Masters Forever (Masters #3)

by Ginger Voight

  “Tell me you want me,” he begged in a hoarse whisper. I shook my head, trying with each gasping breath to fight it. “Tell me!” he commanded again.

  “I want you,” I found myself repeating. “Oh, God. Dev.”

  He shuddered against me before he pushed my shirt aside and cupped my breast in one large hand, thumbing the nipple until I trembled beneath him. He kissed me again, this time much softer, much slower, lazily exploring my mouth with his tongue, as if evoking every kiss we had ever shared.

  I melted beneath him as he bared my skin for his inquisitive fingers. I nearly came just from his fingers and his lips alone, and he hadn’t even removed my pants. This was his magic. When he reached for the bottoms I wore, there was nothing in the world I could have done to stop him.

  But… it wasn’t up to me.

  “Don’t let me interrupt,” Caz mentioned casually from the doorway.

  Dev growled as he lifted up to face his nemesis. “Get the fuck out of here, Caz!”

  “I’ll leave if she wants me to,” Caz replied as he glanced at me. “What do you say, pussycat? Should I stay or should I go?”

  He lifted up his phone, playing one of the songs we had danced to on New Year’s Eve, instantly evoking the memory of being between the two of them. He placed the phone on the chest, before digging out the ill-gotten gains he’d originally left the room to fetch.

  I looked up at Dev, who watched me, waiting for my answer. “Well, ‘pussycat?’” he practically snarled. “Ready to make your naughty little fantasy a reality? Or was that what you were here to do already?”

  He lifted off of me and snatched his shirt from the floor near the bed before he grabbed the vaporizer pen and cartridges from Caz and stalked into the sofa. I sat up, covering myself, so Caz couldn’t see how weak I’d been.

  A few minutes later, and he would have gotten an eyeful.

  “You okay?” he asked softly and I nodded. I followed him into the sitting room where Dev waited for no one before he began medicating himself.

  “How did you know we were here, Dev?”

  He exhaled a long stream of white vapor. “Darcy called me the minute she left her apartment. I was on the next plane.”

  “But how did you know we were here?” I persisted.

  He glared at Caz. “Lucky guess.”

  Caz sat in one of the chairs opposite the sofa. “She had questions, man. If you weren’t ready to share them, I figured just take her right to the source.”

  “Are you fucking insane?” he exploded. “You know how dangerous this is! For fuck’s sake, Caz!”

  I wasn’t playing around this time. I sat on the sofa next to Dev and made him look me in the eye. “How did you know we were here? In this hotel? In this suite?”

  He sighed. He took another hit before he answered. “I’m having you followed, Coralie.”

  It was my turn to explode. “Are you fucking insane?!”

  He grabbed me by the arm so I wouldn’t shoot off the sofa like a rocket. “No, I’m not insane. I’m the only one who is trying to protect you.”

  “From whom?” I demanded between clenched teeth.

  He glared at Caz. “Tell her.”

  They glared at each other for long moments before Caz relented finally with a sigh of his own. “You asked me earlier if I had ever been in love before. The answer is yes.” I glared at him as I waited. “Her name was Laurie. She was a cocktail waitress here at the hotel. Beautiful. Sweet. Much too good for a guy like me.”

  “An understatement,” Dev snarled, but Caz ignored him.

  “This was after all the shit went down with Dev. I knew what kind of corner I had painted myself into. I just wanted a way out. I started drinking. A lot. And there she was like this angel, ready to save me from myself. For a little while I believed her. She started to talk about moving elsewhere, starting over somewhere else, back home in Connecticut where she grew up. She was a small town girl. Wholesome. Decent. Just a really good person,” he added, emphasizing the word ‘good’ like it was an almost impossible trait to find in another person. “It was such a beautiful dream,” he murmured as he reminisced. “Because I loved her, because I wanted to believe we could escape, I told her the truth about Suzanne. I thought she should know what she was getting into.” Both of them scoffed as Caz trailed off.

  “What happened, Caz?”

