Master of Secrets Page 2

  And mine was about to get activated if I didn’t leave this room soon and report in.

  Plus, I had to prepare for my meeting with my contact in Trevolo’s underground. He was arranging my “abduction” and transportation to one of Trevolo’s pleasure islands designed as playgrounds for the rich, privileged, and most dirty of the world, where Trevolo housed his harems and threw lavish parties designed around every sexual fantasy.

  The women who serviced the men were there by their own choice, preferring a life carefree of responsibility in exchange for the use of their bodies. From what I’d learned, they were treated for the most part like pampered princesses. It was the hidden aspect of the place that I wanted to infiltrate. A place the majority of those who visited the island had no clue even existed.

  Only those in Trevolo’s inner circle knew his real business: the sale of women and children, ripped from their lives and then placed in underground auctions.

  “We’re getting nowhere. I have to finish my assignment. What do you want from me so I can get out of here?”

  A crease formed between Adrian’s brows. “What are you offering me?”

  I clenched my jaw. He wasn’t going to make this easy. Nothing with this man was easy.

  “Whatever you want, as long as you keep your mouth shut. If my family hears one word of this, the deal is off.”

  “Anything I want?” He leaned his face closer to mine, and immediately I felt a shiver shoot down my spine.

  I licked my lips. “Yes. You’re the master of secrets, what’s one more to the pile?”

  “Well then, I want what I said we couldn’t have five years ago.”

  “You can’t be serious. We live on different continents. Besides, you’re the one who thought I was too innocent for the things you wanted.”

  “You said anything, Ana.”

  “Dammit, Adrian. I will not marry you again. One drunken mistake was enough.”

  “If I recall, neither of us was drunk.”

  No, I was just stupid enough to believe you loved me as much as I loved you.

  “It makes no difference. I wasn’t the one who got cold feet or wanted an annulment.”

  A flash of something passed in his gaze and then was quickly masked. “Dammit, Ana. I was twenty-two years old and you were barely twenty-one.”

  “And your point is?” I lifted my chin.

  “I didn’t want to hold you back. You’d just finished your internship and gotten your dream job. If only I’d known what it really was, then I may have insisted we stayed married even if you hated me in the long run.”

  “I don’t want to go there.” I clenched my teeth. “Just tell me what you want. I’ll accept anything as long as it doesn’t involve marrying you.”

  “Are you sure you want to strike that kind of bargain?”

  “Adrian,” I warned.

  “What if I said I want you back in my bed?”

  My pulse jumped.

  “Why would you want that? Remember, I’m too innocent to handle what you want.”

  “You aren’t the same woman from five years ago.” He rubbed his hard cock against my aching clit. “And I’m definitely not the same man.”

  He bit my lower lip and it nearly took all my strength not to moan.

  “Not possible,” I said through a breathless whisper.

  “And why is that?”

  “Because I’m on assignment. I won’t have time for you.”

  “Oh, Ana, you have no idea. You will have plenty of time for me.”

  I frowned. “What the fuck does that mean?”

  “You see, I have a meeting with a certain Anastasia Ashton tomorrow. I’m supposed to capture her.” His voice grew angrier than before. “And give her to a distributor who was planning on selling her on the black market through one of Trevolo’s auctions.”

  Oh fuck.

  I’d known from the beginning I was working with a CIA operative who’d established a base in Trevolo’s world, but I never suspected it was…

  “Nothing to say?”

  “You’re my man on the inside?”

  “Yes.”

  “How long have you known it was me?”

  He stepped away from me and ran a frustrated hand through his perfectly groomed hair. “Not until I saw you on the security feed a month ago.”

  “This is why you haven’t been home in the last year.”

  “How would you know? The last time you went home was two years ago.”

  I wanted to argue but then kept my mouth shut. In my attempt to avoid Adrian, I’d all but isolated myself from my family.

  “That’s not important right now. What I want to know is if you’re going to let me finish my assignment or fuck it up for me.”

  “Do you mean, am I going to give you to a smuggler, buy you in an illegal auction, and then fuck you?”

  My breath hitched. I’d avoided thinking about the latter part of his question for months. I’d known what was expected of me. I was going to be one of the women on one of Trevolo’s islands, expected to service the master who bought me for the weeks I was there.

  Since I would be a “special jewel,” a woman who’d been “kidnapped” and sold as part of Trevolo’s sex trafficking ring, I’d leave the island with my purchaser. I’d convinced myself it would be easier to have sex with a stranger for the assignment, keeping it business, rather than being with a man who I was emotionally tied to, who could tear my heart to shreds, who I loved.

  Well, that was all shot to hell.

  Wait a second, he had been intending to fuck someone for the job too.

  “Why are you so upset at the prospect of sleeping with me? The only difference now is that you know the woman you’re going to partner with. We can both make the sacrifices.”

  Anger burned in his eyes. “You would rather fuck a complete stranger than me?”

  “A complete stranger didn’t reject me and then leave me without knowing what happened between us.” I closed my eyes, squeezing them tight, and tried my best to rein in my emotions.

  “Dammit, Ana, it wasn’t like that.”

