From Sanctum With Love (Masters and Mercenaries Book 10) Read online

  “I need to talk to him and I’m not waiting until he comes home.” Half the time he no longer came home. Not until the wee hours of the morning. He hadn’t brought any of his new submissives home. Not yet. He kept it to the club, but she couldn’t help but wonder at what point in time he was going to expect her to fall in line and accept other women in their house.

  When had the lifestyle become a noose waiting to tighten around her neck?

  “He should be done in a few minutes. He’s been in there for a while. He’s meeting with one of the actors who’s up for the Dart role.”

  “I told him he should go with the kid from Seattle.” It was so obvious. Jared something. He’d had a few roles on cable shows, and he was both gorgeous and charismatic enough to take on the role of a comic book hero. She’d taken the preliminary meetings with him. He’d been funny and charming and he’d flirted the precise right amount. The boy knew who was in charge. He’d ignored the other women, including the assistant who’d made it plain she would spend some time in a broom closet with him. No. He’d smiled and then turned all that sexy charm on Kori. “He’s the only one for the role.”

  Lydia shrugged. “The Master does what he wants. You know, you should think about how much he’s done for you over the years. You act like such a brat to him.”

  Kori gave in to her bratty side and shot the woman her happy middle finger before turning away and pacing the lobby. Lydia only knew what the Master told her. She had no clue about the years Kori had spent propping him up and giving him ideas.

  She stopped and looked at herself in the mirror. Years had passed and she could see the fine lines around her eyes.

  Let me hook you up with the guy who did Lydia’s tits. You’re looking a little droopy there, Kori. I don’t like my slaves to droop.

  Her hands twisted into fists and she was done. Years she’d wasted.

  She turned and the door came open. She didn’t even look at the two men walking out. No, she only had eyes for the man in the suit.

  Morgan King. Her first friend in LA. Her Master. Her lover. The man who had betrayed her utterly if the news was to be believed.

  “Welcome to team Dart, Jared. I think this is going to be a wonderful show,” Morgan said, his producer smile on his face. Yes, she’d convinced him to do that, too. She’d been the one to convince him of how much money there was in producing. She’d come up with the business idea. “We’ll talk soon.”

  Jared stopped in front of her, holding out his hand. “Hey, Kori. Good to see you. I look forward to working with you.” He squeezed her hand enough to let her feel how strong he was. “I hope we can work very closely together.”

  Any other time and she might have wondered what he meant by that for more than a couple of seconds. Not today. Today, she simply pressed through, getting inside before Morgan could shut her out. When the door closed, she turned on him. “Tell me you didn’t take my fucking script and put your name on it.”

  There was no smile on his face now. “You wouldn’t know what to do with it anyway, Kori. I don’t understand what the issue is. You’ll get your proper payment.”

  She shook her head. “I didn’t agree to this. That is my script. It’s my fucking life, Morgan. This isn’t something we cooked up together. This is mine. I gave it to you to look at, not to steal.”

  “And I’ll make sure it wins an Oscar. Like I said, I’ll give you story credit, but if you read the script now, you’ll find there are not many of your words left. I let Claudia have a look at it and she’s made it shine.” He moved toward her, his eyes not leaving her once. “We’re a team. All of us. You’re being quite selfish, pet. Is this more of your jealousy?”

  God, she was so glad she’d stopped sleeping with him. Over the course of the last year, as he’d taken new subs, she’d moved into a separate bedroom and while they played together, she’d held back on being intimate. They’d become coworkers. Not even friends. She’d stayed because it was easier than leaving and because she’d put so damn much of herself into what she’d thought was their business. Now she could see it was really all his. He’d given her crumbs and not much else.

  “I want my script back.”

  He started to reach out for her. This was what he always did. At one point in time she’d craved his touch because he’d been the first man to show her how good sex could be, what she truly needed. He’d been the first to spank her, to push her boundaries.

