Sin

by M. Malone

  Like the one thing I could count on to be real had just crumbled in my hand like dust.

  I’d left my laptop up front in the living room. Careful not to make too much noise, I carried it to the kitchen counter. Even though I already knew what it meant, there was a part of me that needed to see it in black and white. And sure enough, a few minutes later I was looking at the classified ORUS file for Agent Persephone.

  Also known as Gemma Boyd.

  “Oh fuck me,” I groaned and placed my forehead to the cold countertop. There were too many things going through my mind right now, and I wasn’t even sure where to start. But after a few moments of chaos, I called on the icy reserve that had carried me through years of training and torture. Any emotions I’d experienced for the woman in my bed were now buried under the one thing I knew would never let me down.

  Purpose.

  I closed the laptop and stalked back to the bedroom. Gemma was still face down in the bed, half buried under the covers. I kicked the side of the mattress. She jumped up, her hands fisted and her eyes swinging around the room.

  I shook my head. How had I missed it? She reacted like someone who’d been trained, not a civilian.

  “What’s going on?” She relaxed when she saw me standing next to the bed.

  It was a struggle to ignore how beautiful she looked all mussed from sleep and the aftereffects of their lovemaking the night before. But she was no longer Gemma, my lover. Now she was the enemy. A spy sent to infiltrate the only home I’d ever had.

  “We need to talk. Get dressed. You have five minutes.”

  Her eyes widened at my tone. “What’s going on? What’s happened?”

  There was nothing to indicate that she was anything other than a scared woman on the run. How stupid had I been? She hadn’t even had to work to get past my defenses. All she’d had to do was smile at me and I’d been done for. ORUS never let you go; it had been my worst fear and now it was here. Noah had promised that he’d get us out, and I hadn’t believed it until we’d actually walked away without getting a bullet through each of our skulls. But I should have known the organization had just been biding its time before finding a way to strike back.

  Had Ian known of their past together and decided to use it against him?

  Gemma climbed to her knees on the bed, watching me warily. “Are you okay? Matthias, you’re scaring me.”

  “Just get cleaned up.” I watched her climb out of the bed hastily before snatching up her clothes from the floor. Her cheeks pinkened when she saw me watching her.

  I turned and walked out of the room, fighting the conflicting feelings banging around my chest. She’d looked so hurt, and my first instinct was to comfort her, to assume there was some misunderstanding and she hadn’t really been lying to me.

  There’s no way to misunderstand her pretending to need Blake Security’s help. I grimaced. She’d come there pretending to be injured so we’d take her in. And I’d fallen for it.

  In the kitchen my laptop was still open. It didn’t take long to find what I needed. As soon as Noah had installed Ian as the new head of ORUS, I had figured they’d need a back door in to keep on top of what the shadow organization was up to. So I was able to navigate through Ian’s private files quickly now that I knew what I was looking for.

  Anything tied to Agent Persephone.

  By the time Gemma walked up behind me, I had read seventy five percent of her current mission file and was halfway through her training files.

  I was also one hundred percent enraged.

  Gemma

  Sleeping in was bliss. I knew I should get up, but having a bit of a lie in wasn’t something I got to do often. Plus it wasn’t like I was alone. Matthias was there. I could afford to relax a bit since he was there keeping an eye on things. It was an unfamiliar luxury, to be able to relax and know that someone else had my back.

  I had never been the type to go dreamy-eyed over a guy. Not that there had been much time for that kind of thing anyway. Andromeda didn’t play around when it came to training. So instead of sleepovers and giggling about boys, I had spent my preteen years in combat training and at target practice. By the time I’d been formally recruited into ORUS, I’d been almost as good a sniper as some of the men Andromeda worked with.

  But when it came to things like this—I curled up and smiled to myself at the thought of getting naked with Matthias again—I was as green as a teenager for sure. It wasn’t just the physical part, but it was the sense of safety. The anticipation of seeing him again. The excitement of being together and discovering who we’d be as a couple.

