The Crescendo
Authors: Fiona Palmer
Fiona Palmer
The Crescendo
Fiona Palmer
Jaz risks everything to save the love of her life in the latest instalment of Fiona Palmer's series about the young spies of the MTG Agency.
Recruited by the Agency less than a year ago, Jaz has had her life turned upside down by a shocking revelation and the death of a friend. Now Ryan, the sexy, dangerous man who recruited and trained her, has gone MIA while out on an undercover mission. And on top of all this, she's sitting exams and finishing school.
With the help of her friends, Jaz is going to have to risk her own life to save Ryan, even if it means walking on the dark side. But can she work alongside the bad guys she's been trying to take down if it means seeing Ryan again?
Fiona has been writing rural stories for years and is now indulging in her love of YA. It's not a big change, considering she already writes about strong women who fight for what they want. She is a full-time writer, farmhand, ex-speedway racer and mum of two fabulous kids, from rural Western Australia.
I couldn't do this without Jim, big hugs, thank you for always answering my questions and helping my creativity along. Also to my friends and family who read my work, especially Jeni Wyatt and Lea Murray for the help and Kate for taking this series on. Also Belinda for the fab editing. Thanks to Rach Johns for your support and friendship. To my writing buddies, thanks for being just an email away. Big thanks to my family Darryl, Mackenzie and Blake for their understanding. And as always, thanks to the readers who make all this possible. Thank you.
For Jim Jim
Contents
Bestselling Titles by Escape Publishingâ¦
There was vibrant red all over her hands, on her chest, her jeans and quite possibly all over her face, like a preschooler dabbling with paint, only it wasn't paint.
It was blood.
The smell of it drenched the air in the small car, raw metal in a sickly gut-churning scent.
It wasn't Jasmine Thomas's first foray into having other people's blood on her skin, nor her own. Having had her leg shot not that long ago, one would think she would be used to this, or at least not feeling so panicked. Then again, it could have something to do with the person who was sprawled over the back seat, blood seeping through his clothes like spilt wine on a tablecloth, as she pressed her shirt against the bullet wound in his shoulder.
Ryan Fletcher's normally tanned skin was looking like glossy white paper and his dark eyes watched her carefully. His eyes crinkled at the edges, the only sign he was in pain. He winked and gave her one of his sexy smiles.
He was the love of her life. Also a secret spy who she was not permitted to fall in love with.
Too late.
Far too bloody late.
You can make soldiers but you can't tell them who they can and can't love. Well, maybe you could, but Jaz's excuse was that she hadn't been with the agency for that long. She'd only been recruited at the start of the year. She still had her year twelve exams to sit soon. This year had been one crazy ride, and it was yet to stop.
âJaz, how's he going?' Tay glanced in the rear-view mirror as he drove on the freeway.
Taylor was her best friend, along with Anna who was driving another car behind them. Jaz could see her pale face through the back window, strawberry blonde hair looking almost red and her white knuckles gripping the wheel. She could tell Anna was sick with worry, her freckles standing out like cherries on a cream cake.
Both her friends had just been recruited into the MTG Agency as well. Yes, she felt partly responsible for them, for they now swam in the deep dark waters of danger. But they wouldn't have it any other way. It was nice to know they had her back and if it wasn't for them, well, they might just not be alive right now.
âHe's okay,' said Jaz with a lot of hope as she glanced at Ryan.
At twenty-four, he was truly a man of strength and menace. His physique was muscled and lean, his body scarred from knives and bullets and Jaz knew the first time she saw him that he was dangerous. Maybe it was all that which drew her to him, yet even though she was wary, she was also attracted like a moth to a flame. Finding out he was working for a secret agency and then being recruited, having Ryan train her, all it did was make him more awesome. She had fallen in love with him and yet she couldn't tell him. It was not permitted. If he knew, then he was likely to distance himself from her, and Jaz wasn't sure if she'd cope without Ryan in her life.
Ryan lifted his hand and brushed her long raven hair back over her olive skin.
âIn your honest opinion, Doctor Jaz, do you think I'll live?' asked Ryan, shooting her a smile that melted her insides.
Short stubble covered his lean jaw, his hair clipped short, making him sexy as hell. She wanted to kiss his full lips but the smell of blood and the red splattered up his neck reminded her this was not the time or the place. A wave of panic washed over her again and she masked it by replying to his question.
âOf course. This is just a scratch,' she said, repeating what he'd said when she'd been shot in the leg. âHow long till we get there?' she asked Tay.
âJust a few blocks away.'
Ryan tried to sit up and glanced out the window. âPax will spew if I get blood all over his car,' he said with a chuckle and a wince. âBut it wouldn't be the first time.'
Pax was her fifty-nine-year-old adopted granddad who ran the local gym The Ring, a front for his real job which was working for the agency as their computer guy; fake IDs, passports, rap sheets, you name it. Pax had been doing it for years, long before Jaz was born. Only she never knew until this year.
