Total pages in book: 165
Estimated words: 154925 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 775(@200wpm)___ 620(@250wpm)___ 516(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154925 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 775(@200wpm)___ 620(@250wpm)___ 516(@300wpm)
His aunt looked more casual than she normally did. Likely because he’d gotten her out of bed. She wore yoga pants and a sweatshirt, her strawberry blonde hair in a messy pile on her head. She’d been pacing at the back of the office, her phone to her ear. “Ian, be nice.”
“Don’t take offense. He does this to pretty much everyone.” MaeBe looked absolutely none the worse for the wear. “You should only get worried when he gets quiet. As long as he’s laughing, he won’t hurt anyone.”
“I’m not laughing.” Drake was watching the man like a hawk. He and Taylor were the only ones left from their truncated game night.
The man he’d known as John Smith shrugged it all off. “I’ve heard worse. Trust me. I’ve been undercover with The Consortium for two years now. I’ve been called every name in the book. They aren’t particularly kind to employees. And we’re not even allowed to unionize. Also, I’ve been Canadian all my life. I know Americans are assholes.”
John Smith had explained that his real name was Joseph Caulder, and he was originally from the suburbs of Toronto. They hadn’t gotten much further than that, and Charlotte was checking out his story with some Canadian contacts.
Big Tag pointed Joseph’s way. “He’s not Canadian. He cursed. Shoot him.” Big Tag kind of wheezed the words out. “No. Don’t. I can’t do it. I love him for that joke alone.”
His aunt and uncle had gotten to the office very quickly. Ian had dealt with the guard, who’d cried a lot, and then left Boomer and Deke to deal with the bodies. He hoped there was room in that freezer.
His stepdad was going to kill him.
“When you interrogate a subject, do you force-feed them your weird bacon? Is that how you do it?” his uncle was asking.
It was blatantly obvious he was going to have to take control of this situation. He turned to the other man. “Why should I believe you?”
“Mrs. Hutchins explained to you that she was never in any real danger.” Joseph glanced around as though looking for threats—which proved he had a brain in his head because they were all threats. “I never let her out of my sight.”
“She had to be carried out of here.” Kyle was fairly certain she would have been fine with her cane, but Hutch wasn’t letting her go anywhere without him. He’d apparently decided the best way to keep track of his wife was to carry her around everywhere.
“I am sorry about that. When Julia sent me here, she hired those mercenaries. They weren’t exactly careful,” he explained. “She twisted her ankle when she tried to run. I kept her close to me after that. I knew damn well Ms. Vaughn wouldn’t come down alone. She’s far smarter than that, so all I had to do was bide my time.”
“What was Julia thinking?” His uncle suddenly sounded slightly serious.
“She wasn’t. From what I can tell she talked with Ms. Vaughn earlier this evening and it sent her into a rage. She’d intended to talk to your nephew,” Joseph explained.
“How did she know I was here?” After the events in London, he’d left the hospital without telling anyone where he was going. He’d made his way to Dallas and planned how to protect MaeBe. He’d only called in Drake and Taylor when he had it all in place.
“It was a good bet that you would come back here. She sent me out when she realized you’d gotten out of London.” Joseph turned to Drake. “I’m sorry that my replacement won’t give you much intel. I would bet he doesn’t know much. They likely picked him strictly because he looked enough like me he could fool a casual guard.”
“He’s dead,” Drake said flatly.
Joseph’s expression went blank. “I suppose I should have expected that.” He seemed to shake it off. “Anyway, Julia has a brilliant if wicked mind. However she is running on emotion now, and that’s when she’s both vulnerable and at her deadliest. You can’t trust her to make a logical decision, as you’ve seen this evening. I would have tried to talk her out of it, but she wasn’t going to budge. I went along to ensure no one got hurt.”
Kyle studied the other man, his mind going over their every encounter. “I’ve tangled with you several times now, and tonight is the first time you’ve ever helped us out. I think you realized we had you cornered and came up with this plan to stay alive.”
“Haven’t helped you?” Joseph turned MaeBe’s way. “How many organs did you lose, love? When you were stabbed a few months ago?”
Kyle started to see red. He’d thought Julia might have had something to do with that, but if this fucker had done it, he was about to get stabbed, too. Kyle had knives. He never went anywhere without them. He could see exactly how he would do it. He could slowly open the guy’s gut and force him to watch as his bowels slid out.