by Lexi Blake
Oh, it had been the script she’d left him over. Those ninety pages had chronicled what it had been like to grow up as Kori Williamson. It should have been a small film about how one young girl survived, about her tenuous relationship with her sister, how she’d come to finally admire her mother. She’d meant it to be an indie film. When she’d envisioned it, she’d thought about filming in real locations, the real neighborhood she’d grown up in. It was set during her high school years, during that time when she found out only she could lift herself up out of poverty and she had to do it by believing in her own talent.
The studio had turned it into a teen rom-com that had bombed so spectacularly it had taken Morgan and his new wife, Claudia, years to get another film in production.
Sweet, sweet karma.
“That film was so stupid,” Lena said with a sneer. “Anyway, Claudia warned me about you. You get your hooks into men so they’ll take you places. She says you’re going to try to sleep with Jared.”
Kori bit back a laugh. “Not at all. I have a relationship with his brother and I’m perfectly happy there. The idea of stepping into the spotlight gives me hives.”
Lena looked her over and obviously found her wanting. “The press would tear you up. Do you understand what they would do to you? Even if you could get into Jared’s bed, you would be the fat chick he was banging.”
“Absolutely,” she agreed. Anyone over a size zero was the fat chick in Hollywood. “More importantly though, I’m not interested in sleeping with Jared. I’m happy with Kai.”
“She also told me you lie. Apparently you were Morgan’s assistant but you tried to get into bed with him, too. You thought you could control him with sex. Do you even look at yourself in the mirror? Jared doesn’t want you. He’s only being nice to you because you work for his brother. I don’t believe you and he have anything going on. He’s not as hot as Jared but he’s attractive. He’s never going to be with you.”
This was so sad. “Okay, let me tell you all the ways you’re going wrong here. First, I’m mostly bored by this dialogue. I can turn on a Real Housewives episode and hear this crap. At least flip a table or something.”
“What?” Lena’s eyes went wide.
She was likely used to running off lots of women with her rapid fire but deadly dull dialogue. Like that was the first time someone had told Kori she wasn’t attractive enough. She’d lived in LA for years. She’d been told a thousand times she wasn’t smart enough, attractive enough, thin enough. If she’d believed any of it she would never have gotten a film made.
“I’m going to give you some advice. Here’s the key, when you’re trying to intimidate someone, you have to make them believe you’re the tiniest bit batshit crazy. This ‘you’re not pretty’ crap is only going to work on girls who just got off the bus. For real women, you have to dig deeper. You have to scare them. Like you’ll do something really bad. I’ll give you an example. Lena, if you don’t get out of my face in the next two minutes, I’ll make sure Jared never speaks to you again. You see, I have some actual leverage. He wants a relationship with his brother and I can give that to him. You’re a piece of crap in last year’s Pradas, and he can pick up another one of you in the lobby of any production office. So maybe you should turn around and walk out of here and the next time we see each other, you’ll smile and be polite because I can have your job in two minutes.”
It was an empty threat. She would never once do that. She wouldn’t come between the brothers like that.
“You wouldn’t. You couldn’t do that,” Lena sputtered.
“See, now we’re having a smack down. It’s so low to go after a woman’s looks. She gets that from every side. You have to go after her intelligence or her job, or sometimes you can score points by sounding like a crazy bitch. That prostitution-whore stuff can throw a girl off because she’s trying to figure out what the hell you just said. Like if I called you a skanky ho-bag who’s one step above assistant crack whore, you would try to figure out if I was calling you a slut or a prostitute. Mix it up. It throws people off.”
“You’re a bitch,” Lena said, proving she couldn’t even do comebacks well.
Kori sighed. “Yeah, I’ve heard that before. And now I’m bored again. Scurry off, sad woman. I’m sure you’ve got something to do with your time.”
Some people couldn’t learn. It took the right amount of intelligence and pure quick wit to be able to truly insult someone.
The door opened and Lena gasped.
“You should probably leave now,” a familiar voice said.
Shit. Kai was here. Kai had heard her. Oh, shit. How the hell was she going to explain what she’d said? She heard the clack of Lena’s shoes against the floor and then the door swung open. Kai stood there still wearing yesterday’s clothes. Somehow he made the walk of shame look so damn good. The shirt he wore was slightly wrinkled, but she couldn’t help but think about the chest underneath it. His hair was pulled back now and his glasses were perfectly placed, but she knew what he looked liked right before he bit her, when he was predatory and fierce. And she knew what he looked like when he was mad.
Like now.
“Are you all right?” His voice was quiet, but she could hear the edge to his tone.
“Kai, I was telling her off. She was being a bitch. That was all there was to it.”
He held a hand out. “I need you. I’ve had a disturbing morning. I need…you.”
Her body already ached. She wasn’t sure she could take more. Still, she found herself reaching for his hand and letting him lead her to his office. What was he going to do? Spank her? Bring out his whip?
She’d agreed to a D/s relationship with him. This was what she was supposed to do. She was supposed to give him what he needed even as he gave to her.
