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 about to tell her everything in his heart. He was surprised at that. He’d kind of thought he didn’t have a functional heart. Oh, he loved his family, but a part of that had died when Julia had proven so very evil.
Taylor was bringing it back to life.
Maybe it was time to think about retiring from the field, staying in Langley and doing analysis work. He could spend more time with her, have a real life.
He was about to tell her all those things.
The entire cabin shook with the force of the pounding on the door.
It was a shock to his system, and he found himself pulling away, breaking the connection they had long before he wanted to.
But adrenaline was pumping through his body now, and not the happy kind. “I’ll go see who it is.”
Taylor wasn’t some shrinking violet. Before he could start rolling the condom off and reaching for his pants, she’d gotten off the bed. “You stay here. I’m supposed to be here. You’re not. It might be my father. We were supposed to meet in Bucharest, but it wouldn’t be the first time his plans changed.”
She was stiff, all that relaxation she’d had gone with this new arrival.
Shit. All of his relaxation was gone. He was about to meet his girlfriend’s dad. Fuck. He’d never met a girlfriend’s dad before. Not one he actually cared about. He’d met the parents of targets he was investigating, usually sometime before he had all of them arrested because the family was usually in on it.
He was kind of a bastard.
But that was about to change because he wouldn’t seduce anyone for intel again. He cared about Taylor, and he was going to put her first. “I’ll get dressed, but don’t lie to him about us. I’m not some random operative who needed a place to hide.”
She tugged her shirt over her head, her pajama bottoms already on. She’d left off the soaked undies. “Uh, that’s kind of exactly how we met.”
He tossed the condom in the bathroom trash and reached for his pants. “But it’s not what we are now. Don’t lie to him.” There was another loud banging. “Maybe you should wait for me.”
She waved him off. “I’m fine. No one knows we’re here except my dad and both of our bosses. I don’t think the bears would knock. The good news is if they made it here, we can probably get down the mountain.”
She strode away and he kind of stumbled, trying to get his pants on. His muscles weren’t working properly yet. They were going to have a long talk about when she needed to obey him for safety’s sake. Of course at this point she was Agency, too, but when she wasn’t, he was going to make sure she didn’t ever put herself in the line of fire. Even with her father.
He finally managed to get his damn pants on and found his SIG. He better walk out and find her armed no matter how sure she was about who was at the door.
Then he was moving into the living area—the same one where they’d begun this incredibly important moment in their lives—and his heart dropped.
Brad stood there, a grim look on his face and a file in his hands. “Hey, Drake. We need to talk.”
What the hell was Brad doing here? He wasn’t a field agent. He rarely left Langley. That was the moment he realized something was wrong. And that something was missing. Something important.
“Where’s Taylor?” The door was closed, and he heard the sound of tires crunching on the snow. He moved to the door, flinging it open. A cold wind hit his chest, sending a chill where once he’d been warm.
A big SUV was driving away.
“She’s been taken into custody. Drake, what’s happened with her… It’s going to be classified at a level you won’t be able to deal with. I don’t even know what exactly has happened,” Brad admitted. “Though I know it’s bad, and we probably won’t see her again. I think the higher-ups have figured out why her father’s been making regular trips to Cuba and covering it up.”
His stomach took a deep dive. This couldn’t be happening again. “Cuba?”
Lev Sokolov was a former Russian operative. Had he been a double all this time? Cuba would be a good place to meet with his Russian handlers.
Brad nodded. “Yes. Over the last couple of months, he’s taken several trips to Havana. He lied about where he was. That’s what Lydia managed to discover. Beyond that, not even her sources inside the support staff are talking about.”
His logistics and communications tech was excellent at ferreting out gossip among her coworkers and bringing it back to him. Even inside the Agency, intel was valuable. If Lydia couldn’t find it out, it was bad. Very bad. Classified beyond his rank bad.