Mistress's Master: Men in Blue, Book 3

by Jayne Rylon

  There. Except the spot where Lily had hung, enduring the cruel lash of Morselli’s whip, no longer supported her.

  Jeremy glanced around. He scanned the floor for footprints. Fresh paint on concrete had ensured none lingered. Rounding the corner, he tripped when he caught sight of Lily, submerged in a water storage tank. The slight blue hue to the liquid painted her face with an unhealthy cast. She thrashed in her bindings, clawing at the rope around her legs.

  “Lily!”

  “I’m sorry about that, Detective.” Morselli stepped from the shadows, a gun aimed point-blank at Jeremy’s heart. “I have to admit, I’m a little disappointed. You had me convinced you were a player. A worthy opponent, not a pathetic cop who’s dumb enough to speak openly over an unsecured phone line.”

  “Get her out!” He snarled despite the danger to himself.

  “Or what, you’ll turn over all the evidence you’ve compiled?” Morselli’s cackle proved he’d flipped over the line from functioning despot to full-on psycho. “You’ve already done that, haven’t you?”

  “Fuck yes.” Jeremy struggled to win their game. If he had any chance to save Lily, this was it. Standing there, negotiating, when he needed to rush to her aid killed a part of him as surely as if Morselli had blown him away. If he didn’t live up to his promises to Lily—to always come back for her, to keep her safe—the man might as well pull the trigger. “But a jury might be more lenient if you free her.”

  “I think I’d rather take my chances.” Morselli chuckled. “Maybe you’ll kill me yourself and save me the trouble of a brutal prison murder. I’m not the kind of man to rot under someone else’s reign. I make my own rules. I won’t go to jail.”

  “Too much a coward to do the honors yourself?” Jeremy raised an eyebrow. “Go ahead. Take the easy road.”

  “I’d rather reunite you with your pet Mistress if you don’t mind.” Morselli’s knuckle turned white on the trigger.

  Lily, I’m sorry.

  And then Morselli’s wide, joker smirk dissolved into a chunky red and grey sauce.

  The bang of the gunshot didn’t register on Jeremy until the husk that used to be Tony Morselli hit the floor.

  Razor raced to his side. “Holy shit, JRad. He was going to do it. Are you okay?”

  When Jeremy did a double-take toward the doorway, Mason stood with his gun still leveled in a double-handed grip. Tyler pressed his forearm over the other man’s wrists, lowering his weapon. He smothered his lover in a one-armed hug.

  Their blatant affection triggered the defrosting of Jeremy’s brain.

  “Lily!”

  “What the—” Razor gawked at him as though he’d lost his marbles when he bolted toward the tank.

  Struggles over, she floated at the extremes of her bonds. The peaceful look on her face terrified him. His heart stopped in his chest when she moved a tiny bit. She smiled and mouthed something he swore looked like, I love you.

  Spasms racked her body. Her hair billowed around her like a dark cloud in a violent summer storm. Though it seemed like an eternity, she went lax in a matter of moments. Deathly still.

  No! Not again!

  He refused to be too late for her.

  A metal cabinet seemed light as a feather as he hefted it above his head and smashed it against the glass panel. A clang reverberated around them when the fixture tumbled to the floor. It hadn’t shattered the industrial thickness.

  “Mason, I need your—”

  A crack winged around the room. The thin white line on the tank spider-webbed across the surface until dozens of flaws developed.

  “JRad! Move!” Razor shouted to him as water and glass gushed from the weakened pane.

  The tsunami slammed into Jeremy, washing him a dozen feet from where he’d started. He scrambled toward the gaping hole in the container when Lily poured from the opening. A weight anchored her to the base of the tank.

  “Need a knife.” He shook his head, sending a spray of water from his face and hair.

  Tyler leapt over the debris and hacked at the soggy rope with a small yet effective pocketknife. As soon as Ty cut her loose, Jeremy dragged her onto a clear section of the floor. He deposited her gently, tipped back her head and began CPR.

  His brothers stood in a semicircle around the macabre scene. As though he floated outside his body, he noticed every detail of the nightmare while he worked on the woman who’d given him everything. Including her trust.

