Sinful (The Sin Duet Book 3) Read online

  Answers. If they were looking to me for answers, they were going to be sorely disappointed. Not only had I been just as shocked by Matthias’s behavior as everyone else, but considering he’d looked ready to kill me too, I was just as confused as they were.

  But I was an ORUS agent, and I didn’t have time to ruminate on my feelings. There was a mission to complete, after all. And although the new Orion wasn’t as much of a jackass as the previous leader, Ian was still the head of the organization. He would want an update so he could determine the next steps they would take.

  “You’ll get your answers as soon as I have some. But that means I have to check in.” I pulled out my phone. But before I could dial, Oskar leaned over and snatched it.

  “Hey! What are you doing?”

  “Keeping you from calling any more of your cronies in to finish the job.”

  I glared at him and then glanced over to the office where Noah was now sitting up with his shirt off. With his naked torso on display, I could tell that he was a former agent. He had a bullet wound scar on one of his shoulders and now a sizeable gash above his heart, near his collarbone. It must not have been that bad though, since the doctor was currently dressing it and not taking him to the medical bay.

  “Bring her here,” Noah said. His voice was weak, but we could all hear him clearly.

  Oskar wasted no time and dragged me to my feet. Even though he was taking me against my will, his touch was still gentle.

  Noah glared up at me.

  “Was that your mission, Gemma? Did Ian send you here to take us out? Or to turn Matthias against us? Not sure what the hell you could have said to him to make him go off like that. I’ve never seen him that far gone.” Noah shook his head.

  I wasn’t sure what that meant, but it probably wasn’t anything good. Not for me at least. Because if they had no clue what was wrong with Matthias, that meant they had little hope of helping him.

  “My mission had nothing to do with turning Matthias against anyone. And in case you hadn’t noticed, I was in just as much danger as the rest of you.”

  Noah’s forehead crinkled in thought. “Yeah. I noticed that.” He exchanged a dark look with Rafe who shook his head slowly.

  “Look. All I want to do is contact Ian and let him know what’s going on. You know how this works. I only have the information I’m given to complete the mission. If you want the real story, that’s above my pay grade.”

  After a long, tense moment, Noah looked over at Oskar and raised an eyebrow. The blond grunted and handed back my phone. Reluctantly.

  “But you call him here and now. You’re not going off somewhere by yourself until we know what the hell is going on.” Noah stared at me pointedly, and I nodded.

  Oskar smiled again. “Until further notice, you’re under house arrest with Blake Security. But tell Ian not to worry. We’ll keep his little spy safe and sound.”

  My heart sank.

  It looked like Ian’s reaction to my mission failure was the least of my problems.

  Gemma

  I accepted my phone back from Oskar with hesitation. This was not a conversation I was looking forward to. However, Ian was not a patient man, so I might as well get it over with.

  Ian’s number was the last I’d called from this particular burner phone. I hit the number and let it ring a certain number of times and then immediately called back.

  Ian answered with his usual grunt. “What’s your status?”

  “We have a situation,” I responded slowly, turning my back so I could talk without Oskar glaring directly in my face. Not that it helped much. Now I was facing Noah and Rafe. The doctor looked between them all warily as he continued to bind Noah’s ribs. My mind locked-on to the rhythmic motion as the white bandage wound around and around.

  I let the soothing sight of that fabric traveling around Noah calm my mind before responding. “Matthias is in the wind.”

  I pulled the phone away from myself at the loud expletive that came over the line. As Ian ranted, I sighed. Noah and Rafe continued to glare. When the noise finally subsided, I put the phone back to my ear.

  “What the fuck happened? You had the target on lock.”

  “I don’t know exactly what happened yet, but my identity was compromised. He was upset. Then it was like a switch flipped, and he was enraged. One minute he was normal, and then the next he was trying to kill everyone.”

  “Put Noah on the phone,” Ian gritted out.