She could handle it. Hell, she might like it. If she spent the rest of the day not being able to sit down, maybe she would remember that she shouldn’t even joke about using Kai’s brother to further her own ends.
He strode through the door and right to the big couch in his office. He sat down and she was certain he would command her to lift her skirt and let him spank her. Instead he dragged her down, laying her out before wrapping himself around her.
“Stay with me for a while.” His head found its way to her breast and he sighed as though he needed the contact. “Did you think I was mad about what you said to Lena?”
Almost immediately all her stress fled and she found herself relaxing. He wasn’t the only one who needed this. They’d been disrupted this morning. They hadn’t spent enough time exploring the new intimacy between them.
Because she had to face the facts. She hadn’t simply started a new D/s relationship with Kai. She’d started a relationship with Kai. A real relationship where they played and worked and relied on each other. One where he needed comfort and could ask it of her.
She smoothed her hand across his head and kissed his forehead because it was her right now. She cuddled against him. “I didn’t mean it. And yes, I was worried you would punish me.”
“No punishments,” he said with a sigh. “I don’t want that, baby. I want to play but I don’t want to be responsible for you. Not in that way. Shit. I’m fucking this up.”
He wasn’t. He was saying all the right things. She kissed him again. He was responsible for so many things, so many people. He needed a safe place. She could be his safe place. “I want that, too, Kai. I’ve been in a relationship where I bowed to the Master. I can’t do it again. I want to play with you but I also want to be your partner. I want you to value me and what I have to say. I want to be able to say it whether you want to hear it or not.”
He brought her free hand to his lips. “I don’t think you could be any other way, baby. As for what you said to Lena, I knew exactly what you were doing.”
“How?”
“Because I know you,” he replied. “Now cuddle with me until my next appointment. Talk to me. I want to know about the scripts you wrote.”
&n
bsp; “You heard too much.”
He looked up at her. “If you don’t want to talk, we don’t have to.”
Didn’t he deserve to know who she’d been? And what was so wrong with who she’d been? “All right, but it’s not all pretty.”
Kai settled against her again and she began to talk.
CHAPTER NINE
Kai closed the door to his office as Case and Ethan Rush took their seats. It had been days since his last meeting with Ian and he hadn’t been looking forward to this instructional session. Not at all. He’d been kind of praying it wouldn’t have to happen.
“I assume since you’re here that you’ve been unable to tag Mia’s phone.”
Now it was Tuesday, the night he was supposed to run his “op.” There was only one reason he would still have a damn “op” in the first place.
Case had the grace to flush. “I’m sorry. I’ve tried with her. I’ve been as charming as I know how to be. We’ve had dinner twice. She never leaves her purse alone. I offered to try breaking in when I’m sure she’s gone to bed, but Adam said her security system is so high tech it isn’t even on the market yet. I guess that’s what happens when your brother is some kind of technological genius.”
Drew Lawless wasn’t merely a genius. He was a billionaire. When he’d taken his software company public a few years before, he’d become the youngest billionaire in the country. He was also known for being reclusive and mysterious. Her family had an interesting history. Their inventor father had killed himself, their mother, and according to all police reports, he’d meant the children to die in a fire he’d set. Drew had led the four siblings out of the home. He hadn’t been able to keep them together afterward. The siblings had been split up and sent into foster care. Mia, the youngest, had been adopted, but her three older brothers had lived in the system.
It looked like her older brother still cared about her. “If he’s protecting her, what makes you think you’ll be able to tag her phone without him knowing?”
“What we’re planning on uploading to her phone looks like a harmless app. Actually, it doesn’t show up on her screen in any way. He would have to physically find the program and even if he did, he couldn’t be sure it was us. This kind of malware is all over the place,” Case replied. “If he’s Collective, I’m sure he’s ready for us and the next time she does a check on her phone, she’ll find it. Even if it doesn’t work, it’s another piece to the puzzle. We’ll know more than we did before. I think we’ll have some time before she finds it. I think her brother is the one who would run that check. She fumbled with her security system the one time I managed to get into her place. I don’t think she’s particularly tech savvy.”
“Why couldn’t you do it then?”
Case groaned. “Do you think I didn’t try? She immediately put her purse in the bedroom and let me tell you, I didn’t come close to getting back there. I haven’t managed to kiss her yet. I think she’s playing me.”
Interesting. Kai would bet that frustration came from more than a job Case hadn’t been able to do. “I noted she spent all her time at Sanctum with her training Dom.”
Though he’d also noticed she stared at Case when she thought no one was looking, and the one scene Case had run with another sub had sent Mia straight to the locker room. So why would she hold Case off?
“She won’t scene with me. She claims she owes some kind of loyalty to her training Dom and that when she graduates she’ll think about it, but she’s playing me.”
“Does she question you about McKay-Taggart?”
“Not really,” Case replied. “We’ve mostly talked about baseball. She loves baseball. We’ve talked about movies and stuff. She never mentions her brothers, but she talks about her adoptive parents a lot. Her moms. She put that out there like I was supposed to freak out or something. I don’t get her. She’s not my type at all.”
