by Rachel Grant
Ivy puffed out a breath. “I’m just not in the mood, okay?”
“Ive, you need to get out there and dance. It doesn’t have to mean anything. Just have fun. Cut loose. Hell, pick up a guy and have a vacation fling. No one will judge you.”
She hooked her arm through Ivy’s and pulled her back to their table, waving to the cocktail waitress as she passed. The three of them arrived at the table simultaneously. Hazel ordered two fruity tropical drinks with Ivy’s favorite coconut rum. After the woman left, Hazel asked, “When was the last time you got laid? Please don’t tell me it was Patrick, because the thought of that makes me want to hurl.”
Ivy usually accepted comments like that without a word, but something inside her snapped in that moment. Maybe it was the melancholy of missing Julian. Or the awkwardness of being in a bar ostensibly to pick up men, when there was only one man she wanted, or even Hazel’s offhand reminder of the last time she’d had sex. Whatever it was, she couldn’t be silent anymore.
“Hazel, I love you with all my heart, but you need to stop shaming me for the fact that I was in love with my husband. I carry enough guilt on that point myself without you piling on.”
Adrenaline flooded her as she realized she’d said the thing that had been bothering her for years but which she’d avoided because, conflict.
Hazel was her best friend, and barbs from her hurt more than from anyone else.
Hazel sat upright, her eyes wide with shock. “Do I do that?”
Ivy cocked her head. “Um, yeah. Basically from the moment we got engaged.”
Without warning, a tear rolled down Hazel’s cheek. “You know how you can believe you’re a good person, and in one moment you see yourself in a different light?”
Ivy gave a sharp nod. “Yeah. I’ve been in that neighborhood.” She’d visited that street a thousand times in the months after Patrick was arrested, then again in Palau, and she’d set up permanent residence as she and Julian waded through the murky waters of establishing a parent-child relationship.
Nothing was easy.
The only way to approach Julian in those times was through the lens of love. He was a hurting boy. She was a flawed parental figure. If they held on to the love, they could navigate the heartache.
She called up that love to address her sister, who’d inflicted more pain that she’d ever realized over the years. “You’ve been better these last few months, but you still slip in these snide comments here and there, and I’m done with it. I don’t need your judgment any more than I need the judgment of strangers. Less even, because from you, it hurts.”
“Oh, Ive. I’m so sorry! Why didn’t you tell me?”
She shrugged. “Probably because I felt it was my due to be shamed. But fuck that. I fell in love with a man and married him. He turned out to be a monster. But that wasn’t my fault. And it wasn’t my fault I didn’t know, because he worked damn hard to hide it from me and the rest of the world.” There. She’d said it. The feeble defense she hadn’t bothered to express to the outside world. Because no one outside her inner circle would really give a damn, but also because in the long run, they didn’t matter to her.
The waitress returned with their drinks. Hazel reached for Ivy’s hand. “I’m sorry, Ive. I really—I didn’t realize I was doing that. Please don’t hate me.”
“I could never hate you, Haze. You’re my sister. Even when I’m mad as hell at you, I love you.”
Her heart ached in that moment for Dimitri. She hated that she hadn’t been able to be with him these last months, as he faced his sister’s betrayal, which was infinitely more devastating than anything Ivy had faced—even when she added Patrick to the mix. She could only imagine how painful it must have been for him to come to grips with his sister’s actions.
Hazel held up her drink. “Can we start this vacation over? I’ll stop being a bitch and grousing about Sean.”
Ivy picked up her drink. “And I’ll try to relax and be more fun.” They clinked their glasses together, pact made.
“Promise me you’ll dance with the next man who asks.”
“I don’t think—”
“There’s a man making a beeline for you right now. And oh my God, but he’s hot. I saw him staring at you earlier when you were talking to the German guy.”
Ivy shifted and caught a glimpse of the man with her peripheral vision. Her belly flipped, and her entire body flushed with heat and joy. She caught her breath and faced her sister. She couldn’t let her reaction show.
