by Anna Blakely
Ultimate Risk
R.I.S.C. Book 6
Anna Blakely
Contents
About The Book
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Epilogue
R.I.S.C. Book 7
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Ultimate Risk
R.I.S.C. Series 6
First Edition
Copyright © 2020 Anna Blakely
All rights reserved.
All cover art and logo Copyright © 2020
Publisher: Anna Blakely
Cover by Lori Jackson Design
Copy Editing by Tracy Roelle
Copy Editing by Theresa Huber
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems—except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews—without permission in writing from the author.
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, and places portrayed in this book are entirely products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and not intended by the author.
The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to five years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.00.
If you find any eBooks being sold or shared illegally, please contact the author at [email protected].
Created with Vellum
This book is for those I like to call my Zoom posse:
Shayla Black, Elle Boon, and Jenna Jacob.
Throughout this crazy, unpredictable time, you three have been here for me. Not only did you help calm the storm of uncertainty when we all went into lockdown to protect the health and safety of our nation and those around us, you also offered me support, advice, an ear when I needed to bend one (or six!).
I can’t thank you enough for all you’ve done to help make me the best author I can be. Your friendship and support means more to me than you’ll ever know. I love each of you so, so hard!
XOXO ~
Anna
About The Book
THEY’VE BEEN PARTNERS FOR YEARS.
Alpha Team’s two snipers, Sean “Coop” Cooper and McKenna “Mac” Kelley have worked side-by-side for years. As partners, they’re a force to be reckoned with. As friends, they’re about as close as two people can get. But lately, something’s been brewing between them. A hidden, passionate level of desire neither has ever experienced before.
HE WANTS TO BE SO MUCH MORE.
When Mac’s dangerous past catches up to her, she’s pulled back into the dark, ugly world she escaped from years ago. Refusing to put her teammates at risk, she attempts to take on her twisted family alone. But Coop has other plans. After all, Mac isn’t just his partner. She’s also the woman who owns him, heart and soul.
WILL THEY SURVIVE?
When a target is placed on both their backs, Mac must face the secrets she’d buried years before, as well as the love she's been denying herself for far too long. Soon, she and Coop find themselves fighting to stay alive, determined to protect each other…and the future they both want.
Will these two partners-turned-lovers be able to save each other’s lives, or will taking the ultimate risk end up costing them everything?
Prologue
“Please, Tony. Please don’t do this!”
From behind the bushes, Abigail McKenna Moretti rose up on her tiptoes and glanced through the window. What she saw inside turned her blood cold.
The man was on his knees with his palms up. Begging for his life as Luca Marino stood over him with a gun—a gun—pointed at the man’s head.
At twenty-one, Luca was only five years older than her, but he was well-established in her uncle’s business. Tony always called the guy his right-hand man. Now she understood exactly what that meant.
Abigail’s eyes fell onto the gun again. The barrel looked odd, longer than it should for a handgun that size. Studying it more closely, she realized a suppressor had been attached to its end.
Ohmygod. Ohmygod!
Her pulse raced. Unprecedented fear snaked through her veins as she tried to make sense of what she was seeing. Luca was about to shoot this man. God, he was about to commit cold blooded murder!
And her uncle was calmly standing by the door now. Watching it all take place as if he were overseeing the whole damn scene. He gave Luca a slight nod.
An order to kill.
She’d suspected all the rumors about her uncle were true. All the late-night meetings. Secret whispers between him and Luca. Other men she only knew as ‘associates’. It all made perfect sense, but it wasn’t until that exact moment Abigail knew beyond a shadow of a doubt…
My uncle’s a killer.
“I have a family”—the man continued to beg her uncle—“a wife and daughter. Please, Tony. Please!”
Abigail thought she was going to be sick.
The man was crying now. Begging for his life and sobbing. Absentmindedly, Abigail felt her face with her free hand and realized she was crying right along with him.
She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t sit back and watch an innocent man die without at least trying to help. But how the hell was she going to stop the execution while also protecting herself?
If these two were capable of this, they’d probably kill her without blinking an eye.
Think, Abigail. Think!
A dog barked from somewhere in the distance, tearing her attention away for a fraction of a second. That was it! She needed a distraction…but what?
Abigail thought for another precious second before deciding on a plan. Praying it would work, she reached into her pocket and pulled out the fob to the car she’d taken from her uncle’s garage.
