Fearless (Broken Love Book 5) (12 page)

He blew out a harsh breath. “I don’t know if I can accept that. I don’t want you corrupted. I never wanted that for you.”

My heart rate accelerated and my chest grew too tight. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t—

“Ar—are you breaking up with me?” He looked as surprised by his words as I was.

“I probably should…”

No.

He leaned his head back against the sofa and closed his eyes tight. I wanted to scream and demand he open them again. I needed to see his eyes. I needed to know if this was real.

“…but there isn’t a muscle in my body strong enough to do what’s right when it comes to you.”

I stared at him in disbelief. When he opened his eyes a tiny fraction to gaze at me, I launched myself into his lap and buried close.

“Don’t,” I found myself pleading.

“I won’t.”

“Don’t think about it anymore either.”

“I’m not.”

“Good.” My hand followed its own command and slapped him with all the strength I had left—the only strength he didn’t take from me with his brief surrender to his conscience.

He grunted in pain, and I realized I wanted more so I tried again only to be stopped by his hand on my wrist. “You’re pushing it.”

“Do you have any idea what you just did to me?”

“You had my father killed. I think we’re even.”

“So breaking up with me was your way of getting back at me?”

He shot me an impatient look. “Not in the least, but it’s good to know where you stand with us.”

“I’ll always stand by us.”

“Even if my hairline recedes and I grow a beer gut?”

“You don’t drink beer.”

“You’re welcome,” he smugly stated causing me to slap him in the six slabs of concrete under discussion. “I told you about that.” 

The warning in his eyes was clear. I shrieked and scrambled to escape his lap, but he was much too fast. He locked his arms around my waist and sunk his teeth into my shoulder. “I told you,” he growled and pushed his hips up until they met mine.

He may have been too much for most women, but his forcefulness was exactly what drove me wild and kept me crazy about him.

It took a special kind of girl to bring Keiran Masters to his knees.

We made out as if we were teens again when he would drag me out from my house in the middle of the night during the summer and into the backseat of his car.

It didn’t take long for his jeans to be around his ankles with me also naked from the waist down and riding him as if my life depended on it.

“Oh, my… Fuck,” I cried when I finally came and shook around him. He grunted from the force of his own release as he came inside me and nibbled on my jaw before kissing his way down my neck. My hips moved slowly against him, and with his cock lodged deep inside me, I could have easily come a second time.

“I love you,” he whispered.

“Love you,” I gasped when he sucked my breast into his mouth, “more.”

“I doubt that.” He released my nipple and grinned up at me with all his boyish goodness.

My eyebrow lifted at his response. “We could always beat the crap out of each other to settle the score like you do with Dash and Keenan.”

“I thought we could go upstairs and make another home video.”

For Keiran’s birthday this year, I finally gave in to his desire to tape us when we made love so we could capture moments that passed between that were fleeting but powerful.

We made a few dirty ones, too.

I captured his lips. It was my turn to kiss him senseless, so when he closed his eyes and gave in, loosening his grip in the process, I made my move.

“You have to catch me first.” His eyes popped open, but it was too late. I was already heading for the stairs. I knew without looking back that he chased.

He always would.

* * *

I pushed the
cart through the produce aisle heading for the tomatoes. I decided to get an early start on repairing our relationship and left Keiran at home in bed. I read in some girl magazine while waiting for a dentist appointment that the key to a man’s heart was through his stomach or his mother, and since I couldn’t exactly call his mother from the other side for advice, an omelet would have to do.

Keiran’s lovemaking last night surprised me. In all the years we’d been together, he’d never taken me so tenderly. To be honest, it wasn’t something I thought him capable of doing. I was definitely grateful to have gotten it on video. The only thing we couldn’t capture was the love in his eyes when he brought us release—that I’d have to rely on only my memory to keep close.

I reluctantly pushed back memories of last night and made quick work of my grocery list. After ringing up with the cashier, I carried my purchases out into the California heat, ready to get back to my temperamental boyfriend.

