Master of Secrets

by Sienna Snow

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Bri is not my boss.” I set the glass on the table, refusing to look Henna in the eyes.

  Henna had this crazy way of knowing when I lied.

  Well, technically, Bri was my handler, not my boss. Tara Zain Kumar was the woman in charge.

  It was Amelia’s turn to add in her two cents. “Ana, did something go wrong?”

  The soothing tone of the toughest one of all the women nearly had me cracking.

  Amelia was a former Olympic gold medalist in taekwondo and owned one of the largest sports promotion companies in the world. To this day, she trained like she was entering a competition.

  “It’s complicated.”

  Amelia reached over, taking my hand in hers. “Did someone break your heart?”

  Well, shit. I was going to have to give them something or they’d keep throwing things at me.

  Taking a deep breath, I said, “I’m the one who did the leaving.”

  “He had to have deserved it,” Penny interjected. “If he treated you bad, then I say let’s find him and kick his ass.”

  If she only knew that she was talking about her brother, but I loved how loyal she was to me.

  “No, he’s someone all of you would love.” Actually, did love.

  Henna studied me. “Then what’s the problem? Something happened with him that made you quit a job you loved.”

  “It’s…”

  “Complicated,” the three women said in unison.

  We all grew quiet and then Penny muttered out loud, “I knew it. I fucking knew it.”

  We all stared at her as if she’d lost her mind.

  “Umm, what did you know? And about who?” I asked, seeing the scary gleam in her eyes that she only got when she’d figured out a way to make a better batch of whiskey.

  “About you, that explains so much. I am so going to kick Hagen’s ass when I get home. This is the reason for the blowup before my wedding.”

  Amelia frowned. “Penny, are you pregnant or something? You only act this insane when you’re knocked up.”

  “Hey I take offense to that.” Henna rubbed her belly.

  “How did none of us see it?” Penny stood. “It’s Adrian.”

  I closed my eyes. Fuck. She really was some crazy evil genius.

  “What’s Adrian?” Henna asked.

  “The man she left, the man who’s had her all twisted since she started at UNLV. Oh my God, this is fabulous. My baby brother the CIA guy and a Solon agent who probably breaks all the rules.”

  “Stop. Are you saying my baby sis and your brother are…” Henna stared at me. “OMG that fight the two of you had at Penny’s wedding. Don’t you remember?”

  Oh, I remembered, my husband had told me that morning he wanted an annulment, my mom finally revealed that she wasn’t my biological mother, and I learned my half sister was sleeping with my half brother.

  I remained quiet, letting the women discuss me as if I weren’t here.

  Had Penny just said something about a blowup between Hagen and Adrian?

  “Penny,” I interrupted, “I need you to rewind and explain what you meant by blowup before your wedding.”

  All the chatter stopped as Penny sighed.

  “The day before my wedding, something happened between Adrian and Hagen—well, actually Pierce and Zack too. Whatever it was, Adrian left a few days later and didn’t come home for nearly a year.”

  And that was when I’d left too. I’d taken all my credits to graduate college early and decided I’d rather be on assignment than walk for graduation.

  Dear God, had they forced Adrian to leave me? What could they have used?

  I clenched my jaw. “The three of you are going to be widows if I get my hands on them.”

  My brothers had no idea I could knock each of their overgrown asses out. Size made no difference if you knew exactly where to hit.

  Adrian and Sebastian could account for my abilities.

  “Oh, the plot thickens.” Amelia rubbed her hands together. “So, it’s true. You and Adrian?”

  I ignored the question and pressed my fingers to the bridge of my nose.

  All these years, I was so angry, so confused. One day he was head-over-heels in love with me and the next he was breaking up with me.

  I knew my brothers. They had to have used some serious manipulation to get Adrian to back away from me.

  The glass in my hand shook, and before I realized what was happening it cracked.

  “Woo lady, that’s some grip.” Amelia plucked the glass from my hand. “I could have used you in the MMA ring.”

  “Like Pierce would let you.”

  “Pierce doesn’t get to let me do anything. These Lykaios men think they’re in charge with all their chest-thumping, but they know we’d punch them in the face if they overstepped their bounds.”

  “Do me a favor, keep my brothers away from me. At least until I’m not so angry with them. Because their inability to see I’m an adult and the fact they can’t make up for what our parents did to us are the reasons I’ve barely come home in the past five years.”

  “What exactly did they do? Give us something, Anaya.” Henna gave me her “I’ll beat them up for you” look.

  “Promise you guys won’t freak?”

  “We promise,” Penny answered for everyone.

  “Adrian and I had been seeing each other since my freshman year at UNLV. We connected in a way I never expected. He got me. Especially all the crap that came with having a criminal for a father.”

  I saw Henna flinch. To this day she hadn’t gotten over the things she’d gone through because of our father Victor Anthony’s embezzlement scandal.

  “We fell in love but kept our relationship quiet. You have to admit our family ties are a twisted fucked-up mess.”

  “I can attest to that. I’m married to my half sister’s half brother.” Henna rubbed her belly.

  “Then I got my internship and both of us knew we were on a time crunch. A week before Penny and Hagen’s wedding, we eloped.”