  But you’re lying to him.

  The thought didn’t sit well but it couldn’t be ignored. I’d come on this mission with no idea who the target was. No one could have predicted the way things had panned out. Protecting Sabine had been my only priority, but things had changed now. Matthias was a priority too.

  It was time to tell him the truth. All I could hope for was that he would let me explain.

  Just then something hard hit the bed. Instinct had me on my knees with my fists up in the blink of an eye. Matthias stood next to the bed watching me with fire in his eyes.

  And I knew my time was gone.

  “What’s going on?” I forced my hands down, trying to look relaxed. I didn’t want to assume anything. There could be any number of reasons why he had murder in his eyes. Maybe he didn’t know anything yet and was upset about something at work.

  “We need to talk. Get dressed. You have five minutes.” Matthias wouldn’t meet my eyes.

  Shit. He definitely knew something. “What’s going on? What’s happened?”

  Mentally I started running through the scenarios. We’d fought once, and even though I was skilled at hand to hand, I couldn’t beat him. I knew that. Plus I didn’t want to fight him. It was bad enough that he was looking at me like something gross he’d stepped in, but if I had to physically defend myself, I thought my heart might crack right down the center.

  “Are you okay? Matthias, you’re scaring me. What’s going on?”

  “Just get cleaned up.”

  I climbed from the bed and grabbed my clothes off the floor. His eyes bored into my side as I moved; I could feel the heat of his hatred even from several feet away. When our eyes met, Matthias spun around and walked out of the room.

  I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding. What the hell was I going to do? Worse, what was Matthias planning? I needed to find a way to contact Ian. Do some damage control. But first I needed to find out what Matthias knew. Had he discovered inconsistencies in my story? Maybe he was just upset that I’d lied about my background and where I’d come from. That wasn’t so bad; I could spin that. Then once he’d calmed down some, I could figure out a way to break the truth.

  After washing up quickly, I left the bedroom and walked down the hall to the kitchen. Matthias stood with his back to me, looking at something on his laptop. When I got closer, I saw it was a picture of me.

  Fuck. It was my ORUS profile.

  “That’s classified,” I whispered. What the hell was going on? I’d never known anyone to have access to agent profiles except for Orion himself.

  Matthias clicked a button, and my profile increased in size. My own eyes stared out at me accusingly from the picture. Probably wondering what the hell I was still doing there. I might have known and loved Matthias as a child, but he’d been trained by the same ORUS I was trying to escape from. He wouldn’t take this betrayal lightly, and I couldn’t assume he’d give me mercy just because we were lovers.

  Run. Get away from him while you still can.

  But before I could move toward the door, Matthias spun around and locked one arm around my throat, spinning me until I was facing the other direction and couldn’t move without crushing my neck under his forearm.

  Years of training weren’t for nothing though, and I wasn’t going out without a fight. I thrust my elbow back, hearing him grunt in surprise and then dropped low as soon as
the tension in his arm slackened. I kicked up, catching him in the thigh, and then rolled away before he could grab me. With the kitchen counter between us, we eyed each other distrustfully.

  “What? Are we going to fight to the death now?” I shook my head sadly. “I can explain if you let me. You know I wasn’t trying to hurt you. In your heart, I believe you know that.”

  Matthias closed his eyes, as if it was agony to even look at me. “You’re ORUS, so all I know is I can’t trust anything you say.”

  “So what do we do? Fight? I’m still healing from the last time.”

  His eyes rounded. “Bloody hell. That was you. Of course it was.”

  I hated the disgust in his voice. He had just started to open up to me and now we were all the way back to square one. If that.

  “I was sent on a mission, it’s true, but I had no idea you were the target.”

  “Bullshit,” Matthias spat. “ORUS is nothing if not thorough. They wouldn’t send an agent after me without giving them every detail, from what training I’ve had to whether I take a shit in the morning or the afternoon.”

