 by Lexi Blake.jpg)
Total pages in book: 154
Estimated words: 145091 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 725(@200wpm)___ 580(@250wpm)___ 484(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 145091 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 725(@200wpm)___ 580(@250wpm)___ 484(@300wpm)
Drake Radcliffe has spent half his life in the shadows. Recruited by the CIA when he was barely out of high school, Drake doesn’t know how to have a normal life. While most people his age were playing sports or video games, he was playing spy games with the world’s most dangerous adversaries. It has been a life filled with thrills and adrenaline, but it’s also been lonely. All that might change when a mistake from Drake’s past rears its ugly head and he’s forced to face the only woman he ever loved—the one he’d vowed to stay away from.
A beacon of love and compassion
Taylor Cline committed the cardinal sin in her world—she fell for another operative. Drake was everything she wanted in a man, until he broke her heart. She had one unforgettable night with him and then he never looked back. Her future threatened and family in ruins, she shut down and moved on, hoping to never see him again. Just as she is beginning to put it all behind her, a critical assignment puts her under his authority and right back in his arms.
A deadly mission that brings them together
From the wilds of Wyoming to the glittering cities of Europe, Drake and Taylor must race against time to uncover the truth and expose an evil organization. The stakes couldn’t be higher. If they fail, the world could crumble. If they succeed, they could finally have everything their hearts desire.
FULL BOOK START HERE:
Part One
Romania
Eighteen Months Before
Chapter One
Snow beat against the windshield of the sedan, the stark white nearly blinding him.
Drake Radcliffe felt the burning pain in his side and prayed he could make it to the safe house. When he’d taken the hit, it hadn’t felt too bad. He’d had far worse, but now it ached like a mother, and he was pretty sure he’d reopened the damn wound when he’d swerved on the highway. Was that blood he felt? There was a lot of it. He had to force his hands to stay steady on the wheel, his eyes on the…was it a road?
The events of the day slammed into him once again, and he could see his operative lying on the cobblestone street, blood just starting to stain the stones. Whoever had been behind that bullet had used a suppressor because Drake had barely heard the sound before he saw the hole in his operative’s chest open up and then felt the pain in his own side.
Where the hell was the cabin? It was a cabin, right? He was on the side of a fucking mountain, so he was pretty sure there was a cabin and not an apartment building.
Guilt swamped him. He should have known something was wrong, that they’d been found out. His operative…what was his name…he didn’t like to use names because it was easier to move around chess pieces than people. That was what he did. He played chess with people’s lives, and he’d lost a pawn and he couldn’t even remember the pawn’s name because he was a piece of shit.
Come with me, brother. Think about what we could do with that kind of power. We could take over the group and then we would rule the world. Just like we always knew we would.
That had been a joke between him and his sister. They were smart. They were kind of assholes who joked about being smarter than everyone else around them and so the world should simply do what they said.
Except one of them had been serious…
Where was the cabin? He was so fucking tired. He’d driven for hours and hours. Almost eight hours with a hole in his side he’d basically stuck a bandage on. He needed stitches and antibiotics, but there was no way he was going to a hospital at this point. The safe house couldn’t be too far away. He thought he might remember some of the markers but everything was fucking trees, and the road that was barely more than a trail was covered in snow.
How much blood had he lost? His head felt fuzzy, and now he was worried he’d made the wrong choice and should have tried to find a hospital.
But the nature of his business was…delicate, to say the least. If anyone found out he was in a hospital and vulnerable…
He had the drive his operative had delivered, and if it fell into the wrong hands then all his work would have been for nothing. His death would mean nothing. He had to get to the safe house and call in. There was a safe there.
A safe in the safe house. Safety. Safe. Safe. Safe. Safe.
Such a funny word when he thought about it. Was anyone safe? He said it out loud. It sounded weird to him.
Safe.
His dad had stepped down from his dangerous job, and he was supposed to be safe. Safe from lies. But Julia built her whole world on lies. Julia didn’t believe in safety, and it had cost their family everything.