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 would have to go away, and it could be years. Surely she would get over him.
She could be with him as much as she wanted right now because they only had a few weeks left, and then this job would save her from being an idiot. She would have to give him up to avenge her father. “He has to stay away. No calls. No contact. Any contact has to run through you once this job truly starts.”
“I think I can make that work.” Brad nodded slowly. “I’ll talk to the higher-ups about it. Not even a request from the president would make my boss put an operative in unnecessary danger. Once you’re in, I’ll convince them to completely separate the ops. Drake and Kyle can run theirs, and we’ll do the heavy lifting when it comes to bringing down The Consortium. I worry they’ll ruin the entire op just to get to Julia.”
She wanted Julia Ennis’s head on a silver platter, but beyond that she wanted to finish the job her father had started. Ending The Consortium was what he’d set out to do. Even when he’d been so sick and fighting for his life, he’d worked toward that goal.
“Excellent. Then we’re on the same page.” She wasn’t sure how close she and Brad would ever be, but so far he’d been professional, and he seemed dedicated to the mission. He would be her contact with the Agency, would be responsible for getting her any help she needed.
Drake would likely try to pull her the minute things got dangerous.
But why? If you accept that he’s not working with his sister, then you would have to ask yourself why he would pull you out. It would be because he thinks you’re incompetent and you’re going to screw everything up or…
She didn’t want to think about the other reason. The other reason was precisely why it was a good thing they wouldn’t see each other again.
Once she was in, he would be gone, and she wouldn’t look for him again. It might be years before she had enough intel to bring it all down.
Or she could die and none of it would matter.
Brad stared at her for a moment as though trying to figure out if she was telling him the truth. “Good. I was worried if you and Drake started a relationship, you would choose him over me.”
Now she wanted to figure out if he was willing to tell her the truth. “You were there that night, weren’t you? The night they took me into custody. You came in with the investigators.”
His jaw tightened but he nodded slowly. “I was. Drake had a hard time on that op in Kraków, and I wanted to check in on him.”
“You told him to investigate me.”
“Like I said, he’d had a problem, and I suspected the leak came from within.”
Well, of course they thought it was her. “I didn’t know anything about the op in Kraków.”
“No,” he agreed. “But your father did. The asset who died had worked with your father several times.”
No one had told her that. She’d merely known that Drake had problems and had lost the agent he’d been meeting. Now things made a bit more sense. She could be reasonable about this. “So you thought because I was in the area, I might have been involved. I can understand that. I hope you don’t still think I was involved.”
“I don’t, but I still think someone talked.” Brad slid his cell phone into his pocket. “However, I did ask Drake to watch you while he was there. I told him to find out what he could. I knew your father wasn’t where he was supposed to be, and you covered it up for him. If you’re asking if I feel bad about it, no, I don’t. He was lying to his handlers. I know the reasons now, but you should also know I would have fired him. He knew the rules. I take a slightly softer position on you.”
“Why?”
“He was your father, and he would have died without those drugs,” Brad said, his tone softening. “I would have done the same thing in your position. But if I’d been in his, I would have followed the law and not put my daughter in harm’s way. The least he could have done was quit before he broke our laws. We had every right to try to figure out what was going on. Were you mistreated?”
She’d been scared out of her mind. She’d been left alone for hours and hours. They’d used a bunch of tactics to get her to talk, but nothing that was illegal. “No. Once I realized my father was gone, I answered their questions fairly quickly. After they corroborated all of the information I gave them, that was when I was brought back to the States and met with the director and went over all the work my father left behind. He’d started to flesh out how The Consortium worked. I helped them make sense of all of his notes and they formed the beginning of this operation. But you know at least part of that. I’d like to know if Drake gave you information about me. If it’s classified, I understand…”