Total pages in book: 165
Estimated words: 154925 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 775(@200wpm)___ 620(@250wpm)___ 516(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154925 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 775(@200wpm)___ 620(@250wpm)___ 516(@300wpm)
“What exactly are you going to tell her?” Kyle was curious. He wasn’t completely convinced.
“That there was a firefight, and we lost the others.” Joseph stood, straightening the dark shirt he wore. “She won’t care about that. She’ll only care that Kyle Hawthorne is alive and that I managed to get out with Mae.”
The room seemed to still.
MaeBe’s hands found the sides of his face, and she forced him to look at her and only her. “Babe, I need you to stay calm and hear him out.”
He stood, picking her up as he did. Hutch was right. “I’m going to kill him and then we won’t have a problem anymore.”
She groaned. “It makes sense.” Her arms locked around his neck. “I’m not going to let you kill him. Think about what I can do if I’m behind the scenes, so to speak. I can gather so much information, and if Joseph helps me, I can get that to you easily. It keeps Joseph in the game, too. He can’t walk back in with nothing.”
“He can die and then we don’t have to worry about him anymore.” It was simple. It was a perfect plan.
“Kyle, agree with her.” Big Tag had stood, Charlotte standing beside him. “Tell her she’s smart and she can handle any situation she gets into.”
“She is,” Joseph insisted. “And I’ll be there to make sure nothing bad happens to her.”
Joseph could say that all he liked, but Julia was volatile. She’d proven it tonight. It had been stupid for her to move on MaeBe in this fashion. There had been not an ounce of logic to this plan. It had been driven by Julia’s emotional state and her ego. She’d broken MaeBe’s arm when she’d been cool and calm. There was no way of knowing what she could do when she was unhinged.
Joseph would honor his mission. He might want to save MaeBe, but he would also allow her to take some damage if it served his country’s needs.
His uncle moved in, and Kyle put MaeBe down. He would need both hands to crush that fucker’s windpipe.
“Do it, nephew. Do it now.” Ian’s jaw was a tight line as he put his will behind those words.
What the hell was his uncle doing? Was this some kind of play he was making?
He trusted his uncle. His uncle wouldn’t ask him to go against his every instinct unless he had a plan or his instincts were utterly wrong.
He’d felt so alone in the world, but he’d had this man in his corner since the day his mom had married Sean. He’d had Sean and Ian, and then their brothers and sisters, even the ones who didn’t share an ounce of blood.
He’d searched the world trying to find what he needed to feel whole, and it had been here all the while. Here with his family.
He was a dumbass, but he could be something more.
He stared down at Mae. “Do you need to do this?”
It would make him sick inside, but if she needed it, he would have to back her up.
MaeBe returned his gaze, the truth in her eyes. “I need to get this woman out of our lives to make sure we have a chance.”
He looked over at Joseph. Charlotte was slowly moving around the living space. Was she going to open the damn door and send them on their way? What were they doing? This was some play his aunt and uncle were making, and he needed to perform the part Ian had assigned to him. Charlotte was using the fact that she was a gorgeous, soft-looking woman to come in behind a trained operative.
He was supposed to do his part to distract the man. “If you get her killed, I swear I’ll hunt you down.”
Joseph gave him an earnest look. “I promise you. I will protect her. I’ll do everything I can.”
“What you’ll do is unlock your cell, call that psychotic asshole, and hand my husband the phone.” Charlotte emphasized the words by putting a gun to the back of Joseph’s head.
“What?” MaeBe gasped because Ian suddenly had a gun in his hand, too.
“Try anything and I won’t care what my wife will do to me because I didn’t put down a tarp,” Ian promised.
“It was time to redecorate anyway,” Charlotte conceded.
“What the hell is going on?” Joseph had his hands up in the air.
“Yeah, I’d like to know that, too.” MaeBe frowned Ian’s way.
“I think we’re about to get to watch the OGs work.” If Taylor was worried about all the guns being drawn or the sudden turn of events, she didn’t show it. She merely sat back and looked ready to watch the show about to play out.
“I’m not joking.” Charlotte didn’t move an inch. “I want that phone connected and in my husband’s hands in ten seconds or I will blow you away. You should understand that I already laid the groundwork with my Canadian contacts. You’ll find I told them you were acting erratically. I might have made it sound like we caught you after you initiated a gunfight. You know a lot of spies go bad. You think we sent Hutch home, but he’s set up downstairs with my sister, who assures me she can make you look as bad as we need you to. You might know her name. Chelsea Weston.”