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)
MaeBe wasn’t sure what was going on. “Are you being serious? You’re not going to force me to go to the airport?”
She shrugged. “I’m not going to force another woman to do anything. I know the guys think I’m here to do their bidding, but I’m really here to be their conscience. They don’t think straight when it comes to Julia. I have to make sure Drake doesn’t do something he can’t forgive himself for and that Kyle doesn’t wreck the rest of his life, starting with this morning’s debacle. And when I think about it, I only promised I would get you where you needed to go. Where do you need to go, Mae?”
Could Taylor be an ally? “To the office. I need to go to the office. I have some information on my system there that might be helpful. But pancakes sound great.”
Taylor passed her a mug of coffee. “Excellent. Now let’s talk because I’ve put together some things the guys seemed to gloss over. You’ve been researching The Consortium, haven’t you? That’s what West was talking about. What do you know? I’ll tell you what I know, too. You need to be brought up to speed on the last couple of months.”
Oh, Taylor was definitely an ally. “Kyle will try to ship me off again.”
“Then he can go through me,” Taylor vowed. “I’m not joking, Mae. I think you should be a part of this for several reasons, not the least of which is how much stake you have in this particular game. He’s wrong for shutting you out, but I don’t know how to convince him. I can only explain to Drake that I won’t have any part in kidnapping you. Because that’s what he’s talking about. He doesn’t see it that way, but it’s the truth. I also think if Kyle’s going to have a shot at being with you at the end of this, you need to come with us.”
She shook her head. “If you’re doing this because you think I’ll forgive Kyle, I won’t.”
“Then there’s nothing for you to worry about. If you can watch him work this op and not feel for him, then nothing can change your mind. But I suspect he’s never told you the real story and you don’t understand why he’s so tied up in knots over this.”
“He never talked about her. Not in any real or valuable way. Most of what I learned I discovered on my own or through talking to Big Tag.” Kyle never wanted to talk about her until she’d come back from the dead, and now she was the only thing he wanted to talk about. Now she was the most important thing in the world.
It was weird but somehow in her head Kyle’s deep belief that Julia was the greatest evil ever known almost made her jealous. Almost.
Great. The other emotion she could feel was jealousy. Awesome.
“I’ll talk about her.” Taylor took a sip of her own coffee. “You’ll find I’m an open fucking book when it comes to her. She killed my father.”
Oh, there was a spark of sympathy. “I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Let me tell you a bit about her and then we’ll grab breakfast to fortify ourselves against the fight we’re going to get when we show up at the office,” Taylor said. “Do you think Charlotte Taggart will be there? I might fangirl over her. Her CIA records are amazing. And she was kind of the bad guy then.”
MaeBe knew Charlotte had never truly been the bad guy. She’d been used by her mobster father, who’d tried to twist her into something evil and useful to him.
Although if she thought about it and her instincts and research were right, wasn’t that what had happened to Julia Ennis, too?
“I’ll introduce you. She’s one of the best people I know.” Charlotte hadn’t allowed herself to be twisted.
It was obvious that Julia had.
This might be Taylor’s way of disarming her, of getting her to open up and tell her what she knew right before she shoved her on an airplane.
She’d given up trusting in anything at all.
She couldn’t keep living this way. She had to take some steps to get back that piece of herself that loved. She talked about the people she loved, but it was an academic thing now because she couldn’t trust anyone.
“All right. Let’s talk.” MaeBe drank the coffee that probably didn’t have a sedative in it and decided to roll the dice on Taylor Cline.
* * * *
Kyle sat down, the familiar conference room bringing back a thousand memories of MaeBe. How many times had they sat in here listening to client overviews and arguing about how best to deal with a job? He always wanted to drag her over and make her sit on his lap while the meeting went on and on.