Necessary Pursuit (A Trinity Masters Novel)

by Lila Dubois

  “What?” Luca’s hands curled into fists, and he began to look around the room, pissed off at himself for failing to take in his surroundings. If they weren’t the Masters’ Admiralty…

  His stomach clenched as he considered too many unsavory options. Then he thought of Oscar and Selene. Had they intentionally lied to him? Before he had time to consider the possibility of their betrayal, the woman spoke again.

  “You didn’t really think the Americans would submit to being members of a society based in Europe, did you?”

  Luca blinked, then cursed. “There are two societies?”

  She gestured at the cave. “Welcome to the headquarters of the Trinity Masters. America’s oldest and most powerful secret society.”

  The Trinity Masters. He’d simply assumed, when he saw Langston with a man and a woman, and associating with known Masters’ Admiralty member Milo Moretti, that they were part of the same society.

  It also meant that Selene and Oscar truly had lied to him. He’d told them all his deepest secrets, and they’d let him continue to assume they were members of the Masters’ Admiralty, not correcting him when he said so.

  Their betrayal cut deep. He’d given them his trust, his truth, while all along they’d lied to him, deceived him.

  Distracted by his heartbreak, Luca didn’t look up until the Grand Master repeated her next words.

  “Mr. Campisi, I have a proposition for you.”

  He took a moment to gather himself. To think. “You want me to return to the Bellator Dei as your spy.”

  “No, though I won’t say that isn’t something either I or the leader of the Masters’ Admiralty might ask of you.”

  “What is your proposition?” Luca asked warily.

  “In exchange for your loyalty to our members and laws, in exchange for your obedience to my orders and your acceptance of an arranged marriage…I offer you membership to the Trinity Masters.”

  Oscar was on his fourteenth trek across the floor of the stone “conference room,” which could have doubled as a dungeon, when Selene cracked.

  “Sit down, Oscar.”

  He glanced up, then walked over to a chair, sinking down heavily. The scowl on his face had grown darker with each passing minute. It had been nearly two hours since Sebastian had led Luca away from them, and the Grand Master—in full robe regalia—had quickly questioned them before leaving them alone with a terse, “You will remain here.”

  “We should have stayed with him,” Oscar barked.

  “We weren’t given that option. It’s going to be okay.” Selene wasn’t sure she truly believed those words or if she was merely saying them to comfort herself.

  “What the fuck could be taking them so long?”

  Selene shrugged. “I suspect the Grand Master had a great many questions to ask him about the bomb. Though I assume she wouldn’t have a technical discussion without me there.”

  “What if the Masters’ Admiralty is here?” Oscar asked.

  The same concern had crossed Selene’s mind as well. While she felt relatively sure no harm would come to Luca at the hands of the Trinity Masters, she wasn’t familiar with the Masters’ Admiralty or the way they operated. The fact that Luca was a member of the Bellator Dei, a very real enemy of the other society, could outweigh the fact that he didn’t believe in their “cause” and was being forced to work for them.

  “Luca is of more use alive than dead, Oscar. To both societies. You know that.”

  He nodded, then he said what Selene suspected had been bothering him the most. “We should have told him. About the Trinity Masters. I didn’t like lying to him.”

  “We were under direct orders from the Grand Master.” And while that was true, their deception wasn’t sitting well with her, either. Just because she didn’t like an order didn’t make it optional.

  “Fuck that!” Oscar said hotly. “We should have told him.”

  Selene sighed, but before she could reply, the door to the conference room opened. Both she and Oscar sprang to their feet, and Selene found herself able to take the first real deep breath since Franco left them here as Luca walked in, followed by Sebastian and Franco.

  “We’ll give the three of you a few minutes to talk, then we’ll be back to continue, Luca,” Sebastian said.

  “Continue what?” Oscar asked.

  Sebastian didn’t respond. Instead, he turned around and left the room. Franco merely gave them all a big smile, then slipped out as well, closing the door behind him.

