Total pages in book: 155
Estimated words: 146392 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 732(@200wpm)___ 586(@250wpm)___ 488(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 146392 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 732(@200wpm)___ 586(@250wpm)___ 488(@300wpm)
She winced because this fact wasn’t going to help her case. “He’s in banking.”
Erin sat up. “So he would know how to move crypto around.”
“But I seriously doubt he would know how to track a Special Forces soldier,” Lou argued. “He would have to have serious contacts.”
“If it’s him, then you definitely aren’t seeing him again,” TJ said, arms crossed over his chest.
“Wait, she’s still dating after what she did with you on this couch?” Erin asked. “Son, we need to talk about your technique.”
Big Tag shook his head. “Lou said they didn’t do it on the couch.”
“They obviously did it on the couch,” his brother shot back.
“It’s not Dennis.” Lou could only deal with one Taggart at a time, and in this case TJ had her attention.
“You don’t think it’s pure coincidence that he comes back into your life at the same moment someone is trying to set me up to take a fall?” TJ returned, his eyes steady on her.
She didn’t see the logic behind it. “What does he get out of it?”
“Revenge.” TJ obviously did.
“Brother, if you can’t smell sex, then we need to get you to a doctor,” Theo was saying. “Isn’t loss of smell a sign of a stroke?”
“No, it is not,” Erin replied, but she was watching Ian and Theo with a grin on her face like she lived for this.
Which she did. “We did it on the back of the couch.” She turned to TJ. “Aren’t you forgetting that there were a couple of people on your team who didn’t like you at all?”
She didn’t want to get into this, but she didn’t think spending time checking into Dennis Sims would be a good use of resources. And why Zach? It was too much of a coincidence that the person walking with TJ was wearing an identical jacket to one Zach owned.
Who would know he wore that jacket? Not Dennis Sims.
“The only people who didn’t like me are dead because Kala killed them,” TJ replied.
“The back of the freaking couch counts, Louisa Ward.” Big Tag was on his feet and staring her down with his best mad-dad expression. It was one she knew well.
“No lady parts touched the couch,” Lou argued.
“Well, none today,” Erin said with a nod.
“And just because someone is dead doesn’t mean the plans they put in motion before they died… Wait, what does that mean?” Lou frowned as she remembered the reception she’d had up here because there was a lovely view and Drew Lawless threw an amazing holiday party that he invited the MT group to every year. “Whose lady parts would touch my pristine couch where I sit every day?”
TJ was shaking his head like it was his damn job.
“None ever,” Erin agreed with the confidence of a woman who knew how to lie.
“On my couch?” Lou had mooned over TJ on that couch. His parents shouldn’t be livening up their long-term marriage on it. It didn’t feel fair.
“I’m pretty sure Kala and Cooper almost did it there,” TJ admitted. “But then she got mad and punched him in the face.”
“Good for Kala,” Big Tag said.
Erin threw him a nasty look. “Yeah, because it’s so healthy.”
Another thought hit her. “I left Tasha in here when we were working a couple of weeks ago, and when I got back Dare was here. But it was only a couple of minutes.”
“And that is all they need,” Theo said with a sigh.
She didn’t want to know. She was calling the cleaning crew. Big Tag was pacing like a lion in a cage, and if she didn’t take control, this meeting would devolve. “It doesn’t matter.” It was natural. Well, natural for the people in her family. Actually, when she thought about it, bringing anyone else in would be problematic. She probably should stay with TJ because at least she wouldn’t have to explain his uncle to someone new. “I’ll send you everything I have so far. And I’m pretty sure I found something on the files Kala managed to get out. It’s what we thought it was.”
Big Tag seemed to get serious. “They taped his interrogation?”
She’d spent a couple of hours this morning listening to them torture TJ. “Yes.”
Erin’s jaw tightened. “I’d like to hear it.”
“Mom, there’s nothing on there that would help,” TJ countered. “It’s torture and me screaming when I couldn’t hold it in. Also, there’s a point where I kind of threw you under the bus. They basically told me they would go after you or Devi or Lou. I pulled a whole ‘not my sweet, elderly mom’ thing.”
Erin stood and crossed the space between her and her son, putting her hands on his cheeks. “You should always send them my way because I am your mother and I will slay every monster for you.”
Tears pricked Lou’s eyes because Erin was a good foot shorter than her son and he weighed a hundred pounds more, and Erin meant every word. She would stand between her son and whatever came his way. The way Lou’s mom would.