From Sanctum with Love (Masters and Mercenaries #10)(5)

“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 f*ck 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 f*cked 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.