Running the Risk by Lea Griffith – Review, Excerpt & Giveaway
Running the Risk
Endgame Ops series – Book #2
by Lea Griffith
Release Date: April 3, 2018
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Description:
Survival is crucial.
Trust is optional.
Love is unstoppable.
Jude Dagan’s life as he knew it ended a year ago. On a mission gone wrong, he was forced to watch as Ella Banning, the only woman he’s ever loved, was killed. Or so he thought.
Jude wasn’t the only one who lost something on the day Ella was presumed dead. She sacrificed Endgame Ops, the love of her life, and parts of herself she can never get back. Now she’s determined to take down the world’s most dangerous terrorist–even if it means working for him.
When Jude and Ella are reunited, they’ll battle the lies Ella has been forced to tell…and struggle to save a love that knows no bounds.
Review:
Running the Risk by Lea Griffith is the 2nd book in her Endgame Ops series. I really enjoyed the first book in this series, and was happy that Running the Risk was equally as good or even better.
Jude Dagan, a member of Endgame Ops team, has not gotten over the death of the love of his life, Ella, a year ago. When he investigates some rumors of an Ella sighting, Jude ignores his team and is determined to track her down.
Ella Banning, our heroine, who was assumed dead, is now working for the enemy, Horace Dresden. When she sees Jude from afar, she does everything in her power to run away and keep her distance. Ella has become a powerful assistant to Dresden, and is now considered a traitor, but Jude cannot walk away. He still loves Ella, and wants to find out the truth, even if he feels she has betrayed them all. But is Ella really a traitor? They (Endgame Ops) left her and others for dead, leaving them at the mercy of Dresden and his evil mercenaries. Ella was tortured, and broken by one of Dresden’s men, and she slowly became his powerful dangerous assistant, handling their associates. What Jude doesn’t know is that Ella is actually protecting him, since Dresden holds that over her head…if she doesn’t do what he asks for, he will have Jude killed and Dresden always gets what he wants.
When Jude finally catches up with Ella, she tries to explain that she too has her own mission, besides saving his life. When the founder of the Endgame forces Jude to stay away from Ella, Jude knows that something more is going on. He will convince his teammates about getting Ella, and learning what Piper (Endgame founder) is hiding.
What follows is a very exciting action packed adventure that will also bring some surprises, as well as conspiracies. When Jude and the team capture Ella, they will need to learn to trust each other, in order to get the main target..Horace Dresden. Something that is almost impossible, with his ties throughout the world, not to mention possible political betrayals.
Slowly Ella will earn their trust, despite her determination to go back to where Dresden is hiding to rescue another woman held captive. The team realizes that they were also at fault for leaving her, and two others for dead; allowing them to be captured and tortured. These revelations will bring them all together to fight the enemy.
The romance between Ella and Jude was sizzling, as they had great chemistry. Their love for each other was all consuming that even with the terrible things that have separated them, their love has never faltered. Despite his anger at what he assumes to be her betrayal at not coming to him earlier, his love of Ella was so strong, he could not let her go, as in time he would forgive her.
I loved Ella’s strength, perseverance and ability to fight off anyone who threatens her. She survived the worst, and still wants to save the woman held captive and also kill Dresden. She earns her former teams trust, and together they will all go to try to destroy the enemy, as well as find out the truths of who is behind what has been happening.
The final half of the book was intense with so many lives in danger. Just when you think they were safe, the danger escalates with both Ella & Jude’s life questionable. The exciting climax had me holding my breath to see who will survive. Lea Griffith has done it again with a fantastic suspenseful storyline, wonderful great couple, awesome secondary characters and an edge of your seat thriller. I suggest you read this series, and start with the first book, Flash of Fury.
Reviewed by Barb
Copy provided by Publisher
She’d taken down the remaining four attackers and then the Piper had helped her relocate Jude to another safe house on the outskirts of Sarajevo. This one belonged to longtime Endgame associate, Adam Babic.
Ella had to make sure Jude was okay before she took off. Adam would handle Jude’s safety until he woke. The Piper was doing his best to find out who had sent the two teams of killers after her. Ella thought it could be any number of people though she ruled out Segorski pretty quick. He wanted her alive and it was clear by the shock and awe method of attack that they’d been there to eliminate their target, not capture.
An insidious thought crept in. Maybe they hadn’t come for her at all. Maybe the two teams of assassins had followed the Piper. Ella acknowledged the chill bumps breaking out on her skin. Fear was a fine emotion. It kept you sharp. But Ella hadn’t been born to this life like Jude had. She’d been molded and the fear was her friend and foe. She had to work to overcome it.