  I winced and then held the phone out slowly in Noah’s direction. “Orion wants to speak with you.”

  But it was Rafe who spoke up, loud enough for Ian to hear. Purposefully, I was quite sure.

  “Orion can fuck off. We don’t answer to him. We’re not his toy soldiers anymore.”

  I winced at the description, but having heard some of Rafe’s and Noah’s stories, I could understand their frustration. Hadn’t I also become disillusioned with the way ORUS played with our lives, treating us like disposable resources? Wasn’t that why I’d been working so hard and strategizing ways I could disappear and live a different life?

  Every time I thought of it, I felt so disloyal. Andromeda had sacrificed so much to keep me, even moving her partner and me to a remote island in Canada for a while so I could grow up without anyone in ORUS finding out. Once I’d been old enough, Andromeda had trained me, harder and faster than any other recruit, so I would never again be vulnerable. Never again be a victim. And how was I going to repay the woman who had saved me?

  By defecting as soon as I can.

  I pulled the phone back, but then Noah shook his head. He tried to reach for the phone and then groaned as the motion pulled at his shoulder. Finally, Rafe stepped forward, took the phone, and put it on speaker. He didn’t look happy about it, though.

  “What do you want, Ian?” Noah said.

  “Just to talk. This situation isn’t ideal for either of us. We’ve worked together before. I think we can help each other in this instance.”

  “Not sure what you’re proposing we do. If Matthias doesn’t want to be found, then he won’t be. And if you think I’m going to help you track the kid down, then all that power really has gone to your head.”

  Ian’s breathing was the only thing they could hear over the line for a minute. “This is a courtesy I’m extending you, Blake. But you and I both know I’m not asking.”

  Well, hell. I instinctively took a step back. Throwing an alpha male statement like that into this kind of room was like detonating a bomb. Noah sat up taller, like he could physically intimidate even over the phone. Rafe bared his teeth and Oskar crossed his beefy arms. Delaney still stood near the entrance to the room, but he wore the same stoic expression as before. Like he was prepared to fight to the death anyway.

  It was like watching a pack of predators all circling the same piece of meat. Guaranteed not to end well for anyone. At least not without massive amounts of bloodshed.

  Finally, Noah said, “If you go after my man, it will end in blood. And I’m not talking about his. You sent an ORUS agent into my house.”

  All eyes swung to me. It took all my training to hold my expression. I would not show fear. If they got even a whiff of it, they’d pounce on the weakness. Until they knew what the hell had happened with Matthias, I had to keep it together.

  “My only interest is to get Matthias off the street before bodies start to drop. Once we have him contained, then you and I can talk.” Ian’s voice jumped, making him sound like he was running.

  He must be on the move. I could only hope he wasn’t coming here.

  “I’ll let you know what we find.” Noah nodded at the phone again, and Rafe hit the button to hang up.

  I bet Ian loved that. He was probably chewing nails. A rogue, former ORUS agent was off the map and possibly about to unleash destruction on the streets of New York City. No wonder Ian had sounded like he was running. If anyone would be a target for a rogue Matthias, the head of the organization that had ruined his life would be at the t
op of the list.

  Noah seemed to have the same thought because he looked at Rafe and said, “Get eyes on Ian. Maybe we’ll get lucky and Matthias will show up. This might be our last chance to catch him before he truly goes off grid.”

  “Got it.” Rafe handed him the phone and then walked out of the room. Oskar stepped forward.

  It was amusing how they accused ORUS of treating them like toy soldiers, but they all reported to Noah the same way. They were still soldiers doing the bidding of the monarchy.

  But now, Noah Blake was their king.

  “Take her to the medical wing. And secure it this time. Until we know what’s happening, we don’t want her causing any more trouble.”

  I rolled my eyes. “So I’m a prisoner for real?”

  Oskar winked. “You’re lucky. If Matthias’s knife had been a few inches lower, you wouldn’t be going to the medical wing right now.”

