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)
Kala looked like she wanted to argue with him but turned back to Joyce. “You helped her pick. You picked the adoptive parents. How did you do it? Did my father help you? Does he know?”
Something cold snaked up Cooper’s spine. What the hell was going on? He felt dumb. She knew something he didn’t. “Why would your father know about Zach’s brother?”
But Kala could be hyper focused at times. She ignored him. “I need to know, Joyce.”
Tears shone in Joyce’s eyes. “He didn’t. Lord, I didn’t tell him. I talked to him right before I went out to visit Shannon in prison. I called him because I knew I was going to have to get legal custody of Zach, and Big Tag always helped out his old Army buddies. He gave me some good advice.”
Shit. Did Big Tag have something to do with this? Kala was going to be pissed if her father knew something and hadn’t told her.
“You didn’t tell him about your sister’s pregnancy, but he told you something, didn’t he?” There was a breathless air of expectation in Kala’s voice.
A tear slipped from Joyce’s eyes, caressing her cheek. “He told me all about his best friend. He said Alex was looking for a kid to adopt.”
The world seemed to slow, time slipping into some weird place where he was there and not there.
Alex was looking for a kid to adopt.
He was the kid Alex McKay adopted.
In a closed adoption. His parents didn’t know who the birth mother was, had been told to never expect contact with her. The records had been buried.
“I put you in the safest place I could, Jonathon,” Joyce said. “That was what she named you. She knew it wouldn’t stick, but it’s what she calls you when she dreams about you. Jonathon Michael Reed. You were safe. I made sure you were safe.”
“Babe, are you okay?” Kala asked. “Do you need to…like do you want a hug?”
He was Zach’s brother. His full-blooded brother.
No. Fucking no. Hunter was his brother. Vivi was his sister. Alex and Eve McKay were his parents.
“Jonathon, don’t be mad at her. She was trying to save you. She knew they would use her babies against her.” Joyce stood up, her arms coming out. “I missed you so much. Zach missed you.”
Zach played some fucking hard-core games. “My name is Cooper.”
“Joyce, I think he needs a minute.” For once Kala sounded like the cool voice of reason.
It wasn’t fair to think it, but he wasn’t feeling very fair in the moment. How could she have brought it out like this? She’d known where this was going. She’d used that big brain of hers to pick up on clues he’d missed, and she hadn’t thought maybe they should have a private conversation? “Did my father know? Fuck. Why did I even ask that question? Of course he didn’t. My dad is always left out of the spy shit, but I can’t believe for a second that your dad didn’t realize it. Which means he probably knew my biological brother wormed his way onto my team. Maybe I should ask if you knew.”
Kala’s face flushed and then became a perfectly polite blank. “If I knew I wouldn’t have asked the questions. I would have brought it in front of the team, and we would have figured out how to handle it. Joyce said my dad didn’t know.”
Cooper stood. Tag could play some deep games, too. And maybe Kala wasn’t the only one who’d never forgiven him for being a dumbass kid. “Sure, he didn’t. Your father is the absolute most paranoid asshole in the history of time, with deep connections to people who can find any record they want to, but he let his best friend adopt a kid without knowing anything about it.”
“He wouldn’t have wanted to jeopardize the adoption, and why would he have any reason to think there was something weird about it?” Kala asked.
“He wouldn’t have found anything.” Joyce looked miserable standing there staring at him. “I have connections, too. So did Shannon. If he’d looked, he would have found what we wanted him to find. One of the women she connected with in prison was involved in a group of radicals.”
The hits fucking kept coming. “Disrupt? That group?”
Kala frowned. “If she was involved in Disrupt, wouldn’t Huisman know how to find her?”
Awesome. Something he’d put together before her. “Not if she did what she seems to do and left the group and went on the run.”
“That wasn’t the name, though I do think at one point she did some work for them. You have to understand how scared she was when she was in jail. The cartel could get to her in there. She needed protection,” Joyce tried to explain.
He didn’t want to hear it. He still didn’t buy that Big Tag hadn’t known. Nothing this woman told him would change how he felt, and it was time to do the fucking job they’d come to do. “I’m calling Flanders. He can meet us in the meadow about half a mile back. Joyce Reed, I’m taking you into custody.”