Triple Terror Read online

  Triple Terror

  A.K. Leigh

  romance.com.au/escapepublishing/

  Triple Terror

  A.K. Leigh

  The Farris triplets are taking their cold case business international...

  When no-nonsense police officer and champion biathlete, Nina Farris, is approached by the Australian Federal Police to stop a suspected terror attack at the Winter Olympics in Beijing, she is hesitant. Even knowing her identical triplet sisters, Lizzie and Carrie, will be there to help with the investigation does nothing to ease her anxiety. Because there is one competitor she absolutely does not wish to see. ..

  Andrei Strasinski, Russian secret agent, has been commanded to use his dual citizenship and go undercover to compete for the Australian Winter Olympic biathlon team. Which means competing closely with the one woman he can’t forget—the one he betrayed. Tormented by his dark past and the lies he was forced to tell Nina whilst undercover, he knows he must come clean about everything, even if it means turning her away from him forever.

  With the terrorist closing in, friends in peril, and time running out, Nina and Andrei will have to face their history to stop the bomber and earn the chance of a future.

  About the author

  A.K. LEIGH is an identical triplet, amateur love-guru, radical self-love advocate, unapologetic romantic, and hot chocolate addict! She uses her post-graduate degree in counselling as well as her certificates in Forensic Science and Forensic Anthropology to create believable characters and realistic crime elements in her stories. The romance plots come from both her imagination and real-life experiences—which one each book is based on is up to you to decide! When not writing, she can be found curled up under a blanket with a book, organising her next big adventure, or walking in nature. She has a blog and vlog and is active on social media, where she encourages readers to interact with her. She lives in Australia with her three beautiful children and one grumpy cat.

  If you’d like to know more about A. K. Leigh, her books, or to connect with her online, you can follow her on Twitter @AKLeighAuthor, like her Facebook page AuthorAKLeigh or visit her website.

  Are you brave enough to fall in love?

  Acknowledgements

  To my three darling children. I love you and appreciate the time you give me to write. I couldn’t complete half of what I do without your support and understanding. Triple Terror was harder to write than Triple Threat! Thankfully, I had the editorial talents of Kate Cuthbert to guide me. Your insights and suggestions helped me to make this book the best it could be. Once again, to my identical triplet sisters, Adriana and Alana, for supporting this series when the idea was still a seed to be sown. And to my brother, Aaron, for always believing in me. From the moment my first book was published, I have been lucky enough to work with editor extraordinaire, Belinda Holmes. You know how much I enjoy working with you. John, thank you for being an amazing co-parent and friend. Your encouragement, loyalty, and support are appreciated.

  Like Triple Threat, some of the places named in Triple Terror are fictional. The setting of the Winter Olympics in Beijing is also inaccurate. This was purposefully done, because I felt uncomfortable placing a terror attack in the historically correct location. Hopefully, readers will understand my creative licence.

  To the Djabugay people: though there are fewer allusions to your culture and history in this book than the previous one, I still attempted to portray it sensitively. I acknowledge this is coming through a Caucasian filter and hope that any harmful cultural appropriation is negligible.

  Finally, to my wonderful readers, fans, book reviewers, BETA readers, interviewers, writing friends, and bloggers. You are amazing and inspire me to keep going. The time you take to read, rate, and review my books is appreciated more than I have space here to say. Happy reading! I hope you fall in love with the Farris Triplets as much as I have.

  Love from A.K. Leigh xo

  Dedicated to Adriana, my big sister by thirty seconds and one of my biggest supporters. Thank you for everything. I love you

  Contents

  About the Author

  Acknowledgements

  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

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Bestselling Titles by Escape Publishing...

  Chapter 1

  ‘Call already.’ She tugged at her bottom lip with her fingers as she stared at her phone. The detective superintendent’s call was almost ten minutes late. He knew how ambivalent she was about this. Why keep her waiting, and give her a chance to change her mind? Not that she hadn’t done that a million times over the past couple of weeks.

  The Winter Olympics were a big deal. Expectations would be high. She’d won bronze at her first; silver last time. The pressure for gold from the public and media would be overwhelming.

  Yet that wasn’t the main cause of her anxiety right now. It was everything else. The secret mission, the international involvement, all those lives on the line, the promotion that was on offer if she succeeded. And the most important thing: the fact her identical triplet sisters knew nothing.

  It didn’t matter that there was one competitor she’d prefer to avoid either …

  She pushed the thought away and focused back on the phone. When it still didn’t ring, she gave up staring at it, and turned her face towards her lounge room’s open window.

  As she gazed out at the blue and cloudless sky, her mind drifted to the past. Four years ago, she’d assumed it was going to be the last time she would compete at the Olympics. She’d been satisfied with it being her grand finale. At least, that’s what she’d told everyone. She’d claimed she was ‘getting too old’. It had been plausible enough, but it hadn’t been the real reason.