  She’d found one. She wouldn’t let him walk on her like this. Kori stepped back.

  For a moment there was a hurt look on his face, as though he hadn’t expected her to reject him. Then he sighed and moved to his desk. “No. This is the script I’ve been looking for. It’s going to take me out of horror and science fiction and put me on the map as a true artist. You can take the story credit and be happy I involve you at all.”

  “Or I can sue you.” How had she gotten here? She’d let him lead her to this point because she’d believed in him in the beginning. She’d believed his whole line about building something together.

  He didn’t bother to look up. “You can try, but if you make so much as a move to discredit me, I’ll release the video I have of your sister. I know you don’t adore the bitch, but you do love your mother.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  Now he looked up and the smile he gave her seemed vaguely reptilian. “I’m afraid Shawna fell in with the wrong crowd a few years back. I recently purchased three films she…starred in. They cost me over a million, but I’m fairly certain I have every copy. I could release them. She’s got that movie role coming up. I don’t think the production company would be very happy to know their ingénue starred in porn. Do you?”

  Her stomach dropped. Her sister was horrible, but it would kill her mom if something like that got out. And she didn’t doubt he had the film. Morgan never lied or bluffed. If he said he would cut her, she would expect to bleed.

  “It doesn’t have to be like this, pet,” Morgan said, his voice turning silky. “Why do you think I bought those films in the first place? I did it for you. I did it because we’re a team. I know you’re jealous of the other women, but that’s how D/s works. I’m the Master. I make the decisions. This is what’s right for us. You’ll see.”

  She was caught, but she didn’t have to stay in the cage.

  A sudden vision of her life slammed into her. If she stayed here in LA, she would always be tempted to give in. She would go to the club because she needed it, and one night he would be there and she would wonder if she could handle it, handle him.

  “Kori, you know I love you. You were my first submissive,” he said, standing and starting toward her. “You will always be special, always my pet. You don’t handle change well.”

  “I don’t handle douchebags who steal my shit well.” Damn but that felt good.

  His hand found her hair and he pulled it back with a vicious twist. It was something she would never mind during a scene. “Watch your language around me, sub.”

  She minded now. With a twist she managed to rear back and punch the fucker right in the nose. He didn’t get to touch her. Not ever again. He cursed, falling back and cradling his face. She was fairly certain he was walking a red carpet tonight. Let him explain a broken nose to the paparazzi.

  “I will walk out of here and pack my bags,” she explained to him. “You will give me every single copy of those films you have and I won’t sue you or make a fuss about the fact that you stole my screenplay, but I swear to god if one of them slips through the cracks, I’ll go on every morning show and talk about our relationship. I’ve got photos and I won’t hesitate to use them. You remember that. Mutually assured destruction, Morgan. Don’t ever call me again.”

  She heard him shouting something about how she’d be back or some shit, but he’d never known her at all if he believed that.

  As the elevator took her down she knew one thing. It was time to leave. There was no happily ever after for her. Not in LA.

&nbs
p; Maybe nowhere.

  CHAPTER ONE

  Present day

  Dallas, TX

  Kai stared at his patient and wondered if she was planning on spending the entire hour trying to win the quiet game. He had to give it to her. Erin Argent was damn good. She was good at deflecting, great at ignoring, positively magnificent at pretending.

  But she couldn’t deflect, ignore, or pretend any longer.

  “Erin, you came to me. I have to assume you didn’t come here to sit in silence.”

  The woman sitting across from him looked gaunt, far too thin for what was happening to her body, but then she wasn’t concerned about herself physically. That was the problem. Erin had lost the man she loved in a mission a few months ago. Though she claimed she was “fine,” there was no way to mistake her for anything but a woman in pain.

  “I came here because Case is an asshole who sticks his nose in everyone else’s business,” Erin said with a shake of her head. “I didn’t feel like eating. Since when was that a crime?”

