Dungeon Games (Masters and Mercenaries #6.5)(41)

“Firing him would be too much paperwork.” Hill’s words came out with lazy menace.

“I hate it when they do that. It really freaks me out. Fine.” Harris frowned. “I won’t spill on her deeply interesting youth, but I am going to talk about her e-mail. Our boy isn’t as patient as we thought. He’s sent her two love notes.”

A chill went across Derek’s skin. He wanted to protest and say that any goddamn record of Karina’s was relevant as hell to him. Sealed records. There were only a couple of reasons for them. She was underage when she’d committed the offense or she’d made a hell of a deal.

“Let me see the note he sent.” It didn’t matter. Her secrets were hers and he didn’t give a shit. Except he’d told her his secrets. He’d lain in bed with her and talked about Afghanistan and all the shit that happened to him there. She wouldn’t even talk about her marriage. He still had no idea what had gone wrong because he’d made the decision to live in the now. The past didn’t matter. They had no real future. He’d wanted to indulge in the intimacy of the moment, but even that was coming back to bite him in the ass.

Harris passed over his tablet.



Hello, bitch. Did you think I wasn’t watching? I see all the whores. All your perverted ways are open to me as you will be open to me when I take you into the final judgment. You will be bound and found guilty of your sins. I’m watching. He can’t save you from me. Tell your friends, I’m coming for them, too.



He took a deep breath to banish the sick feeling in the pit of his stomach.

“Derek?” Eve held out her hand.

He passed the tablet and sat back. Somehow the danger surrounding the case had seemed a distant thing until that moment. It had been quiet, peaceful even. “How would he have found that e-mail account? And why now? He didn’t send notes to the others.”

Eve sent the tablet down the row, giving everyone the joy of reading the f*cker’s message. “He’s reacting to stimuli. He’s obviously noticed something is different and he’s upping his game. Or perhaps he truly wants her and us to understand why she’s going to be killed.”

“You just said he was patient. This doesn’t seem patient to me.” Sometimes Derek hated the whole profiling thing. He understood the need, but it was a little like reading tea leaves in his opinion.

“He can be both,” Eve replied. “And this is a good thing. The more data he gives us, the better chance we have to figure out who this is.”

And the quicker he would have to make a serious decision. If there was any decision at all to be made. They had agreed to take it easy. Once the case was over there really wouldn’t be any reason for him to stay at her place except the sex. If she could go back to Sanctum, would she want him anymore? Or would she go back to playing around with the Doms there?

Would he be able to watch her? Would she be under Simon Weston’s flogger the minute he got back from England?

And what the f*ck had she been arrested for?

He hated not knowing. He hated the fact that the Rangers knew more about her than he did.

Fifteen minutes later, they were breaking up but there was still no sign of Karina. She’d walked off to look for O’Donnell and now his brain was playing a nasty game with him. They were comfortable together. She was far more comfortable with O’Donnell than she was with him.

Alex McKay shook the hand of Tyler Watts as he was the last one to leave. Eve had led them out and through the glass windows of the conference room, he could see her talking to them.

“How are you holding up?” Alex leaned over the conference table, gathering his notes.

“I’m fine.”

“I heard you moved in with Karina.” Alex was only a year or two older than him, but Derek suddenly got the feeling this was going to be more of a big brother talk.

“I didn’t move in. It’s a long-term stakeout and protection gig.” The last thing he needed was a bunch of gossip. When this was over, he didn’t want the members of Sanctum doing a postmortem on his non-relationship with Karina.

He didn’t want them talking about how it was more of a relationship than he’d had in years. It was work and a little casual fun.

“So you’re sleeping on the couch then.”

Yeah, Alex was definitely in big brother mode. “That’s really none of your business. That’s between me and my sub.”

Alex’s eyebrow rose. Shit. He was a mess. He wasn’t thinking about what he was saying. “Your sub? I thought this was a job.”

Derek stalked to the window, wishing like hell Alex had just walked out and left him alone. “We agreed to play together for the duration of the assignment. I thought it was best she not be left alone at night. We both realized it would be hard to keep our hands off each other, so we made a mature decision to enjoy the time we have.”

“Yes, mature. Nothing about this is mature, Derek. Look, Ian should be the one having this talk with you, but he’s living out his fantasy in a giant floating dungeon in the middle of the Baltic, so it has to be me.”

“I’ve already gotten the lecture from O’Donnell and Little Tag. I don’t need another one.”

“Yeah, Li and Sean are going to come down on Karina’s side because they don’t know you the way Ian and I do. I’m worried about both of you, but mostly you.”