  “Are you okay?” Selene asked, walking over to Luca, placing her hand on his forearm.

  Luca pulled away from her, offering only a brief nod.

  Selene shared a glance with Oscar, whose guilt was practically oozing out of him.

  “You know?” Selene asked. “That we are not…” She hesitated to say it, in case he didn’t know.

  Again, Luca nodded.

  “We’re sorry, man,” Oscar started.

  Selene rested her hand on the back of one of the chairs to stop herself from reaching for him again. She wanted to touch him, hug him. She hated the distance she suddenly felt between them. “The Grand Master ordered us to…to…”

  “To lie to me.”

  Selene didn’t bother to nod. Regardless of what they were asked to do, things between them had advanced well beyond the point where obeying those orders rubbed against the grain.

  However, if there’d been another longstanding member in the room, someone who had heard the horror stories, they would have known that obeying the Grand Master’s orders didn’t have caveats and footnotes that allowed disobedience because you disagreed with the orders. Oscar was too new, and too stubborn.

  And Luca…well, he’d grown up in an organization even more rigid than the Trinity Masters, and he’d rebelled.

  “If we could have told you…” she said softly.

  Luca didn’t reply, didn’t offer forgiveness. He pulled out a chair, moving to sit down, but the glint of something caught her eye, drawing her attention to the ring on his finger. The ring he hadn’t been wearing before.

  “What is that?” she asked even though she knew. She recognized the triquetra, the symbol of the Trinity Masters. She tried to reconcile what that ring represented with reality. “Luca,” she whispered.

  “What?” Oscar asked. He clearly hadn’t seen what she had, but the shock in her expression, in her tone, had him on full alert. “What the fuck is it?”

  Luca lifted his hand. “I joined the Trinity Masters.”

  Selene blinked. “You did what?”

  Oscar’s eyes widened. “Holy fuck.”

  Luca sank down in the chair. “I was shocked when your Grand Master offered the invitation.”

  Oscar pointed to Luca’s hand. “You’re wearing the ring, dude. She’s your Grand Master now too.”

  “Why?” Selene asked quietly.

  “Why would they want someone like me to join?” Luca asked, the hurt in his eyes unmistakable.

  Selene responded quickly, hating that his thoughts had gone that direction. “No, why would you say yes? Did she not give you a choice?”

  “The choice was mine. Unlike the Bellator Dei, there were no threats.”

  Oscar slammed his hand down on the table. “Just spit it out. Tell us what happened and then you can be pissed at us.”

  “I’m not angry.”

  “Clearly, you are,” Oscar countered.

  “I’m hurt,” Luca said quietly. “I understand that you were ordered to not tell me the truth, but I told you…I shared everything. Every truth I had to tell. And I know that I’ve told countless lies, done truly horrible things, and that I don’t have a right to feel…” His words fell away.

  The silence that followed was painful. Damn it, Luca deserved, for once, to not hurt. Not be in pain.

  “Power,” Luca said after a moment. “I joined because I’ve spent my life being, feeling, powerless. If I am a member, I am no longer powerless.”

  Selene nodded. “And you�
�re not alone. You have every other member.”

  “You traded a shitty cult for a less shitty cult,” Oscar said.

  “You think I’m a fool,” Luca said softly.

  “No. I think you’re incredible.”

  Selene shot Oscar a look. He rolled his shoulders as if uncomfortable.

  “Perhaps I can make up for some of the evil things I have done. Perhaps…I can…” He paused for a moment. “I would very much like to make a positive difference in the world, like that trinity you told me about in the cabin. The ones working together to save the environment.”

  Oscar grinned. “I get that.”

  “And perhaps I can rescue others from the Bellator Dei.”

  “Like your sister.” This time, Selene didn’t stop herself. She placed her hand on top of Luca’s, and he didn’t pull away. Instead, he turned his hand over and grasped hers, held it.

  Luca nodded. “For the first time in my life, I will not be powerless.”

  “You were never powerless,” Selene said softly.

  “I was. And I was a fool to think that…” Luca glanced first at her, then Oscar.

