Chapter One

Present Time

Riley’s Point of View • (London)

“No, he won’t work either,” I said for what felt like the millionth time. I sighed, running my hands through my light brown hair. “None of them will work!” I told Joey.

He nodded in agreement while throwing one of the packets of papers on the desk. I picked up the top paper, looking at the biography.

“Chelsea doesn’t seem too bad,” I said, and Joey shook his head.

“Her partner isn’t that great.”

Joey searched through the pile and handed me the biography of a guy named Zeke.

“We can just change her partner,” I suggested.

He raised an eyebrow.

“You can’t do that to her, it wouldn’t be fair,” Joey said.

I bit my lip, nodding that he was right. A knock sounded through the room and I cleared my throat.

“Come in,” I said, and a familiar face appeared through the door looking nervous.

“Yes. Emily?” I asked her.

“There is a huge news report again going on in America,” Emily told us.

Joey and I shared a look.

“Let’s see it,” I said.

Emily pressed play on her laptop and the video started.

“Another dead body was found here in Seattle. Police are still investigating but are having trouble finding any clues. Police have advised everyone to be cautious since this serial killer is still on the loose. This is now the sixth dead body found in three days, and police suggest that anyone under the age of 18 should not be left alone and should be with a parent or guardian at all times.”

The woman disappeared off the screen, the video stopped, and the the screen turned black.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I said with my hands clenching into fists.

“How much you wanna bet that it’s Jesse Farone,” Joey said, leaning back in his seat. His hand rubbed the small prickles of hair on his chin.

“Why would you think it’s Jesse Farone? We took care of him nine years ago,” Emily said.

“Yes, but Jesse was released from jail a week ago and these killings started two days ago,” I said.

“So that means. . .” Emily asked, trailing off.

“That once he got out of jail he may have gone back to his old ways,” Rachel said.

We all looked up and over to where the now twenty-six-year old was standing.

“Rachel,” I said surprised. I hadn’t seen her much lately.

“Over the years I have kept an eye on Mr. Farone like you wanted me to, but of course not much has happened since he was in jail. But this past week I have kept a close eye on him. For some reason he has left Los Angeles, California, and gone to Seattle, Washington,” Rachel said, taking a seat in one of the chairs.

“Well, doesn’t this feel like old times,” Matt said, joining us.

“It sure does,” Joey said standing up and stretching.

“Are you going to put someone on Jesse’s case?” Emily asked us.

“I can’t find one person in this agency that’s right for this job,” I said, setting the files down on my desk. “No offense to you two, but I would need two more people on this case who are skilled fighters.”

“Well, Cole didn’t put you in charge of this agency for nothing. You already know the solution to your problem,” Matt said.

“What?” I asked confused, and Joey suddenly smirked.

“We’re going undercover!” Joey exclaimed.

“What do you mean?” I asked him. “We can’t exactly go undercover at a high school anymore. We’re twenty nine.”

“Well, he isn’t in high school anymore,” Joey pointed out.

“Yes, but he is starting a gang again,” Rachel pitched in.

I narrowed my eyes.

“What do you mean he is starting a gang again?”

“I think he is. He recently bought quite a few guns of all different types and sizes, and he has associated with different people late at night,” she said. “Liam has been following him around but of course he is keeping his distance.”

“I want Liam on the phone now,” I told her, and she nodded. As she was about to leave the room, I stopped her.

“I also want you to try to find out who Jesse’s next victim is because, ladies and gentlemen, I think our drug dealer just turned into an assassin.” Rachel nodded once again and left the room.

“So we are going undercover!” Joey said, crossing his arms over his chest.

I raised an eyebrow.

“What exactly would we be going undercover as?” I questioned.

“We are going undercover as drug dealers.”

I looked at him amused.

“Oh really? I didn’t know the owner of this agency decided that,” I said.

Joey smirked.

“Since the owner of this agency is my fiancé, I think she should be okay with it.”

“Oh really?” I said, my lips twitching a little as I suppressed a smile.

“Really,” Joey said, pressing his lips to mine.

“Oh please enough with the mushy stuff. I wonder if you two actually get anything done in here,” Emily said, smiling, as Matt chuckled.

“This is my office,” I said, pulling away from him. They rolled their eyes and started heading towards the door murmuring goodbyes.

“Wait!” I said while unconsciously playing with the diamond ring on my ring finger.

“I want you to inform Rachel that you three will be joining us on this mission again. You won’t be going undercover or anything but you will be helping out. I will have your files ready shortly,” I said before Joey pulled my face back to his.

“Yea whatever. Just make sure you have safe sex,” Emily said, and I could only imagine her winking. I chose not to respond and let my hands go to the back of my fiancé’s neck and deepened the kiss.