  He reached for the vaporizer and took three long hits before he answered. “Suzanne killed her.”

  My breath caught in my throat as I stared at him. Devlin’s hand fell away, forcing me to turn to face him, but he wouldn’t look me in the eye either. I turned back to Caz. “What?”

  “I mean, she didn’t do it, obviously. She’d never get her hands that dirty. Instead, Laurie was found hanging in the employee locker room, strangled by her own belt.”

  Dev’s voice was soft as he said, “They ruled it as a suicide.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  Caz’s deadened eyes met mine. “The autopsy showed she was six weeks pregnant. She hadn’t told me. She hadn’t told anyone. It simply looked like she opted out because she was on her own, had no money and no options.”

  His voice caught as he finished. It was the most human I had ever seen him, and the most devastated. “Oh, Caz,” I said before I raced to his side, to kneel beside him. I took his hand in both of mine. “But what makes you think it was Suzanne?”

  “Laurie would have never killed herself, CC. That wasn’t who she was. Hell, she was the one trying to pull my sorry ass from the fire. She was strong. Like you. She was a fighter. Like you. And when Suzanne made it clear she wasn’t going to let me go…,” he trailed off.

  “What do you mean?”

  He sighed again and Dev scooted the bottle of champagne across the table to him. “She went after my never, CC. I was never going to show Laurie how ugly my world was. I couldn’t. I knew I’d lose her.”

  “Suzanne set up the whole thing,” Devlin said softly, “so that Laurie would walk in on them together in the nastiest, most compromising position possible.”

  Caz jumped up from the chair, grabbing the bottle in one hand and stalking from the room out onto the balcony. I glanced at Dev, whose expression was solemn.

  “Sound familiar?” he asked softly.

  “I don’t understand. If this was after everything she did to you, how do you know all this?”

  I didn’t expect him to answer, particularly because he looked like he had swallowed a handful of hot charcoal, but he did. And what he said stabbed me right in the gut. “Because I was there, Coralie.”

  “But why?”

  He shook his head. “I was mad. I was desperate. I had no options. Suzanne uses all those things to her advantage wherever she can. The money I made off of that set up my mom’s treatment for a year. Like I was ever going to make that flipping burgers somewhere, which was all I could get at the time thanks to her. And the bitch knew it. She waved it in front of my nose until I had no choice but to take it. I could get revenge, and security, all in one fell swoop.”

  “And if Caz knew that she could bring you back, then he’d see that he’d never get away,” I concluded.

  “Exactly.”

  I took a deep, shaking breath as I tried to process everything. “I feel like I’ve gone down the rabbit hole,” I murmured as I reached for the vaporizer myself. “This is insane.”

  “This is the dark and seedy world of entitlement, darlin.’ The Haves own the Have-Nots. The really sadistic ones move us all around like chess pieces for their own demented enjoyment.”

  I shook my head. What they were saying was too outlandish to be believed. They were talking about powerful wealthy people who had much too much to lose by playing these kinds of games. What they were suggesting was criminal. “Do you think Suzanne killed Laurie, Dev?”

  He took a deep breath as he leaned against the sofa. “I saw her face that night. Catching us like she did… it destroyed her. Suzanne knew exactly what she was doing, timin
g it so perfectly that she’d catch Caz servicing me, which, apparently, came as quite a shock to her.” I gulped hard. I could only imagine. Caz’s own words lingered in my ear.

  “Would you believe me if I told you that even good ol’ Dev found himself bound with ties because she wanted it? He even let another guy suck him off because she wanted it.”

  I glanced back at Devlin, who was quite obviously sickened by his past and all the things he was confessing. “I thought the devastated look in her eyes would haunt me till the day I died. It was nothing compared to the look on your face,” he added quietly. “But after everything that happened, with Lydia and with Laurie, I didn’t want to take any chances. If anything happened to you…,” he trailed off. I took his hand in mine.

  “I’m not going anywhere, Dev.”

  He caressed my face with his hand. “I’d do anything to protect you, Coralie. Even if I have to let you go.” He rested his forehead against mine. “And I keep trying. But I keep failing.”

