Dungeon Games (Masters and Mercenaries #6.5)(8)

“The Rangers identified the woman he’s targeting as his next victim.”

A little thrill ran through her and now she let herself grin. Oh, she was good. Damn good. Now that she knew what was going on, there was really only one reason to bring her in. Only one reason Alex looked scared to give her the news.

He had no idea she’d been trying to make this happen for weeks.

“It’s you, Karina,” Derek said with a grim finality.

“Fuck, yeah!” She got out of her chair and did a little fist pump. “Finally something goes right.”

She couldn’t help but notice Derek had turned the brightest shade of red.

Well, she couldn’t win them all.





Chapter Two



Derek herded her into his office. Herded? Hell, he’d practically picked her hot ass up and run away with her after the hour-long briefing because all he could think about was wiping that self-satisfied smile off her face. From the moment she’d fist pumped like a teenager winning a video game, he’d thought of nothing but getting her alone.

Karina Mills thought it was awesome that she’d managed to get a serial killer to notice her? Well, she was going to get some serious attention from her brand new Dom, and there was no way she was going to like it.

She turned on her heels, a frown on that gorgeous face of hers. “All right, Detective. You’ve got me alone. You want to tell me what crawled up your ass and died a slow and obviously painful death?”

He was going to enjoy the next few moments because it was painfully obvious to him that she hadn’t understood a damn thing about the way this was going to work. Clayton Hill had used technical words like “liaise” and “report to.” Derek was about to use a few words Karina would fully recognize and then he’d see if she was still ready to jump up and down with excitement.

He ignored her very rude question as he walked around his office, shutting the blinds with a careful hand. Privacy was required for what he was about to do. He could hear her foot begin to tap against the floor.

She was such an impatient woman. They would have to work on that.

He took a minute to gather himself, to calm down. They had to work together. This was a serious case. Alex and Eve McKay were still closed up with the Rangers and their forensic expert, going over all the technical details that would help Eve profile their killer. Sean and Liam were on their way to Karina’s apartment to set up additional security, including cameras. They were going to take jobs at one of the clubs Karina had been frequenting.

Alone. She’d been visiting clubs without even bothering to tell anyone where she was. The clubs weren’t known for their safety. Derek would never take a sub there and yet Karina had walked right in without any backup.

Fuck, he was getting pissed again. And his cock was hard as a damn rock.

“Are you having trouble, Brighton? Should I get someone? Because I need to go and meet Little Tag and Li. We’ve got a bunch of stuff to go over before tonight’s op.” She talked like she was doing an everyday job. Nothing to be concerned about. She wasn’t throwing herself in front of a known serial killer or anything.

“We’ll talk to Sean and Li when I’m through discussing the situation with you.” He had to get his unruly dick under control.

“Well, I’m done now, Brighton. I’ll send you a report.” She sighed a little. “I don’t know why I can’t just work through the Rangers. I get that DPD wants to protect its turf. I really do understand that. How about we work something out? I promise to keep you in the loop. I’ll talk to you on a daily basis and keep you up to date. If your chief asks, you’re totally in on this. But you certainly don’t have to watch over me.”

She had a bad habit of hearing what she wanted to hear. He had to correct that behavior, too. For the first time in a very long time, he found his blood pulsing at the thought. The last several years, the training he’d given to various submissives had been delivered with a practiced hand. It had been something he looked forward to, something that made him feel needed.

Discipline had been something he enjoyed delivering, but now his blood was pumping through his system and he realized exactly what he’d been missing. He’d deeply missed the game, the thrill that came from taming a sub to his hand.

This sub. Unruly. Arrogant. Gorgeous. Could he turn her into a sweet little kitten?

It was a bad idea and yet the thought of even playing with her got his dick stiff and aching. It wasn’t like she was looking for a permanent Dom. She liked to play at Sanctum. She wasn’t really submissive. She was the type of woman who played at it for sex. As far as he could tell, Karina had slept with several of the Doms, the latest being Simon Weston. She’d hooked up with O’Donnell and Big Tag before they’d gotten married. Maybe after, too. Her relationships were fairly shallow and she didn’t seem to require much more from her men than a good time in bed and a deft hand with a flogger. He could give her both.

Would it really be so bad to take what she had to offer?

“Brighton?” Annoyance was creeping into her voice. “I don’t have all day. What do you say? We pretend to work together?”

“I’m not going to pretend, Karina. We are going to be working together.”

He heard her sigh. “That’s a bad idea. Can’t you see that?”