him.

  “I can help you find a job. A good job.” He shook his head as though clearing it. “We can talk about this later. Now I think I promised to show you around the Louvre. There’s a nice café close. I think you’ll like it. I don’t know the city well, but I can show you around this neighborhood a bit.”

  There was something about the way he changed the subject that made her suspicious.