Reckless, An Option Zero Novel

Closely held secrets can have deadly consequences

Family is everything to OZ operative Jazz McAlister, who once lost everyone and everything she loved. The mysterious disappearance of her brother years ago left a deep ache in her heart that she’s never forgotten. When circumstances bring him abruptly back into her life, Jazz will do anything to find out the truth of where he’s been and what happened to him. Revealing her plans to Xavier Quinn, her OZ partner and best friend, is out of the question. He would never understand. This is something she must do on her own.

Xavier has been in covert ops a long time, but he’s never had a partner like Jazz. She’s smart, brave, and fiercely loyal, and with one look, she can melt his heart of stone. Together, they make a formidable partnership, and it’s one he treasures, which is why he’s stunned when she goes out on her own without any explanation.

Jazz thought she had a plan, but how could she forget that life can turn on a dime? When her life is upended once again, Xavier and her OZ teammates are the only ones she trusts to help her. If only her recklessness hadn’t put her in the crosshairs of a sadistic predator bent on stealing her life.

As the Option Zero team rush to save Jazz, forces no one could ever have predicted will do everything within their power to see that Jazz and her team are destroyed forever.

But love is stronger than hate, and family is often more of the heart than blood, proving once again that evil cannot win.

Chapter One

Nineteen Years Ago
Chicago, Illinois

“Stop. Stop. Stop.”

Crouched behind thick, green bushes, ten-year-old Jasmine McAlister whisper-screamed the words. Her thin body trembled, her shoulders tense with misery. She wanted to put her hands over her ears to cut off the sounds but refused to give herself the comfort. If Brody had to endure this pain because of her, then she would endure the sounds of his agony for him.

If she had just done what she’d been told to do, none of this would be happening. They knew that punishing Brody would always hurt more than if she took the blows herself. It didn’t help that Brody was more than willing to take the pain for her. He thought it was his duty to protect her, and as much as she didn’t want to hurt, she hated seeing him in pain.

It lasted only five minutes or so, but it felt like a lifetime before Brody came around the corner. She watched him for a second to see how badly he’d been hurt. His mouth was set in a grim line, but the instant he saw her, he gave her a quick, wry smile. “Arthur may look like a gorilla, but he hits like a kitten.”

Jazz swallowed back a sob. She knew that wasn’t true. She’d been on the receiving end of Arthur’s giant hands on more than one occasion. The hits hurt all the way to the bone. However, after he’d left a bruise on her that had lasted over two weeks, he’d limited his meanness to mostly nasty words and mean looks. And when he really wanted to hurt her, he took out her punishment on her big brother.

“I’m sorry, Brody,” Jazz whispered. “I’ll try to be better.”

“You be you, Jazzy. Arthur’s gonna hit me every day, no matter what. Might as well be for a good cause.”

She knew he was only trying to make her feel better, but there was no denying that this was her fault. Next time Arthur told her to do something, she would do it, no matter how gross it was. Cleaning up a bathroom where he and his drinking buddies had vomited all over the floor would be a small price to pay compared with having Brody take punishment for her disobedience.

“Thank you for protecting me.”

“It’s what big brothers do.”

Despite her sorrow, she couldn’t help but smile. Brody was big—there was no denying that. At fourteen, he was already over six feet tall, had wide shoulders and hands almost as large as Arthur’s. If he wanted to, he could beat up Arthur, but if he did, they both knew what would happen. Brody would be put in juvenile detention, and she would be at the mercy of Arthur and his friends.

And he was her brother. Maybe not by blood. His daddy had married her mama when Jazz was four, but that didn’t matter. From the day he and Connor McAlister had walked in the door, they had become her family and Brody had become her protector.