If they’d followed the Piper that meant someone was on to him. He had suspected for a while that someone higher up even than he in the Presidential administration had been gunning for him. They’d started by trying to take out Endgame. It wasn’t common knowledge that Noah Caine, aka, the Piper, had created a private spec ops entity, but it wasn’t exactly buried six feet deep either. On paper, they provided logistical support and security for private contractors rebuilding countries like Afghanistan and Iraq. It was unspoken but understood that they delved into the gray whenever they needed to. Whose feet had the Piper stepped on? Or was it just Dresden?
Ella needed to have a little sit-down with the Piper. It really was time he came clean on some things.
There was also the fact that if they hadn’t been after the Piper, they’d been after her. If that was the case, she needed to find out who it was and fast.
She rested her head on the bed beside Jude’s arm. She was so damn tired.
“He’s got to stop.” One of the men who’d cost her damn near everything had entered the room. Ella sighed soundlessly.
“He’ll never stop. I told you this and you said you could handle him, keep him busy on missions that wouldn’t get him killed and keep him far away from Dresden,” she reminded the Piper. She stopped for a moment and really looked at him. Maybe she’d get to ask him one day why they called him Piper. “You look really tired, old man.”
He snorted before rubbing his eyes. “I am old. Too old for this shit.”
Ella shrugged. “You set the board and now moves are being made. This was what it was all about,” she bit out.
Piper nodded. “I did my best but the bastard just keeps coming, doesn’t he?” There was a rueful note in his voice as he disregarded her comment.
“Yeah,” she returned. “He does.”
She raised her head and stared at Jude. His eyes remained closed but she felt his attention. He was awake. Ella stood then and moved away from the bed. Jude’s eyes opened immediately, the black of his gaze snaring her, refusing to let her leave completely.
Always it was Jude. In every dream, in every breath, it was always Jude.
She watched him, noticing the exact instant he realized he was strapped to the bed. He tugged on each arm once and relaxed. Or at least he appeared to relax. With Jude that was never a true reality. He was at all times ready for anything.
“Take them off,” he demanded in a deep voice. His gaze never left hers.
She opened her mouth—to say what she didn’t know—but the Piper beat her to it. “No.”
Jude continued to stare at Ella. “Take them off or when I get free I’ll make you both pay.”
There was so much in his gaze. Questions, pain, rage—it was a tangle of emotion that traveled the air between them. And Ella was in no position to give him the answers or assurances he needed from her. Had needed for over a year now.
“Jude—” she began.
“I don’t deal with traitors,” he bit out.
Oh, that hurt. Cut bone deep and left her bleeding inside.
“No one has asked you to, son,” the Piper said, his voice now low and carrying a hint of frustration. “Then again, no one here is a traitor.”
The skin over Jude’s cheekbones went ruddy. Ella had really only seen them do that when he buried inside her so it was unique that she was seeing it now, and for an entirely different emotion. He was furious. Unfortunately, there was nothing she could do about that.
Jude’s gaze finally shifted to the creator of Endgame Ops. “Take off the restraints.”
The Piper shook his head and stopped beside the bed. “No. There is work to be done and while I would love nothing more than to release you, we appear to have different objectives. Ella Banning has a mission to complete, and you, Keeper, have to return to your team. If I let you out of the restraints, you’ll take her and I know what you’re apparently blind to—she’ll go with you, willingly, if it means you stay safe. And it will destroy any chance we have of finding out who is pulling Horace Dresden’s strings.”
Jude sat abruptly, reclining one second, upright the next. The chains attached to the leather cuffs on his arms and legs jangled against the metal framework of the bed he was on. The sound was strident and Ella winced. The Piper shifted to his right. Her back snapped straight and she reached for the weapon in her side holster, snapping the strap holding it in place.
Jude’s head rotated and once again she was pinned under his night-sky gaze. “You gonna shoot me, Ella-Bella?”
Her breath left her in a rush. He doubted her and it—hurt. She would never shoot Jude. But she’d earned his doubt and would have to carry it with her when she left. The Piper’s head swiveled in her direction and his pupils dilated. He lowered the hand that had been reaching for his weapon and took a small step back from Jude.
“I wouldn’t shoot him,” the Piper said wearily.
“I wouldn’t let you,” she responded, making sure her voice didn’t waver but conveyed her intent.
”