And yet he was struggling with his attraction to her. That was easy to see. Kai wasn’t about to explain that often times opposites attracted because they gave each other something important that was missing. Like Kori brought him a peace he couldn’t find in a fake waterfall. And he could bring her a partner who didn’t scare away easily.
This wasn’t a therapy session, however.
“Has she agreed to go out with you tonight?”
Case nodded. “Yes. I think she’s interested in spending more time with your brother. He might be the one who gets her up and dancing and then I’ll handle it.”
“I doubt that.” Mia didn’t watch Jared. She watched Case. The few times she’d been in a room with Jared, she barely noticed him, but damn the girl lit up when the young Taggart walked in a room. If she was holding out on him, she had her reasons.
Could Mia be turned? Would she go against her family for a man she loved?
While he waited for a chance to tag her phone, he would also talk to her. He would try to get a better feel for the woman.
“Case is going to teach you what you need in order to follow the Lawless woman, but I’m here for a different reason,” Rush said, looking a bit impatient. He was out of place in the peaceful confines of the office. He sat on the couch, his big body rigid in a space that was supposed to be relaxing.
God knew he relaxed there. At least once a day for the last couple of days, he called her in and cuddled against her, their bodies tangled together while she talked to him about her life, her past, her friends, her everything. He would rest his head against the softness of her breast and spend an hour simply being with her.
He loved to scene, but those hours of peace and calm were so precious to him.
“You want me to tell you my brother is a serial killer.” This was precisely why he needed the calm with Kori so badly. Jared had flown back to Vancouver to shoot some promotional spots for his TV show, but he’d shown back up this morning.
They still hadn’t talked. He’d fully intended to sit his brother down and find out what he’d meant in the elevator that day at McKay-Taggart. Not everything Jared had said made sense. But the next time he’d seen his brother had been at Sanctum and he’d gone into teaching mode, and then Jared had been called away.
It had been so much nicer to concentrate on his new sub. His new girlfriend.
With Jared out of town, he’d been able to focus on her. All his nasty attention. Night after night. Twice during the afternoon.
It should have made him chill, but somehow fucking Kori simply made him want her more. Even now he was thinking about her and wondering if she’d gotten his gift yet. She was outside in the lobby at her desk. Sitting there. Waiting for him. Fuck, he wanted her.
“I want you to do what we discussed. I want you to get involved in your brother’s life so you can figure out if he’s the one killing these women.”
He wished he could stop thinking about this. “He’s not. I grew up with him. I would have seen signs. I was responsible for him the entire time we were growing up. He wasn’t a bully. He wasn’t bullied. He was the kid everyone else loved.”
“He also grew up without a father and I suspect his childhood wasn’t as rosy as you claim. He had several visits to the emergency room and a couple of brushes with the law.”
Did the special agent think he didn’t know his own brother? “He got into some fights and he was always a clumsy kid. He had a couple of football injuries. I think he broke his arm during a game once.”
Rush’s eyes narrowed. “Yes, I’ve made a study of your brother. You’re talking about an incident in high school. A spiral fracture of his left arm. The only problem was he didn’t play that night. I checked the actual hospital records. He was taken to the ER long before the game that night. I suspect your brother suffered some abuse at the hands of a coach. Sometimes that can make a man like Jared feel small. Did you know that there was a rash of small animal disappearances around the same time he was in high school?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. My brother took in strays constantly.” Why would Jared have lied about how he’d bro
ken his arm? He remembered the day. He’d been working and he’d come home to his mother worrying over Jared. She’d been sick at the time, too. It had been the early days of her cancer, the first rounds of chemo that had left her body devastated. Even as her hands shook because she hadn’t been able to keep anything down, she’d taken care of her youngest child.
Kai remembered how pissed he’d been because they didn’t have money for more fucking medical bills. He’d had an argument with Jared about how much playing a stupid game was going to cost him.
Take care of your brother, Kai. He needs you more than you know.
Had his mother known something he didn’t?
“You know as well as I do that many serial killers start with small animals before moving to humans,” Rush said, a nauseating sympathy in his voice.
“Yeah, well, we lived in Washington state. You can throw a rock and hit a serial killer.” It wouldn’t do any good to argue with the special agent. He had preconceived notions and the only way to fix the situation was to prove it couldn’t be Jared.
Because it wasn’t. No matter what the man said, he couldn’t buy that his brother was a killer. He could buy that Jared was keeping secrets. It was time to acknowledge that his childhood wasn’t as cut-and-dry as it had seemed. Tomorrow morning he and his brother were going to have a long talk.
After he got through tonight. One clusterfuck at a time.
“You’re being awfully narrow in your thinking, Special Agent,” Case interjected. “I’ve studied those files too. The brothers, Brad and Tad, they came from an abusive home. From the time their father left them, their mother went through multiple men, several of whom abused both boys according to CPS records. The boys went to live with their grandparents, but both of them were in and out of trouble. The grandmother had enough money and power to cover a lot of it up, but they both had some violent encounters.”
Rush shook his head. “Yes, I’ve read the files. I also know that the publicist has had some complaints of sexual harassment filed against him, all of which have been dropped.”