  I brushed his cheek with my hand. “Me too.” His lips met mine softly and sweetly. I sighed when he pulled away. “I should go check on Caz,” I said and he nodded.

  I found Caz leaning over the rail of the balcony, sending tiny drops of champagne to the ground below. I wrapped an arm around him and laid my head on his shoulder. “I’m sorry,” I said. It was all I could say.

  “Me, too,” he responded before he rested his head on mine. We stayed there long minutes in silent comfort before he said, “You know what? This is a crap hotel.” He dropped the bottle of champagne on the floor of the balcony, shattering it instantly. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

  We checked out a little past midnight. When Dev and Caz flipped off the security monitor, which recorded every single thing that went on in Suzanne’s hotel whenever she wasn’t around, I couldn’t help but join them.

  We were all sending a very clear message once and for all, particularly when the men she thought she owned walked out of her hotel with me between them.

  Fuck Suzanne Everhart.

  CHAPTER TEN

  We all checked into another hotel, retreating into individual rooms to emotionally regroup. Though I wanted to spend more time with both of them, particularly Caz, who had grown so sullen with memories of Laurie, I needed some time to think. What they were suggesting was preposterous. There was no way that someone with as much to lose as Suzanne Everhart would play this fast and loose with her future. She was on the verge of becoming one of the most influential women in the country. Why throw that away for kinky sex or revenge?

  I had known people like her my whole life. Granted she could be cunty, and no doubt she could be a selfish, conniving whore even if she was married to a congressman, or came from a prominent southern family with a sterling reputation. Some people sucked and that was just life.

  But the rest?

  I couldn’t wrap my head around it.

  I called Lucy the very next morning, as soon as I thought she would be up. She listened to my tale of woe silently before she finally said, “Anything is possible, Ceece. Powerful people tend to stay powerful for a reason.”

  “So you believe them?”

  She sighed. “I’m just a crazy ol’ pregnant lady, girl. What do I know? The dreams I’ve been having make their stories about Suzanne seem tame in comparison. But I mean, come on. We’ve all heard the conspiracies about really powerful people. JFK, hello? Who’s to say for sure except the flies on the wall?”

  “That and the surveillance cameras.”

  “Now see, that’s where you lose me. There’s no way they could get away with that. Are you sure there were cameras?”

  “That’s what Caz said.”

  “Yes, and what a bastion of virtue. Practically a monk.”

  “What do you want me to do? Take the clocks apart and look inside?”

  “Wouldn’t matter. Having the equipment isn’t necessarily the damning part. They could always play it off as having security for the hotel when no one is actually staying in the room. Having video, however…,” she trailed off and I nodded. “If you could find that, you could take her down. Like, epically. Something to think about if Harvey wins the nomination.”

  “God, Lucy. You’re starting to sound like them.”

  “What can I say? Thanks to the company you keep, I have to work a little harder to keep things exciting.”

  “You keep things plenty exciting. It’s because of you I’m even in this pickle, remember?”

  She laughed. “Guilty as charged. But I promise to keep things more normal when you get back to town. At least until we get to meet Axl, anyway. I can already tell you this one is going to come out swinging.”

  I softened when I thought about my ‘nephew’s’ upcoming birth. “I can’t wait to meet him.”

  “Me too,” she sighed happily. “So figure out all that crazy shit while you’re there, so you can come back home to normal life in L.A.”

  I chuckled. It sounded a lot like what I had aspired to do the year before. Maybe this time I could actually pull it off, if I managed not to marry anyone before I left. “Deal.”

  By the time I disconnected the call with Lucy, Devlin came knocking at my door. “Where’s Caz?” I asked.

  “Likely sleeping one off,” he said as he leaned against the door. “Reliving the whole thing with Laurie is never good for him.”

  “I guess not,” I said as I followed Devlin out of my hotel room. “It seems like he’s done everything in his power to forget it, like shunning actual human contact and any legitimate relationships.”

