by Mari Carr
“How? Tell me, and I will tell my brother. Or…the other admirals?” She looked at James.
“Let’s all take a minute,” Juliette said. “I’m sorry we had to tell you like this, but we had to be sure that you hadn’t commissioned the design of the bomb.”
“No,” Sophia breathed. “Never. Please, do you know where the bomb is?”
“We’re not even sure a bomb was made. If you didn’t tell Luca to make it, then it was sheer dumb luck that the tablets were switched and we found the plans.”
“But that someone close to us would do such a thing! No, this coincidence is too much,” Sophia said.
“We agree.”
“What do you need?” James asked. “How can we help find him?”
“We want everything you have on him, and you’ll need to work the case on your side.”
Sophia paused, her shaking hand halfway to her wine glass. She glanced at James, then picked up the wine and finished the glass.
“Okay then,” Sebastian muttered.
Sophia sighed, and then looked at Juliette. “I came here with a proposition.”
Juliette was desperately glad she’d barred Franco from the meeting; there was no way he wouldn’t have jumped on that opening.
“Yes?”
“We need to be allies. Allies with open lines of communication, and the ability to act.”
“What are you proposing?”
“A task force.” Sophia smiled, though she still looked a little shaky. “I love that term. I got it from the movies.”
“An inter-agency task force,” Sebastian said. “Well, in this case, an inter-society task force.”
Juliette had been thinking about something like this, though she’d been considering an exchange of people, a cross between hostage situations and medieval fostering.
“Inter-society task force,” Sophia repeated. “Yes. With members from both our organizations.”
“Who would lead it?”
“One person from each society. A dual leadership with no third party that could break a tie vote. All decisions for action and investigation would have to be agreed upon by both.”
“And these people would report to us?”
“Yes.”
Juliette thought about it. “And the first case we give them is hunting down Luca?”
“No, I think we must take care of that now. But we put this in motion. We prepare.”
“Very well, say I agree. Who would you send?”
Ten minutes later, Sebastian had grabbed a white board from Franco’s side of the office and propped it up on the sideboard next to the fireplace. There was a line down the middle and a list of names on each side. Sebastian had drawn each society’s symbol on the top of their side—the triquetra for the Trinity Masters, and the tri-spiral for the Masters’ Admiralty.
Just under the symbols were two names. The commanders of the task force. Juliette was going to send Owen Frasier, an FBI agent with plenty of field experience, which was rare for someone his age, and strong leadership skills, thanks to his time in the Army.
She’d thought about sending one of the Warrior Scholars, but her brother Harrison, would have a fit. Besides Owen, there were four other names on her side—Jennika Davis, Rhys Fletcher, Ridley Phillios, and…Franco. She’d threaten Owen with a painful death if he let anything happen to her beloved Franco, but since the other people she was sending were all from various agencies, she wanted a non-alphabet soup person in the mix.
The Masters’ Admiralty list was quite a bit longer, thanks to there being so—too?—many territories to represent. Nine names, with Percy Knight at the top.
“You do not want to add more, to make the numbers even?” Sophia asked.
“No,” Juliette said. This was the Masters’ Admiralty’s idea, and until she knew how much danger she was sending her people into, she was more than happy to let them provide a higher level of manpower.
Sebastian stepped away from the whiteboard, clicking the cap onto the pen. “Are we done?”
“Yes,” Juliette declared. “Now back to the matter of Luca and the bomb.”
Sophia picked up her phone, tapping a few buttons. “Everything we have on him has been sent to you.”
Juliette nodded to Sebastian, who pulled out his own phone. “We just sent you the schematics, our search reports, and most importantly, how to disarm the bomb.”
Sophia looked at her phone, scrolling for a moment, then she stopped. “A battery? That is all it takes to disarm it? That seems too simple.”
Juliette leaned forward. “Have you seen Star Wars?”
Epilogue
“Lover, come back to bed.”
Oscar looked up from his computer toward the woman sprawled out on the mattress. The thin sheet clung to her body. He could see the peaks of her nipples.