  “I don’t want to talk about it.” I lifted a hand. “We will go the way it was planned. You will sell me, buy me, and then fuck me. We will play our roles, finish the assignment, but that’s where it will end. What we had is gone. When this is over, we go our separate ways.”

  I had to make myself believe the words I’d just spoken were possible. I knew getting involved with him again would guarantee another broken heart.

  Work had been the escape from the pain of what happened between us, and now my work was the reason he was back in my life.

  Adrian moved forward until he had my back pressed against the wall again. “Ana, it has never been and never will be as cold as you’re trying to make it. Sex was the one place we never, ever had any issues. We’ve done everything and anything a couple can do together. I know your body better than you do.”

  He was always so fucking cocky.

  “Then I guess we’re in agreement. Since we’ve previously done everything, it shouldn’t be so hard to keep it business.”

  “You are so fucking stubborn.” He tilted my chin up. “Your reaction to me from just a few moments ago tells me business is the last thing that it will ever be between us.”

  “I won’t let you hurt me again.” Dammit, I was not supposed to let him see the pain I’d never gotten over.

  With everyone else, I could keep my composure, but this man turned me into an emotional mess.

  “The last thing I want to do is hurt you.”

  He leaned down and kissed my lips, in the feather-soft way he’d done when we were in college, in the way that always made me give in. “In fact, I was working on a plan to get you back.”

  His words brought me back to reality, and I pushed him away. “Yes, I believe that. Especially when you were going to fuck your Solon associate for this assignment.”

  How many women had he fucked for the job? Yes, I knew I was planni
ng to do the same damn thing, but I never expected to get back with my ex. I’d chosen a line of work that would keep me from any relationship and had accepted it.

  I glanced at my watch. Fuck, I had to check in. Briana would lose her shit if I didn’t make contact soon.

  “I have to go or there won’t be an assignment.” I turned, shifting behind him and moved to the door.

  Adrian blocked my way. “We aren’t done here.”

  “Yes, we are. You’ll get my body and cooperation for the assignment. I’ll even let you lead since you know the rules of the inside. But you’ll never have anything else. Ana and Ian died the day you filed for the annulment.”

  Chapter Two

  Adrian

  * * *

  As soon as the door shut after Ana left the server room, I gripped the back of my neck and shook my head.

  What the hell was she thinking accepting this assignment? She was going to use her body to get the job done. It fucking infuriated me to think she’d let some fucker I worked with touch her.

  I knew this damn Solon/Interpol/CIA project would end up biting me in the ass. I never expected it to involve the one woman who meant more to me than anyone else on earth.

  This was not how I’d planned to get her back. Five years—I’d waited five damn years, only to have it fucked up here.

  There was no way I could convince her I was sincere about wanting her back.

  What woman would believe the job was a job and everything I’d done was only because I had to convince Trevolo and his circle I was one of them?

  I’d hate the idea of Ana fucking a man because it was part of her job. Hell, that was what she was about to do.

  Was the universe telling me I was screwed beyond repair?

  I’d hurt Ana the first time to keep her from giving up her dreams for me. Now I was going to hurt her for the second time by making her into my whore.

  I wasn’t going to lie and say I didn’t want her in my bed, but I’d planned to seduce her, get her to fall in love with me again, get her to forgive me for being such a shithead.

  Well, that plan was down the toilet.

  I pulled out my phone as it beeped to find a message from Trevolo. He wanted data on a few potential art clients. Which I knew was code for buyers of his “special jewels” as he liked to call them. Trevolo had a thing about calling those he auctioned jewels. The “harem jewels” were the women who came to his private islands around the world of their own accord. They traded their bodies for a life of luxury where every expense was paid for. This was a stark contrast to his “special jewels,” the women and children stolen from their lives and sold on the black market for God knew what.

  I’d spent the last two years posing undercover as the son of a well-known arms dealer, the boogeyman of the European underworld that no one knew was a fictitious creation on the part of the CIA and Interpol. My job was to infiltrate Trevolo’s organization and find out who the buyers for the “special jewels” were. He was my middleman for the sale of my military goods, and for his services, I’d worked cybersecurity for his various properties and businesses and supported his auctions by purchasing his “harem jewels.”

  I’d placed Anastasia Ashton in the pool of special jewels through a third party, before I’d known who she really was. Her background and dedication matched what we needed for the assignment. I’d always had my reservations about working with Solon because they were known for going rogue, but I accepted I had no say in what the higher-ups decided.

  As instructed by my director, I’d arranged for Anastasia’s abduction and placement in the special auction. All of it would take place on Trevolo’s private island in the Virgin Islands. I’d had an official invitation to participate in the special auction for months, with the time and date to be determined.

  It was the perfect setup to get into the area of the island that wasn’t part of Trevolo’s public harem, an area where women and children were sold as real slaves and weren’t on the island by choice.

  Now the thought of Ana being part of this world not only pissed me the fuck off but made my stomach hurt.

  It was hard to keep in mind that we were working to end an evil aspect of humanity when the bait was the one I viewed as mine.

