From Sanctum With Love (Masters and Mercenaries Book 10) (43 page)

He put his arms around his brother and hugged him close.

This, this was what he should have done that day. He should have hugged his brother and asked him why he was acting so out of character. He should have had some faith.

Jared was still for a moment, his body unmoving, but it didn’t take him long before his brother wound his arms around him and a shudder went through Jared.

“It’s so fucked up, Kai.” His brother squeezed him tight.

“We’ll make it right,” Kai vowed. He would get his brother out of this. He would do whatever it took as long as it didn’t hurt the only person in the world he had to put above all others—his love, his other half, his Kori.

Jared took a step back. “All right. I’ll do what you want. But you have to do something for me.”

“Anything.” After all this time, he owed Jared something.

“Go after Kori. I saw the look in her eyes. You can’t wait. She’s angry and you have to make it right.”

“I don’t know that there’s any way I can make it right.” Perhaps this was payback for all the years of turning his back on his brother. Maybe it was nothing more than he deserved.

Case pulled up, his big truck taking a large portion of the round drive. “Let’s go. I’m supposed to head over to Ian’s after I drop you two off. I swear to god I’m not getting any sleep tonight.”

“Maybe we should drop my brother off at Kori’s,” Jared said, swinging his body into the cab.

And wake up Erin? Not even he was that much of a sadist. “I’ll see her tomorrow.”

He hoped.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Kai stared at the computer. Every single news headline stated the same thing. Jared Johns arrested for murder. TV hero kills assistant. Hollywood actor slays women.

God, it was a bloodbath.

He flipped the computer closed and went back to staring at the screen that hadn’t pinged once all night or morning. His phone. Kori hadn’t called. She hadn’t texted. She hadn’t sent him an e-mail.

He loved her. He knew he’d fucked up royally, but what could he do about it if she wouldn’t talk to him? And didn’t that say something about the way she felt about him?

“You still waiting for her to call?” Jared asked, walking into the kitchen. Baby brother looked worse for the wear this morning, his hair all askew and his eyes tired. He moved toward the coffeepot. Usually Kori had already booted the thing up by now and was working on her second cup. 

“Call back. I’ve left her many messages. I don’t think calling her again will help. Did you sleep at all? I thought you didn’t touch caffeine.” He watched as his brother navigated the coffee machine with the ease of an expert.

Jared popped the cup into the mechanism and pressed the screen. “That was when I had a career. The good news about no longer having a job is that I can eat and drink whatever I like. Can we get pizza at this time of the morning? Do you know how fucking long it’s been since I had pizza? And like five burgers with real, actual cheese on them. I’m going to need a bunch of sugar and cream for this coffee. Oh, and we need to have someone deliver a case of beer. I’m going through that tonight.”

“I thought you told Kori you loved cheesecake and pasta.”

“I love them,” Jared shot back. “And I totally lied about eating them. No one wants to know how hard it is to keep this body. I have to stay relatable and that means lying about eating pizza and cheesecake. The great news is I don’t have to do that anymore. I can be really relatable and gain fifty pounds of pure flab.”

When had his sunny brother turned into Mr. Pessimism? Probably right around the time he’d been falsely accused of murder. Kai didn’t like it. Jared was supposed to be the eternally optimistic one. “You don’t know that. Have you talked to the network? Hell, for that matter, have you talked to your agent?”

“Earlier this morning. He explained he couldn’t work with me anymore. At least he had the decency to actually talk to me on the phone. Tad texted me his resignation. Said it wouldn’t look right for him to stay. And then he sent me a teary emoticon. I want to punch him in the face.”

Kai could totally understand that, but it might have to wait. “Karma is your friend in this, brother. Just wait and he’ll end up getting his. Let Simon and Jesse do their jobs. You never know. Maybe Tad killed her. Or his brother.”

Someone in Jared’s entourage had offed Lena. There was no question in his mind. The only real question was why. He’d thought about it all night long and well into this morning.

“Karma stinks then.” Jared opened the fridge and rooted around until he came back with a carton of milk. “I try hard to do the right thing. I give money to charity. A lot of it. I visit sick kids. I try to help the people around me. You know what I get? Arrested for murder. Awesome. Yay, fucking universe. Where’s the sugar?”

“Cupboard above the coffeepot.” Where Kori had stashed it. “Sometimes the world works in mysterious ways. Just because you’re down doesn’t…”

“Mean you’re out.” They finished their mom’s favorite phrase together, a moment of harmony only siblings could understand.

No one else in the whole world knew what it meant to be loved by their mom. No one knew what their shared world had been like. He’d pushed his brother away for a lot of reasons, some understandable, others selfish. Only now did he realize what he’d missed. He’d missed the comfort of familiarity, the warmth of understanding.

“I miss her. Every day,” Jared said solemnly.

Grief welled inside Kai, as pure and visceral as it had been the day she’d died. His mother had been complex, as complicated in her methods and meanings as any human being. She’d made decisions that put them all in a hard place, and yet she’d managed to give them exactly what they needed. Love. Each other.

Take care of your brother, Kai. He needs you more than you know.

She could have said something different, likely would have if she could have seen the future.

Take care of your brother, Kai. You’ll need him more than you know.

“I do, too. Jared, you won’t believe me, but I missed you, too.”

Jared nodded. “I do. You were always a little slow.”

Kai laughed and thanked god he’d had a brother because a sister would have made that moment way too real. He stood up and shook his head. “Yeah, that’s me. Is there any coffee in that coffee?”

Jared spooned in way more sugar than any adult should start their day with. “Doesn’t matter. I no longer have a trainer either. Besides, if I get really fat, maybe no one will want me to be their bitch in prison.”

