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)
Parker had offered to take Kala with them.
She’d explained she couldn’t leave Devi until she knew the house was safe and secure. And that she fully expected her handler to show up and soon.
It hadn’t been a surprise when Henry announced her uncle and the rest of the team were waiting for them at the safe house in Liverpool.
Henry had worked overtime to keep his daughter and Kala apart. He’d managed to plan their retreat so they left as the Canadians did, and there was no time to address the fact that Lucy was pretending to be Cooper’s lover. Then they broke up into groups, traveled via train, and met up here at this god-awful time of night.
She wished Zach didn’t have that hollow look in his eyes.
“Tequila?” Kala asked as she set down her bag. “He doesn’t even like tequila.”
Lucy tossed her bag down as well and turned on Kala. “Well, I had to do something since you took him in the barn and fucked him so senseless he walked in looking like a recently used sex doll.”
Kala growled. “How was I supposed to know he wouldn’t check himself in a damn mirror? You are trying to get me to think you slept with my husband.”
“Well, he wasn’t your husband at the time,” Lucy taunted.
So much drama. She moved to Zach. Despite everything she said earlier, she wanted to be close to him. She threaded her fingers through his and tilted her chin up. “Do you think there’s a place for them to spar?”
He gave her a halfhearted smile. “It’s a surprisingly big place for the city, but I don’t think they have a room dedicated to fight club.”
The Hideout did.
The train trip to Liverpool had been surprisingly short. She didn’t know a lot about Welsh geography, so she hadn’t known they were in the north and close to Liverpool. Lucy and Henry had taken the Jeep and managed to make it to the station just as their train pulled in.
There had been a lot of planning in that hour-long train ride. Mostly from Kala about where she was going to bury Lucy’s body.
“I’m praying there’s still some whiskey.” Henry seemed ready to throw his hands up. “Luce, I love you. I will honor all the wishes you have for your own funeral.”
“Dad, I told you why I did it,” she said with a frown, obviously unused to her father being upset with her.
“You have been poking that particular bear since before she even got here,” Henry shot back, walking down the long hall.
“I’m not sure they won’t kill each other right here,” Zach admitted.
“She’s not killing anyone.” Lou had her hands on a half-asleep TJ, as though she had to maneuver him to bed. “I still have the water bottle ready.”
TJ yawned. “Yeah, Lucy explained why she decided to make herself Cooper’s girlfriend. Now Parker definitely doesn’t think you’re together. What else has she done? I think it was all for the op.”
“For the op? Yeah, who is the donkey named after?” Kala cracked her knuckles. “You named all of those animals after someone you knew.”
“And I saved the worst for the most stubborn ass I’ve ever met. The Fabulous Miss K,” Lucy nearly hissed.
She heard Henry say something about thanking god and someone created this mess and then she heard the dulcet tones of her uncle.
“Well, it’s good to know nothing changes.” Ian Taggart stood at the end of the hall, hands in fists at his hips as he looked the group over. “Cooper, you ever do Lucy?”
“I didn’t even know she existed before a couple of weeks ago.” Cooper looked utterly relieved to see a man who was definitely going to yell at him. “But Lucy is right. I screwed up. I was late to the debrief and didn’t check myself. I wish she’d come up with something different, but at least now Parker does believe Kara and I are not together.”
“Ben?” A bubblegum-colored head popped around the corner. “Ben is here? Hey, Devi. How are you after all the torture and shit?”
Ben might not be here but the gang sure was. “The evil doctor torture or what Zach did to my asshole in a barn twelve hours ago?”
Zach started coughing.
Her uncle groaned. “And if Ben was here maybe you shouldn’t be bouncing in. You’ll give him a heart attack.”
“Yeah, well you said you would talk about letting Ben in if he proved sufficiently loyal. I would say this should prove his loyalty. He was willing to risk his job to do something crazy Kala came up with.” Kenzie turned back to the room she’d walked out of. “So much gossip. Tash, Devi’s doing Zach again. You were right. It didn’t take long.”
“Hey, I held out for weeks,” Devi argued.
“Uhm, no. I held out for weeks,” Zach countered.