  He gestured for me to precede him. It was tempting to resist just to see what he’d do but I was suddenly exhausted. Plus, I didn’t want them to be my enemies. All I wanted was to find out what happened with Matthias, figure out how to undo my devil’s bargain with the Family, and somehow escape it all unscathed.

  But I couldn’t accomplish any of that right now and definitely not when I was so tired I felt like collapsing. So I walked down the corridor that led to the medical wing I’d stayed in when I’d first come here. The whole time, I was acutely aware of Oskar following close on my heels.

  When we reached the room, I whirled around at the sound of the door slamming behind me. Oskar’s face appeared in the glass panel on the door. It shouldn’t have been so creepy the way he was staring, but it made me feel like a science experiment.

  “You said if Matthias’s knife had been lower, I wouldn’t be going to the medical wing right now,” I challenged. “Where would I be going then?”

  Oskar smiled slowly. “Into a body bag.”

  Then he was gone, leaving me locked in the cold, sterile room.

  3

  Matthias

  I woke on the floor next to the bed curled up into a ball. Rays of sunlight streaked into the flat, and I had to squint against the blinding light of it.

  What the fuck had happened?

  As I pushed myself into a sitting position, I did my mental pat down for the weapons strapped to my body and then reached up to the bedside table for my gun. I breathed a sigh of relief. Everything was where it should be. As it always did, slowly, bits and pieces of the day before started coming back to me.

  I remembered waking up, wrapped around Gemma, and seeing the tattoos on the back of her neck. Even now, it made my stomach roil and knot and bunch and squeeze, making me want to shoot out bile through my esophagus. How had I been so wrong about her?

  Well, it’s easy. Your instincts told you not to trust her. But you listened to your dick.

  Yeah, note to self: stop listening to dick.

  The problem was that with Gemma it felt like it was more than my dick, like what was happening with us was way more than just physical. My brain wanted to spend the time dissecting the threads, unraveling each one as it led to what she said that might be the truth and what she said that was a lie. Fact or fiction. Could I even decipher it?

  No time for that. Assess the situation. Move on.

  "Fuck. Get your shit together, mate."

  I pushed myself into a sitting position. Then I steadied my breathing. In for three, hold for three, out for three. I’d learned to meditate during my training. Sometimes it helped me see more clearly.

  After I’d found out who she was, we’d gone to the office. I’d dragged her in to talk to Noah and Rafe, the rage I was carrying around lingering just under the surface.

  Despite the colossal fuckup of fucking the enemy, neither of them called me out for being an epic knobhead and putting the whole company at risk.

  Both of them were on my side, trying to figure out who would send Gemma to infiltrate us and why she was there—what the Family wanted with me, what ORUS might want with me, etc. And then...

  A sharp pain pierced the fleshy brain matter behind my eyeball as I tried to fit the pieces together again. But unlike yesterday, I didn't black out; I fought the pain.

  Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out. Focus. Breath by breath, moment by moment, the pain receded, and I started to see with clarity. Something had happened in that office. Something I couldn't remember.

  And afterward… chaos.

  The rage I kept locked away—my monster. Someone had unlocked the door and coaxed it out with the promise of fresh meat, and I'd been helpless to do anything about it. Mentally, I’d tried to lock the monster back in. But once the dragon was out, there was really no containing it. And only death and destruction followed behind it.

  There had been a fight… and then…

  Dread unfurled in my gut as the memory became clear.

  I'd stabbed Noah. My mentor. The man who’d saved my life. The man who was so much more than a mate to me. He was my brother. Shit.

  Noah.

  I itched to pick up the phone and call, to check in, to assess if Noah was okay. Under normal circumstances, even in a fight, I was cold, clinical. Because my directive was no longer to kill, I usually opted to maim. Unless someone was trying to kill me, in which case, killing was on the table.

  But Noah wouldn't have been trying to kill me. I would have known that, right? So maybe I'd only given him a wound that was enough to hurt him, but not kill him.

