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)
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” He definitely didn’t like the fact that Brad seemed to be psychoanalyzing him.
“It means that you were both drawn to something, to someone unlike the people around you. You grew up in a household with a political figure. I know you love your mother, and by all accounts she’s a good person, but she’s a politician. She chooses her words carefully, and I would bet she did even around you. She was always two different people—the senator and the mom. I would bet she was more senator than mom most of the time. And then your father actively taught you how to trick people into giving you information they shouldn’t.”
“Yes, I know my own history.” But hearing it put that way along with the idea that Julia had been through it as well was making him think, and not about anything good. “We’re fucked up, my sister and I.”
“I didn’t say that,” Brad chided. “I was simply pointing out that you and Julia were both drawn to Kyle for the same reasons. He’s honest about who he is. Oh, he might lie about it with words, but his actions never lie. He doesn’t plot and plan. He goes on his gut even when his gut is dumb and should be ignored. You don’t understand that but what you figured out was that if Kyle liked you, if he was your friend, you could trust that. You can trust him in a way you don’t and won’t ever trust me.”
He hated to admit it, but Brad was right, and that led him to the inevitable conclusion. “But Kyle figured out who I really am and now he’ll never trust me again. He’ll see me the same way he sees Julia.”
Brad seemed to consider that for a moment. “I wouldn’t say the same, but I would say you represent a lifestyle he wants out of.”
There was something Brad was forgetting. “He says he wants back in.”
“Again, his gut is dumb,” Brad said with a sigh. “Getting back into the Agency will kill something inside him, and you know it.”
“Like it will with Taylor.”
Brad’s head shook. “Taylor is a different case altogether. I would hesitate to take Kyle in the field. I’m happy to do it with Taylor. I think she’ll be excellent if you let her.”
He didn’t like the sound of that. “She’s not like me.”
“She’s exactly like you, which is why it didn’t work the first time.” Brad leaned over, his elbows on the table. “You didn’t trust her because she’s like you. She was raised by an operative. It’s why it can’t work between the two of you. Your backgrounds are similar.”
He thought Brad was wrong about that. Taylor’s father hadn’t intended for her to follow in his footsteps. He’d brought his daughter into the only world he’d ever known, but he’d wanted her to go to college and have a life. Drake’s father had passed on his job like it was a crown and then wouldn’t even advise him on how to move forward. She’d been trained to protect herself and to help her dad out. It was a completely different situation. Taylor was open and willing to be vulnerable.
She’d made him willing to be vulnerable, too. He would have said that wasn’t possible, that the ability to open himself had been cut out of him during childhood. The only person he’d been taught to trust was his sister, and she’d proven so unworthy of it.
But Taylor was different. “She’s not like me. She’s not like I was.”
Brad stared at him like he’d grown two heads. “Like you were?”
“The last year and a half have changed me. I’m done with undercover. I still believe in the work the Agency does, but we often go about it the wrong way. I think I’m going to move into an analyst role.” He’d been thinking about it for days, and they both couldn’t be in the field. If she needed someone to pose as her husband or boyfriend or she simply needed someone she could trust to back her up, he would be there.
But he would hold down the home front if this was something she wanted to pursue.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Brad sat up. “You want to go into management?”
“I want to be able to stay in DC or wherever Taylor wants to be.” He also had been thinking a lot about how he could affect a new generation of operatives. They didn’t have to sell their souls to make it easy to get the information they needed. It would take him a while to move into the proper position, but he could do it.
“She won’t be anywhere she can tell you about,” Brad pointed out.
He wasn’t sure it had to end up that way. “Taylor is posing as a CIA operative. Julia didn’t join The Consortium full time until Kyle figured out what was going on. She was worth more to the group being an active CIA agent. If Taylor is still working for the Agency, then she can still have some normalcy. This is something we can work out.”