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)
“Absolutely not,” Drake replied. “From what I can tell, you’re perfectly competent when it comes to crafting a mission. I’ve looked through some of the Constance Tyne records and I would never be able to tell they’re not more than a year old. You’re brilliant when it comes to that, but my sister is the target, and being excellent at forging records and building urban legends around an agent who doesn’t exist won’t save you from her.”
She’d sat up a good portion of the night before thinking about his family situation, but it didn’t matter in the end if she decided to walk away.
Of course if she walked away, wasn’t she also walking away from a chance to get to scratch under his surface and see what lay beneath? Wasn’t there a chance she was handing over her carefully laid out investigation to the very man who needed to be investigated? How much of a coincidence was it that Julia Ennis resurfaced just as Taylor was finally breaking into The Consortium’s inner circle?
Was he the trap Julia had laid out for her? The bait to get her to walk in so they could take her out?
She wouldn’t ever know if she walked away.
“I can handle myself.”
“We’re going to find out.” Drake stood up taller, obviously going into professional mode. “If you’re going into the field under my watch, I’m going to make sure you’re ready for anything that might come your way, and that means you’ll be in training for the next two weeks, and I’m going to test you. I don’t know many techs who make the transition from behind the computer to in the field.”
He likely didn’t know many techs who’d been raised by paranoid operative fathers, but him underestimating her was in her favor. “If I go.”
Drake shrugged. “That’s your call, Taylor. If you want to back out, I’ll still make this work. Like I said, this mission is important to me, and I’ll make sure it succeeds. Either way, I would like a chance to talk to you. I’m not trying to run you off this mission.”
She hated how reasonable he sounded. “But you’re doing a thorough job of it nonetheless. You called in the big guns.”
“Yes, and that should show you how serious I am about this op. My family is in danger.”
She huffed out a laugh, though she was deeply unamused by anything about this situation. “The target is your family. The target killed my only family, so I think I have the bigger claim to this op, not to mention the fact that I’ve been working on it nonstop for a year and half. You’ve known about the op for what? A day?”
The arrogance of him. He’d walked in like he was the expert.
“I’ve been prepping for this since the moment we realized Julia was alive. You know that’s the piece of the puzzle that clicked into place and made this op a go, right? You wouldn’t be here if we hadn’t figured that out.”
“All that did was ramp up my timeline and potentially make things more dangerous.” She’d known why the trigger had been pulled earlier than she’d expected.
“Kyle was also the one who first identified The Consortium,” Drake pointed out.
“My father was working on it six months before Kyle ever made that report,” she countered. “He just didn’t have a desperate need for credit. Also, it was good for you to ID the very group your sister was working for. You should be commended.”
“Damn, that’s colder than I expected you to be.”
“Well, your sister killed my dad, so there’s that.”
“And she would kill the rest of my family if she had to.” Drake’s expression turned grave. “I’m sorry I didn’t see who Julia had become but I did grow up with her, so I do know her. My blinders are off now, and there’s no one in the world who wants to bring her to justice more than me, except maybe Kyle. I owe Kyle most of all. You have no idea what he’s given up to be here, and there’s a woman out there who’s still in danger. She’s a woman Kyle loves, and he’ll be devastated if Julia hurts her again.”
“Again?” She was interested in Kyle. She should know more about the man she would be going into battle with.
“Yes, she was caught in the crossfire on the last op we were on. She works tech for McKay-Taggart. She wasn’t ever supposed to get out from behind her computer, but Julia brought her into the middle of the fight. Julia is obsessed with Kyle.”
“Yes, that’s been made clear.” He was being awfully open with her. If he was telling her the truth.
“Then you have to know this is hard on him. And not because he’s in love with her.”
“Because he feels betrayed. He can’t love her because he never truly knew her. He’s very likely questioning his every instinct. She made it hard for him to believe in himself, and her being alive and back in his life is the hardest thing he’s ever gone through.” Yes, she could relate to Kyle. She’d been through betrayal, too.