Master of My Heart Read online

  MASTER OF MY HEART

  FINDING SABRINA, PART TWO

  MARISSA HONEYCUTT

  © 2018 Marissa Honeycutt

  Master of My Heart, Finding Sabrina, Part 2-Marissa Honeycutt

  All Rights Reserved in accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher or author constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from this book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher. Thank you for your support of author’s rights.

  ASIN:

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual person, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  The author acknowledges all song titles, film titles, film characters and novels mentioned in this book are the property of, and belong to their respective owners.

  Editor: Kim Young, Kim’s Editing Services

  Developmental Editor: Kristi Cramer

  Cover Designer: Raven Designs

  Cover photos obtained through depositphotos.com

  FBI Anti-Piracy Warning: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of a copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to five years in federal prison along with a fine of $250,000.

  Published by Marissa Honeycutt

  www.MarissaHoneycutt.com

  To Kim,

  Thank you for Chase

  Part One

  Chapter One

  You have until the end of the year to find a wife.”

  “I . . .” Chase Ralston stared at Richard Hawks, not quite certain he’d heard what he thought he heard. “I what?”

  “I spoke with the other Elders this past weekend. They set a deadline for you to get married. December thirty-first.”

  “I can’t believe they . . . I can’t believe you are giving me a deadline to get married. Have we somehow traveled back in time a couple centuries? Since when did I lose the opportunity to make my own choices in life?”

  “Since you made the choice to become an Elder-Son.” Richard frowned, his brown eyes stern. “I warned you. I’ve been warning you for years. Why is this such a difficult thing for you to understand?”

  Chase knew Richard was right. It was a requirement of an Elder-Son of the Brotherhood to be married in his early twenties. The Brotherhood controlled the world and its members. Its leaders, called Elders, and their heirs, Elder-Sons, were held to precise and demanding traditions. Richard, the Elder of Boston, had been placed into his position ten years ago after there was a massive upheaval caused by an Elder trying to gain too much power for his own—and the world’s—good. Richard approached Chase after he turned eighteen and told him about the organization, asking him to be his heir since he had no sons of his own. He accepted and the summer after Chase turned twenty, he was brought into the Brotherhood. He was now twenty-six and far too old to be unmarried in his world. He’d been avoiding the issue for years, but it had finally caught up with him.

  Chase had the utmost respect for Richard, having known him since he was a child. He and Chase’s father, Craig, were best friends growing up, and Chase held him in high regard, even before his father was killed in combat thirteen years ago. After his father’s death, Richard had kept him from going wild, encouraging Chase to pursue his dream of following in his father’s army footsteps. That was what the young, impetuous youth needed. It had given him a solid path to follow. Richard had always been supportive of Chase, especially after he was discharged and started his own security company.

  Chase sighed. “I know who I want to marry, Richard. You know that. I just . . . I can’t find her.” She’d disappeared the day after he met her. His heart told him she was still alive, even though there was no evidence to support it.

  Somewhere.

  She had to be.

  Sabrina.

  The girl he’d fallen for in the blink of an eye five years ago, just after he’d graduated from West Point Military Academy. She was only sixteen at the time. So young and innocent.

  “Then maybe it’s time to move on.” Richard’s voice was more gentle than he would have expected at such a suggestion. He stood and walked around his massive wooden desk, sitting next to Chase in one of the smaller leather chairs. “Chase, I understand what you’re going through. I know you fell hard for her. But you have responsibilities. You can’t continue to put everything on hold in the hopes that you’ll eventually find the girl.”

  “But she’s not dead, right? You said she couldn’t die.”

  “I said it was difficult for her to die, not impossible. I have searched. You have searched. Even Theo has searched. What more can we do?”

  Chase ran his hands through his dark hair and stared at the floor. Was he being foolish for holding on to hope for so many years? After all, it had been five years since he’d seen Sabrina. And they’d only had that one evening together . . .

  “Maybe she’s moved on,” Richard said softly, sadness in his voice. “People do that.”

  Chase didn’t want to admit it, but the thought had crossed his mind more than once. She was a beautiful girl. She would be attractive to many men once she was all grown up.

  His chest grew hot at the thought of her being with some other man and he shook his head. “What about her parents’ murder?” he choked out, looking up at Richard. “And I saw her. In that fucked-up hellhole, I saw her. Why would she come to me if she’d moved on? Or was dead?” He shook his head. “How could she possibly disappear off the face of the fucking planet?”

  Richard leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, hands clasped together. “I don’t know, Chase. Unsolved mysteries are painful. I wish I had an answer for you. I wish I could find her for you.” He sighed. “We have to face the possibility that we’ll never find her. You can’t keep putting your life, your responsibilities, on hold in the hopes she’ll magically show up on your doorstep someday.”