  As it had too many times to bother trying to remember, the face of a man formed in her mind. His eyes, which somehow managed to sparkle despite their flat grey-blue colour, and a way too charming Russian accent ringing in her ears, made her frown.

  Andrei Strasinski.

  During lonely nights, when she was being completely honest with herself, she could admit that he had been the true motivation behind her unexpected decision. They’d spent four amazing weeks together in Russia at her first Winter Olympics. She’d started to believe he was The One. He’d behaved as though he was in love with her. Said it too.

  Which is why she’d been left devastated, confused, and heartbroken when he’d suddenly ended their love affair by saying he only saw her as a fling.

  How stupid had she been? Everyone knew Olympic hook-ups were casual. As usually happened, time passed, and she’d gotten over it.

  Or so she’d thought.

  Come South Korea four years ago, and the sight of him had knocked the air from her chest. Once those games were over, she knew she couldn’t go through seeing him aga
in. It had been the cowardly, weak choice—letting a man influence what she did! She’d known that then, but she’d also known it would be the only way to survive the emotional turmoil caused by Andrei’s presence.

  Now Beijing was around the corner. They would both be there. It had been announced on the news a couple of months earlier that Andrei was utilising his dual citizenship to compete for Australia rather than Russia this time around. Meaning they would be on the same team. Avoiding him, the way she had in South Korea, would be impossible.

  She frowned.

  Would her emotions—and heart—betray her again, or was she truly over him? She paused and scanned her body and thoughts for the answer. Though it was true a tremor had shivered through her heart each time she’d seen him on the news lately, the air hadn’t tightened in her chest the way it had before. It hadn’t felt like she was out of control.

  Besides, the heart tremor thing had nothing to do with residual feelings. It had been the shock of seeing him, maybe even physical attraction. From what she’d seen on the television, he didn’t seem to have lost his talent, physique, or good looks. Noticing those things meant no more than finding the delivery man cute: it didn’t mean she wanted anything romantic from him.

  Almost convinced, she felt her frown deepen. A question that had been bothering her returned: why had Andrei changed allegiance out of the blue? He’d been proudly Russian when she’d known him. The official word had been a possible ban on all Russian athletes due to the Russian Paralympians being banned for extensive drug use. Sixth sense told her that wasn’t the real reason. When it came to Andrei, there was always a piece of the puzzle missing; a half-truth offered. Lies.

  Irritation, anger, hurt swirled through her mind, making her chest ache.

  ‘Uggggh.’

  Why had the Australian Federal Police insisted on her? It was a rhetorical question. She knew why. She was the only one who could do it. She was the only one with both investigative and cross-country shooting experience.

  ‘Just breathe.’ She inhaled to calm herself, then continued, ‘It’s okay. You’re stronger now. You can do this, Nina.’

  She wouldn’t have to see him until Beijing and then he would be in a separate area of the Olympic Village. All competitors were assigned accommodation with others of the same gender.

  It will be fine.

  With her next inhale, she forced the man’s image free.

  That left her mind with room to focus on the nerves she had about competing. After celebrating her thirty-second birthday recently, she was considered an older competitor. Past her prime. Younger, more talented biathletes were coming up the ranks. Even though she still skied a minimum of twice a week at The Snow Globe, a specialist winter sports training centre in Cairns that had been built a couple of years earlier, it couldn’t be considered Olympic-level training by even the most free and loose standards. Considering her last entry into the Australian Biathlon Championships—despite her gold medal performance—had been two years earlier, she could be getting in out of her depth.

  She turned her head so she could look at the framed photo-mosaic she’d made in her late teens and hung on the wall above the sofa she was sitting on. Most of the pictures were of her sisters, and late parents, some were of extended family and distant ancestors. The majority were fair-skinned, with varying shades of blond hair and blue eyes.

  Her gaze narrowed on a colour photo that was over a dozen years old. The subject in the photo was a striking woman with the same ash-blonde hair colour she and her sisters had. Nina smiled as she imagined the heads turning as her mother entered the room. The photo was the last one taken before her mother and father had been cruelly ripped away. She didn’t allow those memories to come, forcing her attention on the photo instead.

  Her mother had high cheekbones—like Lizzie’s, a freckle-type mole above her lip—like Carrie’s, and a small cleft in her chin … Nina reached up and felt the same one she had in hers. Their blue eyes and curls came from their father.

  She smiled, ‘Do I still have what it takes, Mum?’

  Though she knew it was impossible, for an almost imperceptible instant it seemed like her mother nodded. She blinked and laughed at the absurdity.

  The reminiscing was interrupted by her phone buzzing. A peek at the screen showed it was the call she’d been waiting for.

  ‘At last.’ She drew in a calming breath and answered in as monotonal voice possible, ‘Good morning, Detective Superintendent.’