“Lake Monroe?”

I turned at the sound of my name and immediately took in the badges and holstered pistols as two men approached. Instinct recognized them as the new detectives assigned to replace the two who tried to send me to jail for the rest of my life for a man who deserved so much worse than he got.

“What are you doing here? This is California.”

“We’re aware of the jurisdiction, Ms. Monroe. I’m Detective Grayson and this is Detective Roberts.”

“Boy, you guys are really going for the record books, aren’t you? Let me guess… You’re here to arrest me without a warrant
again
. Or maybe you’ve been following me to see if I’ve been stalking health centers—”

“We just want to ask you a few questions.”

“And you thought I’d answer them without my lawyer present?”

“Why not? Do you have something to hide?”

“If you think I’m answering that, you’re just as dumb as the last two.”

“You do know that if you aren’t guilty, then our investigation will clear your name? You’d have no reason not to answer our questions. We could help you.”

“Funny. I don’t remember asking for your help. Has it ever occurred to you that I’m glad Mitch is dead? Kudos to whoever did it. Now, if you’ll excuse me.” I attempted to walk away, giving them my ass to kiss.

“We did some more digging, Miss Monroe. Did you know your boyfriend visited his father the day before he was murdered?”

Wait. What?

I turned back around and approached them with quick steps. Maybe I was falling into another trap but something about their smug looks told me maybe not.

“That’s impossible. Keiran had no idea where his father was.”

The detective eyed me with mock sympathy. “Is that what he told you?”

I hated his condescending smugness. “It’s what I know.”

“Well, unfortunately for you and your boyfriend, when we flashed his mug shot around, one of the nurses recognized him. It seems he was smart enough not to log his visit, and I couldn’t help but wonder why. Apparently, one of the young, prettier nurses took a liking to him. She recognized him as one of the only visitors he’s had since John Masters died.”

Truth or not, thanks to years of Keiran’s tormenting, I knew when I was being led into a trap. I needed to get out of there and fast.

“Excuse me, detectives. The Nevada state line is calling you back.”

This time, when I turned away, I didn’t stop. I threw my grocery bags in the car and let them fall wherever and burned rubber from the parking lot. They stood by watching my display with smug grins until I could no longer see them in my rearview mirror.

It couldn’t be true, could it?

Why would he lie about knowing where his father was?

If he had gone to see him, why was he left alive?

I couldn’t get home fast enough. I considered leaving the groceries in the car but instead, used it as a chance to get my thoughts together.

It was a trick.

It had to be a trick.

I lugged the groceries inside and found Keiran leaning against the counter, eating an apple, shirtless and dressed in gray basketball shorts. His erection was evident, and I felt my tongue swell in my mouth.

I closed my eyes briefly, fighting the temptation, and when I opened them again, he was grinning at me. The cocky fucker knew the effect he had on me.

“Let me help you with those,” he smoothly greeted but frowned when I stepped back and dropped the sacks at my feet. “What the fuck?”

“Did you know where your father was the whole time?”

“Come again?

“Did you know your fucking father was at Summit this entire goddamn time?”

“Watch your mouth,” he growled. He didn’t even have the decency to look surprised or worried that he’d been found out.

“Answer me!”

“Lower. Your. Damn. Voice,” he roared. His voice was as loud as if a bomb had detonated. He was standing toe to toe with me by the time he finished, his chest heaving.

Well, I wasn’t about to back down. “You knew he was there, didn’t you? All this time?”

He exhaled and took a step back. “Keenan told me a couple of weeks before I went to see him.”

“Why?” It was no secret Keenan knew where Mitch was, but we all agreed it was better if it were kept a secret from Keiran. I hadn’t even known up until my grandmother was admitted to the facility.

“He said he’d been fucking up a lot and wanted to ‘knock some shit off his list.’” He shrugged, appearing as clueless as I felt.

