From Sanctum with Love (Masters and Mercenaries #10)(2)

Yeah, a couple of hours of sleep and he would be ready to face her.

“I made you some coffee,” a feminine voice said. He could barely hear her.

“Look, I’m not trying to be mean.” That was his brother. It sounded like they were in the kitchen. “What happened between us was a horrible mistake and I need you to leave. It’s not going to happen again.”

There was a familiar husky laugh. “Oh, I think it will.”

Was that? No. She wouldn’t. He wouldn’t.

Kai moved toward the hall that led to the small kitchen and family room. There was a tiny table where he’d sat and helped his brother with homework. He’d been the one who had to watch his brother while their mom had worked two jobs. He’d had to figure out how to cook dinner and get his brother to bed and try to help around the house because she would be so tired when she came in at midnight.

“It won’t. I was drunk that night. I…I want the keys back. You shouldn’t have them. You need to leave.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Jared. If you think I’m giving you up after that night, you’re crazy. We were good together.”

Kai pushed through the swinging door because he had to see it with his own two eyes. He had to face it and understand what was happening. Perhaps his ears were faulty. Maybe the chick only sounded like Hannah.

Nope. There she was. She was standing in his kitchen looking smoking hot in tight jeans and a tank top that showed off her breasts. Well, he and Jared always had the same taste in women. Curvy, gorgeous women. And like all women, apparently Hannah preferred his younger brother.

“Kai.” Jared was wearing a pair of pajama bottoms and nothing else, as though he’d rolled out of bed for this confrontation. “What are you doing here?”

Hannah laughed. “He’s on leave. He got his ass shot up.” She turned cold eyes his way. “One of your teammate people called me. They thought I should know you were wounded. I believe I told you what would happen if you went back.”

“Yes, you did. So the make-up call was an act?”

She shrugged. “Well, I’d already decided what I really wanted. Jared is going places. He’s got an audition for a TV show. He’s going to be a movie star one day.”

“Kai, I am so sorry.” Jared had gone a nice shade of pale. “She came over and offered to help with some stuff. I didn’t know how to get into the old bank accounts.”

Kai shook his head. “Yes, poor Jared can’t figure out the world on his own so he finds a woman to do it for him. My fiancée. You slept with my fiancée.”

“Aunt Glenna changed the passwords and wouldn’t give them to me. I didn’t know what to do and you didn’t have time. She took all the money, Kai. I didn’t want to worry you, but it’s been rough here. Hannah offered to help me and then one night…”

Hannah moved to Jared’s side. “Nature took its course. He’s more of a man than you, Kai. He knows how to take care of a woman. And I sent you a letter breaking up with you. It’s not my fault you didn’t get it.”

He turned. There was nothing else to do. His brother was still a shit. He was still the kid who took everything and gave nothing back.

“Kai, please.” Jared moved behind him.

Kai didn’t stop. “You can have her. I wish you both the best of luck.”

“Kai, this isn’t what it looks like. Please, I need you.”

He made it to his car and shoved his pack back inside, his gut rolling with anger. Betrayal. It bubbled up and made him want to put his fist through something, but he was in control. He would turn around and head to Iraq and not look back.

His brother didn’t need him. Maybe he never had.

Jared stood outside, a lost look on his face, but Kai wasn’t buying it anymore.





Los Angeles, California

Five years before



Kori Williamson strode through the elegant doors that led to her Master’s office. She didn’t come here often, tried not to use the connection she had to him in order to further her own career. She might be submissive, might need the connection, the pain and pleasure that came from D/s, but in the real world she wanted to stand on her own two feet. That’s what she told herself anyway. With every day that went by, she wanted it more than ever. To be more independent than she’d been the last couple of years, to have work that was hers and hers alone.

Now it looked like that would be difficult since she’d just taken a knife to her back.

Lydia looked up from her laptop, her perfect platinum hair in a bun. The thirty-two-year-old was California perfection from her hair to her already Botoxed face, to those perfectly done breasts the Master had paid for.

No matter how hard Kori dieted, she would never match Lydia’s perfection. Damn it, she wanted a f*cking ice cream. A big old sundae from Farrell’s, but she hadn’t been there in years because she was trying to fit in with the crowd. She wasn’t a sad sack, look-at-me, look-at-me actress. Why was she desperate to be so thin? She was a writer with a vision. A vision her Master couldn’t possibly have stolen. It was all a mistake. Her mentor wouldn’t do that to her.

Of course, she’d also told herself that her Master couldn’t take a whole harem of women either. She’d definitely told herself that she wouldn’t put up with that shit, but here she was four years later making excuses.