THE ULTIMATUM

When a huge heist goes awry, shadowy criminal Bianca St. Ives emerges as a security expert—only to be drawn back into crime by a mysterious job she's blackmailed into taking.

When superthief Bianca discovers that the job she, her father, and their team have spent months planning is a huge fail, and possibly a setup, she needs to get out—of the glitzy party, the ancient palace, and Bahrain. Her narrow escape includes a kiss that affects her far more than she’d like to admit. After her father winds up dead, she and one other survivor, a computer specialist, make their way to the U.S. and start a security company, living aboveboard for the most part. Monitoring her father’s email account, however, brings in the occasional request for services, which she ignores until the day one contains an ultimatum: do the job or we’ll kill your family. Seeing her father’s wife and daughter in danger baits Bianca back, but she’s wary, especially since it’s obvious her adversaries believe her father is still alive and they want him more than the requested object. Taking on the first task of the mission brings her face to face with “Mickey,” her kissing partner in Bahrain, so she knows he's involved in the hunt for her father. But trying to piece together her own enigmatic past on the heels of her father’s death uncovers some unwelcome enemies, and Mickey may be an ally in disguise. Robards begins a new series with a fascinating main character, blazing action, a Jason Bourne–esque central mystery, and an intriguing cliffhanger ending. Barely-there romance promises to heat up in subsequent title(s).

Fresh, sexy, and eminently readable.