“He’s Death-Valley-in-July hot.”
“If he asks you to dance, you’d better go for it.”
She took a sip of her drink. “I think I might,” she said softly.
Ivy was even more beautiful than Dimitri remembered. He’d been watching her all evening, savoring the moment when he’d speak to her. He had to do this right. This would become their origin story, the story they’d have to tell everyone in her family except her cousin Alec.
Alec had been the one to suggest they use Hazel as a witness for their “first meet.” Her presence would make it all the more real for the rest of the family. Alec had also suggested surprising Ivy. And the look on her face, the shock and heat, set Dimitri’s heart pounding.
Ian had initially been suggested to play bodyguard, to set up the meeting, but it was decided that he was too much of a friend to Ivy. His presence would be intrusive. Plus, Ivy would likely suspect something was up. Sean was the better choice, and he’d been brought into the loop and knew exactly who Dimitri was. He was also watching Dimitri’s back, making sure no one was tracking him.
Today, at long last, Dimitri would claim his life.
He reached Ivy’s table and she met his gaze. He saw the telltale pulse jump in her throat, the rush of joy in her eyes. She’d been practicing her poker face, but she wasn’t quite there yet. Fine with him. He loved her just the way she was and didn’t want any part of her to change.
Tossing out an awkward pickup line for her sister’s benefit wouldn’t work—Ivy would never fall for a guy who introduced himself with a cheesy line—so he simply said, “Would you like to dance?”
Ivy jumped to her feet, bumping the table and sloshing her drink. “Yes. Yes, I think I would.”
Hazel laughed. “Have fun, Ivy.”
“Your name is Ivy?” he asked, just loud enough for Hazel to hear as they walked to the crowded dance floor. “I’m Matthew. Matthew Dimitri Clark.”
“Matthew?” she said as though she was testing the texture of it. “Do you go by Matt?”
“I haven’t decided yet.”
They reached the dance floor, and he pulled her against him. A slow song had just started, giving him about two minutes to hold her close and lay the foundation for their future.
He whispered in her ear, “It’s my real name. The FBI tracked down my birth certificate in Berlin. They did a lot of digging and pulled a lot of strings, and it appears the GRU never knew that name, never knew who my mother was or where she was from. The FBI worked with the CIA and State Department to get Matthew Clark citizenship. I’ve been given a past no one will have reason to question. Now I’m here to ask if you’ll be my future.”
He raised his head away from her ear and met her gaze. Her eyes had filled with tears. “Yes,” she said softly. She cleared her throat. “But you should know, I’ve got a five-year-old at home I’m in the process of adopting. His name is Julian. We’re a package deal.”
His arms tightened around her. “I love him already.”
He held her against him for the duration of the song, no words necessary until the music changed to a faster beat. “Keep dancing, or return to the table and play first meet for your sister’s benefit?”
A glance toward the table showed Hazel chatting with Sean.
“Does Sean know who you are?”
“Yes.”
“Table, then. The sooner we convince Hazel, the sooner we can escape and go for a walk in the garden…or go to your hotel room.”
> He flashed a grin. “You’re propositioning me awfully fast.”
“I don’t do one-night stands very often, but I understand they can be quite empowering.”
He laughed. “There’s only one problem. I don’t have a hotel room. I live on a boat. It’s docked in the hotel marina.”
“And this is a problem how?”
“Once I have you aboard Steel Orchid I’m liable to take you out to sea and have my way with you.”
“It sounds like paradise.”
Ivy was strangely nervous when she stepped aboard the boat, Steel Orchid. Not about being alone with Dimitri—Matt—but more that this was too good to be true.
She’d been prepared to wait years before they were certain Dimitri was free of the GRU. These last ten months had been an eternity, but still, it was far sooner than she’d expected.