  Razor folded his hands and prayed while Tyler made quick work of the cords binding her arms. Mason hauled out his cell and called someone, probably Lacey, to send an ambulance.

  Jeremy willed Lily to breathe—pleaded for her heart to pump. Instead, her face blurred and merged with Karen’s. The awful color of Lily’s skin resembled the hue his ex-girlfriend’s had taken on when she’d sprawled lifeless on the floor of her shitty apartment.

  He redoubled his resuscitation efforts.

  “JRad.” Tyler laid his hand on Jeremy’s shoulder. “That’s enough. She’s gone.”

  “No! I told her I was coming back. I promised.”

  “She knew.” Mason wrapped his arm around Jeremy’s chest and tugged him backward. “I saw the look on her face. She knew.”

  “Don’t make me deck you.” Jeremy wrenched loose and tried again.

  More pumps.

  More breaths.

  More begging to every power in the galaxy.

  “It’s over.” Razor crouched beside him. “I’m so fucking sorry.”

  “Lily.” He buried his head against her chest and gathered her body into his arms. “I love you too.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  “Agent Sterns.” Jeremy forced himself to stand despite wobbly legs. He teetered from the body on the floor. The grotesque lump beneath the canvas tarp resembled the woman who’d stolen his heart in no shape or fashion. Still, he had to force himself to tear his watery gaze away in order to meet his superior officer across the litter of rubble.

  He scrubbed his cheeks as though the evidence of his desolation could be wiped clean so easily. Soggy clothes barely registered on his dazed brain. He had to concentrate on making it through the next hour, the next minute. Otherwise Lily’s suffering might be for nothing.

  Shivers racked his body. “Thanks for coming. Things turned into a giant cluster.”

  “You can say that again.” The agent edged closer, not paying full attention to Jeremy as he scoped out the facility, the shrouded form—Jeremy couldn’t bear to think of it as the woman who’d filled his arms with laughter and heat—and the smeared remains of Tony Morselli. “You were smart to call me in. Alone. I can help. We’ll keep this quiet.”

  “Thank you, sir. I never meant for it to go this far.” He groaned then attempted to choke out some explanation. “If the public sees this… It looks bad. On Lily. She didn’t deserve—”

  “You’re a cop, son. Problem number one, I gave you instructions. A mission. Your hard-on for some expendable bondage Barbie shouldn’t have rated in our investigation.” Agent Sterns came awfully close to having his heart ripped from his chest with Jeremy’s bare hand.

  Screw his career. It had probably breathed its last gasp along with the woman he’d never have chosen to leave behind. He refused to hear anyone, especially this man, insult her.

  Not right then, not ever.

  “She was not a prostitute.” Jeremy gnashed his teeth as the bastard approached the tarp and stared down at the carnage there. The angle of Jeremy’s torso prevented the asshole from attempting to touch her or even look at her.

  “Whatever you want to call it.” Agent Sterns shrugged. “I’ll have to call in favors to pass you through board review after this fiasco. If I’m gonna go to all this trouble for you, I have to know I can count on you next time. No matter what I ask. Maybe if you’d done less fucking and more undercover work, you might have some idea of the final component of the drug.”

  Jeremy didn’t really give a shit about next time. He couldn’t stomac
h anymore of this bullshit. He had to end the game, break free of the lies. Time to cut to the chase. “I know the whole formula.”

  Sterns stopped dead in his tracks. “What? Why the fuck didn’t you say so?”

  “It didn’t seem important anymore.” Jeremy gnashed his teeth as he remembered how Lily had thrashed as she drowned in the storage tank. His guts cramped.

  Agent Sterns laid an arm on Jeremy’s shoulders.

  Jeremy didn’t think he imagined the tremor there.

  “You know, you’re right. I’ve been insensitive. You had feelings for this woman. Let me help. Share your burden with me and I’ll make sure the trial proceeds as it should. You can stay out of it and nurse your grief.”

  Jeremy chewed his lip. Detachment pervaded his mind despite instincts screaming at him to think. To react. All he hungered for was an end to the madness.