  ‘Good morning, Senior Constable Farris. I’ve emailed through your flight details. Make sure you check over everything then email back to confirm.’

  ‘I’ll do it the second I hang up.’

  ‘I also have more details concerning your mission.’

  All she’d been told up to that point was that there had been a terror plot threatening the safety of Western competitors at the Olympics. Her role was to go in undercover as a teammate to help investigate.

  The anxiety she’d already been feeling increased, sending a flutter through her tummy. This was getting too real.

  Trying to sound calm, she said, ‘What are they?’

  ‘Bomb threats have been made.’

  She swallowed hard. ‘Do we know when the first one is due to go off? Where it will go off? How they’ll detonate?’

  ‘We have investigators working on that, but we’re hoping your input will give us further guidance.’

  ‘I’ll do whatever I can.’

  ‘Glad to hear it … I thought after our last conversation that you might pull out.’

  She stifled a humourless laugh. If only he’d known how many times she’d nearly backed out already. ‘To be honest, I’ve thought about it, sir.’

  ‘Why haven’t you?’ His tone was curious, interested.

  ‘I’m the only one who can do this convincingly, right?’

  ‘Right.’

  ‘Then it has to be done.’

  Wasn’t the first time in her life she’d had to step up and take on a responsibility she didn’t necessarily want. Her mind flicked to when she’d moved to a more protective mother-type role after the death of her parents. Her sisters had needed that from her at the time. And that’s what big sisters did. Even if they were only the big sister by three minutes.

  The DS cut off her thoughts by saying, ‘That dedication is exactly what made me put you forward for the promotion.’

  ‘Thank you, sir.’

  ‘I’ll send a suspect list to your work email. Your role is to narrow down the most likely candidates then get close to them and inform us of any odd behaviour. Hopefully, we can stop this threat before it starts. Do you think you can do that?’

  ‘Yes.’ She wasn’t sure she sounded any more confident than she felt.

  ‘What about your sisters?’

  ‘Uh … I haven’t asked them yet.’

  They knew nothing about her being asked to compete, the mission, nor their role in it. She hadn’t wanted them to worry about her having to see Andrei again until they had no choice.

  ‘You need to get onto that.’

  ‘I’m going to tell them this weekend.’

  ‘Make sure you do. The press will be all over this once it’s out.’

  She’d asked the Australian Olympic Committee to keep her entry into the team under wraps until the last possible moment. The media scrutiny of herself and her sisters was already full-on.

  ‘I know.’

  ‘We don’t want anything to jeopardise us catching this lunatic.’

  ‘Yes, Detective Superintendent.’

  They said their goodbyes and ended the call.

  Nina was left once more with her thoughts. It was official. In around seventeen days, she would be on her way to the Beijing Winter Olympics to compete in the biathlon. For the third time in her life. None of the competitors or coaches would know her place in the team wasn’t ‘real’.

  In fact, the new team coach had already arranged for her to spend more time training at The Snow G
lobe. She’d committed to Saturday morning, Monday afternoon, Wednesday night, and Thursday afternoon sessions, as well as her regular shooting practice at the police firing range.

  Her first skiing training would be early the following morning, when she would meet and train with her other teammates. Some she would know from previous years and competitions, but most would be new. There would be a mixture of men and women, the majority of whom would be younger than her.

  Except Andrei. He’s three months older than me.

  She crinkled her brows together. Why did she still know that? She shook her head. I’m not going to think about him. There was no need. He was in an entirely different part of Australia. She had almost three weeks to get used to the fact that she’d be seeing him again in Beijing. Then, once she was in China, she would ignore him if he tried to approach her.

  Easy.

  Her phone buzzed in her hand. She peered down. On the screen, the name ‘Lizzie’ flashed back at her.

  This was her chance.

  She drew in a breath and answered. ‘I have some news.’

  ‘Me too.’ The ready-to-explode excitement in her sister’s voice was obvious.

  Nina laughed, ‘You first.’

  ‘Okay. Are you sitting down?’

  ‘I am.’

  ‘All right … don’t freak out, but … Gabe and I are engaged.’

  A rush of happiness filled Nina’s chest. She felt like she was bouncing out of her skin. ‘I’m so happy for you both.’

  ‘Are you really?’

  ‘Of course.’

  ‘Thank you. I’m so relieved.’ She heard her sister exhale as though she’d been holding her breath all morning. ‘We’re going to have a celebration tomorrow night. Nothing fancy, just a casual get-together with a few friends for food and dancing. Can you come?’

  ‘I wouldn’t miss this for anything.’

  ‘I knew it.’ She could tell her sister was smiling. ‘Dinner will be at that restaurant I like, Chez Nouveau. We’ll go for drinks and dancing at Club 50s afterward. I’ve booked a table for seven.’ In French, Lizzie added, ‘Don’t be late.’