The man’s sobbing voice still traveled through the double-paned glass, which meant sound could also travel from the outside in. Yes, a honking horn would draw attention to the car, but it was dark. The car was black, its lights would be flashing, and it was down the street behind that Jeep.
Hopefully her uncle and Luca would be too busy trying to get away to even realize it was Tony’s car.
Praying this worked, Abigail put her thumb over the red panic button on the fob and pressed down. The car’s horn began to honk loudly. Over and over again, it blared through the night sky.
A few neighbors came out, hollering for the car’s unknown owner to turn the damn thing off. Not a chance.
From her hiding place behind the bush, her gaze flew back to the terrifying scene inside. She barely held back a cheer of gratitude when her uncle gave Luca a sharp tilt of his head, motioning toward the door. And just like that, they left.
The man on his knees bent over at his waist and vomited.
Abigail’s knees shook as an overwhelming rush of relief struck. They hadn’t killed him. The man was safe!
He’s saf
e, but what about you?
That tiny voice in the back of her head was right. She needed to get out of here. Now.
If she took off toward the blaring car, she’d be spotted in an instant. Her only chance was to wait until Tony and Luca left. Then she’d have to haul ass and pray she beat them home.
Crouched in the bushes, Abigail peeked around the corner of the house. The black SUV she’d followed here reversed out of the reprieved man’s driveway and—thank you, God—went in the opposite direction of the Mercedes.
As soon as the bright red taillights vanished around the curve at the end of the block, Abigail took off in a dead sprint. Her leg muscles burned, but she didn’t dare stop. She did, however, manage to press the panic button on the fob while still running, putting an end to the incessant honking that had annoyed more than a few neighbors.
With a quick wave and apology to the owners of the house she’d parked in front of, Abigail threw the car in drive, flipped a U-turn in the middle of the street, and got the hell out of there.
Lucky for her, her new school was only a few blocks away, so she knew a shortcut home.
Twelve minutes and a hell of a lot of prayers later, the ‘borrowed’ Mercedes was parked back in its rightful place and the garage door was shut. Knowing she had less than a handful of minutes before Uncle Tony and Luca came back, Abigail tore through the house to Tony’s office.
She picked the lock in record time and had the keys back in place, exactly as she’d found them less than an hour before. Making sure to lock the door behind her, she exited the room before running the opposite direction down the hall and taking the back stairs.
Once inside her room, she stripped her clothes off, threw on her shorts and tank-top PJ set, and climbed into her queen-sized, four-poster bed. As she lay there, Abigail worked to slow her heart rate and control her heavy breathing. Not an easy task when the image of that man begging for his life continued to fill her vision
When she heard her bedroom door open a few minutes later, Abigail pulled upon a strength hidden deep within to pretend she was fast asleep. She could hear her uncle’s soft footfalls on her carpeted floor as they came closer and closer to where she lay.
It was only by the grace of God she was able to remain still. Keep her breathing shallow and steady.
Though she couldn’t see him, Abigail felt her uncle’s presence hovering over her. Minutes later, she finally heard him move slowly away, followed by the soft snick of her bedroom door closing.
Afraid it was some sort of trick, that he’d come right back in, she continued to lay like that. Unmoving and barely breathing—until sleep finally, finally pulled her under.
The next morning at breakfast, it was as if nothing had happened. At least where her uncle was concerned. Abigail, however, was a nervous wreck as she tried to act normal while also attempting to figure out what the hell she was going to do now.
“Are you finished? You didn’t eat much.” Tony glanced down at her plate full of food.
She shrugged. “I guess I’m not that hungry.”
“Well”—he wiped his mouth with the cloth napkin—"if you’re finished, we need to get going.”
“Already?” Abigail looked at her watch. “It’s barely seven. School doesn’t start for another—”
“You’re not going to school today.”
Uh…okay. “I’m not?”
He smiled. “I have something special planned.”
“You’re letting me skip school?” she asked suspiciously.
“You’re an excellent student and your grades are top notch. It won’t kill you to miss one day. Besides…” He stood and pushed his chair in. “You only turn sixteen once, yes? I thought we could go look at some cars.”
Her birthday. She’d completely forgotten.
“Really?” She didn’t have to feign her excitement. A car of her own would make her escape even easier when the time came. “I’ll go get my jacket.”
Twenty minutes later, she and her uncle pulled into a small, used car lot on the outskirts of the city. The guy could afford to buy the entire freaking lot, but Abigail wasn’t about to complain about getting a used car. Any means of transportation would be a godsend.