Then, to twist her mind even more, she found out her mum had been a part of the agency also. In fact, it was her mum's family, the Montenegros, who helped set up the MTG Agency with the government's backing. But her mum got pregnant, gave up being a secret agent and, with help from Pax, made a new identity and disappeared to Western Australia to live a normal life. So yeah, this year had been full of surprises. Dodging bullets was just the tip of the iceberg to her crazy year.
And to think Jaz would be none the wiser if Ryan hadn't come into Pax's gym to train. Which in a way irked her, as she'd never have known about the huge secrets they kept from her. But now she kept one from her mum. Tasha had no idea that Jaz knew about the agency. Pax had sworn her to secrecy for fear of what Tasha would do to him if she found out her daughter had joined the same agency she'd once belonged to.
Yep, it was a big intertwined bundle of secrets and crap you couldn't even begin to believe, but that was her life. And funnily enough, she could live with the secrets because she knew the work she did for the agency was saving lives, saving innocent people, and she liked making a difference in the world.
Okay, so sometimes she ended up in deep shit, like with their recent mission and the slight hiccup of Ryan being shot.
Running on a lead of drug smuggling, Ryan and she had followed the drugs to the source, Salvatore De Luca. Known drug smuggler, which the agency had been unable to pin on him. Yet Jaz and Ryan had come face to face with him and his goons in a big shoot-out in his airplane hangar. Ryan's bleeding shoulder the result.
Jaz still couldn't understand how they'd got out of there alive. She glanced down at her chest, where her medallion usually sat. It had been her biological father's and it was the only thing she had of his. Now Salvatore had it, torn from her neck as she'd been pushed down onto the black âbody bag' plastic.
âJust drop me and Jaz off and take the cars back to the gym. Check you're not being followed. Like I showed you,' said Ryan as Tay pulled up by his house.
âGot it. Can we come back?'
Tay was worried and wanted to help, Jaz could see that. But it would be too risky to have them all together.
âNo, stay there. Jaz can keep you updated.' Ryan tried to slide his body to the door but paused halfway for a breather. âOh, and thanks Tay. You and Anna saved our arses back there. We appreciate it.'
Jaz caught Tay's nod in the rear-view mirror before he took off his shirt. âJaz, put this on.'
Ryan held his padded wound while she threw on Tay's black t-shirt. Then she opened the door and helped Ryan out. They tried to look inconspicuous as Tay drove away. Anna slowed down in the Commodore but Jaz waved her on to follow Tay. She nodded, her face grim as she made the hand sign for âcall me'.
âRight, let's get you inside before your neighbours decide to look out their windows and report “weird stuff” in their hood.' Jaz put her arm around him as they quickly headed to his tall fence. She unlocked the gate and soon they were in the safety of his private yard.
âThanks, Jaz.'
Jaz unlocked his door; she knew where his spare key was hidden. This wasn't the first time she'd been to his house. Only this time, it was Ryan who was bleeding all over his bathroom floor with Jaz trying to fix him up.
âThis is quite the role reversal,' she said teasingly, as she pulled out the scissors from the drawer by the sink and cut away his shirt.
âHmm, as I recall, I wasn't wearing a shirt.'
Jaz did recall that, vividly. Even now it still brought chills of pleasure as she studied his chest, scars and tattoos. That fact that Ryan had stitched her up had only made him even more amazing.
âDon't think I'm going to be stitching you though, and I've already had my shirt off.'
âHmm, I remember,' he said. Dark eyes dropped to her chest.
Ryan wasn't normally this flirty, if anything he always tried to keep anything between them downplayed as slip-ups, accidents or things they shouldn't do. Maybe it was being shot that was having an adverse effect on his mental stability.
Jaz heard a bang as the back door was swung open and slammed shut.
âI'm here, how bad is it?' said Tilly as he came into the bathroom at a rate of knots, his arms filled with medical supplies and a bottle of Scotch.
That explained the door, shut with his foot no doubt.
âHey Tilly,' said Ryan with a smile. âBrought the goods, I see.' Ryan used his good arm to gesture that he wanted a drink.
Tilly gave him the bottle then put the bandages down on the sink bench beside Ryan. Jaz stepped back and watched Tilly work. Tilly was older, thirties she guessed, scrawny like a bag of bones and had nicotine stains on his fingers and teeth. He looked like someone who'd had a hard life; he wore the scars and not just on his body. She'd first met Tilly when she accompanied Ryan to Pakistan to retrieve vital intel. Soon after, she'd also witnessed her first death. It had been horrific, a slit throat from a knife welded by Ryan, no less. She'd been a little traumatised but since then she'd seen more. Like watching
Game of Thrones
, Jaz was starting to feel numb towards the violence and blood.
Realising this, she stepped forward and asked Tilly if she could help.