Book 2 in US Marshals: Task Force 9 · Dark-edged romantic suspense · Reads as a standalone · Guaranteed HEA
About the book
A legendary hacker on the run. A dominant US Marshal sent to capture her. One island safe house.
You've spent three years running from the monsters who burned your life to the ground — and now the only safe place left to hide is in the arms of the man sent to capture you.
Ivy is a ghost. The legendary hacker known as "the dragon," she survives on cold logic, burner laptops, and one steel-clad rule: never leave a footprint. She burns the Consortium's financial networks to make them pay for the friend they stole from her, and she never stays anywhere long enough to let the world touch her. Until a high-stakes zero-day in Macau goes wrong, and she's cornered in a dark parking garage.
Enter Julian Rhodes. US Marshal. Task Force 9 — the off-books federal unit that handles the targets who don't exist. He's spent eleven weeks tracking a shadow, and he isn't about to let her slip. Cocky, controlled, and hyper-confident, Julian lives to own the room. But when he finally captures his target, he doesn't find a cold corporate threat. He finds a sharp, defensive genius whose isolation trips every protective instinct he's spent his career locking down.
Forced into proximity in a remote island safe house, they run a joint extraction against a degrading seventy-two-hour window. His steady, load-bearing calm meets her razor-fast digital shields, and the friction sparks a heat neither can control. Under his roof, Julian gives her something she's never let herself have — the grounding safety she's been starved for since the day she ran.
Tropes, heat and content notes
- Tropes: possessive marshal and genius hacker, forced proximity in an island safe house, hacker versus hacker, cat and mouse, reluctant trust, touch her and die, slow burn under a ticking clock
- Heat: spicy
- Point of view: dual first person, present tense, Ivy and Julian
- Ending: a happily ever after, with no cliffhanger
- Content notes: gun violence, captivity, past trauma. Adults 18+.
Where it fits in the series
CIPHER is book 2 of 6 in US Marshals: Task Force 9.
- Before it: BOYD: Lethal Vitals (book 1). Ivy first appears in BOYD.
- After it: WRAITH: Lethal Impact (book 3).
Questions readers ask
Can I read CIPHER as a standalone?
Yes. Ivy first appears in BOYD, so readers of book 1 will already know her, but her love story with Julian starts and finishes in this book.
How spicy is CIPHER?
Spicy. The heat builds slowly while Ivy and Julian are stuck in the safe house together.
Does CIPHER end on a cliffhanger?
No. Ivy and Julian get their happily ever after.
Is CIPHER in Kindle Unlimited?
Yes. Every book in US Marshals: Task Force 9 is in Kindle Unlimited.