Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 133213 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 666(@200wpm)___ 533(@250wpm)___ 444(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 133213 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 666(@200wpm)___ 533(@250wpm)___ 444(@300wpm)
“It was only luck they went when Aidan and I were downstairs.” Tasha was pale, her hands around the mug of tea her mother had pressed into them ten minutes before.
“I don’t think so.” Big Tag ran a hand over his head, a gesture that screamed of frustration. “I’m missing something.”
Aidan sat there feeling utterly useless. They were out there going through god only knew what and he was sitting here. He couldn’t do anything. The loves of his life were going through hell and he was…nothing.
He felt like he couldn’t breathe. All around him the team was going over possible scenarios, and he was sitting here.
“Hey, Aidan. Are you… I’m sorry. That’s a dumb question. Of course, you’re not okay.” Adam turned his chair around, leaning toward Aidan. “I need you to know I’m going to find them. Huisman can’t take over every CCTV in the country. He’ll slip up, and I’ll be there. This is far from over. I need you to stay calm and be ready in case we need you.”
“Need me? I can’t fucking do anything. I’m not trained for any of this. I’m not prepared for this life.”
“Of course you are. Aidan, you do something none of us can do. You literally save lives with your hands. When all looks lost, you stay calm and find a way to put a human body back together. We might need those skills because once I figure out where they are, there won’t be any holding Cooper back,” Adam said.
“I wish I’d gone to the gun range more,” Aidan admitted.
Adam’s head shook. “I’m glad you didn’t. I’m glad you spent all these years learning how to save people’s lives. We might need that today because I believe they’re alive, and we will have to fight to get them back. I know you think you should be there on the front lines, but we need you. We need you safe because when it all goes bad, you are the most important person here.”
Adam’s words were doing what he’d likely meant for them to do. Easing Aidan’s mind. Getting him in the right frame of mind. “I don’t have a kit.”
Most doctors didn’t carry around the tools of their trade. He’d done some training in fieldwork with EMTs. He’d also spent summers in Africa at a clinic run by Nate Carter’s mom. They often went into villages and sometimes had to deal with emergencies where there wasn’t an OR for miles. But then he had a kit.
“Cooper has one.” Adam turned his chair again, and his eyes went back to his screen. “The team is ready for this. The kit will be basic, but you can do it.”
Aidan stood. Something to do. He desperately needed something to do. “Let me look through it and make sure I have what I need.”
“I’m still stuck on why they would let Kala live,” Lou said, sniffling into a tissue. “Huisman has to know who Ms. Magenta is. He knew Uncle Ian and Tash worked for the Agency.”
“She’s not fucking dead,” Cooper barked.
“Hey.” TJ stepped in front of Lou like he needed to protect her.
“Everyone calm the fuck down.” Big Tag’s voice rang out through the chaos.
Chaos. They were caught in a chaotic situation. The kit was sitting on the table in the dining room, but Aidan stopped. This was chaos. Disruption. According to Ben Parker, it was what Dr. Huisman believed in.
Does chaos ever make sense?
Carys had asked the question.
Maybe it didn’t to an outsider, but perhaps they were using a logic that didn’t apply. They needed to stop thinking like Agency operatives and start thinking like a narcissistic sociopath who’d watched his father die at a young age.
Sometimes our brains make odd connections. Trauma can do funny things to a person. Especially a child. Sometimes revenge doesn’t make sense. Carys had said. The brain can make connections that wouldn’t look rational to the outside person.
Carys’s words were playing around in Aidan’s head. “Unless this is all about Ian, and then he would want Kala. He would want to hurt her to get back at her father.”
“We don’t know Huisman even knows who Kala is,” TJ argued.
“He does.” Big Tag seemed stuck in place. “He knows exactly who she is. He’s been watching me and my family since long before there was an Agency team. Damn it. I’ve been avoiding the truth because it didn’t make sense to me. I didn’t fucking kill his father. Neither did anyone on my team.”
Carys had been on to something. She’d looked at the situation from the outside and slid pieces into place none of them realized formed a different picture. “But you were the starting point. If you look at it from a distorted position, none of it happens if Big Tag isn’t there. Levi Green got involved with Huisman’s father because he was looking for men under Big Tag’s protection. Without Ian they wouldn’t have had the money or the resources to run. They certainly wouldn’t have been investigating Dr. Rebecca Walsh.”