Undercover Love

Undercover Love Annette Mori 2023 Back of the Book When the domestic terrorist cell Emma Schmidt has infiltrated summons her to an abandoned warehouse for a loyalty test, Emma immediately recognizes the battered woman. Emma must act fast to protect her cover and save the woman, Jimena Aguilar, she’s never forgotten. Emma and Jimena team up on a dangerous mission to take down the terrorist cell and save the life of the popular California governor. Will this lead them back to the closeness they once shared or have the years in between hardened their hearts to love. Undercover Love © 2023 by Annette Mori Affinity E-Book Press NZ LTD. Canterbury, New Zealand Edition First (1st) ISBN: 978-1-99-104008-4 (paperback) ISBN: 978-1-99-104009-1 (EPUB) ISBN: 978-1-99-104010-7 (PDF) ISBN: 978-1-99-104011-4 (KINDLE) All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without the express permission of the author and publisher. Please note that piracy of copyrighted materials violates the author’s rights and is illegal. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. Editor: Angela Koenig Proof Editor: Alexis Smith Cover Design: Irish Dragon Designs Production Design: Affinity Publication Services Acknowledgments A huge thank you to all of my beta readers who made brilliant suggestions to improve the initial draft: Ali Spooner, Carrie Camp, Dana Holmes, and Danna Micoletti. I would also like to express my gratitude to Affinity Rainbow Publications—JM Dragon and Nancy Kaufman—who continue to provide feedback to tighten up manuscripts that need help and publish my unconventional work. I am eternally grateful for the opportunities they give me to let my stories see the light of day. Thanks to Angie for her magic as the final editor to further tighten the story. She is a delight to work with. Inevitably, those pesky errors slip through, and I am thankful that Alexis Smith, the final proof editor, caught those before the book went to print. Thanks to Nancy Kaufman for the final cover. A huge thanks to all the other readers and fellow writers who have sent personal emails, written reviews, and posted nice things on Facebook (you know who you are). The Affinity authors are an incredibly supportive group and often share posts or send words of encouragement. Finally, my wife, Jody, continues her support even when it interferes with our time. Dedication To all the powerful men and women who work to keep our country from becoming a hotbed of extremist views, and may we all prevail during these scary times. And to my beautiful wife as always. Also by Annette Mori Single Books Compound Interest Georgetown Glen Artist Free Zone Disconnected The Others Sculpting Her Heart One Shot at Love The Panty Thief Pleasure Workers TWC2 A Window to Love The Book Witch The Book Addict The Dream Catcher Unconventional Lovers Captivated The Termination The Review The Thanksgiving Baby Caper The Ultimate Betrayal Locked Inside Out of This World Asset Management The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Elves in Love (Affinity 2014 Christmas Collection) Love Forever, Live Forever The True Story of Valentine’s Day Vampire Pussy...Cat Nicky’s Christmas Miracle X3 (It’s in Her Kiss, Affinity’s Charity Anthology) Donner Junior Saves the Day Co-authored The Organization with Erin O’Reilly Co-authored with Ali Spooner Heart Strings Attached- TWC3 Free to Love Trouble in Paradise -TWC4 Table of Contents 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 Chapter Twenty-two Chapter Twenty-three Chapter Twenty-four Chapter Twenty-five Chapter Twenty-six About the Author Other Books from Affinity Prologue Twenty-Five Years Earlier Jimena tried to keep up with Emma, but Jimena’s short, stout stature was no match for Emma’s long legs. Everything about her best friend was the polar opposite. Jimena sighed and watched her best friend’s golden hair blow in the wind. Unlike Jimena’s long, dark hair, Em always kept her hair too short for a ponytail. Pumping harder on her pedals, she narrowed the gap and skidded to a stop shortly after Em jumped from her bike and started locking it against the bike rack. Em squinted against the sun, smiling broadly at Jimena, still huffing from the exertion. Today, Em’s eyes were almost sky blue. That meant she was happy. After spending so much time with Em, Jimena could tell when she was having a good day. When they turned a stormy gray or the color of her father’s gun, Jimena knew things at home had gotten out of control. She loved how Em’s eyes changed color with her moods, unlike her own eyes, which were the color of poo. Em would tell Jimena to stop being a ninny because brown was the best eye color in the universe and everyone knew that. Em always told her how much she loved Jimena’s eyes, and she wished she had eyes the color of milk chocolate, warm and comforting. “Dad said you aren’t supposed to ride to the beach anymore,” Karl, Em’s younger brother, said between breaths. He puffed even more than Jimena after coming to a stop in front of his sister. “Shut up, you little twerp. If you tell Dad, I’m gonna pound you harder than he beats me.” “Let me play with you, and I won’t tell,” he offered. Em rolled her eyes. “Fine. We’re playing cops and robbers. I’ll be the cop.” “I don’t wanna be the robber. You always get to be the cop,” he whined. Jimena didn’t want to be the robber, either. She hated being the robber. She wanted to be a cop like her papa, even though people said that Border Patrol weren’t real police. “Tough. Jimena and I are always the cops. If you wanna play, you