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)
Yum. Trout. They were eating well tonight. And she knew what the sat phone was for. “It is an emergency. Kenzie got to Canada and Ben fled before they were supposed to meet.”
Coop’s eyes went wide. “Damn. Continue, but can’t you put her on speaker?”
Yes, she was totally in love with this man. She put her sister on speaker. “Tell us everything.”
“Is that Coop? Are you still doing him?” her sister asked. “Tell me, is he as good at oral as I’ve heard?”
“And I’m out.” Cooper walked away.
“Who the hell did you hear that from?” Kala asked. “But for the record, yeah.”
Day Five
Finally they were using the sat phone for what it was meant to be used for. Intelligence. Cooper sat with Kala between his legs, lying back against his chest as her father’s voice could be heard coming from the sat link.
This was why he’d refused to bring a laptop along. Oh, he’d said it was because of the weight and delicacy of the thing, but he hadn’t wanted visuals. If they’d had this meeting coming in on a screen, he wouldn’t have been able to get Kala to relax against him.
Just a couple of days and she was already so much more affectionate.
“Lou, what did you find out?” Big Tag asked over the line.
“I spent three days in the lab with the Swedish police, and there’s zero question in my mind the bomb placed on Dr. Walsh’s car was made by the same person who created both the Jakarta bombs and the London bombs from a couple of years ago,” Lou explained.
“But they aren’t the same as the ones Huisman used to blow up his own house?” Kala asked.
He ran his hands over her arms and wrapped one around her, just below her breasts. He didn’t want to think about that day. He dreamed about it far too often. Lately he’d been the one with nightmares and Kala the one to soothe him.
She would smooth back his hair and kiss his forehead even when she was half asleep.
“No,” Lou replied. “Those were much more rudimentary. And I probably shouldn’t use that word because they weren’t. I only mean by comparison. It’s obvious Huisman has some arms dealer connections. The bombs he used in Toronto are what one would expect. This one is something else. A leap ahead.”
“So we believe Zach is working with the mysterious bombmaker,” Tristan asked. “I don’t want to believe it, but it would explain why he did what he did with The Jester.”
“You think he killed The Jester because he was going to out the bombmaker?” Cooper asked. He didn’t want to believe it either, but the evidence was stacking up against his friend.
“What other reason can you think of?” TJ asked. “He knew Tris had found The Jester and was going to bring him in for questioning. Zach got there first. He hired the assassin to take the fall for him, but I would bet anything he did the deed himself.”
“Yeah, I don’t buy the whole the assassin got scared off and came back thing. It was a sloppy story in the first place,” Kala said. “But I also don’t think we’re being very creative. There could be several reasons he did it. He could be protecting someone.”
She was such an enigma. He would bet she would be the first to go all paranoid about a team member who’d obviously betrayed them. But when she cared about a person, she had a lot of rope to give.
He hoped Zach didn’t use it to hang them all.
“Well, that’s why you’re in the middle of the wilderness.” Charlotte Taggart’s voice came over the line. “Any word on his aunt yet?”
“We’re talking to some rangers this afternoon,” Cooper replied. “If we don’t find her in a day or two, I’m afraid we’re going to have to get transport to another part of the park.”
Rocky Mountain National Park was four hundred and fifteen square miles of wilderness. They’d searched from where Joyce had left her van, but now he had to consider she’d gotten some kind of transportation to another part of the park.
“If you don’t find her soon, I’m pulling you,” Big Tag said. “The Canadians think they have a potential line on where Huisman’s hiding. They know he’s left Canada. They have a private jet flying out a few hours after he blew up his house, and it seems to have flown directly for Russia.”
Nice. “Non-extradition treaty. Of course that’s where he went. Does he still have millions of dollars?”
“Of course he does, babe,” Kala said, and he could practically see the expression on her face. It was her dumbass-said-what face. “He would have prepped for all of this. He’s an asshole but a prepared one. I assure you the fucker has cash everywhere.”
She wasn’t wrong.