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)
“No, it’s not. It will compromise the operation, and I won’t have it. You have to understand that this isn’t about your love life. This is important, and I’m not going to let it fail.” Brad stood up, a fierce frown on his face.
“This is more than a mission to me. I love her.”
“You have no idea what love is,” Brad countered. “You’re still a selfish asshole, and you’ve decided she’s the new thing you want. You’re a rich boy at heart, and you can’t handle the idea that you won’t be able to indulge every single whim you have.”
The sound of a cell trilled, and Brad huffed and pulled out his phone while Drake sat back, shocked at the anger he’d seen from a man who’d always been so calm. Despite what Brad thought, he had considered the other agent a friend. Perhaps not in the way he had Kyle, but he would certainly have said they liked one another.
He’d apparently been wrong.
Brad frowned down at his phone. “It’s Lydia. Why is she calling me and not you?”
Drake winced because Brad was going to hate his answer. “There are no cell phones allowed on the dungeon floor.”
Brad’s eyes narrowed, and he brushed his finger across the screen to accept the call. “This is Perry. What do you need, Lydia?”
Drake stood, every instinct in his body telling him this was about to go bad.
And then she was walking out of the locker room, across the stone path, and his breath caught.
She wore a white corset and matching boy shorts, her legs miles long in white stilettos. She looked like a wet dream angel come to raise him up.
She was his fucking dream.
She gave him a big smile as she crossed the distance between them. “Hey.”
He put his hands on her hips and drew her in close. “Hey.”
This was everything he wanted. Being here with her. He was going to change his whole life for her.
He was going to make his whole life about her.
“Drake, we have a problem.” Brad’s voice was an unwelcome intrusion. “Lydia got a call. You have to meet your contact tonight.”
He turned. He wasn’t supposed to meet his contacts until tomorrow. “Tonight?”
“She says it’s important. The contact needs to do the drop off tonight,” Brad said with a frown. “If you need to… What do you call it? Play? If you need to play more than work, I’ll go and meet Lydia and try to handle it.”
He felt his jaw clench, and he didn’t look back at the man he’d thought was his friend. He stared down into Taylor’s gorgeous eyes. “I’m sorry, baby. I have to go.”
She went up on her toes. “Stay safe. I’ll be here when you get back.”
He kissed her and then steeled himself to go to work.
Chapter Sixteen
Taylor sighed as she watched Drake jog off.
From what she understood this wasn’t a dangerous assignment. It was mostly there as cover for what he was really doing in London. She shouldn’t be worried. It was something he’d done a million times before, and yet there was a bit of dread tickling up her spine.
She didn’t like it when things changed. Things had changed for her father, and he’d wound up dead.
“So he’s meeting with his tech?” She’d known Drake had a job he was using as his technical reason to be in London, but they hadn’t talked about it much. He’d wanted to concentrate on the future and not the present. They were kind of avoiding that. “She’s been with him a long time, right?”
Brad was still here, still frowning like a disappointed dad. “Yes. It’s a bit surprising since when she started I know she wanted to be in the field. She’s turned down work that would get her promoted. I don’t understand it, but if you’re worried, I can tell you she’s perfectly competent and she’ll have his back.”
She was worried about a lot of things. “I’ve never met her. I think my father worked with her a couple of times. She used to work logistics for a larger group, right?”
“She still does from time to time,” Brad agreed. “You’ve almost surely dealt with her in some capacity. She’s one of those unsung workers the Agency runs on. She pretty much knows everything because everyone depends on her. Not just Drake, though she primarily works for him. His father found her for him. Recruited her right out of college.”
Drake’s father was still a problem. He’d told her he still wouldn’t talk about Julia. They had a lot of decisions to make, and she intended to help him through it all. “I thought he was a field operative.”
“Don Radcliffe? Oh, he was so much more than an operative,” Brad explained. “He worked at the highest levels of the CIA, and recruitment was his specialty.”