by Jenna Ryan
Table of Contents
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Epilogue
About the Author
Discover more Amara titles… Code of Honor
The Charmer
The White Lily
Against All Odds
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2017 by Jenna Ryan. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means. For information regarding subsidiary rights, please contact the Publisher.
Entangled Publishing, LLC
2614 South Timberline Road
Suite 109
Fort Collins, CO 80525
Visit our website at www.entangledpublishing.com.
Amara is an imprint of Entangled Publishing, LLC.
Edited by Tera Cuskaden
Cover design by Kelly Martin
Cover art from Deposit Photos and Bigstock
ISBN 978-1-64063-340-7
Manufactured in the United States of America
First Edition October 2017
To Stan Stark, for being such a great neighbor.
And to everyone at Beacon Community Services for being such wonderful friends!
Prologue
“I don’t believe you, Alexa. I won’t believe you.” Georgia Fixx crossed her arms in a defensive gesture. “You never liked Owen, so now you want to turn him into a villain. God sakes, we’ve hardly been married any time at all, and you’re telling me to divorce him. He’s my husband—and he’s not a monster.”
Alexa Chase drummed her fingers on the steering wheel of her Honda Accord. Her idea had been to get her sister out of the city, somewhere she could be certain they were alone. But in retrospect, a late-night drive might not have been the best choice. “I didn’t say Owen was a monster. I said he was a criminal. He works for a man named James Mockerie, who imports drugs and exports weapons. I found the proof, Georgia.”
“By sneaking and snooping and playing on his son’s affections.”
Alexa twitched away a pang of guilt and regret. She had used Owen’s son; however, the cause had been justified. Did she feel like slime for having done it? Absolutely. But God help her, look what she’d discovered.
“The FBI had no business approaching you.” Georgia glowered at her. “And you had no business helping them. Spying for them. Stealing for them.”
“I took books and codes, passwords and disks. Evidence of Owen’s involvement in Mockerie’s organization, which, by the way, is vast. I handed that information over to the FBI.” Alexa negotiated the next curve at a higher-than-normal speed. She tended to drive fast in the desert outside Las Vegas in any case, so given the circumstances, she simply took her mood out on the road.
“There’s an animal!” Georgia shouted, bracing.
Alexa swerved to avoid a jackrabbit.
“You drive like a maniac.” Her sister’s reproach ended on a pout that was pure Georgia. “How do you know Owen wasn’t forced to work for Mockingbird?”
“Mockerie. The truth of his involvement was in the evidence I discovered. Your husband is a willing participant, always has been.” Alexa softened her tone. “He also had three wives before you.”
“So he made wrong choices. Who cares? We all do it. Fourth time lucky, then.”
“They’re dead, Georgia.”
“What?” Genuine shock flitted across her sister’s features, followed swiftly by denial. “No. You’re lying. Or mistaken. Or…something.” She grabbed the sides of her hair, tugged hard. “Why are you doing this to me?”
“Because I want you to be safe. To live. Not to wind up like his three other wives.”
“You work for him. Shouldn’t that…? I mean, how can you…? Oh, hell, I don’t know what I’m saying. I do know Owen would never try to kill me. You’re insane for thinking that. You’re also driving way too fast.”
“I know.” Sighing, Alexa touched the brake. When nothing happened, she pressed down harder. “Shit!”
“I agree.” Georgia sulked. She refolded her arms in defiance. “You’re a mean sister to do this to me.”
Alexa looked ahead, then behind, then at the winding desert road. “The brakes are gone,” she said. “Dammit, they’re totally gone.” Had they been gone before? Maybe. They’d felt a bit spongy after she and Georgia had left the city.
Georgia scowled. “How can the brakes be gone? You just had the car tuned up.”
Alexa downshifted. The engine screamed, but the car only slowed a little.
They were on a long slope, she realized. Her heart hammered against her ribs, and the air she breathed felt like fire in her lungs. She tried the emergency brake. Nothing happened.
She wouldn’t panic, she promised herself. It wasn’t in her nature to overreact in any case. But how the hell could she slow the car when they were flying downhill?
“This isn’t funny, Alexa.” Grabbing the edges of her seat, Georgia planted her spiky heels on the floor mat. “You’re going to get us both killed.”
“I’m actually trying really hard not to do that.” The tires squealed as Alexa took another corner. She couldn’t execute a shift or a one-eighty turn without the brakes. All she had right then were the automatic gears and a fleeting hope that the road would level off before she careened out of control.
“Slow down!” Georgia shouted. Her voice was high and tight, her tears audible. “You’re doing this on purpose to prove a point. Except I still don’t believe you about Owen, so please stop playing stupid games.” She hitched a shuddering breath. “You are playing games, right?”
“No.” Swearing, Alexa set her teeth and geared down again.
The back end of the car swung out. Georgia shrieked, and the road blurred, then suddenly, miraculously, leveled off.
Alexa geared down one last time and brought the car to a sliding halt. As her senses continued to scramble, she noticed that the front end was less than six inches from the edge of an unbarricaded canyon.
