Total pages in book: 154
Estimated words: 145091 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 725(@200wpm)___ 580(@250wpm)___ 484(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 145091 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 725(@200wpm)___ 580(@250wpm)___ 484(@300wpm)
“I didn’t bring him here. He showed up on his own. How was I supposed to know he would react like that?” A young woman in a hotel uniform walked in, but Taylor barely noticed her because she wasn’t alone. She had a gun trained at Drake’s back as she forced him along.
Drake. Drake was here and he was in serious trouble.
Julia stopped and stared at her brother for a moment, her eyes wide in obvious surprise. “What the hell is he doing here? You told me he was working a job tonight.”
That answered one question. She didn’t know who Taylor was, and she hadn’t planned on her brother walking in.
“He was,” the woman in the service uniform said. “And then he figured out something was wrong and he took off running. I knew he was involved in another op here, an op he wasn’t willing to talk to me about. Why would you come here, Drake? And why the hell was Brad here?”
Taylor thought quickly. She had to get ahead of this or things could go very wrong. “Who is Brad? And that dude right there is Agency. I’ve seen him before. Have you fucked this up so badly that I’ve been made? Are you fucking kidding me?”
She’d learned that it was easier to throw people off with accusations than explanations. If they knew about the Agency team here, she needed to distance or Julia would simply blow her head off.
“I don’t know, Constance,” Julia said with a frown, looking the new girl’s way. “I’m not the one who literally works for the Agency and is supposed to know things like this. Lydia is. I asked you specifically what you knew about your boyfriend and why he was going to be in England. Maybe you’re working with Constance.”
Or Julia could try to turn it all around.
“I have no idea what the hell is going on here,” Drake said. He knelt down beside his mother, his face ashen. He reached for her hand. “Is she okay? What the hell did you do to her?”
Julia stared for a moment, and then her head fell back and she laughed. “For fuck’s sake. No one knows what’s going on. I asked Lydia to distract you while I did a job. She fucked it up somehow, and now you’re here. Does anyone want to explain why Brad’s here?”
“He was working with me.” Drake held his mother’s hand and didn’t pay a bit of attention to the guns trained on him. “We’re trying to identify the leak, and I think we’ve done it. How long have you been working with her, Lydia?”
“Since I realized you would never give a damn about me,” Lydia replied. “That no one gave a damn about me.”
“Brad did,” Drake shot back.
“Brad wasn’t capable of loving anyone more than he did the Agency.” Lydia’s eyes held a sheen of tears. “The Consortium is giving me a chance to have power. Far more power than I could ever achieve working for the government. Governments are outdated and outmoded. The Consortium is the future. The sheep don’t even see it coming and never will understand who their overlords are.”
Taylor let her eyes roll. It would have been hard to stop them. “Look, if that’s the level of fuckery you expect from your agents, I’m out. Did you take a class in overdramatic evil? I’m not going to stay here while you kill a senator and an Agency operative. Is he really your brother? This is completely messed up and you both need therapy.”
She needed some chaos. It appeared Brad was down, but that left Kyle, Tucker, and Jax. She had to buy them some time.
Julia’s head shook. “You’re not going anywhere. I have to think. I have to figure out what Drake is doing here and if Lydia is working with him. She always had a thing for him.”
“I’m not working with him,” Lydia argued. “And we need to hurry. The helicopter is waiting, but it can’t stay on the pad all night.”
“I’m here trying to save our parents. I figured out what you’re planning. Are you going to kill them both?” Drake ignored Taylor completely.
“Our parents?” Julia had two guns, one in each hand. “You still act like we’re some happy family and I’m the only one who messed it all up. You act like I’m the outlier. I’m not. Do you honestly think she didn’t know?”
“I know she didn’t know,” Drake replied.
Taylor’s heart ached for him, but she was watching the woman who had a gun trained on him. She would have to get it away from her. They were so outnumbered, and Drake didn’t seem to have a weapon on him.
But he did have blood. A lot of blood. Was he hit? Or was that Brad’s blood?
“Of course she knew,” a deep voice said. “She knew deep down, but your mother prefers to ignore problems. She likes to pretend we’re a normal American family like the ones she purports to represent.”