“I don’t understand—”

“Why I didn’t kill him?” I nodded slowly, still trying to piece together the growing puzzle. “Because of you.”

“M—Me?”

“Mitch was already dying, and while it would have given me greater pleasure to end him, I made you a promise that I’d already broken once for my brother. I wasn’t willing to lose you.”

I couldn’t see past the tears clouding my vision. He had given up his right to revenge. I had betrayed him, and I then took the right from him. 

Even worse, I hadn’t trusted him.

I knew you would come back for me.
It’s what Mitch had said when he saw me. I hadn’t understood then and assumed it was the ramblings of a dying, evil man. He’d thought I was Keiran.

“You lied to me.”

“Yes.”

There was no remorse in his tone or eyes. He ensured I felt guilt, and all the while, he’d been lying to me, too. “I spoke with the new detectives on the case.”

His eyes narrowed with suspicion. “When?”

“Don’t look at me like I’m the guilty one. They cornered me at the store this morning.”

“Did they follow you?”

“Does it matter? I’m sure they know where we live.”

“It matters. If they followed you, it means they’ll keep following you.”

I wanted to take the focus off me—and quick. His stare was beginning to make me sweat. “They told me you went to see him the day before I did, but you were on a business trip.”

He shook his head and tossed his leftover apple stem in the trash. “I didn’t need to meet Jesse until the next day.”

“Why did you go if not to kill him?”

“Because I did go to kill him. I wanted him to die in the worst way. That would never change. The only thing that did was the decision not to. He wasn’t worth it. Or so I thought.”

“You did the right thing.”

“Did I? You didn’t seem to think so when you went to kill him, instead.”

“Yes, I went, but I’m not even sure I could have.”

“Q said you were ready to stab him when he stopped you.”

“I guess we’ll never know.”

He didn’t answer. He bent to pick up the sacks of food I had carelessly dropped and started putting them away, effectively ignoring me. I felt like we were back at square one, and just like that, our night and our truce was broken.

KEIRAN

SEVEN MONTHS AGO

Lake had left
for class an hour ago, and I decided to work from home not caring for the company of our small staff or business partner. I’d been having nightmares about my mother and when I killed her, which was always sure to put me in a foul mood. I hadn’t told Lake about them and had no intention to because she’d try to psychoanalyze me.

When the numbers on the screen began to blur a few hours later, I decided to take a break. I was in the middle of fixing a sandwich when the sound of keys turning the lock stopped me in my tracks. Lake wasn’t due to be done with classes for another hour.

I waited, and when Keenan turned the corner, I relaxed, though I was surprised to see he’d traveled all this way unannounced. “Sheldon let you out to play?”

In truth, it was Keenan who rarely tolerated leaving his family. He could barely stand to be away for more than a day before he found some excuse to go crawling back to them. One time, it was because he heard Kennedy cough when he called to say goodnight.

“She didn’t put up much of a fuss. It was Ken I had to convince to let me out without kiddie supervision.”

“So why didn’t you bring her?” I offered a bottle of water and when he declined, I uncapped it and lifted to take a swig.

“Because we need to talk.”

The bottle of water stopped halfway to my lips at his tone. “About?”

“Mitch.” He waited for an opening. My silence gave him the OK to continue. “I know where he is.”

“I know.”

“You know where he is?”

“I know you know. What I didn’t know was how long it would take you to tell me.”

“I’m telling you now.”

“So?”

“He’s at a cancer rehabilitation facility called Summit Rehabilitation for Cancer Survivors. It’s about a four-hour drive from Six Forks.”

Which put him just under halfway between here and home. It was the perfect setup for his execution.

“What are you planning to do with this?”

Kill him.

“Nothing,” I lied.

“Nothing?”

I shrugged, chugged the water down and tossed it in the trash. I could tell he didn’t accept my answer as he looked at me warily.

“Don’t make me regret this,” he warned.