So I guess I should explain now, since a lot has happened over the past nine years. If it wasn’t obvious, I did end up getting the agency from Cole, but it wasn’t as easy as it seemed. Apparently Cole does have a son named Nathan and he was actually really cool and was about my age. But the company was originally meant for him to take over after his father retired, so it caused a few problems. But those problems were quickly solved when he said he wanted nothing to do with the agency. When I turned twenty-six, Joey finally proposed, but we decided to hold off the wedding for a few years. I am now twenty-nine, and this year we are going to finally start to plan the wedding. Or at least it was. The phone went off making Joey groan and hold on to me tighter. Pulling back, I picked up the phone off my desk and put it to my ear.

“Riley Scott, owner of Europe Agency. How may I help you?”

“Hey Ri, it’s Liam.” I pushed Joey away from me and grabbed Jesse’s file, opening it to recent pictures of him that Liam faxed to us.

“What do you have for me?” I asked, getting straight to the point.

“I don’t think this gang of Jesse’s is like before,” Liam said.

I raised an eyebrow as I picked up the image off the desk of Jesse Farone walking out with at least 60 guns in a bag.

“I think he is trying to start a gang of assassins,” Liam said.

I paused for a second.

“What do you mean he is trying to start a gang of assassins?” I demanded. “And I’m guessing Jesse bribed the owners to let him buy that many guns. Because I know for a fact with his record, no one would let him buy that many guns.”

“It all adds up, the guns and the random people he’s been secretly meeting up with and the deaths around here,” he said.

I nodded my head.

“I guess you’re right. We’ll find out for sure when we go undercover,” I said.

“You’re going undercover? Who’s going to run the agency?”

“I was going to make it a surprise. But yeah, you are, with some help from Lex. So hurry up and take the next flight home,” I told him before hanging up, not bothering to wait for a response. Taking a seat in my chair, I moved my laptop so it was in front of me and started typing up the case information.

“It’s nice to have some action again. I won’t lie, it’s been dull for a while. I mean we haven’t been on any missions together in what, five years?” Joey said.

I paused for a second.

“It’s really been that long?” I asked, and he nodded.

“We’ve been busy ever since you got the agency. You sure you can handle this? I mean how old are you? Sixty?” I narrowed my eyes at my fiancé and continued to type.

“You and I both know I’m not even close to sixty. Nice try though. I can still beat your ass,” I said as a smirk crossed my face.

“Oh really? Bring it on Scott,” he taunted.

I got up from my chair and strolled towards him.

“I personally feel this isn’t a fair fight, but you asked for it.” Almost inhumanly fast, I moved my leg so it headed towards his face. He caught it right before it hit him and I used my other foot and put it on his chest as if I was walking up him and did a back flip. He stumbled back a little from the force but quickly recovered and tried to get his foot to connect with the back of my leg. I easily caught it and he responded by trying to elbow me in the stomach but failed. For about twenty minutes we went back and fourth both failing to do any harm. I ended up getting him on the floor with my forearm against his throat.

“Although I can easily get out of this, I like this position we’re in, especially in this dress you’re wearing,” he said, smirking as we were both breathing hard. I removed my arm from his throat while rolling my eyes.

“I’m pretty sure that was proof that I still got it,” I said before pecking his lips and standing up. I pulled my black dress down and held out my hand to help him up.

“If we didn’t have so much work to do right now I wouldn’t even hesitate to take you straight home,” Joey murmured in my ear before taking a seat at his own desk.

“I know you wouldn’t,” I replied before sitting at my own desk and continuing to type up the mission report.

Claire’s Point of View (Seattle)

“Ms. Martez, I would like to know which you prefer, black or white?” my assistant Elena asked me, holding up the two dresses.

I looked at the picture again before grabbing the white dress.

“I want the white dress and I want it to open more down the middle. It’s suppose to be sexy yet classy,” I told her before handing her the dress back. She nodded quickly and started heading to my office doors.

“Actually Elena, I’m feeling a little spontaneous. Why don’t we do both. Black dresses and white dresses? Make the black one be the complete opposite of the white one. I want it to to show less cleavage,” I said. She nodded smiling.

“Great idea, just like always,” she said, before shutting my brown sliding doors. I walked over to the glass wall that overlooked the whole city. It would be nice to not spend another night at the office. I checked the time to see it read 7:53.

I jumped a little when the phone in my office went off, and I quickly walked over to it and answer, “What?”

“Well, I see you’re in a lovely mood like always,” Mia said. I sighed.

“Sorry Mia, I’m just a little stressed,” I said while straightening out my white shirt that was tucked into my black skirt.

“Let’s go out,” she suggested. I sighed.

“You know I can’t. I have that huge order from London that has to be shipped by tomorrow along with the one from Alaska. These new dresses are selling like crazy,” I tell her while flipping through all the order forms for tomorrow.

“I don’t give a f*ck. Ever since you got your fashion company to the top you haven’t taken a break. I’m sure even Caiden would like to go have a drink and maybe even later have some sex,” Mia said.

I shook my head at my best friend.

“I’m pretty sure he is having an affair with some girl while I’m working,” I said, and Mia snorted.

“I highly doubt that. You seem to forget you are like the new Beyoncé,” she said, “and he can’t get anything better than you.”

“We’ve been together for years now and he still hasn’t proposed,” I said, trying to hide the disappointment in my voice.