“You’re not going to prison. And you would still have that face. You would totally still be someone’s bitch. No way around how pretty you are.”

That got Jared grinning. “I can’t help it. I was born this way.”

“I’m not letting you go to prison. I’ve already talked to Harrison this morning. You have to let him help you.”

Jared nodded. “I will and I’ll answer any questions the McKay-Taggart guys want me to. I’ve been thinking a lot about this. I’m sick over it. I knew those women. I liked them.”

“Yes and that’s a key. That’s something they all had in common. I need you to think about them and your relationships with them. What else did they all have in common?”

Jared held up a hand. “But that’s what doesn’t make sense. I had flings with those women. Most of them brief, one of them lasted a month or so. I’ve never touched Lena. Not once in my life. She’s not even close to being my type. It’s one of the reasons I hired her. I didn’t want to get attached. So why break the pattern now?”

“Unless she figured something out. Or she challenged him. I’m going to go back over all the files and see if I can come up with something. The obvious fact is this is a man who hates women.”

“Or he hates me in particular. With the exception of Lena, losing every single one of those women hurt me. Everyone around me knows my ‘call me’ rule. When they didn’t call, I got hurt. What if this is all being done to hurt me? It seems to me I’m the real common denominator in this equation.”

Kai stared at his brother, wondering who the hell had said something so very insightful.

Jared rolled his eyes. “I’ve got a brain, Kai. I just don’t have to use it often.”

Not often at all. It was refreshing. “I think you’re right. In fact, I was thinking about this last night and while I believe this man hates women, I think he hates you, too.”

“Well, then take a closer look at Brad and Tad because Squirrel is practically in love with me. We’ve been friends for so long we’re like an old married couple.”

But old married couples could get jealous. Old married couples sometimes found all that love and familiarity turning into hate. “When was the last time Squirrel had a girlfriend? Any of them, really?”

Jared thought about it for a moment. “Brad usually has a girlfriend in LA, but he cheats any time we’re on the road. And it’s not like the arrangement I have with Jess.”

“What is the arrangement with Jess?” How could he have forgotten about Jessica Hamilton? Jared’s super-couple other half? Somehow it was easy to forget her since Jared rarely mentioned the woman he spent much of his off time with. She was a stunning beauty. He’d seen her on the covers of magazines. What if she wanted to take her relationship with Jared past their arrangement? Would she kill to do it?

Jared sighed. “I’m telling you this because you’re my brother and I trust you, but don’t ever mention this to anyone else. Jess has some issues with her sexual identity that she would rather not explain to the press. I like women I would rather not expose to the press. We came up with the idea of helping each other a couple of years back and it’s worked quite well. Every now and then I’ll get caught talking to some woman, but Jess always goes out and explains that she loves and trusts me and it dies down.”

That was a lot for a woman of her station to take on. But there was also the issue of timing. From what Kai understood, Jessica hadn’t known Jared when the killings began. Unless she was obsessed with him. God knew plenty of teenaged girls had been. They’d shown up at the house at all hours of the day trying to get his attention. “What is the identity issue she’s dealing with? Is she a lesbian, because that’s quite accepted in Hollywood today. Given that she tends to star in intellectual films, I would be surprised if she would lose work over that.”

“She’s asexual.”

“Ah,” Kai said, understanding the issue. There was a small amount of the populace that simply didn’t have any kind of a sex drive nor did they find themselves sexually attracted to either gender. It was oft discussed as to whether this was nature or nurture, so to speak, but admitting she was so far out of the status quo likely would bring her unwanted attention. “I understand. And you’re sure she’s not in love with you?”

Asexual people could love as easily as anyone else. They simply didn’t care for sexual intimacy. Kai wouldn’t eliminate her because of her preferences though.

“It’s not Jess. She’s in Hong Kong filming as we speak. I doubt she flew here, killed Lena, and then made it back for AM call. I want to know who told the feds Lena and I had that fight. Because we didn’t. She told me she needed to talk to me about firing someone. I avoided her. That’s not a fight.” His cell trilled and Jared frowned again. He stared down at the screen. “This is my private line. No one has this number. I crushed my professional line earlier because it’s nothing but reporters. How do I know that number? Janice. Shit. I think that’s Janice. My old publicist. I’ve got to take this.”

Jared put the phone to his ear and stepped out.

Kai looked back down at his cell. Shit. Nothing. He picked it up and quickly texted.

Are you coming to work?

Kori always had her cell with her. Maybe if he kept it professional, she would reply. He waited a minute and then two more. Nothing.

She was done with him. A few thoughtless words and she was through. Guess her feelings hadn’t been as strong as he’d thought.

He had to face some real truths. She’d lied to him about what she wanted. She was a masochist. He’d never once lied about being a sadist. They were a match to have at the very least played together. Yet she’d stayed away from him, preferring other dominant partners. Maybe she’d been looking for an out. He’d threatened her that first night. He hadn’t meant to, but the fact that she’d been lying to every partner she played with could have gotten her escorted out of Sanctum. He might have played that to his advantage because he was a selfish bastard who’d wanted her so badly he couldn’t stand it. She’d seen the opportunity to get out of the relationship with her Sanctum membership intact and she’d taken it.

But she’d said I love you.

Kori didn’t lie. She couldn’t be bothered to. If she’d said it, then she meant it, and not in terms of “I love what you do to me.” She’d said I love you and that meant she loved him.

So why was she ignoring him?

Talk to me
, he texted her.
Please talk to me.

He sat and stared at the screen as though he could will her to reply. The phone buzzed in his hand.

I’ll be in the office in an hour. We do need to talk. I don’t know how we move past this.