Riot
(2026)(A book in the Guardian Hostage Rescue Specialists: Short Reads series)
A novel by Ellie Masters
A hostage rescue operator. A kindergarten teacher. One cliffside where everything changed.
Evie Sinclair did everything right.
She came forward. She gave her statement. She described the shooters, memorized the plate, and trusted the FBI to keep her safe. What she got instead was a remote mountain cabin, two agents with dead eyes, and the creeping certainty that she wasn't going into witness protection.
She was going into a grave.
Jon "Riot" Jones is Guardian HRS's best extraction specialist — a man who shows up before dawn, drops the threats, and walks the package out alive. The job is simple. The witness is not.
She's already dressed and waiting when he breaks through the door. She throws a rock at an armed soldier to save his life. And when their only escape route turns out to be two hundred feet of near-vertical granite, she looks at the cliff and says she's climbed it before.
He follows her up anyway.
Somewhere between the summit and the safe house, this stops being a mission.
Evie spent years making herself small for a man who called her too much. Riot spent years keeping everyone at arm's length behind jokes and charm. Neither of them planned on a crevice in a cliff face where walls don't hold and survival has a way of turning honest.
This is a short read with full heat. No cliffhanger.
✓ Protector romance forced proximity
✓ Grumpy guarded operator × sunshine rock climber
✓ One wild night leads to more
✓ She's too much for everyone except him
✓ Touch her and die alpha hero
✓ Small-town woman big secret past
✓ Friends to lovers slow burn payoff
For fans of protective heroes and tactical romance tension, RIOT delivers action-driven heat, in a shorter read that doesn't sacrifice depth for speed.
One-click to start the Guardian HRS series today.
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Evie Sinclair did everything right.
She came forward. She gave her statement. She described the shooters, memorized the plate, and trusted the FBI to keep her safe. What she got instead was a remote mountain cabin, two agents with dead eyes, and the creeping certainty that she wasn't going into witness protection.
She was going into a grave.
Jon "Riot" Jones is Guardian HRS's best extraction specialist — a man who shows up before dawn, drops the threats, and walks the package out alive. The job is simple. The witness is not.
She's already dressed and waiting when he breaks through the door. She throws a rock at an armed soldier to save his life. And when their only escape route turns out to be two hundred feet of near-vertical granite, she looks at the cliff and says she's climbed it before.
He follows her up anyway.
Somewhere between the summit and the safe house, this stops being a mission.
Evie spent years making herself small for a man who called her too much. Riot spent years keeping everyone at arm's length behind jokes and charm. Neither of them planned on a crevice in a cliff face where walls don't hold and survival has a way of turning honest.
This is a short read with full heat. No cliffhanger.
✓ Protector romance forced proximity
✓ Grumpy guarded operator × sunshine rock climber
✓ One wild night leads to more
✓ She's too much for everyone except him
✓ Touch her and die alpha hero
✓ Small-town woman big secret past
✓ Friends to lovers slow burn payoff
For fans of protective heroes and tactical romance tension, RIOT delivers action-driven heat, in a shorter read that doesn't sacrifice depth for speed.
One-click to start the Guardian HRS series today.
Genre: Romantic Suspense