I convinced him to stay long enough to shoot hoops since this was the longest we’d bonded alone since before he left four years ago. It was our normal, brutal match. Despite the invisible elephant standing between us, neither of us held back.

He took the winning shot, and I laughed when he did his usual gloating dance even as sweat dripped and stung my eyes.

“I have to get back to my ladies,” he said when he was done gloating.

“Before you go—” I hesitated because what was I going to say? Was I the only one who still noticed the tension between us? We never talked about the night he left or Sophia.

“Don’t force it,” he said, reading my mind when I allowed the silence to stretch too long.

“You don’t think we need to talk?”

“I don’t.” He smirked. “We’re not the girls,” he added, attempting to cut the tension with humor.

I nodded and expelled a breath, relishing how easy that turned out to be. Heart to hearts weren’t my thing—our thing. Keenan might have been the light-hearted replica of me.

“Brothers?” I held out my hand, which was left empty due to his shock. I was just as surprised by my outburst that felt more like instinct. It might have been the first time I accepted who we really were to each other out loud.  

“Brothers.” He clasped my hand and yanked me forward to envelop me in a manly hug. When he ruffled my hair as if
I
were the younger brother, I shoved his ass away. He chuckled, threw up deuces, and showed himself out.

Once I was alone, the silence descended much too fast, and I was left to think about the information Keenan drove half a day to give me. Did he really come here to clear his conscience or did he come here because he wanted Mitch dead? His family was as much in jeopardy as I was.

I shook thoughts of my father off, ignored work and waited for Lake to come home so I could lose myself in her. 

* * *

It only took
me a week to make the decision. A business opportunity out of the blue came up, giving me the perfect alibi. Since I was doing this completely solo, I needed to cover every angle. After shadowing Jesse, I picked up enough hacking skills to break past the facilities firewalls for floor plans and resident room charts.

I had everything in place up until yesterday morning when Lake and I got into an argument. I had awakened to find her staring at the ceiling with tortured eyes. I asked her what was on her mind. I was so determined to know the answer that I knew the exact moment she made the decision to lie to me. 

With my business trip in only two days, it was just enough to temporarily knock me off my game. I only had a small window of opportunity and couldn’t afford the time to interrogate her properly, so I let it go… up until it was time for me to walk out the door. Seeing her pumped me with the need to remind her of the consequences of lying to me.

I came downstairs in time to see her come home from class. She looked from me to the duffle slung over my shoulder with fear. I stared at her wondering what was going through her head, but just like yesterday, I knew she wouldn’t tell me.

“Wh—where are you going?”

I felt like a dick for enjoying the fear that caused her voice to falter.

“Jesse and I have a meeting with a potential client in Texas. They want to meet us face to face and see up front what we’re offering.”

“How long will you be gone? The wedding—”

The wedding? She was lying to me, yet she’s worried about the fucking wedding?

I was losing my touch.

“I’ll be back in time for our flight,” I answered before she could finish. I stood on the bottom step, daring her to meet my gaze. When her shoulders squared and her eyes met mine, I accepted the challenge, dropped my duffle bag, and closed the gap between us. “If you want to test me, you better be sure you’re ready for the consequences.”

“Don’t threaten me, Keiran. I’m not your plaything anymore.”

Oh, you were always so much more than just something to play with.

“You should know better by now, so I’m going to ask you this once—so think about your answer. Are you hiding something?”

“What makes you think I’m hiding something?”

“You’ve been off. Do I need to be worried?”

“I’m worried about finals and my grandmother settling into a new place.”

I searched her eyes for a clue that would tell me what the fuck was going on but found nothing, so I did the next best thing. I grabbed her hot as fuck face between my hands and kissed the fuck out of her. My knees felt as if they would buckle, so I moved us to the nearest wall and pushed my hips against her.

“I need to protect you,” I whispered while kissing her. “Can you understand that?”

She whimpered as if it was all she could muster and continued to kiss me back.

