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)
“I was in Wyoming with Sandra Croft. She owns a bar there. I went the morning after Julia came back.”
He poured a healthy amount of tequila, and she realized what he was making. Kyle didn’t do craft cocktails. He drank beer and whiskey. That was it. He was making what he liked to call a Sriracha martini. It was pretty much a tequila sunrise with her favorite condiment. He’d turned her on to them, and he always insisted on making them for her. When they went to Top, he would slide behind the bar and ensure it was made exactly the way she liked it.
It hadn’t been terrible being Kyle’s…whatever they’d been. Well, it hadn’t been terrible until he’d left her behind.
“I hope you were comfortable there. Are you going back? Or are you planning on heading to DC after you talk with Ian in the morning?” She didn’t bother to tell him she wasn’t about to go with him or to hide wherever he would want her to hide. She would continue her investigation into Julia and The Consortium right here in Dallas. Though she might be stuck in Sanctum again.
Thanks, Kyle.
He rimmed the glass with the spicy salt she liked. “I’m not going back to Wyoming. The whole point of hanging out at Sandra’s was to let Julia know you weren’t involved in this war of ours. It’s recently been pointed out to me that I can’t keep you out of this by leaving you here.”
“You can’t keep me out of it at all.”
“I can, and I have a plan that will keep you safe while Drake and I put an end to this,” he vowed as he poured the drink into the glass and slid it her way. “Please don’t throw that in my face. There’s enough Sriracha in there to blind me.”
She wasn’t about to waste that drink. She hadn’t had one since he’d left and likely wouldn’t have one again. He had some weird magic touch. She took it from him and had a sip, forcing herself not to sigh. She’d missed it, missed how he would show up at her place before game night and make a big batch of them because Noelle would drink them, too. They would order pizza and Noelle would bring whatever she’d baked that week and Boomer would eat everything in sight.
She hadn’t been able to spend much time with Boomer’s girlfriend. She’d barely met the woman and only because she’d been staying at Boomer’s place when she’d come into his life.
When would it be over? When would she get some part of her life back?
“And I’m not going to DC when this is over. I’m coming home, MaeBe.” Kyle pulled a beer out of the fridge and popped the cap off. “I’m coming back to you, and I’m going to prove to you that everything I’ve done was with you in mind. I panicked. It might have been pointed out to me recently that I overreact.”
“Really? Was it Sandra who told you that truth?” She’d only met Sandra Croft once. By the time she’d hired on at McKay-Taggart, Sandra had moved to Wyoming to be with her daughter and son-in-law and grandkids. But oh, she’d heard the stories. Sandra could rival Big Tag for her level of sarcasm and honesty.
“No.” Kyle took a long drink and then set the bottle on the bar. “It was a guy I was working with. He died. Some of Julia’s coworkers killed him, but not before he pretty much put me in my place. He accused me of creating chaos and drama when I should have been patient, and I think now that he might be right. I was so panicked that night. All I could think about was the fact that she would hurt you to get to me.”
“Oh, that was pretty much her plan. I think she was going to use me to make you do what she wanted.” She sipped her drink. The events of that day still wore on her. Between those dredged up memories and the fact that she’d killed a man, her carefully placed walls were starting to shake. She forced her hand to stay still because a fine tremble threatened. “She claimed I was a long-term project. I think she might have liked to see if she could turn me. The funny thing was she made some sense.”
“Julia was always good at sounding sane. She’s not.”
“I don’t know about that. I think she’s perfectly sane. She’s simply lacking any empathy for others. She’s a sociopath, but she doesn’t understand that. Like most malignant narcissists, she believes she’s better than others, that hers is a superior mind. She doesn’t think there’s anything wrong with what she does. She thinks what she feels for you is love.”
Kyle’s head shook. “It’s not.”