Total pages in book: 40
Estimated words: 36646 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 183(@200wpm)___ 147(@250wpm)___ 122(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 36646 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 183(@200wpm)___ 147(@250wpm)___ 122(@300wpm)
“Not a discussion I can have, Jo. If you’ve heard anything accurate, then you know I can’t talk about it.”
I nodded. That was exactly what I’d heard. “What are you gonna do?”
“Not much I can do. But there’s more than just me to think about.”
“Oh?”
Taz turned his gaze to the back of the room, to the shadows the sunlight couldn’t quite reach. “Liam. Come meet my friends.”
A skinny kid of about four or five moved into the room. His gaze was fixed on us like he was studying us, even though he was just a kid. His gaze moved from me to Mike, then to Gracie. When he finished, his gaze returned to me and he narrowed his eyes. He said nothing but stayed at Taz’s side.
“My son.”
That shocked me. “Your son?”
“Yes. Unfortunately, his mother was killed in Laos.”
As I’m sure Taz knew, my heart ached for the child. The kid tilted his head at me, like he knew I was the person he had to win over. Not Mike.
“Yes.” Taz grinned. “Liam has you figured out.”
The kid took a step forward. Then another. Then he walked straight toward me. When he stood in front of me, he looked up. There was weariness in his eyes. “You know my dad?”
“Yeah, kid. I do.”
“You gonna take me when my dad leaves?”
I glanced up sharply at Taz. “Leaves?”
He nodded. “I can’t take Liam with me where I’m going.”
“You can’t abandon your son, Taz.”
“And I can’t take him with me.”
“Then don’t fuckin’ go. This is crazy.”
“I don’t have a choice, Jo.” Taz raised his voice in proportion to my own. “I took their help so I could find my wife. But I was too late. A group in her village executed her because she’d given herself to a man not her husband and had his child. Probably woulda killed Liam too, except he was a boy.”
“She was killed because of me,” Liam said. Hearing the kid say that so casually sent chills down my spine.
“Not because of you, Liam.” Taz’s voice was firm, his features hard. “Because of me. If I hadn’t left her, if I’d brought her back with me…”
“And how would you have done that, huh, Taz?” I was losing patience with this whole conversation. It was also hurting my heart. Just a little bit. “You couldn’t just waltz out of the country and hop a plane back to the States with her.”
“I should have tried to figure out a way. If I’d known she was pregnant, I might have managed it.”
Mike remained silent. These were men he’d agreed to meet, the men who’d invited him into their club. He hadn’t been in their unit, but he’d obviously made an impression on them if they wanted him to be part of something this close knit. I only knew Taz. But once more Mike had my back and let me take the lead.
Liam moved to stand beside Gracie. The boy smiled up at her. “Hi. I’m Liam.” Just like his father, the kid had a slight British accent, though his coloring looked like it might have come more from his mother than father.
“I’m Gracie.”
“Are you with Mama and Pops too?”
I gave Taz an exasperated look. “Really? You told everyone to call us that?”
He shrugged. “What would you prefer to be called? Figured with you guys being here, you wanted to disappear.”
“Not a bad idea, Mama.” Mike spoke for the first time in a while. “We could just lie low here. Forget our past and everything in it.”
“My past made me who I am. Besides, I don’t think you really want that.”
“Maybe not for myself, but I get the feeling there’s more to your story. I also get the feeling that the two of you would be much better off disappearing. For a multitude of reasons.”
“He’s right, Mama.” Taz handed me a manila envelope. It had my name on it. “I ran into a couple of guys after I made it back from Nam. Word got out. What you did.”
I opened the envelope and my jaw tightened. “CIA? What the fuck?”
“If my sources are right, they want to recruit you for special ops inside Vietnam for the remainder of the war. They need a woman and think you’ve got most of the training you need already.”
“Well, with my less than honorable discharge, I’m sure they’ve rethought that position.”
“Or they could have been the reason you got that discharge.”
“As opposed to the general I told to suck my dick? I don’t think so.”
Taz barked out a laugh while Gracie gasped before letting out a small giggle. “Yeah, I guess it could have been that.” He sobered, his smile fading slowly. “But I think you know it wasn’t.”
“Yeah.”
“I had no idea I was hookin’ up with a real badass.” Mike grinned, even as he stepped closer to me. I didn’t miss that he put his body slightly in front of me and between me and Taz.