From Sanctum with Love (Masters and Mercenaries #10)(96)

“Kori, when we found Jared, he was with Sarah,” Rush said, his voice gentler than before. “He’d taken her to a private room. I don’t know what would have happened if we hadn’t gotten there in time. There might have been two victims.”

She still wasn’t sure it was Jared. Her heart ached at the thought, but she shoved it aside. Her heart was a stupid thing.

Justice. That was all that was important now.

“I’ll start at the beginning of the evening. Jared had a limo pick us up. Me and Jared and Kai.” She settled back and began her story.





“What the hell is taking so long?” Kai demanded as he paced.

He’d been separated from Kori for hours. Every minute that dragged by was a minute too long. What the hell was happening and why were they being detained by the police? There was zero question in Kai’s mind that this was a detention. Oh, there might not be a lock on the door, but he suspected if he or Jared tried to leave, they would be stopped and quickly.

“I don’t know.” Jared sat in one of four metal seats, his head in his hand. “I can’t believe she’s dead. I didn’t see her. You did. Are you sure it was her? Maybe it was some other woman.”

“It was her.” He’d never forget the sight. He’d run in at the sound of Kori’s scream, and for a moment he’d thought it was Kori’s blood that coated the floor. For a moment he’d thought something horrible had happened to his Kori, and his life had stopped. He’d fallen to his knees, ready to do anything to save her when he’d caught sight of Lena out of the corner of his eye. She’d been laid out in the largest of the stalls, likely falling where she’d been murdered. She’d been on her side, her knees close to her chest, so Kai could believe she’d tried to protect herself.

Something horrible had happened to his girl. She’d heard him betraying her and then she’d seen something no one should ever have to see. Now she wouldn’t accept his comfort.

Fuck, even Mia had clung to Case afterward. She’d cried and held on to him. Kai had picked Kori up and carried her out while Case called the cops. He’d held onto her, praying she hadn’t hit her head. When her eyes had fluttered open, she’d seen him and for a moment it was like nothing had happened.

Then she’d come to her senses and moved away from him.

Tell me you didn’t do it.

He’d known in that moment that she’d heard everything and there wasn’t much he could do. He couldn’t lie to her again. It wasn’t in him to do it. He couldn’t lie and he couldn’t tell her the truth. He was caught in a trap and she was the one who would pay the price.

“Why?” Jared asked. He looked up and for the first time Jared looked tired, weary even. For the first time he could see how his brother had aged. “Why would someone kill her? I know she was a bitch, but she never deserved anything like this.”

“I don’t know.” He was tired, too. Tired of everything. Case had been taken to a room to visit with his lawyer. Mitchell Bradford was here, and Kai wouldn’t be surprised if he’d brought Harrison Keen along for the ride. Mitch was McKay-Taggart’s attorney, but Harrison was one the top criminal defense attorneys in the state and he happened to be a sub at Sanctum. While Harrison might enjoy submitting to Dommes in his free time, the man was an animal in the courtroom. An alpha animal.

McKay-Taggart was busy protecting their own. And he couldn’t protect Kori at all.

He was starting to believe he needed to protect his brother, too.

“When was the last time you talked to Lena tonight?” Kai asked. He couldn’t talk to Jared about the FBI investigation. It would go against McKay-Taggart’s deal with the feds and could stop the flow of information. He couldn’t risk that, not when they were in the middle of an interrogation room. Anyone could be listening in. They could be taping the two of them for all Kai knew. Without a lawyer present, the cops could do what they liked. He would feel better if they’d been taken to Derek Brighton’s precinct. Lieutenant Brighton was a Dom at Sanctum and he’d taken care of issues before, but he wasn’t here tonight.

Jared’s shoulders slumped. “I don’t know. It was hard to talk to anyone. The club was so loud. I talked to her before we went in and she said she needed a couple of hours of my time tomorrow because she wanted to talk about a staffing issue. She said one of the guys had to go. I don’t remember who she said because the reporters were in my face by then.”

Maybe he was thinking about this the wrong way. Maybe this had nothing to do with the serial case. “Okay. So Lena had a problem with one of the guys.”

Jared sighed. “Lena always had a problem. She’s tried to get me to fire every one of them at least twice. She hated everyone. She was always asking for private meetings so she could talk shit about the guys.”

“But if one of the guys thought she was a threat to his job, he might have wanted to take her out.”

“I can’t imagine that. They all knew she talked about them behind their backs. They expect that behavior. Why aren’t we talking about the patrons of the club? Someone likely followed her back there and tried to take her purse or something.”

“This wasn’t a crime of opportunity.” Lena had been killed in the same fashion as the others. Even with only a brief glance he could see the same MO. “Besides, it would be difficult to get back there without going through one of the two ways into the VIP longue.”