  “Case cares about you.” Kai felt the need to remind her. Again and again. Erin was the type of woman who needed to hear it until she believed it. It was how Theo Taggart had gotten through to her. When they’d left on assignment all those months before, Theo had been chasing her. They’d come back from Africa as a couple trying to find their way through, and Kai thought they could have made it work if Theo had lived. It was hard to believe that had only been a short time before. Sometimes it felt like forever. Case Taggart had lost his twin, Ian and Sean the brother they’d only recently known existed. Kai wasn’t even sure where his own brother was at the moment. How was Jared doing? He hadn’t talked to his brother in years, but that would change very soon. “We all care about you, Erin. And we’re all still hurting. The grieving process takes a long time.”

  “I’m not grieving. I’m pissed. I want to get back to work and no one will let me.” She turned in her chair, staring out the window. “I’m starting to think McKay-Taggart isn’t the right place for me anymore. Maybe I should pack it up and start over again somewhere else.”

  This wasn’t the first time he’d heard her say that in session. “Where would you go? Home?”

  She shivered as though the idea was distasteful. “No. I wouldn’t go back there. I don’t know. Maybe I should get in my car and drive. There’s nothing left for me here.”

  “Nothing except a whole family of people who love you. Ian doesn’t have you on desk duty because he’s punishing you. That’s not his point at all.”

  “He thinks I can’t handle it anymore.” She turned around, warming to her subject. “And you know what? He’s gotten soft himself. He’s the one who can’t hack it. If he doesn’t want to handle business anymore, he shouldn’t put that on me. Li and I should be the ones out in LA dealing with the Bachman case. That’s our client. Ian sent Jesse and Simon. And I’m royally pissed that Big Tag decided to let Li go on that op alone two weeks ago. He wouldn’t have been in the position he’d been in if I’d been with him. He gave me some bullshit about how I wasn’t ready to go back to Africa. What? Does he think I’m going to cry because that was where Theo kissed me for the first time? Who the fuck does he think I am? He almost got Li killed and now my partner’s taken off on a vacation when we should be in LA. ”

  That was overstating the situation. Way overstating what had been a minor hiccup on a short operation. Yes, she was determined to deflect. He couldn’t allow her to now. They were out of time. “Erin, why didn’t you eat the sandwich today?”

  Apparently this particular session had been brought on by Erin refusing to eat. Case had ordered lunch for her. She’d taken one look at the pulled pork sandwich that had once been her favorite and walked right out of the conference room.

  “I wasn’t hungry.” Her arms crossed stubbornly over her chest.

  “Eve heard you throwing up in the bathroom.”

  Erin’s eyes slid away. “Eve’s got a big mouth.”

  He sat forward because this whole subject was so touchy. Though unlike Big Tag, he didn’t think she would run. Erin came across as brash and cold, but she wasn’t inside. The walls were there because she’d been hurt so terribly before. She might try to build them higher this time, might never open herself up again, but she wouldn’t leave Dallas. She would stay in the house Theo had bought for her. She would quietly mourn him to her dying day.

  She didn’t have to do it alone.

  This part had been left up to Kai’s discretion. He’d allowed her to avoid it the last few weeks because she needed time, but her family was starting to get nervous and with good reason. It was time to get the situation out in the open. Kai leaned in.

  “Erin, we can’t not talk about what’s happening.”

  Her face went mulish, lips flattening out. “Nothing’s happening. That’s the problem. I need to work and Big Tag seems to think that I should be chained to a desk like a good girl. Fuck him. Fuck all of you if you can’t see that I need to get out in the field and kick some ass.”

  “And what about the baby, Erin?”

  The room seemed to still as though everything had stopped with his words. Erin herself became motionless, her eyes widening. She shook her head. “I’m not. I’ve just been sick.”

  Shit. How could she not know? Of all the scenarios, they hadn’t come up with this one. “Have you taken a pregnancy test?”

  “I don’t have to because I’m not pregnant.” She stood up and squared her shoulders. “You can all go to hell.”