  Selene squeezed his hand. “Everything that happened in that cabin was real. We weren’t lying about the things that mattered.”

  “As I said, I am not angry with you. I understand that lies are necessary to protect secrets.” Luca was quiet for a moment. “But I won’t lie to you now. I’ve done enough of that to last a lifetime.”

  “Then get pissed at us. You have every right to,” Oscar declared.

  “I told you I am not angry—”

  “—just hurt.” Oscar rose and grabbed a chair and thrust it at Luca. “Here, smash it against the wall.”

  Luca blinked. “Why?”

  “It will make you feel better. It’s therapy.”

  “Therapy is something people go to years of school in order to learn to do,” Selene said in exasperation. “You can’t just tell people to do property damage and call it therapy.”

  “My family are great believers in smashing shit.” Oscar thrust the chair at him. “Break it.”

  Luca’s air of resignation and hurt faded a little as he stood and took the chair, but then carefully set it down. “I know you might not believe me, but I’m a pacifist. I don’t believe violence solves anything.”

  Oscar clearly didn’t agree, but he didn’t say anything more.

  “If you’re a member,” Selene said softly, “then you need to really understand that you cannot disobey an order from the Grand Master. Even if your heart wants to.”

  Luca looked at her, his posture straightening. “Your heart.”

  “Yeah, yeah, we fucked until we all caught feelings because this is the shit that happens when you join a cult.” Oscar sat in the chair. “I still think you should smash something.”

  Selene resisted the urge to smack Oscar upside the head. Actually… “You could spank Oscar,” Selene suggested. “I’ll watch.”

  “Are we…uh. Can we still have sex?” Luca asked, the last of his bad feelings fading away.

  Selene smiled. “Yes, and now that you’re a member, it’s practically your moral obligation to practice ménages for when you get married.”

  “Married.” Luca dropped into a chair. “I hadn’t…I mean. Wait, do people have children together?”

  Oscar snorted. “When a man and a woman and a man love each other very much—”

  “Maybe just slap him around a little,” Selene suggested.

  The door opened. “I’ll help if we’re talking about smacking around one of the Haydens,” Sebastian said as he entered, Franco behind him. “You two go wait in the changing rooms or in the great hall. We have to finish onboarding the Italian.”

  “Wait, before they go, I had an idea.” Franco dug in his pocket, then walked over to Luca. “Congrats!” He threw a handful of confetti into the air. It rained down on Luca.

  “Jesus Christ,” Sebastian muttered.

  Franco took another handful of confetti and threw it on Oscar. “Here’s some belated confetti for you too.”

  The look of her guys, the stupefied expressions on their faces with confetti in their hair and dusting their shoulders, was one Selene would treasure for a long time.

  Chapter Thirteen

  A massive round wooden table had been set up in the grand entrance hallway of the underground headquarters. There were eight chairs, seven of which were occupied by members of the Trinity Masters, including their newest member. Besides Luca, there was, of course, the Grand Master, her face hidden beneath the deep hood of her dark gray knitted shawl, as well as her advisors, Franco and Sebastian, Oscar and herself.

  The seventh person was Owen Fraser, whom Selene recognized from one of the all-society galas, though it had been years since that particular event.

  She glanced at Owen, who returned her smile before quickly shifting his attention back to Luca.

  She and Oscar had taken seats on either side of Luca, who was quiet, though she wasn’t sure if it was from shock at his new status or prudence. She had to suppress the urge to reach over and pluck an errant bit of confetti from the back of his hair.

  The last, unknown attendee was a rather stoic man, sitting ramrod straight. He had thick curls that just brushed his collar. His hair and his sharp, penetrating eyes were almost the exact same shades of medium brown with flashes of gold. He was broad and stocky, in a muscular way, not a fat way. He’d been introduced as Percival Knight, and he was the Masters’ Admiralty’s representative.

  “Mr. Knight,” the Grand Master said. “You speak for the Masters’ Admiralty at this…gathering?”