  “We have the production facility. The chemical construction is the last thing we’d need. If you’re able to button up the case, I’m sure the department will overlook the tragic repercussions of decisions made in the line of duty. Sacrifices are often necessary for the greater good.” Sterns nudged the body beneath the cover with the toe of his boot before Jeremy could stop him.

  “Seems extreme to prove Morselli was the ringleader.” Jeremy shrugged. “What does it matter anymore? The man is dead. We’re shutting down the premises and no one but me knows the formula. Why not let it die here?”

  “Too many people know about Sex Offender.” Sterns shook his head vigorously like a dog after a bath. “Someone will figure it out. If we have the formula we can take countermeasures. Bolster the antidote, monitor key supplies…”

  “I see your point.” Jeremy had to agree since he’d argued the same points earlier. “Diethanolamine.”

  No sooner had the information passed his tight lips than Agent Sterns drew his service weapon and aimed it dead center on Jeremy’s forehead. “Thank you, Detective.”

  “So it’s like this, huh?” Jeremy didn’t bother to react. Instead, he stared down the cold steel barrel and into the eyes of Judas.

  “Don’t worry. I’ll put you out of your misery.” Sterns cracked a smile that revealed his crooked, yellow teeth. “Couldn’t have planned it better, really. The reports will be easy to fabricate. Plagued by guilt over failing your lover and killing a man, you take your own life. Tragic. At least you’ll probably be honored as a martyr.”

  “Could be worse.” Without Lily, he would have nothing to lose.

  “Yeah, you could be spending life behind bars for betraying everything you ever stood for.” Matt smothered Sterns in a bear hug. The cop could be scarily quiet for someone his size.

  Clint swooped in to steal the agent’s gun and knock his knees out from beneath him before the fucker realized what had happened. In the blink of an eye, the agent knelt with his hands cuffed behind his back.

  The men in blue dashed from their hiding spots. They surrounded the traitor who’d disgraced all they upheld. If looks could kill, Sterns would have been rotting in hell with Morselli.

  “You think you’re so fucking smart? Take me away. It doesn’t matter. I have the information I need. Something with this kind of potential can’t be stopped by steel bars.”

  “You really think I’d give you the key? How stupid do you think I am?” Jeremy imagined pummeling the asshole, maybe landing a few solid kicks to his ribs. Instead, he crossed his arms over his chest and glared.

  Sterns shrank away, whimpering.

  “Dumbass.” Jeremy shook his head. “I can’t believe it took this long to map your trail of lies. I should have seen it sooner. Sure, you rated the occasional hand-slap for tampering, tainting evidence or skirting space between black and white, but you were smart about hiding your addictions. I’ll give you that.”

  “No one understands. Until they try it. You could have been one of the few. The power, the stamina, the drive…” Obsession flashed in Sterns’s eyes. “I could have had it as often as I wanted. No more tiny samples from the evidence locker.”

  Oh shit. Jeremy wondered how he could have missed the signs. The investigation had moved too slowly. All those delays. Not to facilitate proper substantiation. No, more like time to ensure the cooking operations had been restored. Mother fucking Sex Offender. “I don’t need drugs for a free pass. You could have earned those things from a true partner.”

  “Like your dead bitch?”

  Jeremy growled. He whipped the tarp off the figure on the floor.

  Lily’s faint smile expanded as she sat up, slow but steady. She held the sleek digital recorder he’d equipped her with. “I could hear him crystal clear once you lured him closer. It’s all here. Every bit of the confession you need to put him away for life.”

  “All I care about is you.” Jeremy settled to the floor, welcoming her into his arms. “That’s enough. You’re done. We’re going to the hospital right fucking now. You need to be examined. So long. God, you stopped breathing forever.”

  Lily snuggled into his chest and patted the muscle above his stuttering heart. “I’m okay, Jeremy. I promise.”

  “I’m not sure I am.” He pretended not to notice his fellow cops forming a barrier between him and the corrupt agent. They shuttered him from sight, granting him as much privacy and protection as they could.

  “We will be okay.” Her eyelids fluttered closed. “It’s finally over.”

  Epilogue

  Jeremy sat beside Lily on a stone bench at the top of the hill in their friends’ backyard. Wildflowers rioted in colors ranging from white to yellow to pink to blue. Crisp air rolling off the lake in the distance puffed his lungs full of peace and tranquility.