“That’s because all you do is work woman. I mean he is the f*cking owner of Anderson’s manufacturing, and he still isn’t as busy as you.”

I sighed knowing she had a point.

“I’ll be at your house at eight,” I mumbled, resting my head against my hand.

“See you then.”

Right when the call ended another line beeped. I clicked on it to hear Elena’s voice.

“Just a reminder you have your meeting in five minutes with Mr. Franx.”

I thanked her before hanging up.

***

“Looking sexy and sweet I see,” Mia said, looking over my mid-thigh-length sexy red dress that had an opening at the top showing some cleavage. But then it closed and went up and around my neck.

“Can we just get this night over with? I just want to drink away all my problems,” I said.

Mia smiled.

“Well then let’s go.”

“Um, not without me,” Nathan said, scowling at us. I looked around the room confused. “Did you hear something? I mean I know it wasn’t my so-called friend Nathan who I haven’t heard from in two weeks.”

“I’ve missed you too, Claire-bear,” he said, chuckling and pulling me in a hug.

“I thought we got rid of that nickname after college,” I whined as we exited their house.

“Nah,” he said, putting his arms over Mia’s should and mine. “I’ve definitely missed this,” he said.

We all nodded.

“Tonight we are all going to act like we’re in college again,” Mia said.

I bit my lip.

“I swear if I’m on the front page of a magazine cover tomorrow I will kill you,” I told Mia.

She waved me off as we stopped a taxi.

“I told all the paparazzi to focus on that model Clover Thompson for the night,” she said.

I nodded as we all slid in and I told the driver the club we were going to.

“She’s in town?” I asked. Everyone knew Clover Thompson rarely left Cali since she had kids.

“Yea, she has some fashion show here,” she said. I nodded. Mia knew all the latest gossip since she worked at a magazine company. It didn’t take long for us to arrive at the club, which I was thankful for.

“Let’s get our party on!” Mia yelled once we were inside fist pumping.

“I didn’t think she was going to take that literally and act like we’re in college,” I said to Nathan quietly. He laughed.

“This is Mia we’re talking about,” he said.

“Good point. Let’s enjoy our night at Club $even,” I said as we all headed straight to the bar.

Clover’s Point of View

“I probably shouldn’t be drinking right now,” I said, taking a sip of my Pina colada as Andrew shrugged.

“You already managed to trick to the paparazzi, so just enjoy your free night. I mean, my mom is watching the kids while we’re out of town. We need to enjoy our freedom. C’mon Clo we’re in the hottest club in town! Some people would die to be in club $even!” Andrew said after drowning another shot.

“I know, I know,” I said, sighing while looking around the club where people were grinding against each other.

“You know what you’re right let’s have fun!” I said, drowning a shot and standing up with my drink. I grabbed Andrew’s hand and pulled him while walking backwards.

“Um Clo watch o-” Andrew tried but it was to late, since my drink already spilled a little bit on the woman’s dress.

“What the f*ck?” the blonde girl hissed looking down at her red dress.

“Oh, I’m so sorry! OMG I didn’t mean to do that!” I apologized, and she narrowed her eyes at me.

“That’s Clover Thomson,” the brunette whispered.

The blonde rolled her eyes.

“I don’t care who the hell she is. She just spilled her drink all over me,” she said, heading towards the bathroom. I gave Andrew my drink before I followed after them, wanting to help.

“OMG I’m seriously so sorry. Do you want me to help?” I asked her, and she narrowed her eyes at me.

“You’ve done enough. I’m one of the worlds top fashion designers. I can get this out easily,” she hissed as I shrugged.

“Thanks anyways. It’s a pleasure to meet you though. I’m Mia and this is Claire,” the brunette said, and I nodded, shaking her hand.

“Claire Martez? I just ordered some new clothes from your catalogue,” I said as I now took in the familiar features. She didn’t respond as she continued to get the drink off her dress.

“I apologize for my bitch of a friend. She’s a little stressed,” Mia said as Claire snorted.

“It’s fine. I hope I didn’t ruin your night,” I said as I looked down at my manicure.

“We’re fine,” Claire said.

I only rolled my eyes at her rudeness.

“Your social manners are becoming about as good as Caiden’s,” Mia hissed quietly to her friend.

I decided to take my leave, not even bothering to say goodbye. I bumped into a man with dirty blonde hair when I walked out of the bathroom.

“Sorry,” the guy said before letting his eyes skim over my body.

“Clover Thompson right?” he asked me, and I nodded my head slowly.

“Sorry you don’t know me yet. The name is Jesse Farone, and I have a feeling we will be meeting again very soon,” he said.

I watched as a dark smirk appeared on his face. I backed up a few steps before quickly turning around in a hurry to find my husband.

“Woah you okay? You look a little freaked out,” Andrew said, grabbing my arm. I sighed in relief, wrapping my arms around him.

“Tonight is just a little too crazy for my liking,” I mumbled to him before I pulled him towards the flashing lights and enjoyed the music in the club. I was going to enjoy the rest of my night.