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)
She put a hand on his arm to stop him. “Please, Drake. I think Brad could be dangerous to you.”
He doubted that, but he’d been wrong before.
So very wrong.
“Why? What makes you think that he’s dangerous to me? I’ve been around him for days with no problems at all.” Except for Brad’s complaining about having to sleep near butt plugs, he’d been pretty easy to work with. Taylor didn’t seem to mind him, but Lydia could know something he didn’t.
She seemed to be making a decision, her hands clutched together on her lap. “I overheard him talking to someone one night. Why would Brad be talking about Julia?”
Now nothing was going to keep him from moving. He wasn’t going to waste another moment of time. “I’m going back to the…hotel. I need to talk to Brad.”
She was on her feet, moving after him. “I think you need backup. I’m not joking, Drake. I think he could be dangerous to you.”
He glanced down at his phone and noticed he’d gotten a text. From Kyle, though that wasn’t how he was stored in the cell.
Something’s going down and I don’t like the timing. You need to get back here.
Drake felt his gut lurch.
Where was the asset? He wasn’t the type to take forever. He was always on time, one of Drake’s more responsible informants. “When did the asset call you?”
“He didn’t.” Lydia frowned and then she brushed away a tear that fell on her cheek. “Damn it, Drake. He didn’t call. Brad asked me to call you. He said he needed some time without you looking over his shoulder. I’m so sorry. I thought it would be okay because I needed to talk to you, too. I’m so sorry.”
Drake took off running because now he saw tonight for what it really was.
A trap.
Chapter Seventeen
Something was wrong but she couldn’t put her finger on it. The car turned down the long road that would take them to the conference hotel in central London. It was getting late, but the streets were still crowded with tourists in this part of the city.
Brad frowned as he looked her over. “I can’t send you in with a comm device.”
She nodded. “I know. I’m sure the first thing she’ll do is make sure I’m not wired.”
“The good news is we’ve already got a room and Jax will be able to cut into the CCTV around the hotel.” Kyle Hawthorne was driving, and to his credit he didn’t have a single problem with driving on a different side of the street.
Tucker and Jax had gone on ahead. She would be dropped off a few blocks from the hotel and walk in to avoid showing up with Brad and Kyle, who would be using a worker’s entrance. Damon Knight had set everything up so they could slip inside without causing a scene.
Everything felt rushed, like time had suddenly sped up and she was in light speed mode.
She hoped this was all over before Drake found out what was going on. She knew she should have called him, but he was on his own op, and they were both professionals. A good spy didn’t call her boyfriend when she got scared.
There was nothing at all to be scared of. This was a simple break-in and a bit of thievery, and then she would have an in. She would be able to ID The Consortium operative and give the Agency a bunch of important information, and then she could be out if she wanted to. She could even kill off Constance Tyne and help the Agency create a new construct another operative could work with. Taylor Cline could have a life again.
So why was her gut twisting in knots?
“I’m going to have eyes on you everywhere. Owen made sure the suite he and Dr. Walsh are using has some high-tech cameras in it. They’re brand new. Undetectable right now. If anything seems to be going wrong, I’ll be there, Taylor,” Brad promised her.
“And I’ll be in a room of my own, monitoring the situation from another part of the hotel,” Kyle explained. “We took out a couple of rooms to make sure we have good coverage.”
Brad huffed. “I don’t think we needed to do that. The suite Jax and Tucker are in is down the hall from where Taylor will be working. We can get to her quickly if something goes wrong. Which it will not. She’s going to be fine. This is a simple job. An audition, if you will. They have zero reason to hurt her. If things go poorly, I expect The Consortium operative will simply never call back. It doesn’t make sense to harm her because the Agency would have questions.”
“Logic doesn’t always work in an op like this. Something you would know if you had ever been in the field,” Kyle argued.