The first thing she saw when she stepped inside the salon was a framed photo. Ulai Umetaro, looking happy and healthy standing on the deck of a yacht that looked suspiciously like Liberty. A sign mounted to the rail indicated Umetaro Charters was open for business. “I didn’t know Liberty had been recovered.”
“She was found a few weeks after you left the islands, but it took months to get her ownership transferred to Ulai.”
She grinned as she stared at the photo. Dimitri’s arms slipped around her waist. His lips found her neck, and she wondered if it was possible to combust with joy.
She turned in his arms and tugged on his belt buckle. If she was going to explode with happiness, she’d take him along with her. He kissed her deeply as he scooped her up and carried her into his stateroom. They didn’t even make it to the bed.
Her cocktail dress was pushed up and underwear brushed aside as he held her against the stateroom wall and thrust into her, hard and fast and everything she’d ever dreamed.
“Oh God. Dimitri.”
“Matt,” he corrected, then thrust into her again.
She laughed. “Matt. Matthew. Matt.” She practiced his name with each thrust. Operant conditioning with the ultimate pleasure as the reward.
She came, hard. Intense. Euphoric. He came after she did, then continued to hold her against the wall, kissing her neck. “I love you, Ivy,” he whispered.
“I love you, Matt.” She could get used to the name. A Dimitri by any other name was still the hottest, most incredible man she’d ever wanted. She cupped his face. “How is it you’re even here? That this is even possible?”
He pulled out of her and deposited her on the bed, lying down beside her. He pulled her against his side.
“Ian had the idea of switching Zack’s and my dental records. The Coast Guard had mine, and the CIA had Zack’s. After the switch was made and they identified Parker Reeves as dead, the FBI closed the book on him. The GRU had never confirmed that I was their man, but there had been information shared when Parker disappeared. Through those existing channels, the GRU was presented with evidence of my death. Given that Sophia died in the jungle too, there was no reason for them to doubt the evidence.
“Between the shock of how deeply Sophia had betrayed the GRU and their scrambling to figure out how much she’d compromised them, they took my death in stride. An insider said I was even labeled as loyal and never having defected, because they found proof I’d reported in to Sophia and was working for her—who I believed to be my official handler with the GRU.”
Ivy traced his cheek, which had been reshaped and scarred thanks to the blast in Palau. He looked different, but not too different. “Because Rudy didn’t have any living relatives,” she said, “the FBI and Child Protective Services entered Julian into the system under a false name, to protect him from being monitored by the GRU. Officially, Alyssa, Rudy, and Julian Fredrickson all died in a boating accident in Palau last April. Julian won’t know the truth, unless we decide to tell him when he’s older.”
Dimitri’s eyes clouded. “It feels wrong not to tell him, and yet…”
“He needs to have the memory of the mother who loved him very much. She sacrificed herself for him.”
“I have trouble…even thinking about her,” Dimitri—Matt—admitted.
“I know.” She ran her hands over his freshly shaven cheeks. So much like that first night they’d met. The entire world had changed in the intervening months, yet here they were, meeting again for the first time. “I know.”
She sat up and pushed him onto his back, straddling him and gazing down on his handsome face. He was no longer blond—even his eyebrows were dark—and he wore colored contacts. Those changes added to the broken cheekbone, new scars that wrapped around his eye, and a broken nose that now had a prominent bump, and his face had been subtly transformed. But he was still hotter than Death Valley in July.
She traced all the changes in his face, and then touched the familiar lines of his smile. She still wanted to see creases at the corners of his eyes, for joy to be stamped into his skin, indelibly. “I’ve spent a lot of years hating myself for loving Patrick once upon a time. But over these last few months, I’ve realized I need to stop beating myself up about that. Stop feeling ashamed. I loved him, and my feelings were real, and I need to honor and respect the woman I was then instead of holding her accountable for things she couldn’t possibly know. If I can’t do that, I’m no better than all the people I’ve met who’ve accused me of awful things. I’m a good person. I don’t deserve that.”
