Total pages in book: 154
Estimated words: 145091 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 725(@200wpm)___ 580(@250wpm)___ 484(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 145091 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 725(@200wpm)___ 580(@250wpm)___ 484(@300wpm)
“He was the only one who saw me before my transformation,” she admitted. “The rest of the doctors were trustworthy, but he couldn’t be bought, and I couldn’t take the chance that he would put it together. I was lucky that he wasn’t a big follower of politics, but we’re coming up on the second anniversary of my disappearance, and I happen to know there are a couple of true crime assholes who are doing a documentary. Don’t people have better things to do with their time?”
What was the point of being involved with evil corporations if they couldn’t handle problems for her? “Why don’t you have your group shut it all down?”
“The funny thing is when you start telling annoying documentarians they can’t tell a story, they dig their heels in. Which would be fine because we could kill them. The trouble is there’s always another nosy documentarian looking for a conspiracy theory they can make money over,” she explained. “And if too many of them die, someone important starts asking questions, so it’s better to let that sucker flounder on some half-ass streaming site. But I did have to clean up loose ends.”
“So you found an op that brought it all together.” She had always been good at multitasking.
“A lot of things came together on that particular mission,” Julia admitted. “Did I request the job? Of course. I knew a couple of things would happen. Byrne actually reached out to us, you know. It was precisely why he had to go. He thought he could come into the organization and take over. Well, I was working for a group who wanted his tech—the same tech Maddie Hill was working on. I knew about her relationship with Deke Murphy and Murphy’s job at McKay-Taggart.”
“Of course. This was about Kyle. You knew your ex would likely be put on the team that supported Murphy.” For his sister the world revolved around Kyle Hawthorne and had from the moment they’d met. Kyle had been reluctant at first, but he’d sort of fallen into a relationship with her. It had made sense to Drake, and he’d liked the idea of having Kyle as a brother.
Her mouth formed a mulish line. “Kyle is my fiancé.”
“Are you insane?”
A slim shoulder shrugged. “Technically? I don’t know and I don’t care. It all makes sense to me. Kyle asked me to marry him. Kyle knows I’m the only woman in the world for him. He’s being stubborn.”
“Kyle died.” He was going to hold that line.
A low chuckle came from her throat. “Sure he did.”
“He died when Byrne’s house exploded.” It was a story he didn’t intend to deviate from, though it was obvious she knew the truth. “There was a funeral. His family is still in mourning.”
“Well if anyone knows how to put on a good show, it’s the Taggarts. Do you ever think about the moment in time that would change your life for the better?” She was acting like they were having a pleasant chat. “Like if you had one shot to change the past, what would you change?”
“I would shoot you as soon as I could hold a gun?”
Her lips curved up. “You wouldn’t, you know. Anyway, mine would be to stop Kyle’s mom from meeting Sean Taggart. Granted, I would need everything else to go the way it did, but having no Taggarts in my life would be so much simpler. They screw everything up. I would go back and cockblock that motherfucker so hard.” She laughed. “See, that’s funny because he was actually fucking Kyle’s mom.”
“Julia, I’m not here to chitchat. Kyle is dead, and that’s all I’m ever going to say.”
She looked at him like he was a terrible party pooper. “He’s not dead. Kyle simply understands the rules of engagement. He knows that if he wants me to stay away from that pathetic hacker, he’ll keep this game of ours to me and him. He’s mad. I get that. I should have told him what I was doing and brought him in at the start. I should have done the same with you. We were a family, the three of us.”
“We were two guys and a psychopath. Not a family.”
“Because you’re so normal.” She took another sip. “You know you’ve killed as many people as I have, maybe more. You do it to protect your country. I do it to protect a system that has worked for hundreds of years. It’s worked far better than our government does and protects more people. I work for a group that employs people, makes things. You work for people who can’t get anything done.”
“You work for billionaires who don’t care about anything but money,” he countered.
“And you don’t?”
He wasn’t playing this game with her. He knew the system wasn’t perfect, but it was better than putting a bunch of companies who only thought about profits in charge. The world would be so much safer if it was completely run by ten to fifteen CEOs. Sure. But arguing with her wouldn’t help. He couldn’t kill her here.