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)
The sound had come from her right, from someone walking through the hallway that led to the bedrooms. An older man, his body slender and fit, walked through, and there was no way to deny the man wasn’t related to Drake.
The world had turned again, and she wondered if this time the betrayal wouldn’t kill the man she loved.
* * * *
Drake felt bile in the back of his throat as his father walked into the room and stood by Julia.
His mother’s hand was warm in his, but it wouldn’t be soon. They were going to kill her, and he couldn’t understand why. He looked at the father who’d taught him everything, who’d taken his life and molded it one way only to shatter it in an instant.
He couldn’t come up with anything more than a simple question as he stared at the man who’d ruled his life for so very long. “Why?”
His father’s hair was salt and pepper, his demeanor stately and cold as he looked down at his wife and only son. “There is no answer I can give you that will satisfy you. I loved the game, and the Agency couldn’t keep up. I don’t think I feel the way other people do. This chess game is what gives me life, and I don’t care who I hurt as long as I win. Your mother has been an excellent cover all these years, and don’t think I haven’t screwed up and let the mask slip from time to time. She turned a blind eye because all she really cared about was the fact that I didn’t cheat on her and I didn’t embarrass her in public. I made her life easier, and she was unwilling to upset that relationship.”
“So now you decide to kill her?” He couldn’t believe this was happening. It couldn’t be happening. Not again.
“It’s the next move. She’s being stubborn. She’s the swing vote on a measure that could make the group billions of dollars and settle the power struggle that’s going on in pharmaceuticals right now. She won’t listen to reason.”
Naturally this was all about money. “And you don’t think there will be an investigation?”
“I think the Agency will do anything to cover up the cover-up.” His father sighed as he looked down at his sleeping wife.
“The cover-up.” Drake stood because now he could see how well he’d been played. “That’s why Julia called her. You knew I would take over and cover it all up. You’re going to use the documents my team forged to build a narrative where those people who don’t actually exist are the ones who killed Mom.”
“And the Agency will back me up because they can’t admit they tricked a sitting US senator,” his father pronounced. “And then I will take my wife’s seat. I will promise to be tough on crime in her honor, and I’ll quietly vote the way I need to. If it helps at all, I do care for her. More than I do anyone else. I won’t take another wife.”
“I’m supposed to be impressed with your fidelity to the wife you’re about to kill, to the wife you lied to all of your life?” Drake felt rage start to build in his system. “You lied to our whole family, and you made Julia and I your accomplices.”
“Don’t talk that way about Dad,” Julia said quietly. “You’re the one who was willing to murder me, and for what? Your morals?”
“I told her it was a mistake to try to bring you and Hawthorne in,” his father explained. “She wouldn’t listen. She thought you would care more about her than you did some irrelevant moral code. She’s more my daughter than you are my son, and that makes it far easier to do what I’m going to have to do.”
“You’re going to kill me, too?” It was the only possible solution. But Taylor might live. Taylor might be able to survive this, and that was all that mattered in the moment.
“I don’t want to.” Julia’s voice had gone tight, as tight as the grip she had on those guns. “I know you think this is easy, but it’s not. Kyle’s going to be upset with me, but it’s his fault. He should have kept you out of this.”
Taylor sighed and those bratty eyes of hers rolled. She was playing the callous operative to the hilt. “This is boring me at this point. Give me the gun. I’ll take care of both of them and you can get to your helo. I want double the money though.”
“I still don’t understand who this is.” Lydia was looking her over with suspicious eyes. “I know everyone. I know all the operatives, and I’ve never seen her.”
“She’s Constance Tyne.” Drake had to save this. If Taylor could get that gun in her hand, she had a real shot. “I’ve worked with her before. She’s a deep ops agent, and the fact that she’s obviously going to be working for The Consortium scares the shit out of me. She’s got one of the highest clearances of any agent I’ve worked with.”