Phoenix's Ascent by Winter Austin 💕 Exclusive Excerpt, Book Tour and $10 Gift Card Giveaway 💕(Romantic Suspense)

This blog post contains affiliate links. Click Here for details.

Will Nadia ever remember the man she once loved, or will they perish with the secret between them?

A maniac developing a fantastical drug wants one more thing to finalize the project—a test subject who fits all the parameters. But that test subject is as elusive as her namesake.

Ex-SAS operative Mitch Edwards has been on the run since the moment he was framed for treason by someone in the British government. But he’s never forgotten the flamboyant and seductive CIA operative with the tongue of a thousand languages. In a bar in Cancun, Mexico, Mitch comes face to face with her once more, and with her comes the full force of her enemies.

Reinstated Hera Force linguist and assassin, Nadia Roth, code named Phoenix, has no memory of Mitch Edwards, or of their affair before her team’s disastrous mission. Her traumatic brain injury is tricky that way. But something about this man sets her on fire and tickles the back of her mind. Her Hera teammates remember him, so why can’t she?

Mitch partners up with Hera, with the sole intent of locating those hell-bent on killing him and all who are associated with him. Yet more is at stake than their lives. A traitor hides among their ranks, one who has been revealing all their secrets to an enemy determined to procure this special drug and Nadia for his scheme.

Hera goes into operation mode, doing what they were created to do, but someone is watching, and the team finds themselves trapped behind enemy lines with no way out.

Will Nadia ever remember the man she once loved, or will they perish with the secret between them?

“What are you doing?”

“Shh.” Matías probed deeper. “Where is it?”

Mitch moved back to Nadia’s side. “Where is what?” He grabbed at the man’s arms. “Matías.”

Matías shook loose of Mitch. “There it is.” He parted her hair over her left ear and revealed a long, white scar disappearing into her hairline. “That’s what I was looking for.” Matías rolled back Nadia’s ear lobe. “Interesting tattoo.”

“Beside the point. What does that scar on her head mean?”

Matías let her hair fall in place and stood. “It means she’s had a serious head injury in her past. Just how far back do you know her?”

Far enough to remember if she had gotten a head injury. Whatever had caused it must have happened after he was branded a traitor by the British government.

“So what am I supposed to do?”

“What I told you to do in the first place—take her to a hospital. But I know you, stubborn mule.” Matías shook his head and walked over to a small cabinet at the end of the couch. He pulled out a blanket and handed it to Mitch. “Let her rest. If she doesn’t come out of it by morning, then we’re taking her to the hospital.”

Mitch unfurled the plush blanket and draped it over Nadia. “We’ll see.”

Muttering something about him being a donkey’s ass, Matías left the room, only to pause in the hallway entrance. He looked back at Mitch. “My family will be up early. I can’t promise they will be quiet.”

“No worries, mate.”

Matías disappeared. Seconds later a door clicked shut.

Mitch found the light switches and turned off all but one lone lamp. He sank into a well-loved chair next to the sofa and took vigil over the comatose woman.

After all these years, and all this time, Nadia just dropped out of the sky, right into his lap. In her typical grand fashion, no less. He’d seen her in action before. Hell, he’d even gone on missions with her and watched her and her fellow teammates perform their tasks with razor’s-edge precision. But what he’d witnessed today, this wasn’t the Nadia he remembered. There had been a sloppiness to her job, a hurried reaction. Nadia didn’t react, she acted. First to make a decision on what to do. And the first to make the move.

Attacking a target with witnesses was not her style. Find a secluded spot, do her thing, and slip away in the dark—that was Phoenix. For her to botch a mission was uncharacteristic.

Mitch sighed, sinking further into the seat. It appeared many things had changed with Nadia. Most disturbing, her lack of memory of him.

He closed his eyes and willed his body to relax. He’d worry about all those things in the morning. Right now, he needed sleep. Nadia wasn’t going anywhere for now. If she woke while he dozed, he’d hear her.

At least he hoped so.

Five years ago, Josephine "Mockingbird" Caruso belonged to an all-female black-ops military group named Hera Force—a team tasked with bringing down terrorists like the enigma dubbed the Chessmaster. But the faceless criminal mastermind had other plans and single-handily destroyed the operation, ruining the women’s military careers and their lives.

Ex-Delta Force operative Detective Lincoln Sullivan reports to the scene of a mass-murder, learning all too quickly he knows the victims. The killer has left behind a deadly missive just for him: Find the Mockingbird or more will die.

Lincoln flies to New Orleans where Jo lives with her twin brother. Lincoln and Jo had once been co-operatives and lovers, however the fallout from Hera Force's destruction left what little relationship they had in tatters. Jo has no desire to work with Lincoln again, but the threat to her life and the remaining two operatives, Nadia “Phoenix” Roth and Jade “Dragon” Delacour, force her hand. The four former teammates are thrust together once more. There are unknown forces moving in the background and an old enemy is about to return with a vengeance.

Tensions between the ex-lovers come to a head when Lincoln learns his partner is an Army agent working under Hera Force’s top general, a man who's not all that he seems. With each step Lincoln and Jo take, they are met with death and destruction. Buried lies and half-truths begin to unravel Jo’s shaky trust in Lincoln until all is brought to light.

When the killer strikes, Jo is faced with a hard choice, be the leader she was born to be, or lose Lincoln forever.

Winter Austin perpetually answers the question: “were you born in the winter?” with a flat “nope,” but believe her, there is a story behind her name.

A lifelong Mid-West gal with strong ties to the agriculture world, Winter grew up listening to the captivating stories told by relatives around a table or a campfire. As a published author, she learned her glass half-empty personality makes for a perfect suspense/thriller writer. Taking her ability to verbally spin a vivid and detailed story, Winter translated that into writing deadly romantic suspense, mysteries, and thrillers. When she’s not slaving away at the computer, you can find Winter supporting her daughter in cattle shows, seeing her three sons off into the wide-wide world, loving on her fur babies, prodding her teacher husband, and nagging at her flock of hens to stay in the coop or the dogs will get them. She is the author of ten novels, with more on the way.