  Chase swallowed hard. He had duties. They both did. The thought of abandoning his quest for Sabrina was like a dull knife in his heart, but he also knew Richard was right. His refusal to get married put untold stress on Richard because of the expectations of the Brotherhood’s leadership. His life was not his own. Neither was Richard’s. They belonged to the Brotherhood.

  “You’re right,” Chase admitted slowly. “After I get home from this job, I’ll start looking.”

  *****

  Later that evening, Chase stepped out of the huge marble shower in the master bathroom of his condo and wrapped a navy-blue towel around his hips as he studied himself in the mirror. He’d gained back most of the muscle he’d lost after his injuries, and the puckered scar that ran along his left side was starting to fade. When he caught himself in the ritual of running his finger down the white line of scar tissue that ran from his temple to the middle of his cheek, he grabbed another towel from the nearby rack and rubbed his hair until it was dry.

  No woman had ever complained about his physical appearance, even with his scars. He was getting older, though. He could see it on his face. Twenty-six wasn’t old, but it wasn’t young, either. And with what he’d been through the last few years, he felt even older. His gray eyes were harder and he didn’t smile nearly as much as he did before coming face-to-face with the ugly reality of real-life co
mbat.

  Chase leaned his hands on the cool marble and stared into the sink as memories flooded his mind. Every time he had a new job, the fears from his last mission in the army reared their ugly head. Everyone told him it hadn’t been his fault. That he wasn’t responsible for losing three brothers-in-arms.

  Hearing that didn’t ease the pain, though. He still felt the weight of those losses every day.

  Maybe it was better that Sabrina was lost to him. She’d been so innocent, so naïve, so young. He had been, too. Back before things changed. Killing people changed you. Even if it was for a good reason, it still changed you. It tainted your soul. Could he ever hope to find a woman who would understand that and not judge him for it? He wasn’t a bad man, he knew that deep down inside, but sometimes he felt like it. His career path wasn’t an easy one. Was it even fair to ask any woman to be a part of his life?

  He didn’t have a choice. He had to find someone. Soon. But how could he find someone to marry in four months?

  Chapter Two

  Chase hunched over the coffee table in his living room, staring at the huge map of Northern Argentina. He studied the tiny towns surrounding his suspected target area until his eyes ached. But it was necessary. He didn’t want to be hampered by maps during the mission, and he and his team relied on few electronic devices while in the field. Some of his army buddies ridiculed his reliance on his memory and paper maps, but paper and his mind couldn’t be hacked, couldn’t be traced. Electronics made people vulnerable.

  Not that he didn’t like electronics. They had their place. He loved his smartphone and computer. They helped immensely in planning the complex details of his trips. Once out in the field, though, he didn’t want anyone’s life hanging in the balance because of a dead battery. He made sure he knew the territory, the terrain, the towns and settlements . . . Anything that would keep him and his team safe.

  He’d made the mistake of relying on electronics in Syria, where he’d gotten badly injured, ultimately receiving a medical discharge from the army. He’d lost three good men—three brothers—and one more was injured, like himself. He wouldn’t make that mistake again.

  “I thought you’d be moping around,” came a deep southern drawl from the arched opening that led from the hallway into the living room.

  Chase looked up to see his friend, brother-in-arms, and roommate, Ethan Marlowe, walking in, a bemused expression in his hazel eyes.

  “Don’t have time to mope,” Chase growled, irritated that Ethan knew him so well. “We leave tonight.”

  He plopped down next to Chase on the plush leather couch, his brows drawn together. “You’ve got it memorized already. You had it down last week. We all did. What are you worried about?”

  Chase sighed. “Nothing.” He leaned back, running a hand over his face. “I guess I’m trying to keep my mind off today. Don’t you think it’s kind of ridiculous that it bothers me?”

  Ethan shrugged. “I know you better than that. It’s an unsolved mystery. I get it.”

  Chase ran his hands over his newly shaved head. He always shaved it before a mission. One less thing to worry about out in the field. “It’s more than that.”

  “I know.” Ethan patted him on the shoulder. “Richard’s deadline doesn’t help.”

  Chase cursed. It had been two weeks since that conversation with Richard. Not many people would understand why he had a right to demand Chase get married, but Ethan did.

  The constant nagging about his refusal to get married annoyed him, but it wasn’t like he didn’t want to get married. He did. He just couldn’t find the girl. These last two weeks, in between last-minute job preparations, he’d searched as much as he could, knowing he’d have to give up his search soon, but there was still no sign of her.

  Part of him wondered if Richard was right. Maybe he should just move on, try to find someone he could hold a decent conversation with, and accept that Sabrina was gone. After this long, what were the chances he’d ever find her?

  But the longing in his heart wouldn’t go away.

  Then there was the time he saw her after he got hurt in Syria. She appeared out of nowhere and healed him, kept him from dying. Even Ethan had seen her; otherwise, Chase might have thought he was imagining things. He knew she had been there in some form, but was she an angel? Had she come back from the grave? Or was she something else entirely? After he had come home, Chase had told Richard about it. He’d expected the older man to be shocked, but he wasn’t. The Brotherhood dealt with many supernatural things, so it just seemed to confirm what Richard had suspected about Sabrina the first time he saw her—she wasn’t completely human. She was some sort of demi-Immortal.