  I hoped.

  Come on, think, think, think. Everyone in that building knew basic CPR. The ones with field experience—Rafe, Jonas, and Dylan—they would know what to do. How to patch the wound, etc. Then they would have called Breckner. They would have saved him. Besides, when I got settled, I could just hack in and check for myself.

  Do not hack in.

  There was always the chance that one of those knuckleheads had been paying attention on how to track people. Without me, it would take a while. But it could still be done, and I didn't have the requisite equipment to hack in super-stealth mode before I left.

  You just have to walk away from this one.

  I hated that idea, but I knew it was what I needed to do. I pushed myself to standing and forced myself to get ready. I didn't have long. If I'd left any traces of myself, it wouldn't be long before Rafe came knocking, or worse... Ian.

  All along, Gemma had been working for that man. And to be honest, I had no beef with Ian. We had no quarrel. But Ian stood for everything that I’d had to walk away from, the death, the destruction...

  Focus. Get your shit together, mate.

  While I didn't have the equipment to penetrate the penthouse because the firewalls I’d set up were too strong, I did have a laptop, which meant I could manage basic things.

  I knew I was asking for trouble, but I needed to do this.

  Once I showered, got dressed, shoved some field provisions into my mouth, and guzzled half a gallon of water, I cracked open the laptop.

  The guys would be looking for me on commercial airlines. They would also be looking for me to cross a border in one of the traditional ways—or at least that would be the standard practice. Or they would be looking for flight plans, private airstrips, anything that would lead them to me. I understood the rules and how the game was played. I was dangerous, and they needed to contain me.

  And because you're dangerous, you need to be kept away from the rest of mankind.

  With a few quick taps of my keyboard and skirting a couple of firewalls, I had what I needed. Access to the ORUS-operated airstrip. It was one I’d used before when I'd been an ORUS agent. Agents in upstate New York used it all the time.

  The key was to hop on the flight that was already going out. Because if I deleted the flight, or caused a big commotion taking a whole lot of people out, there would be a whole lot of pissed-off assassins looking for me. But I was smart, so I’d simply change the flight time and give myself more time to get there.
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  I quickly scanned the flight plans. There was a flight leaving tonight. It would take a while, but I had time to kill. The best way to go upstate was probably to hop the train somewhere in Long Island and then head for the airstrip. There was a flight scheduled to leave at eleven, which meant flight checks and stuff would happen around ten. Which meant I should show up at eight and merely borrow the plane from the US government. Easy peasy.

  Most flights were fueled automatically after landing, so I wouldn't have to worry about fuel, at least not where I was going.

  Time was my friend. The more distance I could put between me and the people I loved, the better things would be for everyone.

  The memories slid into my consciousness again; Noah's face as I stabbed him, the confusion, the pain, the concern. I knew Noah well enough to know that the concern hadn't been for his own well-being.

  Noah had been worried about me. Even in that moment, when the person he’d mentored stabbed him, Noah had been worried about me, as if that wasn't the most fucked up thing of all.

  The effort of trying to remember exactly what happened took its toll, and my head throbbed. Quickly, I checked the train schedules and noted that I had three hours to catch the next one, which meant I had time for a quick nap. Because even though I'd only been up for a short time, the exhaustion of the last day was already dragging me under.

  For the time being, I'd have to take this short rest, but soon… soon, I could really rest. I'd be away from all this. This was what I should have done a long time ago, taken that monster and separated it from as much human contact as possible. It was the only safe thing to do. And it was best for everyone.

  Matthias

  The key to making most plans work was to alter them as little as possible from the original. I understood that, which was why I was sticking with the ORUS-approved flight plan and just leaving a couple of hours earlier. I notified the airport that there was a change in schedule over ORUS-approved channels, and now all I had to do was steal the plane. I knew I hadn’t been followed from the flat, but I still had to be careful.