A government assassin. A sociopathic killer. Both hunters-and both hunted-in the ultimate game of deception, double-cross, and death. Retired CIA agent Helen Warwick returns in this electrifying thriller from New York Times bestselling author and former spy Cindy Dees.

As an elite assassin for the CIA, Helen Warwick was trained to keep a low profile, blend into the crowd, and eliminate her targets swiftly, silently, and efficiently. But now that she's retired, Helen is forced to take on a very different, and very public, role-as the proud mother of a rising young politician. At a DC press conference for her son's campaign, she sees the ominous green light of a gun laser fixed on her son's head-and her CIA training kicks in. She jumps into action, pushes her son down, and saves him from a sniper's bullet. In that moment, Helen realizes she will never escape the secrets of her past-or the deranged man she thought she killed . . .

Code named Scorpius, he's a Russian mole embedded in the CIA who recruits dangerous sociopaths and trains them to kill at command. None of his CIA colleagues know his true identity. But when members of his kill team begin to disappear, he realizes his entire operation may be at risk. His greatest threat, Helen Warwick, has agreed to rejoin the CIA to help expose Scorpius. She suspects that Scorpius may be one of her colleagues, part of a vast conspiracy that reaches the highest levels of government. And now that her family has been personally targeted, she's willing to break every rule to stop Scorpius and his trained killers. Unless, of course, they kill her first . . .