Still clutching the steering wheel, she let her head fall back against the headrest. “Holy crap.”
Her thoughts settled, slowly. Prying her fingers loose, she forced herself to breathe normally. To breathe at all.
She exhaled. Her phone. She needed to find it. Had to call someone. Her contact at the FBI. She had his numbers programmed, work and personal.
“I can’t move, Alexa.” Her sister seemed unable to make her lips form the words. “Everything’s frozen.”
“We’re all right,” Alexa told her. “Not dead, anyway.” It took her a moment to locate the phone inside her Kate Spade bag. While she searched, she heard Georgia gasp.
“Car, car. Car!” She pointed. “We’re still moving!”
Feeling the movement, Alexa whipped around in her seat. “Get out,” she said. Then she felt a bump behind them and she grabbed Georgia’s wrist. “Wait.
It’s okay. We were moving backward, not forward. The rear bumper is pressed against the rock wall. We’re good.” For the moment, she added silently.
It amazed her that her hands didn’t shake as she speed-dialed her FBI contact’s number.
“Jamieson,” a man’s voice answered. “Is this Alexa Chase?”
“What? Yes. I’m—my sister and I are…” She combed her fingers through her hair, regrouped. “I need to talk to Agent Marshall.”
“Marshall’s dead, Ms. Chase. He was shot and killed this afternoon in his Arlington condo. Are you intact?”
“No, yes.” Get past the shock, she ordered herself. “The brakes on my car failed. I’m—I don’t know where I am exactly. North of Las Vegas. My sister’s with me.”
“Get out of the car,” Jamieson said tightly. “Get out of sight. Don’t let yourselves be seen. I’m sending help. Look for an amber light. Intermittent signal. Two flashes, one flash, then three. Repeated. Do you understand?”
Alexa glanced at Georgia, stricken and silent beside her. “Yes.” Gripping the phone harder, she asked, “Is Fixx behind this? Did he kill Marshall?”
“Him or James Mockerie. At the moment, I’m going with Fixx. Get off the road.”
Reaching over, Alexa shoved her sister’s door open. “We need to move, Georgia. Now!”
“I don’t want to go.” Georgia’s lower lip wobbled. “I want Owen. Except…” She turned imploring eyes to her sister. “Do something, Alexa. Please.”
“Don’t let anyone see you,” Jamieson repeated. “We’ll get you out of there ASAP, but you need to understand. You and your sister are marked women. And marked in the world of Fixx and Mockerie means you’re targets. From this moment on, Ms. Chase, you and Georgia Fixx are officially dead.”
…
There was nothing Owen Fixx disliked more than being woken from a sound sleep. Six hours minimum, no interruptions—that was his credo. Lately, he’d been running at about 30 percent.
“What?” he demanded after the third ring of his cell phone.
“We damaged the brake line on Alexa Chase’s car.”
The man on the other end sounded tense. Never a good sign in Owen’s opinion. “From the tone of your voice, I’ll speculate that your attempt at sabotage failed. She’s still alive.”
“She’s a better driver than we figured. Or crazier. We lost her. Car was empty by the time we found it. Plenty of rock formations in the area. They could have hidden anywhere in the dark.”
Putting the phone on speaker, Owen donned his burgundy silk robe. “You’re not making me happy here.”
“She was with her sister, Mr. Fixx.”
Owen gave the remark a moment’s thought. He hadn’t yet grown tired of Georgia when Alexa Chase had done her nasties and turned traitor on him. He’d estimated another six months to a year of play from his fourth wife’s feisty nature before he would have been forced to eliminate her. However, business came first and his business was lorded over by an extremely vicious man.
James Mockerie didn’t take failure well—not for long at any rate. Screw-ups usually resulted in slow death. Torture was his candy, and Owen had been witness to the languorous consumption of it numerous times in the past.
“Get Alexa Chase,” he told his man. “If her sister’s with her when she dies, we’ll consider her collateral damage.”
“Are you…?”
“Get Alexa Chase.” Owen enunciated each word. “Set up a team. Devise a solid plan. Fuck up again, and heads will roll.”
“I know. We’ll get her, sir.”
The man sounded both frightened and determined. Which was how Owen liked his people to be. Cause them to cringe too much, and they became ineffective. On the other hand, battles needed to be fought and won before they escalated into full-blown wars. War meant Mockerie, and his interference was something Owen preferred to avoid.
“I’ll do what needs to be done on my end,” Owen said. “Make sure you call me with better news next time.” He disconnected before the man could reply.
Open-ended threats worked for him. Owen’s people knew he’d kill anyone who screwed him in a blink. Which was a merciful ending, all things considered.
Owen Fixx was a man who considered matters very thoroughly before he acted. At least on a professional level.
Picking up his phone, he punched in a number. Whatever the cost emotionally and/or financially, he intended to avoid any unnecessary forays into hell. Not that the idea of meeting the devil frightened him. In his opinion, Lucifer was merely a weak shadow cast by a much more virulent being. A man known in the West Coast drug and weapons world as James Mockerie.
