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)
Or Ian would have tossed him to the wolves, and he would already be in jail.
“I’ve explained how badly I feel about what happened in Dallas. I would never put Lou in danger again. I was…desperate,” Parker said with a long sigh. “Believe me, Maggie and I have had this conversation, and I have apologized to Lou. That day taught me a lot about who I am and who I want to be, who I’ve allowed Manny to turn me into.”
“From what I understand, you were childhood friends with Dr. Huisman,” Henry began.
If he was this close to Ian, he would already know the story, but Zach knew a lot of operatives would rather hear the story from the person than read a report. There were so many things that couldn’t be put into reports. Body language. The way a person spoke. How his eyes tightened before he started, as though he knew this would be painful.
Parker nodded. “We were good friends when we were young. Then his father was killed and he went to live in Montreal with his grandfather. When we met up again, he was different, but I didn’t know how different.”
“He blames Ian for his father’s death,” Kala explained, her eyes on where Lucy had a hand on Cooper’s arm. “We believe his grandfather taught him this despite the fact that it’s verifiable Ian was not working for the Agency at the time and was not in Canada. It was a rogue CIA operative who killed the elder Dr. Huisman.”
“He wasn’t rogue at the time,” Cooper corrected. “But that’s not the point. What Kara is trying to say is Huisman is a dangerous nut bag with a delusional complex when it comes to our handlers.”
“He’s beyond dangerous,” Parker interrupted. “Don’t dismiss him as crazy. He’s very functional and knows how to bring people to his side. There’s a reason he hasn’t been arrested yet. I feel certain Ian had enough on him after what happened in Winchester.”
Kala nodded. “The Agency wants to wait and see what happens.”
“Huisman bad.” Zach was tired of waiting. “We got it. How is he connected to my father? And how did he find me?”
“We believe he had someone follow you from the house where Miss Magenta and Miss Taggart were held,” Parker explained. “We tracked you going to a small private airfield, and we also have evidence of a vehicle following you. From there he would have had a tech monitor the flights going in and out. I’m sure you tried to cover your tracks, but he has billions of dollars to play with, and he doesn’t mind spending them.”
Henry’s expression went dark. “Then my operative’s cover is blown.”
Lucy cursed under her breath. “I got called into a meeting. They want me in London the day after tomorrow. I wasn’t supposed to meet with my Disrupt Europe contacts for another month, but yesterday they set up a meeting saying it was urgent.”
He’d fucked everything up. “Lacey, I’m so sorry.”
She sighed, and at least her hand wasn’t on Cooper anymore. She held them together as though she needed to make sure she didn’t punch anything.
“I’m sorry as well,” Parker said solicitously. The man knew how to look sympathetic. “If I realized you were Agency, I certainly would have given Maggie and her team a heads-up.”
“Well, next time I’ll have you take pictures of who I need you to follow. I would have recognized them,” Kala replied. “And taken a step back. The truth is I have to call my handler now. I thought I could take Devi out of here, but I suspect that’s going to be hard at this point.”
“She needs protection.” Whether she cared about him or not, he wasn’t going to leave her alone. “And she needs to take that protection seriously. She had a bodyguard.”
“Apparently, I had more than a bodyguard. You had someone watching me, too, didn’t you, Zach?” Devi accused, but her expression was more sweetly bratty than pissed off. Something about her family showing up had put her in a good mood. Despite her telling her brother she wasn’t serious about him, Zach liked how comfortable she was.
“It wasn’t an intelligence person.” He would tell her the whole truth whenever he could. “I hired an old Army friend of mine to keep tabs on you. That was all. I think it scared the shit out of him when he caught you shimmying out of that bathroom window and walking into a trap. He has some excellent pictures of Lena escorting you into the club. The trouble was he couldn’t see the gun at your back, so he wasn’t sure until they dragged you out that something had gone wrong.”
Kala nodded as though he explained something important. “Ah, well, there’s the secondary 911 call. He didn’t stick around though, did he?”