Total pages in book: 153
Estimated words: 144571 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 723(@200wpm)___ 578(@250wpm)___ 482(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 144571 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 723(@200wpm)___ 578(@250wpm)___ 482(@300wpm)
Jerk. She didn’t have emotions. Maybe one. She got pissed off a lot. That was an emotion. Shit. Now she had horniness. She blamed Cooper for that one. Was horniness a proper emotion? Because if it was then she’d moved from having a feeling to having feelings. With an s.
Her mom slapped at her dad’s chest, a familiar gesture. “Stop.”
Her father sat down, his expression going grim. “All right. Let’s get this done. Lena, you have the footage. I’ll send it to the rest of the team tomorrow. I want them focused on their jobs today, and I’m pretty sure this will be distracting.”
Cooper leaned over. “What is he talking about?”
So her dad had seen the footage. It wasn’t surprising. Her parents were the heart of the team, and they would get all the intel first. Though it was good to know she’d been the second of the team to learn what had happened. “It’s the footage from Rebecca Walsh-Shaw’s security cameras.”
She sat back, her stomach threatening to turn. She wasn’t going to think about what Eve had said. It wasn’t new information, so there wasn’t anything to process.
Cooper’s hand slid over hers as the grainy footage came up. The Land Rover sat in the drive in front of a nice house in what looked to be a suburban neighborhood. The time stamp read five forty-five a.m., but it was still full dark. A big figure moved into the frame briefly before disappearing.
“He knows there’s a camera there,” Cooper murmured.
Kala stared down at where their hands were entwined. “You don’t have to hold my hand. I’m fine.”
She saw the moment her father’s head swerved around like a predator scenting prey.
She should have kept her mouth closed but that hand in hers…did something to her. Something that would hurt later. It was neither pissed off-ness nor horniness.
It was…longing.
Cooper didn’t seem to care that everyone was looking their way. “You take my dick, you get my hand, too. I do need someone to hold my hand through this because everyone is on edge, and I don’t know what’s happening. I need my emotional support grump.”
Her dad snorted, and his head shook as he sat back.
Her mom smiled approvingly Cooper’s way.
It wasn’t fair her mom liked him and his mom thought she was a walking disaster.
“Is he under the car?” Cooper asked, moving on smoothly. Like she would just accept that he would hold her hand in public.
It felt nice. And he needed it. She was nothing if not his longtime friend. She spanked asses when subs told her they needed it. She’d done far more intimate things for the subs under her care. So it was fine to give Cooper what he needed.
“He is,” Lena replied, and Kala could feel her judgment from across the room. “He’s good. The only time the camera catches him is that brief moment before he goes under the car. We believe he attached the bomb to her vehicle at this moment. The rest of the footage is normal until the vehicle explodes almost an hour later.”
“Okay,” her dad said, his eyes now firmly on the screen in front of them. “I want to see the enhanced footage again.”
“Enhanced?” Cooper whispered the question.
“Just watch,” she replied with a sigh.
Lena clicked a few keys on her keyboard, and the video changed to a series of still shots, mostly from the beginning of the cam footage. She zoomed in on the figure who wore all black, the hood of his jacket pulled over his face, obscuring his features. She didn’t zoom in on the face, however. She went for his left hand, zooming in far enough that it was clear he was Caucasian with large hands and a scar that went from between his thumb and forefinger, trailing up to the arm of his jacket and disappearing.
Cooper’s hand tightened around hers.
“And there it is.” Her father sat back.
Cooper let go of her hand. “It’s not Zach. Someone fucked with the footage.”
She’d thought about that, too. “I checked it out. I even took it down to my Aunt Chelsea and had her review it. She says it hasn’t been tampered with.”
“You did what?” Lena asked, genuine surprise in her tone.
Did Lena even know who she was? “Trust but verify, and I don’t know anyone who is better at verification than my Aunt Chelsea. I think you’ll find she’s still got clearance. Though if you want to fire me, I could use the nap.”
She didn’t know what the hell she would do if she got fired. Given all the shit she pulled, she probably should have a plan B. She might go the private detective route, but her friends Harlow and Ruby already had that going. She could do the professional Dominatrix thing.
“What did Chelsea say?” Cooper asked. “Because whoever fucked with the footage wants us to believe that’s Zach. You know he had his hand cut and had to do PT for six months after one of the first missions we ran together. He took a knife to the hand in Hong Kong.”