Normally, he didn’t like any kind of pet name. It brought up all sorts of shit for him, but with her, it wasn’t bugging him. Probably because the sex was so fucking good, he felt like a horse that had been ridden hard and put away wet.
Speaking of being ridden…he could work on this later. “Give me a second.”
Selene Tanaka slid out of the bed, pulling the sheet with her. She walked over to where he sat—shirtless—at the small desk in her hotel room. The Trinity Masters had booted him from his own room once the trail for Luca had run cold, but he’d decided to stay in Boston. His brother was in the big-ass suite across the hall, probably having sex with a dude.
Not just a dude, his husband.
Langston had two spouses, and Oscar had none. He would have been feeling far more bitter than usual if it wasn’t for this string of one-night stands he’d been having with Selene. The instant he’d seen her, there had been a spark. Something he hadn’t felt in a very, very long time.
“What are you doing?” she asked, looking at the array of stuff he had out on the table.
She was a theoretical atomic physicist, not a computer engineer, but after spending days with her, he was fairly certain there wasn’t anything she couldn’t understand if it was explained correctly. He was smart. Selene was brilliant.
“I duplicated the tablet’s local storage before I ripped pieces of its board out.” He tapped the external hard drive he had sitting in a cradle. “I had this with me, so I put the copy on here.”
He scooted his chair back and patted his lap. Selene slid onto his knee, her bare ass against his thigh. He had on boxers and nothing more, and his cock was rapidly hardening, thanks to her proximity.
“And what do you hope to find?”
“I don’t know. Maybe nothing, but the tablet had even the pre-programmed apps stripped out. I want to see when, how, that happened. Or if they were never there, it might mean the tablet wasn’t bought retail, but as part of a bulk custom order, shipped out pre-consumer interface.”
“And that wouldn’t be common.”
“Exactly.”
“If you can establish that, it would be a significant lead.” Selene twisted, laying the hand not holding the sheet over her breasts against the back of his neck, and smiled down at him. “A clue.”
“It would, but it’s just a theory. And my program can run in the background.” Oscar turned his head and nipped the soft skin at the crook of her elbow.
“Oh? Well then.” Selene released the sheet, and it slid away, leaving her wonderfully naked on his lap.
Oscar leaned in and licked her nipple before sucking it into his mouth. When Selene started to whimper, he stood, hoisting her up with his hands under her ass. She wrapped her arms and legs around him, head falling back as he nibbled on her neck.
Neither of them noticed the screen dim for just a moment, and then the small green light beside the laptop camera blink on.
Are you looking forward to Oscar’s story? You can preorder Necessary Pursuit now.
See where it all began! Be sure to read the entire Trinity Masters series.
Elemental Pleasure
Primal Passion
Forbidden Legacy
Hidden Devotion
Elegant Seduction
Secret Scandal
Delicate Ties
Beloved Sacrifice
Masterful Truth
And if you’re interested in reading more about Sophia, Antonio, and Milo, be sure to check out the Masters’ Admiralty series as well.
Treachery’s Devotion
Loyalty’s Betrayal
Pleasure’s Fury
Honor’s Revenge
Bravery’s Sin
Join the society! Hey fans of Facebook! Did you know there’s a Trinity Masters/Masters’ Admiralty fan group? Come join the fun—behind the scenes news, exclusive sneak peeks, cover reveals and (gasp) too many screenshots of texts between Mari and Lila.
About the Authors
Virginia native Mari Carr is a New York Times and USA TODAY bestseller of contemporary sexy romance novels. With over one million copies of her books sold, Mari was the winner of the Romance Writers of America’s Passionate Plume for her novella, Erotic Research.
Join her newsletter so you don’t miss new releases and for exclusive subscriber-only content. Find Mari on the web on Facebook | Twitter | BookBub | Email: [email protected].
Lila Dubois is a top selling author of contemporary erotic romance. Having spent extensive time in France, Egypt, Turkey, England and Ireland Lila speaks five languages, none of them (including English) fluently. She now lives in Los Angeles with a cute Irishman.
You can visit Lila's website at www.liladubois.net. She loves to hear from fans! Send an email to [email protected] or join her newsletter.