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)
She turned and walked away.
Drake knew the real battle had just begun.
* * * *
Taylor looked down at her phone and then hated herself for doing it because she was disappointed Drake hadn’t called. The conference room was achingly quiet. Normally she craved quiet and solitude. It was how she lived. But now she wished she was surrounded by the team because then she might not be thinking about phone calls from a man who’d ripped her life apart once upon a time.
She shouldn’t be disappointed. It wasn’t like this was anything more than a game to pass the time until she had to go deep undercover.
For over a week he’d called her at least twice a day, and texted more often than that. Mostly he’d talked dirty and told her all the things he wanted to do to her the next time he got her in a dungeon.
A few times, though, he’d talked about his mom and how hurt she was. He’d talked about his father and how distant they were now when they’d always been so close.
She didn’t know why she hadn’t hung up on him. He was breaking their agreement. It was supposed to be about sex, about D/s, and yet she’d found herself sitting there and feeling for him. She didn’t share her own aches. That would make her too vulnerable, but now she had to wonder if listening to him was making her vulnerable, too.
“Hey. I was told you might have found something out,” Kim said. She walked into the conference room, a tray in her hand.
Kyle’s parents had left a few days before after a big argument. Still, she’d watched them each hug Kyle, and he’d hugged them back. He was being stubborn. Big Tag had escorted his brother home and told her to call if she needed anything at all.
So now it was Taylor, Jax, Tucker—who was only around about half the time because his kids had activities—Kyle and Kim. They spent a lot of time on the phone or on their computers talking to their families.
She and Brad just worked. They didn’t have families. They had jobs, and that had seemed okay a few months ago. Now she’d started to wonder if it wasn’t kind of sad.
Kim sat down the tray, and Taylor noticed there were three glasses. Margarita glasses. And some chips and salsa.
It reminded her that it was almost five o’clock, and she hadn’t stopped for lunch.
“I did.” She thought about the conversation she’d had with Adam Miles earlier in the day. “Should I think it’s weird that apparently everyone knows I’m playing with Drake? Why would Adam know about that?”
Kim’s lips curled up. “Because Big Tag lives to gossip.”
“Oh, yes, he does.” Sandra walked in with the pitcher that paired beautifully with those big salt-rimmed glasses. “Who’s he talking about now?”
“Who do you think? The rest of us are boring married people,” Kim pointed out.
“Ah.” Sandra grinned as she slid into the seat beside Kim. “Yes, I was asked to keep the old guy up to date. It’s okay. He’s sending me info about MaeBe. I’m going to drop hints that she’s doing extremely well around Kyle, if you know what I mean.”
She wasn’t sure she understood. “Are you trying to make him explode?”
“I’m trying to make him see he should go home and take care of the woman he loves,” Sandra corrected. “And the family he loves. He’s trying to sacrifice himself, and he needs to understand that’s not the way things work in a family. He should know that. He’s letting his fear lead him.”
“He’s right to be afraid.” She’d learned a lot in the last couple of days. “I’ve talked to him quite a bit while we’ve been working, and I think he’s right about Julia fucking with his family. Before his parents went back home, I detailed everything odd that’s happened to them in the last year or so, and it’s either an enormous amount of bad luck or Julia Ennis has been quietly screwing with them. She’s a predator.”
“And a predator pounces at some point in time no matter what,” Kim said with a solemnity she wasn’t used to seeing on the ex-agent’s face. “I should know. I lost years of my life to a man who decided he owned me. He wanted me. It didn’t matter that I couldn’t love him back. He decided he could make me love him, and he did everything he could to ruin my life and my husband’s.”
“You went into hiding. Would you do it differently now?” She was interested in the answer to that question. It was one she’d been asking herself for a while. Would she take back the week she’d spent with Drake? She might have spared herself the heartache, but the end result would have been the same.