  “That’s just Caz,” he shrugged.

  I shook my head as I exited my room and followed him down the hall. “I really don’t understand your relationship.”

  “He had it right before. We hate each other because it’s easier. And God knows that Suzanne has done everything in her power to fuel that hatred. Maybe she’s afraid that if we actually team up, she’s toast.”

  “So why don’t you?”

  “Because he’s an opportunistic, self-serving asshole,” he grumbled as we stepped inside the elevator. “The only one Caz cares about is Caz. Laurie was one of his last lifelines to humanity, and Suzanne made quick work of that.”

  “And when he showed up at Father’s house, on Margot’s arm, you knew he was coming for payback.”

  His eyes met mine. “Why wouldn’t he? Why shouldn’t he?” He leaned against the wall of the elevator.

  “It’s not your fault she died, Dev.”

  There was a hard edge to his voice. “Isn’t it?”

  He was quiet the rest of the way to the lobby. I was surprised when Dev walked me out of the hotel entirely. “Where are we going?”

  “I have a surprise for you,” he said as he helped me into a waiting cab.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “What you want most. The truth,” he said simply.

  The cab dropped us off in North Las Vegas, at a rundown apartment complex with walls splattered by graffiti. Dev shoved some money at the cabbie before took my hand and guided me toward the building.

  “This was one of the places I lived after we moved to Las Vegas. The first place,” he added. “I was fourteen, like I told you before. Kinda awkward and gangly, with a chip on my shoulder the size of Massachusetts. I hated Las Vegas. I hated Harlen,” he said with a grimace, and I knew immediately that he meant his stepdad. “I even hated my mom. Can you imagine? She was trying to keep us safe and together after her husband died, and I just raged against anything she said or did, like she was the enemy. In my mind, she kind of was.”

  I was shocked to hear him admit such a thing, after all he had done to take care of her. I saw his face when we were in that nursing home. He adored her. Or so I thought. “But you love your mom.”

  “You’ll never hate anyone as much as the people you love, Coralie,” was his grim reply. “Because you expect more from them, they can really let you down. She just didn’t understand how fucking twisted…,�
�� he trailed off and shook his head. “Harlen was an impotent drunk. He would never actually threaten anyone, because he was a tiny fucking maggot who couldn’t fight his way out of a paper bag. His abuse was far more insidious. He was so fucking critical over everything. Mom was stupid. Darcy was fat.”

  “And what were you?” I asked softly.

  His face hardened instantly. “I was me. And he hated everything about me. The music I loved. The things I said. He constantly berated me for having long hair or an earring, the kinds of things fourteen-year-old rebels without a clue shamelessly sport to flout convention. Pissed him off in the worst way. Called me a faggot every chance he got. ‘Why don’t you go out and suck dick, faggot? Bring in some money for a change. Stop moping over your goddamn fairy music.’”

  I squeezed his hand in mine. He sighed as he led us down the street and around the block to a local high school.

  “I was one of the weird kids who wanted to go to school. It was the only place I could play, for one. Not playing was never an option. I go stir crazy when I can’t play. I need it, as much as I need to fucking breathe. By staying at school all day, every day, I didn’t have to see his hateful face or hear his goddamned voice. I didn’t have to hear him call Darcy a fat cow, or my mom a stupid whore, lashing out at them when he was drunk, like he was daring me to do something about it. I wanted to kill that motherfucker. Every goddamned day I wanted to kill him.”

  I squeezed his hand again. I could only imagine.

  “I didn’t make good grades because I wanted to, Coralie. I made them because I had to. I had to get away from him, from this place. I was ready to fight my way out from under everything. And I did it without asking him or anyone else for a goddamn thing.”

  We walked past the high school towards yet another rundown building, this one in even worse shape than the other. “He resented that he couldn’t control me like he could control them. I made money however I could, just so I didn’t have to depend on him for anything. I stayed with friends, and which later included older women, just so I didn’t have to go home. He drank more when I was home. I think it was because I looked like my dad, and the older I got, the more threatened he got.”