Total pages in book: 230
Estimated words: 217798 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1089(@200wpm)___ 871(@250wpm)___ 726(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 217798 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1089(@200wpm)___ 871(@250wpm)___ 726(@300wpm)
“Where would the assassin have gotten this venom?” Kash needed to keep them focused.
“Probably from a pharmaceutical lab.” Tag nodded. “Yep, there it is. A small lab working on the coast reported a break-in, and someone stole a small supply of the venom. They’re studying it to see if it can be used to treat epilepsy and a host of other disorders.”
“I need to check travel records, but I’m getting some pushback,” Miles said. “They don’t know why some firm in Dallas wants to invade the privacy of a bunch of Loa Mali’s citizens. Perhaps if the king could call?”
“I’ll do it in the morning. My cousin can get you all the information you need.” Someone had tried to kill him. It still wasn’t something he’d entirely processed. “So you think someone traveled to Australia, stole some of this toxin, and came back to use it to kill me. Why not use something simpler?”
“Despite what Murder She Wrote will teach you, it’s actually hard to get your hands on a poison that works so quickly,” Miles explained. “Most agents require time and will sicken the victim before killing him. Cyanide works well, but you have to have enough of it and it’s highly controlled. I’ll figure out who went to Australia shortly before the robbery and we should have a suspect pool.”
“Australia is quite close.” He didn’t want them to think this would be easy. “We have an excellent relationship with them. We don’t require visas coming into or out of the country. It will be a large pool. It’s winter break back home. Lots of people on holiday.”
He glanced out over the playroom and caught sight of the Game of Thrones couple again. That was when it clicked. He’d seen that man before. He’d met that man before. “That was Milo Jaye.”
Taggart barely looked up from his phone. “Yep, that’s Milo. Thanks, Adam. Did I punch your face for that lately?”
Adam’s eyes rolled. “Sure, bringing one of the wealthiest men in the country into your circle of influence is a punchable offense.”
“I already filled the tech guru nerd spot. Case married into a family of them,” Taggart argued.
“Yeah, well, the Lawless clan has yet to accept your offer to come to Sanctum,” Adam shot back. “And you know how the old saying goes. You can never have too many ridiculously wealthy tech gurus on the team.”
“But he’s one of the most powerful businessmen in the world.” Kash didn’t understand.
Taggart’s eyes finally came up. “Is that a declarative statement or a question? I can tell you he’s a smart fucker. I wasn’t going to let him in. He found the weakest link in my chain, sued Adam, and voila, now he’s happily getting his ass slapped by his girlfriend. They were pretty dumb in the beginning though. Milo thought he was the top.”
Adam snorted a little. “That was pretty funny to watch, and I’m so not the weakest link. If you see Jake, tell him I’m in the conference room trying to trace a couple of flight manifests down, and that if he starts our scene without me, I’ll kill him.”
Adam strode off toward the stairs.
“Why so interested in Milo Jaye?” Taggart asked.
It was odd to be having such a personal conversation with Axl Rose, but he did have some questions. “He’s not the type of man I would see as a submissive. As a matter of fact, I wonder about the other one, too. The lawyer. He seems to be so masculine.”
A brow arched over Taggart’s left eye. “How does masculinity come into this?”
He should stop talking right here and now. This wasn’t a conversation he needed to have. “You know how it is. The woman submits to the man. That’s how it’s supposed to be.”
Both of Taggart’s eyes widened, and he looked around like a man who’d just realized something was about to kill him. “Dude, you do not say that bullshit in this club. Like seriously, not even outside of it. The subs have ears. They have ears everywhere, and those ears are attached to faces that have mouths, and those mouths talk, and then my wife hears that I was in a conversation where she and all womanhood was subjected to the patriarchy or some shit. She’ll have a really long political term but what it really means is I sleep on the couch.”
He should have known all he would get out of Taggart was sarcasm. “I’ll try not to speak of the patriarchy around your wife.”
“Hey, don’t be so touchy.” Taggart relaxed back and studied him for a moment. “You really think being Dominant or submissive has something to do with gender? Because in my experience, it doesn’t. It’s more about the psychology of the person and the way he or she deals with the world around them. It can be something as simple as a woman or a man was once in a position where he or she was out of control. Especially if that situation involved something sexual. They might need to be in control during sex. I control who plays in this club. I’m not going to allow a submissive in who is actively seeking to hurt himself. I would connect that person to Kai or another therapist. There’s no room for self-hate here. It can be too dangerous. I deal with those people more magnanimously than the other side of it.”