Reprisal

Project Fallen Angel: Reprisal Copyright © 2023 Anna Noel. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the author at the contact form @annanoelbooks.com Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Names, characters, and places are products of the author’s imagination. For more information about the author and her books, visit her website—https://annanoelbooks.com/ Book design: Anna Noel Formatter: Anna Noel Editor: Marigold Edits//Alaina Morris Proofreader: Emma Thomas First edition May 23rd, 2023 www.annanoelbooks.com Created with Vellum CONTENTS Authors Note 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 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Epilogue Stay Tuned Acknowledgments Terms About the Author AUTHORS NOTE Reprisal is a work of fiction. Although there are historical elements, some have been altered to fit the story. These are not real events. This book is set in a dark world with dark themes. Although the romance is lighter than most dark romances, subjects handled can be incredibly dark and graphic. This is strictly a work of fiction. Reprisal may contain triggers for some. If you are not worried about this, you can absolutely go in blind. Please remember that dark romance is a work of fiction, and that no actions or events are real. If you do not have triggers, please feel free to skip this. If you do, please read below. TRIGGER WARNINGS include: graphic violence, panic attacks, suicide and suicidal ideation, death of a parent on and off page, death of a sibling mentioned, torture on and off page, child abuse mentioned, sexual as*ault mentioned, breath play, and light BDSM. THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT REPRISAL Enemies to lovers Government Secrets Espionage Found family Hero MMC Morally gray FMC Stuck together Praise Tension/Steam Reprisal belongs to the Project Fallen Angel series but can be read as a standalone. For Alex, who doesn’t even know how many times he’s saved me. I love you to the moon and to Saturn. “What I'm not sure about, is if our lives have been so different from the lives of the people we save. We are all complete. Maybe none of us really understand what we've lived through, or feel we've had enough time.” Kazuo Ishiguro ONE DAMON The woman in front of me was ruled dead in a triple homicide six years ago. I watch her from under my cap through the haze of cigarette smoke in the air as she flips her long chocolate-brown hair over her shoulder. Batting her eyes at the biker before her, she places a delicate hand on his chest, shooting him a radiant smile. There's never been a single thing those beautiful brown eyes couldn't get her. Ellie Huxley was twenty years old at the time of her death, home for the holidays, taken too young by her angry father, pushed over the edge by alcohol and a call from his secretary letting him know that the photos would hit the press the next day. And yet here she is, six years later, toying with some biker at a dive bar in downtown Seattle, 2,860 miles from her past. I know it's her. I've been tracking her for the last couple of weeks. Ellie Huxley was the daughter of Bernard Huxley, Senator of Virginia for four years before the accident that left his wife, daughter, and son dead in their home on Thanksgiving morning. Having gotten a full ride to Harvard University, Ellie was a brilliant, driven young woman with a promising future in politics. Wanting to improve the world, she was known for being generous with her time and allowance. In fact, no one has ever said a negative thing about her, despite her father's politics and morals. Not before her death, not after. But here she is, in front of me, alive and breathing. For a shitty dive bar, Fredrick's is full to the brim with hippies and bikers alike, the smell of weed, cigarettes, and gasoline saturating the air. I wonder how many other bars around here are the exact same. The large, tattooed man next to her beams, likely sure he's getting lucky tonight, and snakes his arm around her waist, his fingers breaching the bottom of her black leather jacket. He pulls her in and whispers something in her ear. Ellie smiles coyly, pushing away from him just a touch. My grip on my phone tightens as I snap a photo, hoping tonight is my night. Ellie has evaded me for the last two weeks, ever since I caught wind that she's somehow alive, living in Seattle. Unfortunately, I don't think I'm the first person who has caught wind of this. Breathing deeply, I take a long sip of beer and attempt to look like I belong. I traveled a long way to get here and don't want to spook her. I can see her through the large mass of people drunkenly walking about from the corner of my eye. She rakes a finger over the man's shoulder, fake laughing at his last poorly executed joke before looking up, her eyes meeting mine. I look in the other direction quickly, lowering my cap in a feeble attempt to play it off. The Ellie I knew was someone who wouldn't be caught dead here. But that was a long time ago, before I thought she was dead for six years. I sigh, thinking about my next move as I wait for the