  She strode out of the office, slamming the door on her way out.

  Shit. He’d fucked that up royally.

  The door opened again and he turned, grateful she’d come back, except it wasn’t Erin standing in the doorway. It was his office manager. Kori Williamson stood there, a frown on her pretty face. She was wearing a skirt, V-necked blouse, and some Boho sandals, her normally wild hair pulled back in a messy bun. She wasn’t neat and professionally perfect like some of the women he’d known, but the minute she walked in a room his dick noticed.

  “What did you do?” Her husky voice sent a wave through him. He wasn’t sure if it was pleasure or irritation. All he knew was the woman made him feel, and that was enough for him.

  Unfortunately, she was his employee and he’d learned long ago not to play where he worked. Not that she seemed interested in him at all. In fact, he was almost certain he scared her a little. He put down his notebook and took off his glasses. He was getting a headache. “You know I can’t talk about what happens in session.”

  “Erin took off and she looked ready to kill someone.”

  “I’m sure she would tell you that’s just her face.” What the hell was he going to tell Ian? Ian Taggart ran McKay-Taggart Security Services along with his best friend, Alex McKay. They were a tight-knit family. Kai had fallen in with them after he’d met Ian, and the big guy had offered Kai a place to set up his practice.

  The fact that it was attached to one of the most exclusive BDSM clubs in the country didn’t hurt one bit. And now, thanks to an anonymous donor—yeah, like he wasn’t fairly certain that was the Taggart brothers, too—he had enough money in the bank to continue his work helping soldiers returning from war cope with PTSD for a while. He charged his patients what they could afford, which was often nothing.

  But at least he could pay Kori well now. She deserved it. He wouldn’t be here without her.

  “Look, I know the woman has resting bitch face, and trust me I’ve seen her active bitch face as well,” Kori shot back. “That was not anger. She was afraid.”

  He would love to talk to her about it, but there was the little problem of patient therapist confidentiality. He took it seriously. “I can’t talk about it.”

  Kori’s eyes went wide. “Shit. You told her about the baby, didn’t you? Damn it. I knew she didn’t know. What is wrong with you?”

  “Hey, that is supposed to be confidential information.”

  Those pretty blue eyes rolled in a way
that made him ache to spank her round ass. “Nothing is confidential around here. Not about the club crew. The subs have been talking about it for the last couple of weeks. We overheard Eve talking to Charlotte about the fact that Erin’s been throwing up every day around ten. She tries to hide it, but that sound is distinctive. Also, she was complaining in the locker room the other day that her boobs were sore. She said she thought her period was coming, but with the throwing up and stuff it doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to figure out that girl is four kinds of knocked up.”

  “How can she not know she’s pregnant?” He was going to have to have a long talk with Big Tag and his wife, Charlotte, about the club submissives running amuck. They’d recently brought in a new training class and apparently they were being taught to gossip.

  Kori stepped back, glancing out the door. “I’m sure she does know on some level, but there’s no question she’s in denial. Did you treat her like she’s a delicate flower who might wilt at the news?”

  “I treated her like a woman who recently lost her lover.”

  She shook her head. “That’s where you went wrong, boss. I’ll go talk to her. She headed straight for the bathroom. You have a four o’clock with someone named Squirrel. Are we taking in the furries now?”

  That made him groan. His brother’s best friend from high school was now a member of his entourage. The fact that the kid was at least thirty and still called himself Squirrel did not bode well. “He’s one of the guys from the film crew. I had to promise to show him around Sanctum.”

  “Film crew?” Her eyes widened.

  Had he not told her? It had only been a few days since Alex had explained what the FBI needed from him, but that was going to have to wait. He had other problems. “Can you go and see if you can coax her back in here? I would go myself, but…”

  “You’re scared of the women’s bathroom,” Kori surmised. “You know it’s actually very nice in there. I made sure of it. The guys’ bathroom is a pit of despair.”