She ran a fingertip across the new scar on his cheek and over the bump on his nose. “You are a good man. You’ve spent your whole life trying to protect the only person you could. She did horrible things to you, and made you do terrible things to others. But at your core, you’re a good man. I want you to know it’s okay that you loved your sister, and it’s okay, even now, to want to love her in spite of what she did. I won’t judge you for it. She was your baby sister and you were in an untenable situation, put there by people who didn’t actually give a damn about either of you. Sophia was a victim just as much as she was a villain. Just like you.”
His eyes teared. “I still hate her sometimes. And then I remember the years right before our parents died, and I love her and wonder who we could’ve been. Siblings, like you and Hazel, taking a vacation together.” He paused and cleared his throat. “I met Alec several times in the last few months.”
“You did? He never said a word.” But then, she knew he couldn’t.
Matt smiled. “It’s obvious you’re close to him. I love what I’ve seen of your family, Ivy. I want to be part of it.”
“You already are. Julian, he’s going to love you. And someday, you’ll be able to give his mother to him. He’s going to need stories of her childhood. The good times.”
“I can’t wait to see him.”
She jumped from the bed and picked up her purse, which she’d dropped on the floor as soon as they’d entered the stateroom. She pulled out her cell phone. “Laurel sent me this picture today.”
She showed him the image of a grinning Julian on a ride in the theme park. He’d just lost his first baby tooth last week, leaving an adorable gap in his smile.
“He’ll be starting kindergarten in the fall,” Matt said.
She nodded. “He’s so smart. So ready for school.”
“I have a plan. After our whirlwind romance and I get to ‘meet’ him, we’ll date for a bit and it will become clear to your family that we’re serious…I’m going to suggest that we take off this summer, three months on my boat, before Julian starts school. It will give us a chance to become a family away from prying eyes. Give me a chance to get to know Julian quickly, without having to play a role for others.”
“I think that’s an amazing idea.” Living on a boat with the two most important males in her world sounded like a slice of heaven.
“You can take the time off work?”
She nodded. “I’ll take a leave of absence. CAM has been handed over to the Pentagon, I’m in the final stages of refinement and training so others can operate the system, then I’m
out. I have no interest in being a spy, and won’t dare risk using the system again myself now that terrorist groups are after it. I’ve got money saved and can afford the leave. But what about you? I assume you’re working for the CIA now. Are they going to let you go?”
“They have all the intelligence I could give them, and in the future, I’ll be called in to evaluate new intelligence as it comes in, but it will be consulting mostly. Dimitri Veselov saved every penny he could to set up his sister and her son with a new life. I’m going to use that money now to take care of Julian, like I always wanted.”
“So this is really going to happen? We can really sail off into the sunset together?” Just the idea of it made her heart race. Once upon a time, Dimitri had told her there would be no happy endings for him, and they’d both believed him.
“It will, and we can. Just like I predicted, Russian spy Dimitri Veselov died when the AUUV was handed over in the jungle. But it turns out, American CIA analyst Matthew Dimitri Clark has an amazing future.”
Author’s Note
Archaeologists have been quick to adopt technology often used in intelligence gathering for finding and recording sites. This has resulted in some amazing discoveries, including locating entire villages and buried pyramids. This article is a good starting point if you’d like to read more on how archaeologists use the technology.
The technology of intelligence gathering is rapidly changing. Archaeologists and many other scientific disciplines are adapting in sync with the expanded abilities of drones and satellites. Ivy’s inventions, CAM and RON, along with the Air/Underwater Unmanned Vehicle (AUUV), are fictional in the way they are used in this story, however they are based on technology that is being developed and could possibly already be in use. Sleeper surveillance drones, artificially intelligent mapping drones, Lidar mapping that works seamlessly above and below water, and vehicles that can autonomously transform from swim to flight are all in development stages (if not already in use) and the role of drones in espionage could well eclipse the traditional role of human intelligence gathering.