Chapter One
“More whiskey.” A man with a belly the size of a watermelon leaned his tattooed forearms on the bar. “Make it a triple.”
Amber Kelly leaned her own arms on the bar across from him and met his bleary gaze. “Are you driving, Harry?”
“Truck’s got a busted rear axle. I’m hoofing it. Jack Black, Amber. Keep it coming, and I’ll give y’all a frigging big tip at closing time.”
He would, too. Then she’d hand it back to his wife because Liz and Harry Carver had five teenage boys and Harry preferred hard liquor to hard work. Motioning him over to the pool table, Amber poured a glass of watered-down whiskey and wished like hell two a.m. would arrive.
She’d spent the past month of her life in this backwater Tennessee town. Four endless weeks living with a new name and managing a mediocre bar in a sequestered region of the Smoky Mountains. The scenery was spectacular, the townspeople off and on friendly…
And God alive, her sister Rachel was the most infuriating pain in the butt on the planet. Where the hell was she on the busiest night they’d had in ten days?
“Getting low on beer here,” a man called out. He winked at Amber across the crowded room. “Friday poker should never be played straight.”
So claimed the cardsharp banker who owned the best house in Black Creek and held the mortgages on 45 percent of the rest.
With a placid smile, she began refilling pitchers. She didn’t bat an eyelash when the door slammed open and a scrawny man with a floppy gray mustache shouted, “Where’s my boy?”
“Not here.” She kept her eyes on the flowing beer. “Not tonight.”
The man was across the floor in a flash. Paulie Murkle reminded her of a revved-up cartoon rabbit, from his twitchy pink nose to his long, thin feet. He blinked his eyes rapidly as he demanded, “You tell me true, Amber. Is he off drinking and diddling that waitress of yours?”
“Could be. She’s not here, either.” Amber placed a mug of draft on the bar. “I’ll put this one on your tab, Paulie. I can’t change how Jess or Rachel act, and neither can you.”
Paulie snatched up the mug, slopped foam. “Girl’s a drunkard and not fit to work here.”
Setting five pitchers on a tray, Amber slid them to her lone server. “She’s not a girl. And I say she is fit to work here. You’re starting to piss me off with your attitude, so let it be and go play poker with the bank.”
“I don’t play cards with assholes. Hows come you hired someone without experience to work the tables? You shoulda found another like Wendy.” He waggled his brows at the fifty-something server who made a point of ignoring him.
Amber fought a wave of irritation. “Rachel’s a good person, Paulie. Just maybe not cut out for small-town life.”
“Then let her hightail it to Memphis and leave my Jess be.”
“Your Jess turned twenty-six last week.”
“My Ethan turned twenty-nine last month. What’s your point?”
“They’re old enough to make their own choices.”
“The hell they are.” Beer dripped from Paulie’s mustache onto the bar. “They stay on the farm with me till I say not.”
Please, God. Whisk me to Kansas or California or Little Rock, Arkansas. Anywhere that isn’t here at this moment.
With a patient smile, she said, “I’ll try Rachel’s cell
again. She’s bound to pick up at some point. Meanwhile, go on over and shoot pool with your fishing buddies.”
She speed-dialed her sister as she spoke, and turned away to let her mind slide back twelve short months, to a time when life had been much simpler—or so it had seemed.
Georgia—Rachel now—had sashayed in to see her one night, newly married to Owen Fixx. As hotel manager, Amber had been working an emergency relief shift, dealing blackjack in Fixx’s casino. She’d been surprised by the elopement, but happy for her sister. Until six days later when the FBI had come knocking on the door of her Las Vegas condo…
Her world had taken a definite turn for the worse after that visit. While an oblivious Rachel had settled into married life, fear and suspicion had become Amber’s constant companions. She’d transitioned from hotel manager to internal spy in less time than it took to pull the arm of a slot machine.
The discoveries she’d made about her new brother-in-law had stunned her. She’d amassed a file full of damning evidence—thanks in part to the dangerous game she’d chosen to play with his besotted and equally guilty son.
She wasn’t proud of her actions in that regard, but she’d weighed the odds and taken the risk. Fixx was a monster, and that monster had been living and sleeping with her sister.
A B-movie of bad memories played in Amber’s head. She’d done what the FBI had asked. She’d gathered information and turned it over to her government contact. End of spy story, finally. Fixx would be arrested, Rachel would get a quick divorce, and Amber would find a new job. No one need ever know what she’d done.
Wrong. Someone in the FBI had known. The evidence she’d unearthed had mysteriously vanished, and it had taken every aspect of the life she’d been living with it.
Amber and her sister had been handed over to the US Marshals office and placed in the Witness Protection Program. They’d been given new identities and relocated to Tennessee, where old-style music played day and night, people believed in spooks, and Amber was slowly but surely going out of her mind.
Her gaze flicked through the crowded room to the jukebox in the corner. One of her customers was a diehard Tanya Tucker fan. The playlist really, really, really needed to be updated.