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 was just drugged enough to be honest. Tears pierced his eyes, and he held her hand. “I’ll tell you everything.”
Taylor put a hand on his shoulder.
It would be okay. No more lies. He didn’t need them because she was here, standing beside him.
Chapter Twenty
“Well, we are fairly certain that Julia is still alive,” Damon said with a sigh. “We have some evidence to support the idea that she took her partner to a hospital to treat his gunshot wound, but she left him there. From what we can tell, the helicopter made it to the countryside, and she had an ambulance pick up John and then she flew away again. Kyle put a bullet in his side.”
“That fucker still outran me.” Nick had been fuming since that night.
“The Consortium obviously has stricter physical training than I do.” Damon seemed much more relaxed now that his wife was back in town. She’d brought their boys to London the day after the debacle, and Damon had handled everything with calm and competency.
Drake had not. He’d pretty much taken Taylor into the bedroom and not let her out unless they had something they needed to handle.
It had been a full week since that day in the hotel when he’d realized he could survive pretty much anything as long as Taylor Cline was by his side. Getting through those first few days with his mom, having to walk her through what must be done, had been some of the hardest days of his life.
One last lie, but one she was in on. Technically his father had died in a robbery gone wrong, and now there was an Interpol red notice on his sister with her new face out there for all to see.
Julia was injured. Maybe not her body, but her whole life was damaged, and that was often when a predator was at their most dangerous.
Taylor turned to her uncle, giving him a sympathetic look. “Well, you had to run up a bunch of stairs first.”
His mother knew the truth now, and it had devastated her. She’d lost her husband, her daughter, and all of her memories were now tainted. She’d told Drake she’d known something was wrong, but didn’t want to know, didn’t want to admit to the possibilities. She’d never thought he was working for anyone but the government. The idea that he’d been working against the country she’d served all her life had taken the spark from her eyes.
But she’d vowed to not stop, to fight as hard as she could. She’d flown back to DC days ago because mourning wouldn’t stop her from voting. The bill had passed, and The Consortium could suck it.
“I’m surprised Julia didn’t push him out of the helicopter and move on.” He was a little bitter about his sister getting away. It meant there was still danger out there. “I don’t think she considered that we would be looking for him. He’s in custody, but he’s not talking yet.”
The man named John would be transported back to the States in a few hours. His wounds had started to heal, and Drake intended a bit of light torture to get the fucker talking. Oh, he wouldn’t be able to do what he wanted, but he could see if the guy scared easily.
“I’m due back in DC to begin his interrogation,” Drake explained. “And we’ve got some paperwork to deal with. You would think covering stuff up would require less paperwork.”
“I think it’s called covering the Agency’s ass,” Taylor quipped, but then sobered. “We’re going to escort Drake’s father’s body home for burial. From there we’ll start to work on finding Julia. Hopefully John knows something, but he seems incredibly loyal to her. Does anyone have an update on Kyle?”
Damon groaned. “The update is he’s a stubborn arse. We know he survived the surgery to remove the bullets and when they finally moved him to a private room, he located his clothes, got dressed, and disappeared.”
“I would bet he’ll find his way back to Dallas.” Drake hadn’t had a chance to talk to Kyle. There had been far too much to do. He’d been planning to pick Kyle up and bring him back to The Garden to recover, but Kyle had other plans. “He’ll watch over MaeBe now that Julia’s in the wind. Have we asked Taggart if he’s seen him?”
Damon shook his head. “Big Tag wouldn’t tell us if he had. Make no mistake. Ian might think his nephew is handling this wrong, but he will back him up if he can’t change his mind, and that will include keeping Kyle’s secrets. Our job is to look for Julia here in Europe. Ian and his group will do the same in the States. Ian’s already talked to some contacts in Asia and India, and they’ll look for her as well. I called Brody this morning, and he’s going to be our eyes in Australia. We’ll find her now that we’ve been able to out her.”