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)
Yeah, he missed his mom. His mom might be able to talk him through this if he wasn’t such a stubborn asshole.
“We’re supposed to leave in the morning,” Drake pointed out.
Taylor glanced her boyfriend’s way. “You know it wouldn’t hurt to have backup. We can’t use Agency resources on this.”
“It’ll take more than Agency resources to get MaeBe on a plane to Loa Mali,” his uncle said with an arrogant grin.
“How do you know about that?” Kyle hadn’t told anyone what he’d arranged. No one but Drake and Taylor knew, and they wouldn’t have told his uncle. That wasn’t exactly true. The king, Kashmir Kamdar, had been informed.
“Who do you think trained the guards at the palace? Who vets anyone coming through?” his uncle asked.
“I did a favor for the king a couple of years back. I thought he would repay me by not immediately snitching to my uncle,” he admitted.
“I don’t know if it was immediate or if he took some time before he called me, but I assure you Kash owes me more.” Ian held up a hand as Alex slid out of the SUV.
Alex was a big dude in sweats and a T-shirt, his hair rumpled as though he’d rolled out of bed to make this meeting. Which he probably had. “All right, I’m here and I brought a shovel. This better be a practical joke and not a real…” He sighed as he caught sight of Kyle and Drake. “Fucking Agency. How many bodies are we dealing with, and don’t you guys have your own cleaners?”
Ian leaned against his own big-ass SUV. His uncle drove a Navigator that proved that Ian Taggart did not eat nails for breakfast. Oh, he might look like it on the outside, but the man liked luxury. The Nav used to be Charlotte’s, but she’d exchanged it for what she called the cutest Volvo ever. “The young ones have gone rogue, apparently. They can’t use Agency resources.”
“Ah, so they’ve come to the old guys,” Alex said with a shake of his head. “What’s the plan? Not for the body. We’ll deal with the body, and no, we are not burying it in Julian’s backyard. And no, you’re not using acid. We’re putting this asshole on ice until we can ID him, and once things go back to normal Drake will deal with it.”
“Where are you going to store a body? It sounds like you know exactly what you’re going to do and where you’re going to put it. Has this been going on for a long time?” He had the weirdest family. “Does Aunt Charlotte know?”
His aunt joked a lot about proper cleaning techniques when it came to bodies. At least he’d always thought she was joking. He knew she’d once been a mafia assassin, but he’d thought those days were over.
“It’s fine, Kyle. You don’t have to worry about it. That’s why you called me. Alex and I will get what we need to ID this asshole and then stash him until you’re in a place where you can take care of things. You bring everyone by the office in the morning, and we want the whole story. I mean everything.” Ian stood up straight and looked to his best friend of over thirty years. “You want head or tails?”
“I want to be home in bed with my wife. My cleaning days are supposed to be over,” Alex complained.
“Come on, man. It’ll be fun. Open your trunk,” Ian countered.
Alex’s head shook. “Absolutely not. We’re not using my car.”
Ian slapped a hand on his Nav. “This baby is a Black Label. My children know that if they so much as sneeze on her they are disinherited. Yours still smells like curdled milk from seven years ago. Why do you think I called you? Li went middle-aged crazy and bought that Porsche. A living body barely fits into it. Jake drives a truck, and while that guy won’t care about being exposed to the elements, there are lots of cameras that will find him deeply interesting. I would call Erin. Her SUV is pretty bad, but she gets cranky when she doesn’t get a full eight hours.”
“So do I,” Alex growled back but then he laughed. “All right, but you’re buying the waffles. It’s a rule. Waffles come after body clean up.”
They were practically a comedy duo, but he did not have time for that, and his uncle needed to understand that he had a plan in place. The fact that Ian knew some of it didn’t change what he needed to do. “We’re going to be on a plane to Loa Mali in a few hours. I will be more than happy to teleconference with you and bring you up to date.”
“It wouldn’t be terrible to bring Damon Knight and even Tennessee Smith in if they’re willing to help,” Drake said. “I’m not sure exactly where we’re going to be, but I know we’ll be in Europe and possibly Asia.”