Total pages in book: 160
Estimated words: 149137 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 746(@200wpm)___ 597(@250wpm)___ 497(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 149137 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 746(@200wpm)___ 597(@250wpm)___ 497(@300wpm)
His heart threatened to stop in his chest. “Just for telling me something I should have known? I had the right to know.”
“Not according to the United States government, you didn’t,” Miles said, not without sympathy. “They take security seriously, especially when it comes to embedded agents. Do you think the Mexican government knows we have an operative working in Jalisco? I assure you they do not.”
Alex McKay walked back into the room, a coffee mug in his hand. “We’ve got a lawyer on it back in Dallas in case it comes out. We’re here to make sure it doesn’t. None of us wants this information out in the public. We’re here to offer Mr. Hunt a few…gifts in exchange for the greatest gift of all. Silence.”
“I thought you said your wife was the greatest gift,” Taggart said with a shit-eating grin.
“That was before we had kids,” McKay replied. “Now it’s definitely silence.”
How could they joke when Kayla could go to jail? “I’m not going to talk. I’ll do the job and then we’ll go our separate ways.”
“Really? Well, that was easy.” Taggart started to get up.
“Ian, please,” Kay said quietly.
Taggart frowned and sat his ass back down. He flipped the file folder around. “First, we’re willing to offer you bodyguard services for half the going rate.”
“Ian,” Kay said, fire in her eyes.
“Fuck me hard. A year’s worth of bodyguard service for…for…for fucking free. In that time we’ll train two people of your choice and at the end you’ll keep them on.” It was obvious the offer had taken a lot out of him. Taggart sank back as though utterly exhausted. “In addition, Riley has already discovered that the tape from two nights ago has a terrible defect. Something went wrong for approximately twenty-three minutes. It was late and that was why he didn’t catch it.”
McKay slid across a thumb drive. “This is the original and the only copy. No one here has listened to it with the exception of Riley Blade, and he’s signed a nondisclosure agreement. It’s going to be forwarded to your attorney, but understand we’re very vague about the hows and whys that tape came into existence.”
Josh shook his head. “Send it to me. I don’t trust anyone with it. I’ll keep the NDA in case I need it.” Could he trust these men? Kayla did, but then he didn’t trust her at all. Except that maybe she’d been willing to go to jail…whoa, hold your horses there, dumbass. That wasn’t about you. That was about the mission. Still, it was obvious these men had something to lose if it all came out. “Thank you for the tape. I appreciate it not getting out.”
Taggart moved on briskly. “In addition, Adam has the file you wanted, Kayla. He found her.”
“Her?” Josh asked. “Her who?”
Miles passed him a folder. “Kayla asked me to locate a woman named Hannah Lovell. I didn’t have much to go on. She couldn’t give me more than name, approximate age, and the fact that she’d been in the foster care system in the Wichita area. She went missing as a young child from a foster home that was later found to be committing fraud.”
His heart damn near seized. He’d been sure she was dead. “You found Hannah?”
“I asked Adam to find her. I got her records last night. Adam is pretty brilliant at finding missing persons,” she replied. “Consider it a peace offering. Although you might not like where she is.”
“I located her in a prison in Cleveland. She’s doing time for possession and multiple counts of solicitation. I don’t know who this woman is to you, but she’s had a hard life,” Adam was saying. “She’s scheduled to come up for parole in six months, but she’s also got a public defender.”
One thing he could do. One good fucking thing. “I’ll pay for her lawyer. Could you find me someone, the best someone? She was a good friend. We were in…” Hell… “Foster care together. I always wondered what happened to her. I…thank you for finding her.”
It might be too late. She might be too far gone, but he could help out. He’d thought he was too far gone, but Tina had offered him something different. What if he could do the same?
What if he could do the same for a lot of people who’d spent time in Hell? Nothing could fix the hole inside him.
Had he tried? Had he attempted in any way to fill that hole or had he determined he was broken beyond repair and given up and given in to hopelessness, to believing the only way to live was to pretend to be someone else, always denying what had happened to him.
“We’ll keep it quiet about who’s paying the legal fees,” McKay was saying.
He found himself nodding, but he wanted to see Hannah. He couldn’t, of course. That would bring up too many questions. It would put him too close to the truth.