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 knew it was some scam artist,” his father said with a huff. “Knew it the minute your mother woke me up. Always trying to take advantage of us. I’m going to get the car. Drake, it was good to see you, son. Thank you for handling this for your mother, but the next time we’ll call the authorities and not bother you.”
His father pushed back from the table and walked away.
His mother sighed. “He’s still struggling. He doesn’t like to talk about it. I think it’s his way of distancing. He’s perfectly fine unless I want to talk about Julia, and then he shuts down.”
“We all handle grief in different ways.” Or in his father’s case it was probably more guilt than real grief. He needed to remember that just because he couldn’t see his father’s guilt, that didn’t mean it wasn’t there. He’d never been an openly emotional man. Years of working for the Agency, of hiding who he was, had hardened his outer shell.
Sometimes he could feel that shell forming around himself. If he wasn’t careful, he would end up like his father—unable to even feel for the daughter he’d lost.
Was that why he was so painfully crazy about Taylor? Because she made him feel something that had nothing to do with job or duty?
His mother nodded and then sat back. “That’s what I tell myself. He seems distant since she went missing. I think he blames himself. You know he helped her get that job.”
Oh, he knew that quite well. “Yes, but Julia would have found a way. She always wanted to travel, and she could be fearless.”
Mostly because she was deadly. She didn’t fear because she didn’t truly have feelings. With the exception of rage and selfishness. He often wondered if she would have made it past the evaluations had she not been the daughter of Donald Radcliffe. Malignant narcissists didn’t make the best operatives. The Agency always looked for a certain moral flexibility in their field agents, but the capacity for true loyalty tended to be a need as well. Julia was loyal to no one but herself.
“I simply want to know what happened.” His mother stared at the floral arrangement on the table, though he was sure she was seeing something else. “I know she went hiking on one of the outer islands and was never seen again. I sit up at night and think about what could have happened to her. Did she fall? Was she taken by someone? The not knowing eats at me every day.”
He needed to fix that.
Would it be wrong to ask Taylor to help him fake his sister’s death? To build a fiction that would give his mom some peace? Of course this time he should make sure she was actually dead first.
“I’m sorry I ruined your vacation.” His mother took a sip of her iced tea and nodded to someone a couple of tables from theirs.
Drake glanced over. Congressman Andres. He didn’t have enough fingers and toes to count all the wealthy, powerful political figures in the room.
Such fertile spy ground. There would be a couple in this room, too. At least two or three who reported back to countries who wanted to know what was happening in the States.
And then there would be the spies who worked for corporations. Lobbyists liked intel, too.
Were any of them watching him right now?
Sometimes he wished he didn’t know what he did about that dark part of the world.
“Well, I should be going. I have a meeting with some people who are bringing me up to speed on the forum.” She grabbed her Chanel bag, setting it on her lap. “Did I mention your father and I will be there? Aren’t you going? It’s in London. What exactly are you doing there? I’m not sure why the DoD is sending people.”
“There are several panels on protecting business interests in dangerous political climates. Specifically when it comes to mega corporations, in this case medical tech and pharma. There are some new technologies coming out that my bosses are worried could be used for more than medical advances. I’m pretty sure Defense and Homeland Security are sending people.” He sat up and wished he’d been able to drink. His mom had been sober for thirty years, and while she didn’t mind people drinking around her, he preferred to honor her sobriety. But sometimes he really needed a drink. “You’re going to be in London?”
“Yes. It’s the funniest thing,” she said. “We were sending Senator Phan, but he was in a car accident. Luckily he wasn’t seriously hurt, but he broke his leg. The majority leader thinks we need a presence there given how many new therapies they’re talking about at this conference, so I was the next in line.”
His mother was a long-term member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.