  “You what?” Henna shouted.

  “We aren’t married,” I added before she went into labor. “A few days later he asked for an annulment. He said we had to go our separate ways. We had to live our dreams and they weren’t together.”

  The pain of the past burned into my chest.

  “That explains why you would go out of your way to avoid him. Ana, why didn’t you say something? Why didn’t you let me be there for you?” Henna’s eyes filled with tears. “I’m your sister.”

  I reached over, squeezing her hand. “Because I wouldn’t have let anyone comfort me. I was so hurt and angry. And everyone reminded me of what I’d lost.”

  “So, you moved to Switzerland to escape.”

  “Umm, well, I technically don’t live there. I am US-based. I have a condo in DC that I share with two other people when I’m not on assignment, but most of the time I hang out in my old condo at the Cypress.”

  Over the years, I’d mastered sneaking in and out of my condo without anyone knowing I was there. I was usually too tired to go anywhere, and vegging in my own bed was the perfect way to recover.

  “Are you saying you’ve been stealing into your condo for the past few years and we didn’t know it?” Henna’s voice took on a high pitch. “That you could have been here for numerous events and milestones? Like the birth of your nephews?”

  I grimaced. Yeah, those weren’t my best moments.

  “Calm down, preggers.” Amelia pushed Henna back into her chair when she tried to get up.

  I threaded my fingers with Henna’s. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize how wrong I was to stay away until recently.”

  “If you aren’t here when this baby girl comes, I swear I will kick your ass into the next century.”

  Henna was everything I’d wanted to be when I grew up. She protected me, dealt with the world for me, made a success of herself so our mother and I could have a future. Seeing how I hurt her made
me realize how selfish I’d been to miss so much of her life.

  “I promise, I’m not going anywhere. I can’t, anyway.”

  “What does that mean?” Amelia asked.

  “Things happened. I can’t give you details. Just know I’m not going back.”

  “What about Adrian?” Penny stared at me.

  “What about him?”

  The three women glared at me.

  At that moment, my phone beeped. Thank God for small favors.

  Picking it up, I read the incoming text. Immediately, my heartbeat jumped.

  You know the place. I’ll come find you.

  I stood up, trying to push down the butterflies in my stomach. “I have to go. I’m sorry, but I have to go.”

  “Where are you going? We aren’t done here.” Amelia looked as if she was physically going to stop me.

  Backing away slowly toward the terrace doors, I said, “I’m sorry. I promise to clear things up later.”

  Penny shifted her head to the side, studying me. “Are you seriously ditching us?”

  “Yep.”

  “Anaya, what the fuck aren’t you telling us?” Henna’s temper began to rise again.

  “I wouldn’t go if this wasn’t important. Meet me back here tomorrow morning. I promise it will all make sense.” I turned, ready to lock the women on the terrace if they thought to move toward me.

  Penny set a palm on Henna’s shoulder, stopping her words. “Tell him our kids miss their uncle.”

  I smiled over my shoulder. “I will.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Adrian

  * * *

  Around midnight, I stepped out onto the private viewing deck on the second story of Vasilissa, one of the Lykaios brothers’ most popular clubs. I’d designed every aspect of the security and technical infrastructure of this place. The staff viewed me with the same respect they gave the brothers but without the fear. I spent all my time with them in the back side of the operations, making me one of them as well.

  That was why I knew unless I wanted the brothers to know I was here no one would tell them.

  Tonight, I was here for my woman.

  I moved to a corner in the shadows, giving me a direct view of the dance floor without revealing myself.

  Immediately, I spotted her. My Anaya Anthony. My woman.

  She was dancing with a group of women. I wasn’t sure if they were her friends or people she’d met in the last hour. I should have known she wouldn’t follow instructions and wait for me up here.

  Not seeing her for the last two months was torture. But it was the only way to make it so no ties to any of my assignments came back to bite me. I knew she’d spent time doing the same thing, especially after the way the Solon team whisked her away. Briana and Jacob had stayed behind, to finish our tasks and give me some story about how it was a ritual to extract an agent like that, but that was total bullshit and a waste of money.

  Now we had one more hurdle to overcome to be together.

  Her family, my family, our family.

  Her hands were thrown in the air as her glorious ass rolled side to side with the rhythm of the Latin beat.

  God, was there a more beautiful woman?

  The last time I’d been in this club with Ana was five years ago, the weekend of Penny’s bachelorette party, the weekend before we’d eloped. Now here we were again, but this time I would ask her and marry her the right way. Not secretly in some chapel no one knew about, but a wedding with our family surrounding us.

  Ana threw her head back and laughed as she listened to something one of the women around her said.

  I wanted so desperately to go down there and take her into my arms. Or throw her over my shoulder and take her straight out of the club and to my bed.

  The crowd shifted and I got the first good look at her dress, if that was what it was. The slightest wrong move and her goods would be on display. Those long legs were for me, not the assholes eye-fucking her from the periphery.

  I clenched my teeth. I planned to destroy that thing and paddle her ass for going out in public like this.