  The Immortals, angel-like beings from another realm, worked with the Elders of the Brotherhood to guide the world in finding a balance between good and evil. Just as there were good and bad humans, there were good and bad Immortals. Theo, one of the Immortals who watched over North America, had come along on a particularly difficult mission a few months ago. Chase had grilled him about Sabrina, but he insisted he knew nothing about her. Theo had no reason to lie and had encouraged him to keep searching.

  It was one of the reasons Chase still hoped he’d be able to find Sabrina someday. And why he’d never married, even though Richard constantly hounded him to do so. He and his wife, Kathy, set him up on dates monthly, trying to help him find a suitable wife, but none captured his interest. Chase preferred to keep his dating casual and distant, just as he had since high school. His heart had been stolen five years ago and it was still in the hands of his precious Sabrina.

  Chase’s heart ached for her. He picked up his phone and scrolled to the oldest picture he had to gaze at the beautiful, green-eyed, brown-haired beauty who had captured his heart. It had been taken the night they’d been officially introduced. She looked so young. So did he, now that he thought about it.

  Today was her twenty-first birthday. He’d met her when he was twenty-one. Maybe this will be the year I find her. It had to be. He couldn’t imagine marrying anyone else.

  The marriage deadline loomed, though. If he didn’t find a wife . . . Well, he didn’t want to find out what the consequences would be. At a minimum, he’d be forced into a marriage with a woman he didn’t know. Beyond that, he couldn’t say. He didn’t really want to think about it. He just wanted to find Sabrina.

  Loud voices from the hallway interrupted his thoughts as the rest of the team arrived. It was almost time to leave.

  Matt Rhodes was Chase’s transportation guy. He was a quiet, tall, thin man with short blond, curly hair and hazel eyes. Lance Green, his weapons manager, was a tall, broad, black man with intense dark brown eyes. Corey Thompson, his communications guru, was short, thin, and reminded Chase of his youngest brother. He had an infectious smile and a great sense of humor. These three guys, along with Ethan, made up his core team.

  The job they were preparing for had a specific mission—an assassination. Several, actually. While Chase was a good shot, he knew he needed someone really, really good, so he’d called in a friend to help out.

  Alex Kunze, a German Elder-Son and renowned Brotherhood assassin, appeared in the doorway, followed by two members of his own team, Americans Seth Hurst and Tony Monaldo. The three of them were in their early forties and had been active in Brotherhood activities since before Chase had even heard of it.

  Alex stood there, looking like the Teutonic god Chase half-suspected he was, his concerned blue-eyed gaze landing on him. Alex and he had spoken at length about Sabrina, and his friend had done everything in his power to help find her, to no avail. Chase knew Alex understood his despair, having gone through something similar with his own wife, Anna.

  The big blond man sat down next to Chase on the couch. “Are you all right?” he asked, concern apparent in his accented baritone voice.

  Chase shrugged. “Trying to stay busy.” He ran his hand over his fa
ce. “Today always kinda sucks.”

  Alex nodded. “I understand. If we weren’t leaving tonight, I’d take you out and we’d drown our sorrows in beer.”

  Chase laughed. “Typical German.”

  Alex drew his brows together. “I don’t think drowning sorrows in alcohol is a particularly German thing to do. I know Americans are just as likely to do it.”

  “But you specifically said beer. That’s what I was referring to.”

  “Ah!” Alex leaned his head back and gave a hearty laugh, slapping his hands on his thighs. “Touché.”

  “Is Anna okay?” Chase asked, turning serious. He knew Alex’s wife had been reluctant to agree to his attendance on this job because of the expected duration.

  Alex sobered and then sighed. “She is okay. A little nervous.” He chuckled. “Told me I had better come home or she’d kick my ass.”

  “She going to be okay with radio silence?”

  “She’s with my parents and the babies. My dad will keep a close eye on her. I suspect Sebastian will pop in every once in a while for reassurance.”

  “Pop in on us or her?” Sebastian was an Immortal who watched over Germany.

  “Both.”

  Chase pressed his lips together. He knew Sebastian had gone on missions with Alex before, but didn’t like the idea of an Immortal possibly popping in during a crucial moment.

  “I know what you’re thinking,” Alex said. “They can be subtle, you know. When they want to be.”

  “I know.” Chase took a deep breath. “I guess it’s not a bad thing to have him show up every once in a while. I’m sure my mom would appreciate the update, as well.”

  “I’m certain he will be willing to do it.”

  Chase leaned forward to study the map again and then shook his head at himself. Ethan was right. He knew the map backwards and forwards. He glanced at Alex. “I really appreciate you coming along on this, man. You’re the best sniper I know, and it’s so much easier when we can take the guys out in one shot.”