Master No (Masters and Mercenaries, #9)(128)

Kai shut the folder. “So he’s some sort of businessman or he’s in the travel industry. Alex, this is obviously an important case. Why aren’t you handing it to Eve? She’s the profiler. I can give you my assessment, but she’s the expert in this area.”

“She’s already working on a profile,” Alex stated. “We don’t need you to profile the suspects.”

“Suspects? The feds have suspects? Am I interviewing them? Again, I think Eve’s your expert.”

Alex leaned back. “Did you know that Serena sold the film rights to Soldiers and Doms?”

Kai bit back a laugh. Film rights? He’d read the first of those books. They were pretty hardcore. “That should be interesting.”

“Apparently BDSM is the new big thing. After that Fifty movie, every studio in Hollywood wants a shot. They’re filming Love After Death right here in Dallas.”

Kai felt his eyes widen. He appreciated a good train wreck as much as anyone else. “Are you serious? Isn’t that the one where the big bad Dom’s dead spy wife returns and he has to deal with her Italian mafia family? Someone really should have told Serena to cover that shit up better than she did.”

Alex laughed, the sound booming through the office. It was good to hear it again. The office had been too quiet lately. “Ian’s never read it and Charlotte vowed vengeance on anyone who told him. I’m so buying a ticket to that film. I can’t wait to see the moment when Ian realizes millions of women are madly in love with a character based on him. It’s going to be beautiful.”

“I’ll be right beside you.” He wouldn’t miss that show for the world. “But I don’t see how this plays into the case.” And then he did. It fell into his head, a neat answer to the problems. “Film crew. The feds think the killer is a member of a film crew. Lots of movie companies film in Eastern Europe and Australia these days.”

“Exactly,” Alex agreed. “All of the murders occurred during major motion picture filming. One of the girls was killed in Canada near a television show’s set.”

He knew more about the film industry than he wanted to. Not that he would ever admit it or why he knew. He tried to keep that part of his life very secret.

Of course, McKay-Taggart was good at unburying secrets. “Why me? Cut the BS, Alex. Let’s get down to what you really want.”

“Jared Johns is playing the lead in Love After Death and we have reason to believe either he or someone in his entourage is the killer. The murders have occurred during times when Johns was filming. He always travels with the same group of guys. He has since he got his first major TV role. When he jumped to film, he took those guys with him. He’s looking for a mentor, someone who will train him on how to be a Dom for the film. Ian’s already agreed to let him into Sanctum as part of the FBI investigation. I think putting you as his mentor would be perfect.”

Kai shook his head. He could barely get the words out because horror swamped his every sense. “No. I don’t think that would work at all.”

“He’s asked for you,” Alex replied. “Do you really want to tell your brother you won’t help him out?”

His brother. His international superstar, didn’t have a brain in his gorgeous head brother.

Watch out for your brother, Kai. He needs you in his life.

His mother’s dying wish. He’d promised her and then failed so very badly.

“I suppose I could offer my own services.” Alex reached for the file.

Fuck. His brother was the idiot who would hire a damn serial killer to party with him. “My brother isn’t a serial killer. It’s not him, but I’ll do it.”

He’d run from his family for as long as he could. Like it or not, he had a job to do.

“As long as I don’t have to watch any of his films.” Saving his brother was one thing.

“Not at all,” Alex replied with a grin.

After all, there was only so much a man would do for his family.



Kai, Kori, and the entire McKay-Taggart team will return in From Sanctum with Love. As for Theo…



An island off the coast of Argentina



Theo. His name was Theo. Sometimes, it was all he could remember.

He blinked at the bright lights. So white. Everything in his room was white, from the bed to the walls and ceiling, to the cuffs that held his arms and wrists down. Everything was a stark, brutal absence of color.

“Hey, how are you doing today?” The blonde walked in. He remembered her. Yes, it was impossible to forget the woman who tortured him daily with a cocktail of drugs that made his head feel like it weighed fifty pounds, and then put him through some kind of weird therapy. He was forced to watch films. Nothing that made sense. Pictures and images and accompanying sounds, but somehow he knew he was losing himself to the combination of drugs and those films. Something was happening in his brain. A rewiring was occurring.

“You are looking so much better.” She smiled.

He was pretty sure she thought she was being sexy, but he couldn’t help but see the shark behind those perfectly made up lips.

A vision of a redhead floated across his brain. She turned her head and she wasn’t wearing a stitch of makeup, but she was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. Her lips curved up. She was wearing a bikini, the sunshine on her face. She brushed back her hair and reached for him.