She followed him inside where he’d told her the owner—apparently one of his close friends—was waiting. Said the man had agreed to meet them early, before opening hours, so they could have the VIP treatment.
As they walked through the front portion of the small building, she couldn’t help but wonder how good the treatment from a musty, dingy place like this could be.
“Come on.” Her uncle put a hand on the small of her back. “The office is back here.”
They entered a short hallway and then turned a corner. Her uncle opened a door for her, her heart leaping into her throat the second she walked through it.
Instead of an office, she found herself in a garage. And rather than a car salesman, Abigail and her uncle were greeted by Luca. Beside him, down on his knees, was the same man she’d seen the night before.
Her stomach fell.
Like last night, the man was crying. He wasn’t pleading for his life, however, but only because he couldn’t.
The duct tape covering his mouth prevented his screams from ever reaching the air around them. The ropes tied around his wrists and ankles kept him from trying to escape.
She whirled around, desperate to run, but her uncle’s hands cinched down onto shoulders, keeping her in place.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“W-what…” She swallowed. “What’s going on? I don’t understand.”
Tony raised a knowing brow. “Don’t you?”
He knows. The giant knot stuck inside her throat kept the words from forming, so Abigail shook her head.
“I think you know exactly what’s going on.” He turned her around. Forced her to look at the man. “After all, you’re the one who interrupted last night’s meeting with Mr. Shaeffer.”
“I-I didn’t—”
A hard push from behind caused her to fly forward. She threw her hands out to catch herself, but her knees still hit the cold, unforgiving concrete with a loud thud.
Abigail swallowed the pain, refusing to cry out and appear weak. If her uncle was going to kill her, she would not give him the satisfaction of seeing her fear while he did it.
“You’ll find it in your best interest not to lie to me right now, sweet niece.”
Abigail raised her head. Her eyes locked with the man on his knees in front of her. Tears fell from his eyes, running down over the slick, gray tape and onto the floor below him. Her heart ripped in two, knowing this time, there would be no saving him.
“I must say, I’m impressed.” Her uncle came to stand beside her. “You tailed me without my knowledge the entire way to Shaeffer’s home. I wouldn’t have even known you’d been there had it not been for the tracking device Luca, here, installed in your phone.”
Her eyes shot up to his. “What?”
“Didn’t know about that, did you?” His lips curled into a sick grin. “Technology is just one of Luca’s many talents.”
Abigail glared at the tall, dark-haired man. Keeping the gun steady, Luca reached into his pocket with his free hand and pulled out her phone. She didn’t know when he’d had access to it, but the smug look on the asshole’s face said her uncle was telling the truth.
“Since you are so interested in what I really do, I figured I’d give you an up close and personal view. A private showing, if you will. After all, you’re sixteen now. The same age I was when my father…your grandfather…took me to my first execution.”
Abigail gagged. Oh, Jesus. Her family was insane. Not her parents, though. They’d never—
“I can see the wheels turning, Abigail. And yes, your father was in the business, too.”
“No.” She faced him. She’d finally found her voice again, and it was steady and sure. “You’re lying.”
“No, Abigail.” Tony’s expression turn
ed to pitying sympathy. “I’m not. In fact, your father was in charge up to the day he and your mother drove off that cliff.”
“You’re. Lying!” She shot to her feet and rammed her body into his. Unfortunately for her, he was much larger. Stronger.
“I’m not.” He grabbed her flailing wrists to keep her from hitting him. “Your father, our father, his father…it’s a family business, Abigail. One we were born into. Just like you.”
Shock reverberated through her, causing her to flinch. “I will never be a part of this. You hear me? Never!”
“You already are. But you do have a choice.” This halted her jerky movements. “It’s simple, really. Either you’re with us”—he glanced down at the sobbing man behind her—“or you’re against us. That decision is up to you.”
Understanding filtered through her ice-cold veins. She either chose to stand beside her uncle, or she’d end up below him. As in, six-feet-under, below him.
“I’ll give you some time to think about it. Until then…”
He jerked his chin toward Luca, and Abigail knew exactly what the motion meant. As he had last night, her uncle had given his lackey the order to kill the other man.
She began fighting to free herself again. “Uncle Tony, please. Please don’t do this!”
“Oh, my love.” He swung her around, his strong arms wrapping around her body tightly as he held her back to his front. “It’s already done.”
“No!” She kicked back, her heel connecting with her uncle’s shin.
He grunted. His hold loosened. Abigail ran for the man on his knees because she knew. She knew what was happening and wanted to stop it.