  I debated whether I should tell him that the mission hadn’t been from ORUS. I hadn’t been cleared by Orion to discuss it with anyone, and it could compromise everything if Matthias discovered the Family was after him and decided to retaliate. Would they take their anger out on Sabine?

  “I want to tell you everything, but I can’t. Please understand,” I pleaded. “It’s not my life on the line here.”

  Matthias leapt over the counter and snagged my wrist. “Yes it is. You just haven’t realized it yet.”

  He pulled something from his pocket and wrapped it around my wrist. When he finally let me go, I saw that he’d clamped a tracker on my wrist.

  “Where are you taking me?” I asked finally. Now that he had me tagged, there was no point in running. I wouldn’t be able to hide from him even if I could make it out the door.

  “To the penthouse. You took all the trouble of breaking in there, now you’re going to explain to the team exactly why.”

  20

  Gemma

  I was locked in Noah’s office with three killers. As scenarios went, I’d had better. But I’d gotten myself into this mess and I could get myself out. My one saving grace was that there were glass walls. So, it was unlikely they would murder me with their wives and babies walking around.

  Noah, Rafe, and Matthias just glared at me. Okay, make that Noah and Rafe glared. Matthias stayed close to me as if ready to restrain me if I tried to run or leave. Rafe and Noah sat on the other side of the table.

  I understood what was happening here. There was no escape, and they were going to get answers. The easy way or the hard way.

  Noah turned his gaze on me. “Start talking. And it had better be the truth, because if it’s not, I’ll let Matthias kill you.”

  I dared a glance at Matthias. I wasn’t sure exactly what they thought, but I knew for sure he wasn’t going to kill me. That’s not who he was, at least not with me.

  I tipped my chin up. “I’ll tell you the truth.”

  Noah just glared at me. Rafe? He scoffed. Matthias sat silent and unmoving. “Okay, you obviously understand the situation. I work for Ian. I’ve been an ORUS agent for some time.”

  Rafe shook his head. “Specificity is your friend right now.” I drew in a shuddering breath. His voice was flat, cold, deadly. It gave me goose bumps.

  “Fair enough. I was rescued from my fall into the river at age eight. My adoptive mother’s name was Adaline. Andromeda is her code name. She was also an ORUS agent. She brought me back to the States and treated me as her own. I was raised mostly by her partner. Given all those normal kid things. When I turned fourteen, she started training me. The previous Orion allowed her to personally manage most of my training. When I graduated a year ago, I became a full-time agent. My current assignment is undercover with the Family. I didn’t know that Matthias was the target. Once I knew who he was, it complicated things. Ian was aware, and he wanted me to secure Matthias’s safety.”

  Noah’s brows shot up. “So Ian knows you’re here?”

  “Well, unless he’s found another way to track me besides my phone, then he doesn’t know my exact location. But he knows I’m undercover with you and that I’m trying to bring Matthias out safely.”

  Matthias still hadn’t said a thing. Hadn’t responded to me. Hadn’t even looked at me. He was just staring straight ahead, very likely over Rafe’s shoulder.

  Rafe sat back in his seat. “So we’re supposed to believe that Ian sent you here to save Matthias?”

  “Yes, but it’s more complicated than that. They put me undercover with the Family because I had knowledge of them from when I was a child. I knew the ins and outs. I could identify the players, who was important and who wasn’t. And I was under for about three months. Father was my ultimate target. But while inside, I found my old childhood friend, Sabine. She’s been there all along, and they have her working as a drug mule. It’s a terrible situation. They’ve been testing my loyalty. When I refused to blindly kill, they took Sabine.”

  So far, Noah and Rafe hadn’t said anything, so I continued.

  “I’ve been passing other tests. They gave me one last test which was to come here and to neutralize the target. After that, I would get the opportunity to meet Father. I was given a name and an address, and so I tried to execute on that. You all know how that turned out.”

  Rafe frowned. “You were the one who broke in?”