“Pay attention,” I ordered, turning the tables.

“I can’t. You’re kissing me.”

Damn, why did she have to say that? I stopped kissing her but kept her close, wanting to feel her body. I waited for the haze of lust to clear before I spoke. “I need to trust you.”

“You can.”

“Can I?”

She nodded slowly but looked like she wanted to protest.

“Forever, Lake. I’ll love you.”  I ignored the guilt that ate at me for what I planned to do.

“Forever,” she whispered back.

It was hard, but I managed to pull away, leaving her against the wall and placing my head in the game for what came next.

I ate up the highway until I crossed the Nevada state line. Only then could I manage to slow down to a reasonable speed. My eagerness to see my father dead was disturbing to someone who hadn’t walked in my shoes, but I could only think of it as a long overdue chore.

The serenity of the facility grounds and the knowledge that Mitch had spent his last years in undeserved tranquility pissed me off more than the reminder that my own father sold and led me down this path.

I studied the schematics one last time and mentally traced my steps before leaving my car. I quickly found my point of entrance easy enough, and within moments, I was standing in front of Mitch’s door. 

I didn’t hesitate to enter the sterilized room that still managed to smell like death and took in the sleeping form not five feet away.

Mitch Masters was a resourceful, evil man, but he looked like neither now. His hair and skin appeared wilted and even his breathing was fragile. He slept but from the way he looked, he might as well have been dead. I’d known he was dying when John admitted to caring for him, but personally seeing it was all the more satisfying.

“I knew you’d come for me.”

The voice was delivered on ragged threads as it traveled the room to send a chill down my spine. I hadn’t even noticed he had awakened to watch me as I did the same.

“Yet you don’t sound afraid. My uncle isn’t alive to protect you anymore.”

“Yes, I was told of his unfortunate accident.”

“He was gunned down at a stop light. It was no accident.”

“And you’re here to avenge him?”

It was hard to express my feelings for my uncle and his death, and I sure as fuck wasn’t about to bare all to my father who’d like nothing more than to carve out my heart if he suspected I had one.

“I’m not going to kill you,” I said instead. The dark part of my soul raged at the lost opportunity. It needed Mitch Masters—the man who sired and sold me—to pay with his life.

“Of course, you are. You’re a killer. It’s all you’ll ever be.”

“You don’t know me well enough to say that, pops.” I exaggerated the endearment to act as an insult, but if he caught it, he didn’t let on.

“You’re my son. I know you better than anyone. I made you who you are long before I ever sold you.”

I snorted. “I hope the money was worth it.”

“I spent it on crap tables, cheap hookers, and booze.” His smile was slow but more disturbing than the evil behind it was the unwanted pain that caused me to flinch. He chuckled when he noticed my involuntary reaction. “Don’t be weak, boy. Love is for the weak, and those who carry the Masters name aren’t weak.”

“You’re not dead yet.” It was a warning.

“If you’re not going to kill me then why are you here?”

“I wanted you to know that you lost.”

“What exactly did I lose?”

“The chance to break me.”

“I didn’t need to break you. I just needed you to believe I did, and you did believe.”

“I think the cancer is eating at your brain.”

He didn’t react to the insult. Instead, he eyed me. Calculating.

“How long have you lived your life believing you were a monster? A trained killer? How much normality did you miss out on because of me? I took your entire goddamn past, and if I weren’t dying, I’d take your future. Your life is meaningless. You’re nothing more than a bad investment. I don’t care what that whore of yours makes you feel. She weakens you with lies all for the pleasure of what’s in between her thighs.”

It should have been enough to send me into a murderous rage. Instead, I saw straight through it as a desperate attempt to break me one last time. I stared down at him until the smug look on his face disappeared.

“I’d stick around,” I finally said when the tension grew too thick, “but I have a business to run and a girl to love, not to mention my little brother is getting married next week. See you around, pops. Maybe in hell one day.”