  “War council,” Sebastian said quietly.

  That statement echoed slightly against the arched ceiling above, grand columns, and stone floor.

  “I do, within limits.” Percival looked around. “I may need to be above ground to contact my fleet admiral if there are matters I cannot make statements on without confirming with her.”

  “That can be arranged,” Sebastian said. “Do you each know why you’re here?”

  “Yes,” Selene said.

  “Of course,” Owen murmured.

  Luca and Percival nodded.

  “No. Can I leave?” Oscar grumped.

  “Pinch him,” Selene whispered to Luca. “He’s being a dick.”

  “Ouch, fuck,” Oscar yelped. “Also, I heard that.” He sat forward slightly to glare at her.

  “You are here, Mr. Hayden—”

  “Apparently as comic relief,” Sebastian muttered.

  “—because you were instrumental in the first part of this investigation.” The Grand Master had raised her voice slightly. “Also, you are standing in as a proxy for your brother Langston, whom I believe we will need to call on sooner rather than later.”

  “Still on his honeymoon,” Oscar said shortly. However, his nod told her he would accept the need for his presence if it meant his brother could remain with his new spouses a few days longer. He settled back in his chair, arms crossed.

  Sebastian sat forward, forearms on the table. “If we’re being frank, the other reason you’re here,” he looked first at Oscar, then at her, “is because Mr. Campisi is comfortable with you.”

  Selene resisted the urge to sputter. “I’m a theoretical atomic physicist. You’re saying my expertise is secondary to a discussion about a nuclear bomb?”

  “A bomb that doesn’t work,” Sebastian pointed out.

  “Pardon?” Percival, who already had excellent posture, went even stiffer. “It doesn’t work?”

  “We told you about the engineered flaw.” The Grand Master gestured to Luca. “Mr. Campisi has confirmed that it was intentional, and that he designed the bomb under duress.”

  Percival frowned. “Be that as it may, we believe it is in the best interest of both organizations for Mr. Campisi to return to Europe with me—”

  “Not possible,” the Grand Master interrupted. “Luca Campisi is a member of the Trinity Masters.”


  Percival looked like he might shatter, he was so tense and stiff. “Pardon? That’s not possible. Since when—”

  “About an hour ago,” Franco said cheerfully.

  Owen winced, but then his expression smoothed out. “It’ll be fine, Percy. The task force means that whatever information I have, you have.”

  Percival didn’t seem appeased. “I very much doubt that you will be given all the information.”

  “And your admiral tells you everything?” Owen asked mildly.

  “Luca is ours,” Sebastian said briefly. “He’s intelligent, resourceful, and cunning. All traits we look for in our members. The Grand Master identified his potential and offered him membership. It has nothing to do with the Masters’ Admiralty.”

  “What a load of shite,” Percy muttered loud enough that everyone in the room heard him.

  “Imagine what he’ll be able to do when he’s not all alone,” Oscar said quietly. “When he’s got us at his back.”

  Everyone looked at him. Beside her, Luca had gone perfectly still. Selene reached for his hand under the table and squeezed it. Oscar’s words had caused a little lump in her throat, so she could only imagine what Luca himself was feeling.

  While Selene had been the one to suggest they continue “practicing ménages,” there was no denying she had feelings for Luca and Oscar. Walking away from them at the end of this nightmare was going to be…difficult.

  No. Not difficult.

  Impossible, her mind whispered.

  “Watch your tone in the presence of the Grand Master.” Sebastian was staring down Percival.

  “Grand Master, if I may?” Owen leaned forward, as if he could physically intercept the tension crisscrossing the table.

  She nodded to Owen.

  “And may I talk freely about the MPF?”

  “Yes.”

  Owen looked at Percival, then to her, Luca, and Oscar. “For the first time in our histories, the Trinity Masters and Masters’ Admiralty have a formal mutual aid agreement and a way to take action against any threat to both societies.”

  “The Bellator Dei doesn’t know about the Trinity Masters,” Luca said softly.