Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 136425 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 682(@200wpm)___ 546(@250wpm)___ 455(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 136425 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 682(@200wpm)___ 546(@250wpm)___ 455(@300wpm)
“She’s here because Huisman wants her,” Zach said gruffly. “She’s in protective custody.”
“Why would Huisman want her? I know why he wants Lou.” Parker let Zach cut through the zip ties.
“Because her last name is Taggart,” Zach replied in a no-nonsense tone.
But nonsense was fun. Also, she wasn’t sure what Zach was trying to hide. There was zero way this man didn’t know they were doing it. She could see Kala maybe telling him Devi Taggart was only valuable for her last name, but she’d been told Kenzie usually worked with Parker, and she would have talked. “And the whole sleeping-with-the-bombmaker’s-son thing.”
Zach frowned her way. “Really?”
She shrugged. “He’s going to find out when we sleep together later tonight. Or did I hurt your feelings so much with the truth that you’re going to withhold that glorious cock of yours?”
“I did not need to hear that,” TJ said with a groan.
Parker stretched his big body and rolled his friend over. “She’s right. I knew. Maggie and I have been open and honest these last few weeks, and that’s why Tim and I are here and probably going to get fired for working outside of parameters. Come on, man. It wasn’t that big a dose. Sorry. He’s one of the best techs in the world, but he doesn’t normally get hit with tranqs. Unfortunately, I do. Where is Maggie? I assume if you’re here and TJ’s here, she’s here, too. She came.”
Whoof. He said that last bit with a weird longing, and the person who was here was so not what he was longing for. She hoped. What if they had it all wrong and he was a total masochist and liked Kala instead of Kenzie? She wished Dais and Bri were here because they could discuss this whole situation over margaritas and have Nate or Zach pick them up so they didn’t have to drink responsibly. But then she looked at Parker’s friend. Who was super familiar. Irritatingly familiar. Well, at least she knew how they’d identified her. “That’s Tim.”
Zach nodded. “I think that’s what he called him. Kara is downstairs, but I should warn you, they apparently needed a pilot and…”
“McKay.” Ben sighed. “Then I’m going to find out if she’s playing me, aren’t I? I don’t know if I buy his whole I can have her since she’s not worth the trouble act. He was in love with her.”
He was a good judge of character because Coop was desperately in love with one of the Karas. She waved it off. They could deal with that themselves. She had questions. “I mean that’s Tim. The guy who saved me from the creepy dude who drugged my drink when I went to the bathroom.”
“What?” Zach asked,
“What?” Her brother left his post and had that deeply worried expression he got whenever she did something super dumb. Or traveled with Daisy.
Parker sent a slightly sympathetic look Zach’s way. “Sorry, man. Thought she would tell you. It happened earlier today. We were following another player in this game of ours. We found him today in a pub in town, and he was chatting up Devi.”
“Eww, you make it sound like I was flirting,” she argued. “Which I was not. He was my dad’s age at least. Nope. I have all the troubled man romantic tropes I can handle right now. I do not need to add an age gap in there.”
“Someone drugged your drink and you didn’t mention it to me?” The words were carefully said. Like he had to think about them.
Oh, that was him being totally pissed at her because she hadn’t given him the chance to protect her. It was a Dom thing. And she had her reasons. “It would have freaked you out. Although now I can see it also might have made you wonder about who was in town and you might have gotten us out of here before my brother found me.”
“Yes, exactly. I would have found his ass on CCTV and ID’d him,” Zach said, “But that is not the point. The point is someone threatened you and you didn’t bother to mention it to me. Or Lacey.”
Lacey was Lacey again. So many names. How did they keep them all straight? They must do some serious memory work in spy school. “I didn’t think it was a big deal, and he didn’t technically threaten me.”
“If he drugged your drink, consider yourself threatened,” her brother said with a little self-righteousness.
Like he never got accidently dosed and stuff. Rude. “Well, I didn’t drink it because Tim told me not to. I bet he’s not even English.”
“No.” Parker seemed way calmer than before. He seemed to be enjoying the show now that he knew Miss Magenta was somewhere in the house. “He’s Canadian, and honestly, I’m surprised that accent worked on you. He wasn’t supposed to make contact. His accent is way worse than he thinks. It’s awful, but he went off script when he realized our target was trying to drug you.” He gave Zach a man-to-man look. “I believe it was some kind of roofie meant to make her compliant so he could get her out of the pub. I took a look at the CCTVs around town after I alerted TJ’s team that I found his sister. Somehow they narrowed it down to Wales, and they were in Cardiff waiting for word. He caught sight of her after the woman she was with left. I suspect she’s some sort of operative, but I haven’t identified her yet. We were doing that when the old dude showed up. What the hell? One minute he knocked on our door and was polite and seemed like a sweet older man. And then he was a fucking serial killer.”