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)
“You’ve been in mourning,” Brad said with a nod. “If I had been brought in on this project in the beginning, I would never have allowed you to work on it. Not because you’re not competent. Because you’d just lost your father and whatever had happened with Drake would be weighing on you. You were vulnerable, and the Agency took advantage. Had I been the one making the call at the time, I wouldn’t have done that to you. To tell you the truth, I wouldn’t have done it to Drake either. He didn’t talk about what happened between the two of you, but I knew it had a profound effect on him. I didn’t know he was trying to find you until much later. There were far too many emotions involved, and both of you should have gone on leave.”
“He tried to find me?”
“Yes. He had no idea I was your handler by then, and I couldn’t talk to him about it,” Brad admitted. “I didn’t realize he had feelings for you. According to him, he didn’t.”
Drake was good at hiding his feelings, at not recognizing his feelings at all. He’d said he’d been planning on breaking her out. It appeared he hadn’t been lying. The idea of Drake busting her free brought a smile to her lips. “I wonder why he couldn’t find me. His security level is higher than yours, right?”
“It’s the same,” Brad replied. “But you know this op is delicate. It’s on a need-to-know basis, which is why I’m still pissed that he knows at all. His sister not being dead and where we think she is in The Consortium hierarchy made the director give him access. I personally think it’s a mistake to let him in. His objectives aren’t the same as ours.”
“He wants to take down The Consortium.”
“No. He wants to take down his sister, and you should understand that he’ll do anything he has to do to make that happen,” Brad said. “He’ll burn down the whole op so he can take her out.”
“She’s dangerous.” If there was one thing she’d learned it was that Julia Ennis would hurt her family if she had to. “I think he’s worried about what she’ll do to Kyle.”
“Yeah, I think he’s holding on to something that won’t work out in the end, but that’s not my call.” He stared at her for a moment. “Are you going to give all of this up for him?”
She wasn’t sure what she was giving up beyond an unforgiving job that would likely grind her to dust the way it had her father. She rather wanted to know what Brad’s play was going to be. “Are you going to tell me what a bad bet he is?”
“I think you know what a bad bet any of us are,” he replied. “Unless we get out and find some other work, it’s hard to have relationships, and then there’s the problem of his family. Have you thought about that? His mother has no idea who he really is. Who his father is. His dad, well, I knew his father before he retired. I worked a few ops trying to learn some of his techniques. Quite frankly, I considered them barbaric. He didn’t give a damn about anything but looking good on paper, and that included his children. Drake’s mother is too involved in her career to really figure out what was going on in her home. His father was polite and didn’t cheat on her, so he was acceptable as a partner. It’s all screwed up, and it’s affected Drake. It’s precisely why he stood there and let them take you the first time. Even though he’d been to bed with you.”
“Why did you let them take me, Brad? You were there, too.”
“I let them take you because you’d lied to your handlers, and your father looked damn guilty,” he said matter of factly. “I don’t feel bad about that either. Your father had been killed, and no one knew what was going on. You cleared that up.”
“Yeah, but not before I enjoyed some of the Agency’s hospitality.” There was some bitterness to her tone.
“And yet when they offered to let you take lead on this op, you jumped at the chance.”
“They offered me revenge, and at the time it was all I wanted. Lately I’ve been reminded that when you seek vengeance, dig two graves.” Her father had often repeated the words of Confucius when he was working like they were his mantra. He’d sought to right wrongs, not vengeance.
She would do the same thing.
Was Drake seeking vengeance on his sister? Or was he trying to make up for what she’d done? It was obvious he felt the guilt for not having seen what she was capable of.
No. Even if that was how it had started, he’d promised her he would put her first.