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.”