Total pages in book: 155
Estimated words: 146417 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 732(@200wpm)___ 586(@250wpm)___ 488(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 146417 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 732(@200wpm)___ 586(@250wpm)___ 488(@300wpm)
She didn’t like the thought of something going wrong between Ariel and her husband, Robert. They’d made it through a storm and seemed so solid.
“I got back yesterday, but Rob’s staying on for the rest of the week,” Ariel replied in her crisp British accent. “And it was perfect. My new mother-in-law is lovely. Tucker and Roni are staying on for a time. I’m going to miss them terribly. I came home because I’m consulting on a case and they’ve had a bit of a breakthrough. I came up to read through some confidential files they couldn’t send over to me. I thought avoiding the Tube would be a good idea. It wasn’t. Ezra is even more morose than usual.”
She moved away from the door and saw Ari down the hall. Her friend waved and slid her cell into her fashionable bag. She was dressed in a lovely pink sheath and smoking hot white stilettos. Ariel was gorgeous, and now she glowed in the way only a woman who was well loved ever managed.
The way she used to glow when he’d loved her. Before she’d taken his brother from him.
Sometimes she hated Ezra Fain. After all, it had been Ezra’s death that had been the final nail in the coffin of her marriage. The fact that her husband now went by the name was simply another way to twist the knife.
She strode toward Ari and wondered if it wasn’t fate that had brought her here. Ari, that was. It hadn’t been fate that brought Solo. It had been an order from her boss to stay in London and finish the job she’d started. “Well, I’m sure he’s upset because he knows I’ll be here today. He’s been good at freezing me out since Paris.”
They worked together on her last mission. It had been the mission that brought Tucker and the rest of the remaining Lost Boys out of the shadows. She’d started the job because she’d wanted to see if she and Beck could try one last time. She’d ended up staying because she’d believed in those men, wanted what was best for them. They’d been through a lot of shit and all because an evil doctor had decided to treat them like guinea pigs. Although now that she thought about it, she didn’t like people who treated guinea pigs like test subjects either.
Now she wanted to know who’d supported Dr. Hope McDonald with money and assistance. She wanted the names of everyone McDonald worked with. It had been the whole point of her being in Europe. She’d worked with McKay-Taggart and Knight to get the list of McDonald’s consortia from the pharmaceutical company who’d backed her in the beginning.
Ariel’s expression turned serious. “Why aren’t you back in the States? The Agency took the data. I assumed you would go with it.”
Yes, she’d assumed that, too. “The boss wanted me to wait here in England and liaise with MI6 and German intelligence. Not to mention I’ve had to deal with DGSE.”
“Well, you had to know the French would want in on whatever you found,” Ariel pointed out.
The French intelligence agency had been key in trapping the man who’d tried to trade Roni Croft’s life for the data Tucker had hidden all those years ago. “Yes, and they’ve been perfectly reasonable. It’s Beck who isn’t. He thinks I’m hiding something from him.”
She was hiding so many things from her ex, but this wasn’t one of them.
“I think it’s hard for him to trust anyone from an intelligence agency,” Ariel replied with sympathy. “Kim, I have to ask you what you’re doing. Not with work, but with Ezra. It’s been years since you divorced. Don’t you think it’s time to move on?”
Her heart clenched at the thought, but she knew her friend was right. “When I found out he was getting involved with McKay-Taggart, I knew he would be in danger because of who they were investigating. I’d stayed away for years, Ari. I gave him space. He was grieving and he needed a place to put it all. Then he was angry because he found out about the mistake I made with Levi.”
The biggest mistake of her life, and she’d made so many. She’d been divorced and she’d gone out with a man she’d thought was her friend, and he’d taken such advantage of her. She didn’t even remember the night. She was a deadly CIA operative and that night had proven she was still a woman and still fucking vulnerable.
“I don’t know that he’s in a place where he can forgive,” Ari said slowly, as if she knew the words would be a blow. “I’m not sure he ever will be. Obviously I didn’t know him before his brother was killed, but I know the man he is now. He’s perfectly reasonable until it comes to you. Normally I would say that means he’s still got feelings for you and as long as there’s an emotional connection, the relationship isn’t truly dead.”