  Below them, their ever-growing family celebrated Mason, Tyler and Lacey’s garden wedding. Matt and Clint shared a table with Jambrea, falling all over themselves to be next in line to bring her a drink or another slice of cake. Lucas lingered nearby in his wheelchair. Ellie surprised Jeremy by keeping the brooding soldier, who’d been honorably discharged from a no-name Special Forces group once the extent of his injury had become clear, company.

  Ryan hovered nearby, sharing occasional laughs with Ben and Gunther. Little Julie frolicked in the long grass. Despite the loss of her mother, she seemed to be hanging in as best as could be expected. The intimate gathering of a few other friends including Zina, Rhonda, Dr. Joy and Mama Rose overflowed with smiles. They created good memories to replace some of the terrifying ones they’d lived through in the past year. Camera flashes dotted the dimming evening.

  Razor swung Isabella in a circle while executing some fancy move on the cobblestone patio they’d transformed into a dance floor. Their puppy barked and jumped for the ribbon dangling from Izzy’s light and airy dress. They laughed and scooped the adorable mutt between them.

  “They’ll make great parents one day.” He hadn’t meant to speak out loud.

  Lily hummed and snuggled closer. Her silence lingered a little too long.

  “What?” He tipped her chin up and studied her eyes. The electric blue—the most beautiful color in the world—would never dull in his esteem.

  “It’s a secret.”

  “I’m good at keeping my mouth shut.” He frowned. “Besides, we don’t have any of those from each other, do we?”

  “Of course not.” She kissed his palm then whispered, though no one else was near enough to overhear. “Isabella is pregnant.”

  “What?” He sounded like a broken record. Damn, he’d have thought he’d be one of the first to find out. “The kid didn’t say anything to me.”

  “He doesn’t know yet.” Lily smirked up at him. “Izzy told me when I found her in the bathroom last week. She knew it was the only way to keep me from ratting her out about being sick. She didn’t want to steal any of the wedding thunder.”

  “No shit.” Jeremy grinned. “Were they trying…”

  “No, but she said they’re ready. They’ve talked about family. Marriage. She’s going to tell him tonight.” She
smiled. “So it looks like you’re going to be an honorary uncle.”

  The joy in her gaze hit him like a ton of bricks. He couldn’t stay quiet a moment longer. “What if I want to be an official uncle?”

  “What?” It was her turn to be surprised.

  Jeremy liked this side of the game a lot better. “I love you, Lily. There will never be anyone else for me. I know this is all new and fresh, but I’m sure.”

  He dropped down on one knee and took her hand in his.

  “Are you…?”

  “Yeah.” He withdrew a red satin pouch from his pocket. “I saw this the other day when I went with Razor to buy a ring for Izzy.”

  He laughed out loud. “He’s not the only one who’ll be getting the surprise of a lifetime tonight, huh?”

  “She’ll be so happy.” Tears welled in Lily’s eyes.

  “And you? I know how important family is to you.” He kissed her knuckles before lining up a platinum and diamond ring, shaped like two calla lilies entwined, at the end of her finger. “It would be my honor to share the rest of my life with you. I promise I’ll do my best to make you happy every day. Will you marry me?”

  “Yes,” she sobbed as he slid the band on her finger. A perfect fit. “I love you, Master Jeremy.”

  He cleared his throat. “About that…”

  Her eyes bugged when he tipped the bag upside down and a matching necklace dropped into his palm. The thick chain formed a solid rope dotted with more lilies and subtle yet handsome stones.

  “Do you like it?” He studied her reaction as she ran her fingertip along the length he held out to her.

  “It’s gorgeous.” She stared into his eyes, her fingers trembling in his.

  “Not even close to how spectacular you are. As what we have together is.” He had practiced this speech for weeks, never finding exactly the right words to express himself. Here, with her, it came easily. Natural. Just like always. “I want you to be my wife. More, I want you to belong to me. Accept my collar, my promises and my love. Lily, I know how much I’m asking of you, and I swear I’ll earn every bit of your devotion. Please, give me everything.”