Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Sneak Peek
Author’s Note
Find the Author
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Undefeated
Sydney Rye Mysteries, Book 15
Copyright © 2022 by Emily Kimelman
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Heading illustration: Autumn Whitehurst
Cover Design: Christian Bentulan
Formatting: Jamie Davis
To my daughter, Juniper, who made me a mother. I love you fiercely and always will.
CHAPTER ONE
The moon hangs low and full, her silvery light reflecting in the facets of black choppy water. Blue and I sit in the cockpit of a sailboat. My eyes scan the open ocean while female Peshmerga fighters sleep all around me—below deck, on the open deck near the bow, and one curled up behind me in the stern.
I cup my pregnant belly, allowing myself room to grieve in this peaceful moment. Rida saved my life…and I got her killed.
My old story starts to ride its rails: Everyone I love dies.
Tears wet my cheeks and my throat tightens. My dog Blue, sitting by my feet, leans more heavily against my leg, his focus steady on the horizon as he lends me comfort. I reach out and sink my fingers into the thick ruff across his broad shoulders, finding some peace in the warmth there. Blue doesn’t die.
Rida did, though. Shot in the back. Killed in an instant.
The faces of other people I’ve lost crowd my mind’s eye. My brother, James, grins at me like he knows all my secrets. My friend, Malina, winks, her eyes sparkling with joy. I got them killed too…
I spawned the lies that Rida used to start a revolution. Right before she died, Rida told me my lies were truth, that she was a messenger from God, and so was I. Because we are all divine. We are all one.
Bunch of fucking bullshit.
But Rida’s lies lent strength to women in bondage, offering them the opportunity to recognize their worth.
Her words freed women who’d believed other lies about our sex. That we are dangerous and in danger. That we are the root of all evil—Eve tasted the forbidden fruit…knowledge in a woman’s hand is damnation for all humans.
More bullshit.
But women believed Rida’s new story instead of the old ones…fascinating how much power belief lends reality.
Rida claimed to be a prophet, to have heard the voice of God, and that He said women were equal, and should rise up, spill blood, do whatever it took in order to claim their rightful positions next to men. But it wasn’t God, it was a very brain-damaged me.
The lies took on a life of their own, as they so often do. Fueled by enough belief, a well-told lie—fiction—can change the world.
