Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 86240 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86240 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Her
I’m not a woman who needs saving.
I’m the one who saves herself.
Until I’m too broken to save anyone, including myself.
When all hope is lost,
In walks a gorgeous man who marks me as prey.
I may be unable to deny his offer of salvation.
But that doesn’t mean I’ll give him my heart.
Him
I made a promise.
Two in fact.
First - Destroy the man they called Ruin.
Second – Save the sister of someone I call friend while doing the first.
She’s a means to an end, no matter how stunning she is.
My code name is Rook.
I’m not her savior, though she may be my ruin.
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
1
My internal alarm clock went off, and I blinked several times to focus. For a second, I didn’t remember where I was. But the exposed brick walls reminded me I was back in my studio apartment in Chicago.
“Hey.” The soft voice was another reminder that I wasn’t alone.
“Hey,” I said back.
“Don’t sound so excited.” My handler rolled to the left and gingerly got off the bed naked as the day she was born.
Inwardly, I groaned. It was true her cover was one of a long list of women to spend time in my bed. That didn’t mean we had to fully act it out. Besides, the op was over. Nicolas Cortez, the kingpin of Chicago, was in federal custody.
“What are you going to do now?” she asked, undeterred by my silence. I shrugged because I wouldn’t tell her my plans. “Maybe you should take a vacation, Shawn.”
Shawn wasn’t my real name. But I’d been called it so much I responded as easily as if she’d called me Matt. Her point, however, was to convey that the brass at the bureau wanted me out of Chicago.
“Things are hot in the city right now. I just might do that,” I said, sticking to my cover. Though the kingpin was in jail, the extent of his reach was long. I swept for bugs daily, otherwise known as listening devices, but you never knew.
She giggled as if she were some silly woman instead of a deadly weapon. Her training was as extensive as mine. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” she said teasingly, but I understood it for what it was—a warning.
“You know me.”
She didn’t exactly know me. We’d only worked together for about a year when she replaced my previous handler. What she hadn’t suggested was for me to move from the area. That meant I was to remain a cop with the Chicago PD. Technically, I was on suspension from that job. An internal investigation was pending regarding my involvement with the kingpin. I’d been his right-hand man. Chicago PD’s internal affairs department was looking into it because they’d caught me with Cortez when he was arrested. It was all part of my FBI cover, and the bureau would use back channels to clear me of that… eventually.
After my handler left, I checked my watch. I had an hour before a meeting I’d set up and headed for the shower. I’d made promises I had to keep. One I’d made to my brother-in-law, Connor King. Another to the man I was meeting.
An hour later, I walked into a dive bar on Rush Street and headed to a back shadowy corner that had been agreed upon. There sat David Royal. I almost didn’t recognize one of Chicago’s most eligible bachelors as he wore a White Sox baseball hat.
I slid into the booth opposite him just as a server dropped off two beers. It was a little early, but past noon.
“On time,” he said and took a swig of his beer.
“Always. I keep my promises.”
He nodded but didn’t look happy about it. “How’s Natalie?” he asked.
Natalie was the kingpin’s only daughter. She’d also been a bargaining chip David lost.
“Do you really want to know?” He looked away. “You really liked her?”
He met my eyes, and I held his squarely as he spoke. “It’s not often you find a woman like her. She was a breath of fresh air.”
I nodded, understanding what he meant. He had no idea how closely I could commiserate with him. He saw me as part of Chicago’s underbelly. Where I’d grown up like him, rich and privileged. Most didn’t know that because I’d walked away from my blue-blood life.
“You win some, you lose some. I lost a woman like her, a day late and a dollar short.” I took a pull from my beer, which had already begun to sweat.
What I said was more truth than I’d told anyone outside of my inner circle in a very long time. I could have fallen hard for my twin sister’s best friend since college. I’d kept Bailey at arm’s length, not wanting to corrupt her. She was sweet as homemade apple pie, and I hadn’t been ready for anything real. Much later, I’d changed my mind and gone back to New York, a few days after she’d met a man wealthier than God. She married that man because I’d been a fool.