The XXIX Protocol

HE RULES AN EMPIRE EVERYONE CAN SEE.
SHE RULES THE ONE NO ONE KNOWS EXISTS.

Alexander Vale is a man people know better than to cross.

At twenty-nine, he sits at the head of one of Europe's most powerful criminal empires-feared, untouchable, and accustomed to controlling everything that enters his world.

Until **XXIX**.

No one knows the identity behind the name.

Alexander only knows that XXIX has breached his security, interfered with his operations, and uncovered secrets buried so deeply that even he didn't know they existed.

Finding XXIX becomes more than business.

It becomes personal.

An obsession.

Then he meets Anastasia Voss.

Twenty-five. Beautiful. Tiny. Deceptively soft.

And completely unimpressed by Alexander Vale.

He doesn't know that behind closed doors, the woman he can't stop thinking about commands one of the most sophisticated intelligence networks in Europe.

He doesn't know that Anastasia is XXIX.

She knows exactly who Alexander is.

She has studied his empire for eighteen months.

His businesses.
His enemies.
His weaknesses.

Alexander Vale was supposed to be another investigation.

Then she meets the man behind the name.

And everything becomes complicated.

Because Alexander is falling for the woman he's supposed to be protecting from his world.

Anastasia is falling for the man she may eventually have to destroy.

And every night, Alexander searches for an enemy who might be sleeping in his arms hours later.

But neither of them has discovered the most dangerous truth.

The disappearing money.

The number twenty-nine.

The abandoned dock.

The transactions neither of them authorized.

Anastasia believes **XXIX is an identity she created.**

Alexander believes **XXIX is a threat that began with him.**

They're both wrong.

Something has been waiting beneath their world for decades.

And the moment Anastasia left a black envelope inside Dock 29...

**the XXIX Protocol began.**