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Prologue

Early December

Massachusetts

Cyn Steele swungher feet up onto her desk and leaned back in her chair. Juggling two Rubik’s Cubes in her hands, she eyed her target on the other side of the room as the speakerphone beside her droned on—and on and on. Well, to be precise, thephonedidn’t drone, but her uncle did.

“And that’s why it’s impossible for you to resign, Hyacinth,” he said, using her dreaded—and no longer legal—first name as he brought his argument to a close. “You were well aware of the obligations you’d be held to when you agreed to your extension. It wouldn’t do to renege.”

Uncle Franklin wasn’t just her uncle, he also happened to be her handler for the work she did with MI6. And because she was his favorite niece, most of the time he was putty in her hands. Most of the time.

“I told you, Uncle, my heart isn’t in it anymore,” she said, her attention on the small trampoline hanging on the wall twenty feet away. If she threw the Rubik’s Cube with the right amount of force, and hit it at the right angle, it would bounce off the target and come back to her.

“Be that as it may, my dear, you made a commitment,” her uncle replied.

She threw one of the Cubes and hit dead center, but then it bounced far off to her right. She grimaced. It must have rotated in flight and hit the trampoline on a corner.

“Commitment, Uncle? We’re usually much further into a conversation before that word comes out.”

“Hyacinth.”

“Cyn,” she corrected.

“Hyacinth.”

She let out a dramatic sigh and eyed the second Cube in her hand. Three years ago, her friend Violetta Salvitto—better known as Six—had given her the pair for Christmas. Cyn had yet to solve the puzzle, but she was certain that whenever she got close, her friends—Six, Devil, and Nora—rearranged the stickers. When solving it became a Sisyphean task, she’d changed the game and hung the trampoline. It was much more fun to throw things anyway.

“You would have me do the work even though my heart isn’t in it?” she asked. The question was ridiculous. They were British. The heart had nothing to do with it. TheGreat Families of Englandalways did their part to protect queen (or king) and country. The Steele family had counted themselves among that blessed lot since the days of Henry VIII.

Franklin let out his own sigh. “Just don’t make any reckless decisions,” he said. “We both know that’s a bit of a challenge for you, but it’s all I ask. Go home for the holidays. Spend Christmas and Boxing Day at Greyswood with your family,” he said, referring to the ancestral estate. “If you still have the same opinion when you return, we will revisit this conversation.”

“Aren’t you joining the family this year?” she asked. Franklin was her father’s youngest brother. He had no partner or children of his own and was, more often than not, taken into the fold of his eldest brother’s family.

“I am not. I have some concerns I need to attend to down here.”

Franklin lived in Florida of all places. Although why that always struck Cyn as odd, she didn’t know. Maybe because it was hard to see her uncle in a pair of shorts and a T-shirt. Not that she everhadseen him in that attire, but she assumed he must don it every now and then.

“I’ve already booked my ticket,” she said. “I leave December twentieth and will return January fifth.”

“You’re missing New Year’s with your little club?” Franklin asked with dramatic—though sincere—shock. She, Six, Devil, and Nora had been thick as thieves since their first day of boarding school in Switzerland at the age of twelve. When Cyn had earned her PhD many years ago, Six had named their group the Doctors Club—Devil with her MD, Nora with her DVM, and Six with her JD rounded out the titles. Now they just referred to themselves asthe clubsince it sounded less pretentious, if only a little bit.

But Franklin, being a long-standing member of the board of trustees of the unique boarding school she and her friends had attended, had known them as long as she had, and adored them almost as much as she did. And given that the women were all now thirty-eight, her friends were like daughters to him. Not to mention the fact that, per some secret agreement she wasn’t entirely privy to, he also served as the handler for the three of them since they were all foreign intelligence agents for their own governments. Yes, the school they’d attended had been special; who knew a school designed to develop future women intelligence officers operated in a secluded valley in the Alps?

“You are more than welcome to come ring the New Year in and shake that booty with the family, Uncle,” Cyn said. “I know you get your freak on after a drink or two.” She grinned as she spoke, imagining the look on his face.

“Hyacinth,” he said on a breath. “To be sure, I don’t have the slightest clue what that even means.”

“Sure you don’t, Franky,” she said, infusing her voice with a Boston accent. She’d been living in the Boston area for twenty years and had an ear for languages. She had the accent down pat and, more to the point, knew it annoyed her uncle.

He sighed again. “Why must you try to bait me? It hasn’t worked in all these years. I would think you’d simply accept that it never will.”

To be fair, he had a point.Nothingriled Uncle Franklin. But still, a girl could dream. “You always praise me for my tenacity, don’t eat your words now,” she said.

“Hyacinth.”

He might not get riled, but he did have a line she didn’t wish to cross, and she was close to it now. She set the second Rubik’s Cube on her desk and leaned closer to the phone. “I’ll think about my future as an agent while I’m stuffing myself full of rich food and drinking far too much.”

It wasn’t a promise, but since she had zero plans to think about work while on holiday, she had intentionally avoided that word. There was no question her uncle would pick up on her deliberate answer, but she was thirty-eight, shouldn’t her life be her own? Sure, when she was younger, the excitement of getting called into a job fed the adrenaline junky in her. But now? She wasn’t exactly interested in settling down, but she was getting tired of her government telling her when to jump and how high. Besides, she liked her job—her day job. Teaching archeology at the local university was fun. Some people might bemoan the younger generation, but Cyn found them endlessly entertaining in so many ways.