Total pages in book: 155
Estimated words: 146392 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 732(@200wpm)___ 586(@250wpm)___ 488(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 146392 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 732(@200wpm)___ 586(@250wpm)___ 488(@300wpm)
“You and I both know she’s trying to salvage her pride.” Zach obviously wasn’t buying it either.
TJ hated the thought. “Because it’s awful to kiss me?”
Zach’s head shook. “Because your uncle saw it. Because he’ll absolutely mention it to her father.”
“I can handle Boomer.” He would tell Boomer that he was going to marry Lou and protect and love her for the rest of his life, and the big guy would chill.
“How am I supposed to work with you if you won’t admit that what you did today was reckless and counter to every bit of training you’ve ever received?” Zach asked. “I can understand what happened, but I cannot condone it, and if you expect me to then we need to move you to Langley and work this problem from there.”
Fuck. He hadn’t even considered that as an option. “My uncle won’t let you do that.”
Zach’s head shook as though he was deeply disappointed. “Ah, but I’ll go around your uncle. I’ll go straight to Drake Radcliffe and explain the situation. That’s why I am here, you know. I act as a check and balance to what is basically a family operation. There’s no other team like this in all of the intelligence world, and I can’t tell you how many people want us to fail. I will not allow you to be the reason we do. Cooper can’t view this with an unbiased eye. He grew up with you. You’re family. Kala will rage against you all day and in the end, she’ll still let you close because you’re her cousin and she trusts you. Tash is far too kind to even consider dumping her cousin in DC and getting out of it. So I have to be the bad guy. Are you going to make me be the bad guy, Sergeant?”
He had put Lou in danger. Crap. He’d been running on pure emotion, and he needed to get his head out of his ass and acknowledge the situation. He wouldn’t take it back. Not the time they’d spent in his cell. They’d been as safe as they could have been there, but he’d kissed her and distracted them both in the middle of hostile territory. “I apologize, sir. I will acknowledge my mistake and not allow it to happen again. I’ll accept any discipline you think is correct, but I would like to stay with the team.”
Zach’s lips turned down as though he’d kind of hoped for a fight. “It can’t happen again. You shouldn’t work with Lou.”
He disagreed, but he wasn’t going to argue with the man who was basically his CO right now. As long as he was working with the team, Zach Reed was his direct superior. “I understand. I hope Lou is able to go back to her former technical role. She did an amazing job today, but her real value is behind a computer.”
Zach’s brow rose. “You trying to say she’s the goddess of information and your cousins are cannon fodder?”
“Not at all,” TJ replied. “My cousins are forces of nature, and what they’re doing with the Agency is going to change the way teams can work. But Lou is…special. She’s a freaking gift, and I worry the Agency won’t see how valuable she is.”
“I assure you that your uncle and aunt understand, and so do I. Louisa Ward has a role no one else has. She’s allowed an enormous amount of freedom to do what she does. She’s already made some technical innovations that we’ve implemented in the field. The altered C-4 worked brilliantly, from what I could tell. What was your assessment of how the op went, Sergeant?”
“With the exception of my fuck up, I think it went well. Agent Ward handled the situation with professionalism.” There was no way he wouldn’t back up his girl.
Zach snorted.
TJ shrugged. “Once she realized the comms were back, she was all business. She didn’t hesitate and showed strong instincts in the field. She was excellent at her job.”
Zach seemed to think about that for a moment. “I didn’t expect that either.”
“What? That I would back up Lou? I suppose you don’t know much about our relationship.”
“On the contrary. I know pretty much everything about the two of you,” Zach countered. “I’m the only member of this team who didn’t get his diaper changed by Ian or Charlotte Taggart. I had to learn this team from back to front or I would have been out in the first couple of weeks, and I didn’t want that. I studied them all, and I understand the dynamics of their relationships. I know Kala and Kenz will fight constantly, right up until the moment they need to move as one person, and then no one on earth can tell them apart. I should know because I’ve watched them fool their father. They do it simply to keep up the practice and never would tell him because they love their parents in a way I can’t comprehend. I know that Cooper is still trying to pay for something he did as a kid. You want to let me in on that one? It’s the one secret I can’t crack.”