Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 80660 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 323(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80660 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 323(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
Because they’d loved each other. They’d loved each other as fiercely as her twins did. Even at this young an age, Kenzie and Kala had each other’s backs. They watched out for each other in a way few children did. Bonded. They were fiercely bonded.
“Oh, god. It’s my fault.” Her hands tightened on the wheel as the truth rolled over her. “They’re not like you. They’re like me.”
“Well, I did manage to support my sibling in a legal fashion,” Ian said quietly. “I worked as a bagger and cleaned up at a fast food joint. You managed to become a teenaged assassin and then built one of the world’s most notorious information brokerages. And I find you endlessly fascinating, too. I know it makes you crazy that I love it when the twins do bonkers shit, but it’s all because when they do it, I am reminded of just how much I love their mother. Their mother is a crazy bitch who rocks my world every single time she enters a room. Their mother is the best woman I’ve ever met and I want my kids—the girls and the boys—to be every bit as smart and savvy and badass as their mama.”
Damn. Now she wanted to pull off on the side of the road and mount him at the first possible opportunity. Mount that man and ride him hard because he was hers and she was his. Because they made badass babies who might bring about the apocalypse and burn the world down, but they were going to be such amazing women someday. Women who could fight for what they believed in. Women who pushed the world forward.
Their daughters.
“You know Miss Mayberry never once mentioned that Kala already has amazing math skills,” Charlie said. “That teacher just talked about the bad stuff. How many kids know what it means to set up an army in a flanking position? From what I could tell between the teacher’s sobs, Kala’s battle plans were nearly perfect.”
“Damn straight they were. And I’ll give you a better one. That crossbow was locked up in the safe. They figured out my damn password.”
A thrill of terror went through her. “Holy shit. I thought one of them was watching me. I took out the Ruger to go with Erin and Phoebe to the shooting range the other day and Kenzie kept making up excuses to stay close. They’ve been planning this. I shouldn’t have let them watch Brave. They’ve been obsessed with bows and arrows since then.”
“I…I don’t think it was Brave.” His face was tense in that way that let her know she wouldn’t like what he said next.
“What did you do?”
“I thought The Hunger Games was about food. You know how much they like watching food talk,” he spit out. “It came on cable and I might have fallen asleep. It was right after Seth was born and then they totally blackmailed me so they could watch the second one, but I found out what happened in the third and I got dirt on them so we had mutually assured destruction and they haven’t seen Mockingjay. No way. No how.”
Her babies had blackmailed their father.
She’d blackmailed her dad. Oh, sure, he’d been a horrible Russian mobster who she’d eventually maneuvered into a position where she’d had him killed to save her and her sister’s lives, but…like mother like daughter.
“Charlie, baby, I know they make you crazy but they are the best things in the whole fucking world. I love my nieces and nephews—both blood and found—but damn, they’re sheep compared to our little psychopaths. Seth is my boy. He’s going to be dumb and strong, and he’s going to need his big sisters to show him who to beat the shit out of. They’re going to run the Agency, baby. I know it. I’ve already seen Fain looking them over. He’s not a weird pervert so I’m pretty sure he’s sizing them up as potential operatives. I’ll be happy if we can just keep them out of the business through college.”
They were super smart. A little ruthless for baby girls. And so much her and Ian.
“And they’re marrying Americans. Now that Damon has a boy I have to worry about foreigners,” Ian pronounced. “I’m instituting an arranged marriage thing in our family. Americans only. No Brits and dear god, no Canadians allowed.”
She groaned. He was so obnoxious. “Just because you don’t like their bacon doesn’t mean Canadians can’t make good partners.”
Almost home. She got off the freeway. Was that a glow in the distance? Had Malone lied and the fire was still raging? Was their house in flames? Had they gotten the kids and Bud out? Had someone pulled the arrow out of Boomer’s leg and he’d bled out on her living room floor and they would have to deal with his poor, sad, likely still hungry dead body.