  I nodded. “I wasn’t after the baby. I was after him.” I glanced at Matthias again. “You saw that fight. I never meant for any of this to happen. When I realized how well-trained he was, I called it in to Ian to try and find out what the hell was going on. It wasn’t until then that he knew who the target was.”

  Noah crossed his arms. “Oh don’t you worry. I’ll be dealing with Ian.”

  I believed him too. His mouth was set in a firm line. The muscle of his jaw ticked with every movement of his lips, as if anger coursed through his blood. I’d really made a mess of things. The problem was, now that he knew who I was, there was no going back. No going back to that innocent moment when it was just Matt and Gigi again.

  “Ian wanted Matthias safe. Obviously, I couldn’t carry out the hit. He’s good. He’s very good. We almost killed each other that day. All I wanted was a capture to fake the death.” I swore I saw the muscle in Matthias’s jaw move. But he still stayed silent, looking straight ahead, pretending I wasn’t there.

  “I spoke to Ian after that, and we determined that there was no way that I was going to be able to take him. He would have to come willingly. He would have to try and protect me. I don't know why, but Ian was very keen on keeping him alive and bringing him in.”

  It was Rafe who stood this time. “I’ll bet he was. But he’s not going to fucking get him. What the fuck was Ian thinking? He’s basically started an all-out war.”

  Noah rolled his shoulders. “Oh, I certainly am not going to take her word for it. We’ll talk to Ian. Then, if everything checks out, we’ll deal with the ramifications.” He turned his attention back to me. “What was Ian going to do with Matthias?”

  “Do with him? Save his life, right? That’s why I was here… to get him out safely, and keep him from hurting me and anyone else, and to get him somewhere safe. The Family is coming for him. One way or the other, they’re going to get him.”

  Noah shook his head. “You don’t know this family. Matthias isn’t going anywhere, and we can take care of our own.”

  “Look, I believe you, but you don’t know how violent they are. They will stop at nothing. Look, his life depends—”

  Noah shook his head. “Stop. Stop talking. Now! You need to leave. I’m going to make that call to Ian. The only reason I’m not putting a detail on you is you wouldn’t know Ian’s code name if you weren’t a member of ORUS. I’m going to send you home to your boss and he can handle you how he sees fit.”

  “You don
’t understand. Matthias is in danger. Look, the last time I spoke to the Family, they were insistent that I give them proof of death, which obviously I haven’t. And then they told me that they would hurt Sabine if I couldn’t deliver. They made it clear that they could get to Matthias. They said I was to tell him ‘From the shadows comes the sun.’”

  Rafe shoved his hands in his pockets. “What the fuck does that mean?”

  “I have no fucking idea,” said Noah.

  “I don’t know either,” I said. “But the fact that Father got on the phone and told me to repeat that phrase, it must mean something. I don’t know how much you know, or how much Matthias has told you, but we were both in the Family. As kids we knew each other. We had different names, of course. Matthias was my protector.” I turned deliberately to look at him, but he still wouldn’t meet my gaze. When I turned back to Noah and Rafe, they both scowled at me.

  “Hell of a way to treat your old friend,” Rafe said.

  “Look, I know. I know I messed this up, but the last thing I want is for anything to happen to Matthias. Matthias, does that phrase mean anything to you?”

  He didn’t answer me. It was as if I weren’t there.

  Noah glanced between me and Matthias. “Kid, look, I’m going to get her out of here. You, me, and Rafe are going to talk, okay?” Still, there was no response.

  I wanted to reach out and touch him. Reassure him in some way to let him know that I still cared about him. That part wasn’t fake. That part wasn’t the lie.

  I knew I’d messed this up. I’d ruined everything. And now, Matthias was paying for it, and Sabine would too, with her life.

  Rafe

  I watched Matthias carefully. There was something wrong with the kid; I could see it. His eyes were cold, dead, flat. Not anything like what I’d been seeing lately.

  Of late, I had started to see signs that maybe Noah was right. That maybe, just maybe, the kid was reachable, but not anymore.