Fate’s Design (Trinity Masters: The Spaniard #3)

Prologue

There were very few perks to being the head of a secret society, but getting to hear other people’s drama was one of them. It was even better if she wasn’t the one responsible for mediating the drama.

Juliette Adams, Grand Master of the Trinity Masters, leaned back against one husband’s shoulder, while the other husband read from his text messages.

“So she said it never had to be an admiral.” Franco’s thumb slid along the screen as he summarized the information his best friend Colum was texting him. “Colum had to marry someone in leadership. Colum’s new husband Xavier is going to be a finance minister, which apparently counts.”

“We knew that much from when they called in the middle of the night to ask if Annie could switch to the Masters’ Admiralty,” Juliette said. “Get to the new stuff.”

While she was leader of an American secret society built on trinity marriages, there was a European equivalent.

The societies were completely separate, and membership to either was for life.

That meant when one of her members—a woman named Annie—fell in love with two men in the European society, Annie had to get Juliette’s permission to switch from the Trinity Masters to the Masters’ Admiralty, which in turn allowed her to marry.

One of Annie’s new husbands was Franco’s best friend, Colum.

Annie had called for permission to join the Masters’ Admiralty days ago.

Since then, she, Colum, and Xavier had apparently been having a lot of honeymoon sex, based on the random sex questions Colum kept texting Franco.

The new trinity must have come up for air, which meant Juliette—via Franco—finally got to hear more about what went down the day Colum’s original arranged marriage was dissolved, freeing him to marry Annie and Xavier.

“Then,” Franco continued, “Eric pointed out people might be upset that their archivist is now married to an American.”

“Arguably that still gives us slightly stronger ties to the Trinity archive,” Juliette agreed. “You and Colum are in charge of the new archive. You’re married to me, and now, one of our former people is married to Colum.”

“But we agreed the archive is going to be in Dublin. That would give them an advantage,” Franco pointed out.

“Only the physical archive. Once everything is digitized, the physical archive isn’t all that important,” Devon mused.

Franco jerked upright, then slowly twisted to stare at Devon, his face a mask of outrage.

Devon chuckled, and Franco’s outrage became a glower. With his black brows and flashing dark eyes, the look was surprisingly intimidating from the normally cheerful Franco.

“Quick. Take it back,” Juliette stage-whispered to Devon.

“Except that’s totally wrong and I was stupid for saying it.”

Franco nodded, the corner of his lip kicking up into a smile.

“What happened next?” Juliette demanded.

Franco turned back to his messages. “Nikolett told Eric to make Colum his brother legally—then there’s a strong family tie between Colum and Eric to offset Colum’s tie to Annie.”

“It feels like someone should have come up with that solution a lot earlier,” Devon murmured in her ear, his hand idly rubbing Juliette’s baby bump.

In the privacy of their home, she didn’t bother to hide it the way she did outside these walls, and the thin, comfy cotton shirt clung to the obvious roundness.

“Probably most of this didn’t occur to Nikolett until after the Trinity Council meeting,” Juliette said.

“Given that Nikolett and Eric are in a relationship, but he still married her off to his brother, she was clearly—and rightfully—pissed. That wouldn’t have made for the best problem-solving headspace. ”

“Imagine abusing your power to manipulate someone you loved,” Devon said with mock seriousness.

Juliette tried to elbow him, but she was wedged in against his side. With a huff, she looked at Franco.

“Hit him for me.”

Without looking away from his phone, Franco reached over her and vaguely flapped his hand near Devon without actually touching him.

Devon started to laugh, and the sound rumbled through a disgruntled Juliette.

“Wait, wait, listen to this.” Franco looked up, eyes wide. “They’re still there!”

Juliette and Devon waited.

“Who’s still where?” Devon asked after a moment.

“Colum, Xavier, Annie, and Nikolett are all still at Triskelion Castle. Eric won’t let them leave.”

Juliette sat up, accidentally elbowing Devon as she did. Ha. Served him right.

“Eric has them in protective custody?” She was now a little worried about Annie, though the woman had the skillset to extract herself in most circumstances.

But Triskelion Castle, the headquarters and stronghold of the Masters’ Admiralty, was a fortified stone “manor house” on the tiny Isle of Man.

The massive stone building sat behind a high wall, and looked plenty castle-like on the satellite photos they’d studied.

Getting out of the castle and off the island would be difficult, even for someone like Annie.

“Colum doesn’t care,” Franco said dismissively. “I mean, of course he doesn’t. He asked if it was safe to put Deep Heat on nipples a couple hours ago, so they’re having a good time.”

Juliette sputtered out a laugh, and Devon took advantage of her distraction to pull her against him once more. She liked the closeness, liked his need to touch her.

She just wished it wasn’t a lingering symptom of trauma, from a time when they’d been prisoners and he’d been unable to reach her. Unable to stop their enemies from hurting her.

Therapy had helped, massively, and maybe this was just a behavior pattern now rather than a need. She’d have to ask at their next session. Without intense trauma therapy, Juliette didn’t know if…

She sat up again, working through the idea that had just come to her. She kept a hand on Devon’s leg so he’d know she wasn’t rejecting being close to him.

Franco’s eyes widened as he looked at his phone.

“Colum might not care, but apparently Nikolett does.” Franco held his phone up, screen turned toward Juliette and Devon. “Eric and Nikolett are having a fight about it right now.”

Juliette grabbed the phone and hit the call button. She wanted to hear this live.