After betraying the covert Agency that made her, fugitive operative Grace Sumer is hunted across Europe, until the football star she loves finds her, drawing them into a deadly conspiracy that threatens not only their lives, but the future they are desperate to build together. ◈ ◈ ◈ Grace Sumer is on the run from the Agency that raised her to be a weapon, moving across borders to stay out of reach. Hermes Mansi is not a man who gives up. Using every resource at his disposal, he launches a relentless search for the woman he loves, the one who walked away to protect him and his six-year-old son, Drax. Grace has taken refuge in Naples with a powerful Italian mafia family, trying to stay hidden as new dangers close in. When Hermes finally finds her at an elite event in Rome, their reunion sparks more than old feelings. It pulls them into a deadly investigation that exposes corruption at the highest levels of the Agency. With enemies closing in and allies shifting across borders, Grace and Hermes are forced into a race for the truth. But for Hermes, this has never been just about survival. He wants more than to save her. He wants a life with her. And he will chase her across the world until she believes she deserves it. ◈ ◈ ◈ Book two in the Grace Sumer series, sequel to "The Nanny Protocol."

A covert government operative sent to surveil a famous footballer accidentally becomes the nanny to his six-year-old son, forcing her to choose between completing the mission that could destroy him or protecting the unexpected family she has begun to love. ◈ ◈ ◈ Grace Anna Sumer has always craved freedom. That hunger is what led her into the shadows, working as a covert field operative for a little-known government agency. Officially, she gathers intelligence. Unofficially, she removes problems. Pulled from a coveted assignment in the Congo, Grace is reassigned to Paris to surveil the family of Hermes Mansi, an international football (soccer) star whose career is tightly controlled by a powerful and corrupt league that profits from obedience. Grace is told to watch him. To observe. To wait. What she does not expect is a twist of fate that places her inside his home, hired accidentally as the nanny to his six-year-old son, Drax. Under the safest cover imaginable, Grace enters Hermes' life with one objective, gather evidence and prepare for a quiet takedown. But the longer she stays, the harder it becomes to remember where the mission ends and her feelings begin. As secrets unravel and loyalties fracture, Grace must choose between completing her assignment or protecting the fragile and unexpected family she has found. ◈ ◈ ◈ This novella was written for the Open Novella Contest 2026, based on Prompt #33: "It doesn't take long before everything in your life spins out of control. One moment you're a secret assassin, and the next you've somehow been hired as a nanny and you're not entirely sure how it happened."