  As if hearing my irritated thoughts, she looked up in my direction and stopped dancing.

  Her eyes grew soft and glazed with tears. Without saying a word to her group, she moved in my direction. She weaved her way through the mass of gyrating bodies, oblivious to anything but me. I turned toward the hallway she was about to come up.

  As soon as she came into view, she threw herself into my arms and kissed me. Her heat, her taste exploded in my mouth. She was my heaven.

  “God, I missed you, Ana. We’re never going to be apart again.”

  “Ian.” She wrapped her legs around my waist and I gripped her ass.

  The thong she wore was the only thing separating my hands from her pussy. I turned us so her back was to a wall and none of the security cameras would get a shot of her ass.

  Even if they had, I’d remotely wipe them clean before the night was out.

  “Anaya. What the fuck are you wearing?”

  She pulled her body back to look at me. “A dress.”

  “It’s indecent.”

  “And?” She pressed her heels into my ass, grinding her pussy against my jeans-covered cock.

  Between kisses, I said, “I am the only man who gets to see your cunt.”

  “I won’t argue with that.” Her fingers threaded into my hair. “Take me to that office of yours and fuck me on that petrified-wood desk that shines like high-gloss marble.”

  I pulled back. “How do you know about the desk?”

  It had taken five men to carry the piece into my office.

  A wicked smile touched her lips. “I snoop. That’s my job. Well, that was my job. Even if I wasn’t here, there were times I was here.”

  “You do realize that statement only makes sense to me?”

  “That’s why we’re perfect for each other.”

  I carried her to a far wall, released my hold on one hip long enough to scan my hand on the fingerprint reader, and then walked through the movable wall.

  “One day you’re going to tell me how you broke through my security to check out my office.”

  “One day.”

  We entered my office and I moved directly to my desk, setting Ana on top.

  I stepped back and took in the perfection of the woman who made the ten-thousand-dollar desk look cheap.

  “Spread your legs, Ana.”

  She complied without any hesitation, exposing her soaked underwear.

  I grabbed hold of the back of my shirt, pulling it over my head, and threw it on a nearby sofa. Then I opened my pants and freed my cock. I pumped from base to tip, letting precum drip from the slit.

  Ana licked her lips.

  “Want a taste, baby?”

  She nodded, cupping her breasts through her dress and shifting her hips as her pussy grew slicker with need.

  I moved in closer, collected my arousal on my fingers, and brought it to her lips. Her mouth wrapped around my fingers and sucked. A moan came from deep in her and my cock jumped.

  I grabbed her hips, pulling her to the edge of the desk.

  Her arms came around my shoulders. “Fuck me now, Adrian Phillip Kipos. Go slow later.”

  I paused, realizing this was the first time she’d said my real name, my full name, to me in five years.

  “Say that again.” I ripped her thong and positioned my cock. “Say my name.”

  Her arms tightened as she stared into my eyes. “Fuck me, Adrian Phillip Kipos.”

  I slammed to the hilt inside her soaked pussy.

  “Again.”

  I pulled out and thrust back in.

  Her nails dug into my shoulders. “Fuck me, Adrian Phillip Kipos.”

  “Again,” I repeated over and over as I began a relentless pace, pumping hard and fast.

  Her pussy walls quickened and her words morphed into, “I love you, Adrian, fuck me harder.”

  We both exploded in a hot rush of heat, need, a
nd passion.

  “What the hell is this?” Hagen Lykaios smacked a paper on the table in front of me.

  When I’d slipped out of bed this morning, my only thought was to grab some pastries from the bakery Ana loved and serve her breakfast in bed.

  I’d barely made it into the main casino area of the Ida when four overgrown apes stopped me and said my presence was requested by “Mr. Lykaios” at his office in the business tower of the property.

  The way it happened was straight-up TV-mafia shit. Either Hagen had been watching too much television or I’d just gotten jaded by the shit I’d dealt with for the past few years.

  “If you move your hand then I can tell you.”

  “You are still fucking married.”

  I frowned. That couldn’t be possible. “I signed the papers.”

  “Well, according to this, one of you didn’t.”

  I pulled the documents toward me and couldn’t hide the grin on my face.

  “What the fuck are you smiling at?”

  I lifted my gaze to Hagen’s. “I planned on marrying her again, so this just saves me the trouble.”

  “You what?”

  “You heard me.” I held his gaze. “I fucked up by letting you and your brothers get into my head. She was it for me five years ago and she’s it for me now.”

  “I won’t have it. She needs someone stable, someone who won’t end up dead, if something went wrong on the job.”

  “Listen very clearly, Hagen. Just because you’re married to my sister doesn’t mean you get to tell me how to run my life.” I leaned forward. “Do you think I wanted my sister involved with a man who was a fucking mob enforcer? I love her and respect her decisions. You need to do the same for us.”

  “Ana doesn’t even know who you are.”

  “She knows me better than anyone else.”

  “Bullshit. Does she know you’re CIA or that you’ve fucked women for the job?”

  “As a matter of fact, she does.” Hagen and I froze as Ana walked in. “I happened to be his last job.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Anaya

  * * *

  “She was what?” Hagen shouted.