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)
He turned and stopped because there was a body on the ground and Brad was standing over it. One of his mother’s guards lay on the tastefully neutral carpet of the quiet hallway, and it was obvious she was never getting up again.
Brad’s eyes flared and his hand came up, a clear command to stay silent.
Drake held up his gun, getting Brad in his sights.
“What are you doing?” Brad whispered the question. “You’re going to get her killed. She’s in trouble. I managed to follow her up. I saw her on the cams come in with… I think she’s with Julia.”
A woman in a dark suit rounded the corner, her eyes widening when she caught sight of the two of them standing in the hallway. “Hey.”
He’d seen this woman before. She worked on his mom’s security detail, but he realized with dawning horror that she might have been on his mom’s team, but she wasn’t working for her. She pulled a gun and began to fire. Drake realized he was about to die. That bullet would hit his chest, and there was nothing he could do about it.
But there was something Brad could do. Brad threw his body in front of Drake’s and got off a shot of his own. The force of Brad’s body hitting his dropped Drake to his knees, his own gun slipping from his fingers.
The woman went down, her eyes open even as she fell to the floor.
Drake scrambled from behind Brad, easing the man down. There was a hole in his chest, one he wouldn’t survive unless they got him to a doctor now. Drake touched his earpiece. “Jax, I need you to send Tucker. Jax?”
“They dampened comms on this floor,” Brad said with a wheezing cough. “Julia…Drake, Julia…”
He’d been wrong. “Julia’s here. I know. Brad, we need to get you some help.”
Brad’s head shook. “Too…too late. Drake…Lydia…”
“Lydia is with them, isn’t she?” He knew now. It had to be at least one of the two of them, and he’d guessed wrong.
“She knows…a lot… Drake, I thought she loved me,” Brad whispered. “But Drake, I didn’t tell her. She doesn’t know about Taylor. Never would have told her. Never.”
A ping sounded and Brad’s body tensed and then the light in his eyes died.
Drake looked up and there was the woman he’d been talking about. The one who had betrayed them all. Lydia stood there wearing the black slacks and white shirt of one of the staff. Her hair was up, and she held a gun in her hands.
“Poor Brad. I was hoping I could keep him around a little while longer,” she said with a frown. “But at least I got the real prize. Come on, Drake. It’s time you started paying attention to me. I thought you would argue with me. What the hell was that? You just took off running. That’s not the Drake I know. But Brad was exactly who I thought he was. He was more loyal to the Agency than he was to me. A good man is hard to find. Get up and come with me. Now we have to figure out what to do with you.”
He thought about going for the gun, but then Lydia wasn’t alone.
“Damn it.” The man Taylor had been working on identifying stood beside Lydia, and he had a gun, too. “You were supposed to make sure he was distracted tonight. What the fuck happened? Julia’s going to kill us both. Come on, Drake. I think it’s time for a family meeting.”
Drake stood, his heart racing.
It was time to see his sister.
Chapter Nineteen
Taylor fought to stem the rising tide of panic. She had to stay calm. They’d come in the main door, but this was a massive suite and there would be more than one way in, meaning there was also more than one way out. One of the things Brad had forced her to do was study all the plans for this hotel. The big suites had two to three doors. If she was right, the door close to the bedroom would be located next to the stairs. It might be her best escape.
But she had to figure out a way to save Samantha Radcliffe first. “What’s wrong with her? She looks like she’s already dead.”
“We slipped her a sleeping pill. It’s cool. They were prescribed for her.” Julia sounded like she was talking about the weather rather than matricide. Although it wouldn’t be matricide since she was passing the job off to Taylor. “It won’t be a scandal when the toxicology report comes in.”
“No, I think the murder of a US senator would take up the headlines,” Taylor shot back. She had to play this as cool as Julia was. Drake’s mom was lying there in the cocktail dress she’d likely worn to the conference party that was still going on. Had they slipped her pill in one of her drinks? Or waited until she was back up here to force her to sleep? It didn’t matter. What did was the fact that she wasn’t about to let the senator die. She wasn’t going to stand here and kill Drake’s mom for the op.