For six years, they had been the perfect family. Her mama and Connor, aka Papa Mac, had been the best mommy and daddy in the world. Then one day, the police had shown up at her school and told her that her home had exploded due to a faulty gas line. Her mom and Papa Mac were gone, and she and Brody had nothing but each other. Their parents, their home, and all their possessions were gone. The next day, she and her brother had been bundled onto a bus in Atlanta and had arrived in Chicago late at night. Arthur Kelly had met them at the bus depot. Neither of them knew him, but they’d been told he was the only relative—a distant cousin of Jazz’s mother—who would agree to take them together. They hadn’t protested, because the last thing they wanted was to be separated.

Brody was all she had left in the world, and it terrified her that he would be taken from her, too.

That’s why she needed to behave and do whatever they told her to do. What would she do if they punished her by taking Brody away? She couldn’t let that happen. She wouldn’t survive without her big brother.

 

Chapter Two

Four Years Later
Indianapolis, Indiana

Huddled beneath a thin blanket, Jazz peered out the window into the inky darkness. It was well past midnight, and though the streets weren’t empty, the people who occupied them now either walked furtively or drunkenly. In this neighborhood, being outside at this time of night was dangerous.

Brody was out there somewhere. Was he trying to get home to her? He had been gone for over twenty-four hours now. He’d left yesterday afternoon with over a hundred dollars in his pocket to buy food. She was used to being left alone for long periods of time, but this was the longest he’d ever been away.

Had Arthur found them? Two years ago, they’d snuck out in the middle of the night and had traveled as far as they could with the money they’d managed to pilfer from the jar Arthur kept above the fridge. Seventy-seven dollars didn’t take them very far. Two bus tickets to Indianapolis had used up half their money. The rest had been spent on a skanky motel room, along with a jar of peanut butter and a loaf of bread.

Over the past two years, their circumstances had improved. Brody had gotten a job as a bouncer at a strip joint. Even though he was still technically a minor, his size gave him an advantage. Well over six feet, with broad shoulders and an impressive scowl, he had managed to finagle his way into various jobs. Getting paid in cash was the ideal way when you were in hiding. No messy paperwork or identification needed. Show up, do the job, and keep your mouth shut. Brody had become an expert at that.

This last job, at the strip joint, had come with less money, but as incentive, the owner had given Brody an apartment on the top floor. It wasn’t much more than a room with a single bed, a ratty sofa, and a small fridge and microwave, but it was more than they’d had before.

No one knew that she lived here, too. Brody wanted to keep her as hidden as possible. She didn’t fully know the reason why. She knew his employer might not want a teenage girl living above a nudie bar—at least that’s what Brody had said. But Jazz knew it was more than that.

Why they’d snuck out of Arthur’s house in the middle of the night was still a bit of a mystery. Brody had woken her up, told her to grab her clothes, put on her shoes, and to be as quiet as possible. She hadn’t questioned him. She never questioned her big brother. He was the only one who looked out for her. She owed him everything.

She knew Brody had overheard something that scared him. And though he never said, she knew it had something to do with her. She had asked him numerous times, and he had skirted the issue, telling her that he’d just had enough. That was understandable. In the two years they’d been with Arthur, Brody had received the brunt of his abuse. She’d taken some, but there was something about Brody that made Arthur enjoy hurting him.

There was more to the story than Brody would give her, though. On occasion, she’d seen Arthur’s friends give her looks that creeped her out. She didn’t quite know what those looks meant, but she did know that they made her scared and uncomfortable.

A strong breeze rattled the window, and icy air crept through the windowsill. Jazz pulled the blanket tighter over her body and continued her vigil. She tried to will her eyes to see Brody’s tall, athletic frame amble down the street, just as she’d seen it so many times before. A sick feeling in the pit of her stomach told her that wasn’t going to happen this time.

Where could he have gone? The grocery store he usually went to was only three blocks away. With their limited funds, it rarely took him longer than half an hour to purchase their food and come home. So making herself believe that something awful hadn’t befallen him just wasn’t going to happen.

Wiping the tears streaming from her eyes, she knew she had no choice but to face the facts. Something terrible had happened, and her brother wasn’t coming back.