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)
Zach shook his head. “You have no idea.”
TJ wrapped an arm around her, pulling her close. “We should go find her.”
“I think she needs a minute.” Lou knew she would. “I think we should get this club ready. She’s going to need some time in subspace. I know I could use some. Though in a way that’s easier on my backside.”
Zach groaned. “I’m actually happy I’m going to miss that. And let’s not forget we still haven’t figured out who set TJ up.”
But she was almost sure she knew. She only needed one more piece of information and then she could set the question to rest. “I think that’s going to be okay now.”
TJ’s brow rose. “Oh, you do?”
“Trust me,” she said. Her heart ached for Kenzie, but she couldn’t help but feel hope.
TJ brought his lips down to cover hers. “Implicitly. See. I properly used a big old vocabulary word.”
She grinned and wrapped her arms around the love of her life.
* * * *
“But he’s dead.”
An hour later, TJ sat back, staring at Lou’s laptop screen.
The Brits were gone, and no one knew exactly where Parker had gotten to. He’d left The Hideout and hadn’t looked back. Big Tag, Charlotte, and Zach were on their way to DC with Oliver and Sami. It was the core team sitting in the conference room, knocking back a couple of beers and bemoaning the events of the day.
Kala wasn’t in a good mood having dealt with Sims and a bunch of Agency lawyers. “Fucker causing trouble even after death. Tash, you know how to pick ’em, sister.”
Tasha’s jaw had dropped, but she looked up to stare at her sister. “I have excellent taste in men.”
“Now she does,” Dare said, looking cheerful.
Cooper shook his head. “Okay. Explain this to me. So Tasha’s ex-and-now-dead fiancé set all of this up. How did you figure it out?”
His smarty pants, soon-to-be wife pointed to her screen. “Well, I had a suspicion. Knowing that TJ had absolutely nothing to do with some arms dealer made me wonder why anyone would try to set him up. I know he can be annoying at times, but the truth is most people find him adorable.”
He found her adorable. “This wasn’t about me at all, was it?”
Lou shook her head. “Nope. It was all about Big Tag.”
Tasha sat back, her face flushing. “He told me he was going to find a way to make my dad look bad. I didn’t think he could do it. I certainly didn’t think he’d already set the plan in motion. Asshole. I really hate him. I wish I could kill him again.”
Tasha hadn’t killed him the first time. He’d died in prison, and Lou wondered if part of that wasn’t to cover up some of the crap he’d pulled. “I think Chet was in deep with a lot of scary people. But I can absolutely prove that he’s the one who moved the crypto. I managed to hack a couple of old systems. Also, I’m pretty sure the guy in the photo is TJ’s old CO, the one Kala killed.”
Kala tipped her beer Lou’s way. “Good times, man.”
“So this was something Chet set in motion even before the Australia op.” Kenzie had a glass of wine in front of her. The club was open and they could hear the thud of industrial music outside, but the team had decided to lock themselves in for now.
“About six weeks before, from what I can tell,” Lou explained. “He worked with TJ’s old CO to start the ball rolling, and I have to believe at some point he would have subtly pointed out to someone that Interpol was looking for a man who looked an awful lot like this guy he knew on one of the Special Forces teams.”
“But Huber picked it up first,” Cooper mused. “That was something Chet couldn’t have counted on. He wanted suspicion on TJ because suspicion on him puts it on Big Tag, too.”
“When we broke up, Chet was afraid my father would do something to fuck him over career-wise,” Tasha admitted. “He even told me he had plans in place to ensure that didn’t happen.”
“And it wouldn’t have been hard to convince Mike.” TJ shook his head at how things had played out. “He hated me. He loathed the fact that when we worked with this team, my uncle insisted on me being the liaison and not him.”
“Well, it goes against all military rules, and Big Tag knew that,” Cooper pointed out.
“My dad doesn’t care about rules. He would say he’s not in the military anymore, and Taggart rules are in play,” Kenzie said. “And that means we only trust family. A truth I should have remembered.”
“Kenz,” Kala began. “You’re being overly dramatic. I’m pissed at Parker, too, but I also get why he did what he did. I just got the file he’s worked up on Huisman, and if that fucker is half as bad as Parker says he is, I would have done the same thing.”