  I shot Trevolo a quick response and then messaged my team. I scanned the room to see what Anaya had attached to the various modules. It took me a few seconds, but I found all eight of her trackers. I left them in place and held in an oath.

  This little stunt was not part of the fucking plan. The woman was playing with people who would sell her to the most disgusting fucker on the planet, or kill her outright, if she were ever to get caught. That was after they raped her repeatedly.

  Of all the women in the world to end up on assignment with, it had to be Anaya Anthony. I’d left her to keep her safe and instead she’d spent the last five years doing God knew what.

  I’d nearly gone out of my mind the second I’d spotted her on Trevolo’s security feed. All these years, she’d avoided me, finding every excuse to be away whenever I was visiting my sister, even going as far as missing Penny’s baby shower a few months ago. Then through some twist of fate, she popped up in the one place I never expected, in the middle of my fucking assignment as my fucking contact.

  No matter what her name was on paper, or how she’d changed her hair color or style, no one on earth could make me believe she wasn’t the girl I’d loved since I was barely a teenager.

  When I’d investigated her cover, I found it was tighter than any of the ones I’d encountered in all the years I’d worked as a cybersecurity expert for the CIA. Her history had everything from report cards and health records to family pictures. According to the persona created for her, she was a New York City-raised, middle-class, overachieving daughter of a commercial truck mechanic and a homemaker. She’d attended design school on a scholarship and then began interning for Monica Malone, who’d hired her on full time last year. To anyone who looked her up, they would only find Anastasia Ashton.

  Ana’s relationship with socialite Briana Amici should have tipped me off that she worked for Solon. Briana, in addition to being my sister Penny’s close friend, was a trainer and handler for the rogue agency. It wouldn’t have surprised me if she was the one who’d recruited Anaya.

  I checked my watch and noted fifteen minutes had passed since Ana left.

  I exited the server room, taking an extra few seconds to lock the door, and made my way to the ballroom, where the gala was in full swing.

  God, I hated these things. I’d been to more than my share of them during my youth. My mother, Dara Kipos, had insisted I live up to my responsibility as the heir to Kipos International, a horticultural conglomerate that she’d all but stolen out from under Penny’s feet. Thankfully, those days were over. Today my mother lived in a halfway house in a remote town in Montana after serving seven years for fraud.

  How insane was it that two children of criminals had become agents of organizations that fought crime? Although the one I was part of was sanctioned by a recognized government and not illegal.

  I was a fucking hypocrite. I’d overlooked the shit Trevolo was into for over a year and a half in order to get deeper into his world.

  But the thought of anything happening to Ana was unbearable. There was no way of getting her out of this assignment without blowing my cover or years of work.

  Fuck, I was going to have to let my Interpol partner, Sebastian, know Ana was here. He’d been my friend since college and had been an eyewitness to the mess that had become my relationship with Ana. I hadn’t told him I knew the true identity of Anastasia Ashton. When he found out, he’d be pissed.

  She was my weakness and he knew it.

  After he got over his irritation with me, he’d probably tell me I deserved to see her like this for being such a hardass about working with Solon.

  Scanning the room, I found Sebastian charming one of Trevolo’s nieces. Sebastian had no need for a cover—he was the son of Jonas We
ber, international financier and head of an underground German crime syndicate. He posed as the heir apparent to the empire but worked with Interpol as a fuck-you to his father for his hard stance on negotiating with enemies. Jonas Weber had all but told his rival to kill his wife when she was kidnapped and refused to consider paying the ransom for her safe return. Sebastian’s mother had washed up on the shores of the Spree River in Berlin with her neck slit.

  I never probed the crazy dynamics of Sebastian’s loyalties, especially since mine weren’t any less fucked up.

  Sebastian caught me glancing at him, lifted a brow, and gave me a signal that we needed to talk. He pulled out his phone and typed something. A second later, my mobile buzzed.

  Saw your dove. You’ve been holding out, old man. Is this an extraction situation?

  I wish, I responded. She’s my contact.

  This is about to become interesting. Hope she doesn’t shoot you in your sleep.

  The fact he didn’t seem surprised by my news gave me the distinct impression he’d known Ana was our Solon agent.

  It seems I’m not the only one holding out. I wanted to wipe that grin from the cocky bastard’s face.

  It was a need-to-know situation.

  I typed Asshole and then slipped my phone back in my pocket.

  I strolled the periphery of the ballroom until I found Ana attending to Catarina Trevolo. Mrs. T was a bitch on a normal day, and on gala days, she was an all-out evil queen. There was an annoyed crease between Ana’s brows, but she nodded and listened to whatever Catarina was complaining about.

  I picked up a glass of champagne, took a sip, and watched a group of men glance in Ana’s direction. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t play down her beauty. Ana stood out even in her too-big-for-her-body, nondescript dress one would find adorning a ninety-year-old matron.

  She had the high cheekbones and almond eyes of her birth mother and the golden tanned skin of her Indian father. And those eyes—I could still remember the countless nights I’d spent staring into those golden amber eyes. Never had I seen another human being with irises in that shade. I would have believed they were artificial if I hadn’t seen them cloud with both passion and anger.