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)
“This is serious,” Kyle countered. “If Julia wanted MaeBe brought in, then she was doing it to manipulate me. She knows I’ll do anything if she’s got MaeBe.”
“Why would she think that? You dropped me fast enough.” She was sick of hearing that excuse.
“Kyle knew what he had to do,” Drake said quietly. “Julia has what I like to call rules of engagement. If he took you off the board, you would be out of the game. At least until she was backed into a corner and she needs something. She surprised me at my parents’ country club a few days before we went to London and told me as much. She told me as long as Kyle wasn’t pursuing you, she would leave you alone. I’m afraid my sister has some delusions. In a way she thinks you were a distraction for Kyle. She believes they’re soul mates.”
Kyle had gone pale. “She fixated on me early on. She’s determined I’m her perfect mate and that all I’m doing is being difficult in order to get a better position in our relationship.”
“Then none of this makes sense. You said she knew you would do anything to save me. If she doesn’t believe you care about me, why would you do that?” Julia had said as much to her when she’d spent time in the woman’s company.
“She believes Kyle has a strong streak of morality that she needs to break,” Drake replied. “She knows he’s got a conscience. Deep down she knows he cares about you. Her narcissism simply won’t allow her to believe he could love anyone the way he loved her.”
She watched Kyle, saw the way his eyes had found the file in front of him.
What was he thinking? Feeling?
How much had he loved Julia Ennis? Sometimes it felt like he was every bit as obsessed with her as she was with him. He’d changed their whole lives for her.
“What do you think she wants from you?” Ian asked, bringing her out of her thoughts. He was looking at his nephew.
Kyle’s head came back up, and his expression was blank again. “It could be that she wants the money she sent to me after she died. It’s a little over a million. We’ve never been able to figure out why it was put in there except to make me look guilty. I talked to Drake. We traced it back to one of her accounts. At the time we didn’t realize it had to have been Julia herself moving that money.”
“And where is it now?” If Charlotte was surprised, she didn’t show it.
“It’s in an account in the Caymans that both Drake and I can access,” Kyle replied. “I did not touch that money even when I needed it.”
“There’s another explanation,” Drake added. “She might want the money back, or she wants something far more important. Information. When my father died, he left a power vacuum in The Consortium. I’m sure my sister would like to fill it, but she would need leverage. Likely the same leverage my father had.”
MaeBe sat up straighter. “He had a burn folder, didn’t he?”
She’d known damn well that a man like the one she thought Don Radcliffe might be would have an escape plan if he needed it, and there was only one currency the man understood.
Intelligence.
Now Kyle was looking at her, a frown on his face. “Yes, that’s what we think. Why do you think that?”
“Because she’s been investigating your father for a few months now,” Adam explained. “She came to me for some help with hacking a couple of sensitive sites.”
“You know you could have told her…” Kyle began and then settled back. “She would have done it on her own. Thank you for helping her. As she’s not in jail or Agency custody, I take it the hack went smoothly.”
“Without a hitch,” Adam agreed. “Though we also had some help from Chelsea.”
Chelsea Weston was a badass who’d taught her a thing or two. While Ian and Erin had trained her on how to protect herself, Adam and Chelsea had tutored her in some new hacking techniques. She’d been able to find the information she’d needed, but putting all the puzzle pieces together had been a challenge. “Drake, I don’t know what Adam’s told you, but I suspected that your father was involved with The Consortium for a while.”
Drake’s expression didn’t change, but there was an oddly charged air around him. “And why was that? I’m a seasoned CIA agent and I didn’t suspect my father of anything but being a bit cold and emotionally unavailable.”
It was time to come clean on everything. “Oh, I investigated all of you. Your whole family.”
The faintest hint of a flush was the only sign that Drake had a reaction to that news. “I suppose that makes sense. So you knew she was my sister.”