Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 81076 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 405(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81076 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 405(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
To this day, no one knows what became of Gareth.
Did he go on the run before it was too late? Or will Bad Dog officials come across a body wearing his signature purple tracksuit someday?
Judging from what I know of Cassie Ann and her people, I’d bet on the former—they truly do seem to avoid violence whenever possible—but there’s a chance it could be the latter, and I’m not willing to take any chances with Nora’s safety.
Beautiful, sexy, clever, stubborn as hell Nora, the woman who, for months, has been making it hard to imagine leaving Bad Dog…
And who just made it a little bit harder…
“I’m not in the FBI,” I say firmly.
Her nose twitches the way it does when she’s sniffing for a story. I swear, the woman should have been a reporter, not a fashion designer. “You sound like you’re telling the truth.”
“I am telling the truth,” I say, because I am.
You actually have to work to be recruited by the FBI. You have to be motivated to serve in law enforcement and, most of the time, politically connected in some way. But if you’re a fourteen-year-old polyglot who can learn new languages in a month or less, the CIA comes to you.
I was recruited at a Model United Nations camp my junior year—an extracurricular forced upon me by my French teacher. She caught me sneaking into her classroom to make out with my date to the homecoming dance and threatened to call my parents if I didn’t nerd up for her favorite after-school activity.
I’ve been working undercover for the Central Intelligence Agency in one capacity or another ever since.
For over fifteen years, I’ve hidden in plain sight at stock car races, polo matches, and everything in between, quietly absorbing life-and-country-threatening information in a wide variety of languages that I’ve passed on to the government without anyone being the wiser.
And yes, the Sweetwater case is the first time I’ve been tasked with infiltrating a criminal organization, but I was killing it. I’ve been fully immersed in Bad Dog’s underworld for nearly a year without anyone in my life catching on. My friends, my family, even the nosy neighbors who make it their business to come poke around my house anytime I’m gone for more than a day or two—none of them suspected a thing.
And then, one day in the park a few months back, I ran back into the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen and saved her from being molested by a horny squirrel.
Overnight, everything changed.
Nora sees things other people don’t, sees through me in a way no one ever has before. Which makes sense, I guess. According to Melissa, my twin sister, Nora has been studying me since we were kids.
Stalking was the word Mel used, but that feels too intense.
If Nora had been stalking me, surely, I would have noticed.
But I didn’t.
Thanks to my big brain and language skills, I skipped three grades, so even though Nora and I are the same age, we never had classes together. But she’s always been breathtaking, one of those shining, perfect people who look like they’re not quite real.
That’s probably why I didn’t pay as much attention to her in school as the rest of the male population. After skipping ahead so many grades, I was always smaller than the rest of the guys in my class. No matter how hard I tried to bulk up, I remained shorter and skinnier than most teen girls prefer when it comes to a boyfriend. I didn’t put on any real muscle until I was well out of high school, and by then I’d been sucked so deeply into the “glamorous” world of a newly minted CIA agent, I didn’t have time for pretty girls.
Only that world turned out to be not so glamorous.
It’s actually deeply and profoundly lonely.
There’s so much I can’t tell anyone, even the people I love the most. After years of keeping secrets and telling lies to ensure my family’s safety, all I feel is isolated, and past ready to retire and find a job where I can just be me.
Just Matty McGuire…whoever that guy is.
Fuck, if I know.
I’ve spent my entire adult life pretending to be someone I’m not. I’m not even sure how to move forward from here, but I know it will be a hell of a lot harder if I botch my last mission and end up leaving Nora in need of witness protection protocols.
“So, then…you’re really a criminal?” Nora’s big blue eyes grow even bigger, filling with disappointment as she adds, “But Matty, why? You’re so much better than that. You’re not a criminal. You’re a hero.”
I exhale a harsh breath. “I’m not a hero.”
If I were a real hero, I would have stayed the hell away from Nora and made damned sure she didn’t end up in a situation like this. A horny squirrel, a pissed off pirate cat, and a ghost are all challenging things to handle on your own—especially if you’re terrified of animals—but they’re way less scary than the mob.