Total pages in book: 53
Estimated words: 49259 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 246(@200wpm)___ 197(@250wpm)___ 164(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 49259 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 246(@200wpm)___ 197(@250wpm)___ 164(@300wpm)
“What does she have to do with anything?”
“Don’t you remember? She was the one who introduced me to Jack?”
“No, I didn’t remember that. I don’t think I ever knew.” She took another sip of wine and nodded her head.
“Yes, she met him in one of those overpriced rehab places that my mother-in-law sends her off to every six months or so to get her shit together.”
“Really?”
“Yes! You know the one. She’s been going there for years, since high school, I think. Anyway, he used to work for some hotshot whose company went under and checked himself into rehab to get clean for a minor drinking problem that stemmed from the stress of the pandemic and losing his job in this horrendous market. I mean, who can blame him?”
I’m almost certain that she never told us that because I don’t think Mark would’ve hired him with that kind of background. Not to work so closely with him, at any rate. “I didn’t think you and Trudy were that close that you were doing her favors.”
“Don asked me to help because she kept pressuring us, and then his mother got involved, and you know how that goes. Anyway, when I found out that Mark was looking for an assistant, I thought, why not? And see, it’s turning out great.”
I kept a half smile on my face while inside I was raging. If I remember correctly, she had sold Jack as an old friend of theirs, someone they knew from before. For that reason, we hadn’t vetted them the way we would have. And now I feel immense guilt because I was the one who had done her the favor, as it were.
I half listened to her life story again, not really caring this time, as I felt a bit disappointed that she had lied to me and brought this into our lives. It’s one thing for Mark and the others to work rescuing and saving lives but something else completely to have one of those animals right underfoot.
I got through the rest of lunch and then hurried home to put the pieces of the puzzle together. I had my own ideas beginning to form, but I knew there was no way I could do this alone, and besides, I’m new to this; Cierra and her friends seemed way more advanced for women who swore their husbands went out of their way to keep them in the dark.
Speaking of which, Mark hadn’t mentioned anything in days, and I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not.
MARK
“Did you get all that?”
“We did, yes. She just left; the other team will pick her up and follow her home. Do you know this rehab place or do we need to go looking?”
“I can have the name for you in a few. I’ll get back to you. And Hank, thanks.”
“Don’t mention it. This was too close for me to pass it off to someone else. Blair should be here by tonight at the latest since he’s the one she called.”
“Yeah, but I think she might be a bit peeved at him for snitching her out.”
“She’ll get over it.”
“How does she look? Is she overly upset?”
“No, she looks reserved.”
“Okay, thanks for doing this. I’d do it myself, but she’d catch on, and I’d rather she not go into hiding and do her own thing to keep me in the dark.” We hung up after a few more instructions and I breathed easy again.
It's been hell trying to keep up with her since she had the phone from Cierra, which, when texting I had no idea what was being said. There was no way to encrypt the phone; the setup was too good, and I couldn’t get in no way no how, but I still had my usual tabs on her.
Since the women had told her about being tagged, she’s been extra careful, but she doesn’t know where the tracker is on her or that there’s more than one, so she hasn’t been quite able to keep me in the dark.
I never had to monitor her shit this much before, but now I can barely put down the listening device because I’m afraid that something might go wrong and I wouldn’t be there to protect her. It was Lyon’s idea to send a team here to keep an eye on her while I kept an eye on Jack and Jessica.
I’ve been thwarting her advances all this time and knew that soon they would have to come up with another angle, which I wasn’t sure what that would be. Their idea of seduction and blackmail wasn’t panning out, and I don’t imagine that whoever they were working for was going to waste much more time here on me.
I do get the idea, though, that they wanted me badly enough to have wasted two whole years on this one job; I just don’t see why. It wasn’t that they knew about Dad and the organization because we’d looked at that from all angles, and there were no red flags in that area. That had been my biggest fear when I realized that they weren’t who they claimed to be and went digging.