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 didn’t like the word cleanup. “If you aren’t the woman I’ve been talking to, I think I’ll get off at the next stop. I’ve decided I don’t need a side job.”
Blue eyes rolled. “Don’t be so dramatic. I’m not here to off you, but I thought I should be open. Would you be happier if I said our group is one big family and we’re all happy sisters and it’s going to be fun? Or would you rather know that if this job goes well, you’ll receive fifty grand and the option of another job in the near future? Feel free to walk right off this train and never look back, but you’re walking away from cash and the opportunity to stick it to the man. The man being the Agency. Come on. Who doesn’t want to fuck over the Agency?”
She wasn’t sure what this woman was angling for, but she wasn’t giving her anything. She was giving off a vibe that made her think the other woman was trying to figure her out, to get under her skin, and she might not like it if the woman decided she wasn’t up to snuff.
“I don’t care about the Agency. I care about money and power. If you’re going to tell me this group of yours is some kind of therapy session for wounded operatives, then I definitely should get off because I don’t want to join your cult, lady.” Taylor stood up.
A husky laugh filled the car. “Oh, now I like you. Excellent. This could work out. I read through Cleo’s reports on you and you sounded like such a drab bitch. I wasn’t looking forward to this. Cleo’s the dead one, by the way. We all pick a couple of different identities. One for the regular world and one for the board. They like to use call names. I think it makes them feel…smart or more manly or something. Even the female CEOs have annoyingly large balls and like to swing them around. It’s a lot of testosterone. Anyway. If one passes the audition, so to speak, they select a name the board will call them by. Typically it’s a historical female. Cleo was short for Cleopatra. But it was totally a bullet that took her out, not an asp. I thought that was the way we should go but I got voted down by Joan and Helen. Yeah, Arc and Troy. I hate those bitches. Stuck up. Full of themselves.”
“And I should call you?”
Her lips curled up. “Lizzie.”
“For Queen Elizabeth?”
The blonde snorted. “No, darling. For Borden. I’m honest about who I am. I’m a straight up psychopath you don’t want to cross. Brace yourself. We’re coming into the station. You getting off?”
She should. She should run, but she was suddenly intrigued. And Brad and Kyle, Jax and Tucker would be watching for her when she got to the hotel. She needed to figure out as much about this organization as possible, and she now had a few key tidbits of information. “I think I can handle another stop. Do you want to outline what this audition is about?”
The train stopped and the door opened again, the announcements of the station and to mind the gap coming on the overheads.
“You like to get straight to business, don’t you?” The blonde looked her over. “You’re shorter than I thought you would be. You know I think we might have worked an op together once.”
So she was former Agency. Or current Agency. “I’ve been with the Agency for almost a decade. I’ve worked many ops. I don’t remember you.”
“Well, we’re supposed to be forgettable, aren’t we?” The doors closed again and the train started to pull away. “That’s what they want from all of us. They want us to be pretty but not spectacular. Just pretty enough to catch a dick. That’s what one of the board members told me. Of course I think he’s overestimating how hard it is to catch a dick. It's not like they’re an endangered species, and most of them aren’t too picky.”
“The man actually said you were pretty enough to catch a dick?” Taylor was surprised.
The blonde’s shoulder shrugged. She was dressed in all black and looked chic. Like she’d spent the evening wandering an art gallery. But what she wore seemed carefully chosen. The pants were flexible and likely comfortable, and the shirt covered her fully. All she would need was a hat to hide the hair and she could be invisible in the darkness. “I think he used the word seduce, but come on. Most men don’t require seduction. You know it’s precisely why they use women as operatives. Female operatives don’t tend to lose their heads over a pretty man. Only the idiot ones do, and if they’re lucky they get a second chance to correct their mistakes.”