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)
He would be happy that she had walked in a room. His heart softened at the sight of her, and if he took his fear and shame out, he would simply love her.
He felt the freaking tear roll down his face, but he didn’t wipe it away. He was talking to one of the two women in the world who got his emotion, and he was looking at the other. If he was lucky, he would someday have a daughter and he wouldn’t ever want her to think her father couldn’t cry.
He smiled her way and held a hand up in greeting.
Her whole body seemed to soften. She waved to him and for a second he could see the MaeBe she’d been.
The one she could be again.
And then she walked away. But he’d seen it. He’d been open and she’d responded.
“Mom, what should I do?”
He sat back and stopped reacting. It was time to stop being the man Julia had turned him into and think and act like the one he wanted to be. The one MaeBe Vaughn deserved.
Chapter Twelve
He’d been crying.
Kyle Hawthorne had stood in the conference room with a phone to his ear and tears rolling down his cheeks, and her whole fucking soul had responded.
Her first impulse had been to run into that room and wrap her arms around him and tell him it would all be okay. She would do whatever he needed her to if it meant wiping those tears away.
Kyle didn’t cry. His emotions were joy or anger, and the joy was kind of muted because he was a manly man.
Vulnerable Kyle was so fucking dangerous.
Thank god Taylor had been behind her. They’d had a great talk at breakfast, and she felt comfortable with the woman. Perhaps she should still be suspicious, but she was starting to trust Taylor Cline.
She walked toward her cubicle as the door across the hall came open and a familiar figure walked out.
Erin Taggart’s normally taciturn face lit up. Erin was one of those women born with resting bitch face, but her active bitch face was so much scarier. And when she was happy, the woman could light up a room.
“Hey, you’re here. I heard a rumor you were getting shipped off by a Taggart-adjacent scaredy cat. I’m surprised to see you.”
She walked up and gave Erin the quick hug they always gave each other after they hadn’t seen the other for a couple of days. “Well, I told him what I thought of his plan and now I’m here. Have you met my friend Taylor Cline?”
Erin turned Taylor’s way. “No, but her reputation precedes her. Hey, I’m Erin Taggart. It’s nice to meet you. I think I worked with your dad on a couple of occasions. I was intelligence in the Army. Mr. Black comes off totally different with a thick Russian accent.”
Taylor’s face split into a big grin, and she shook Erin’s hand. “My dad loved working with military intelligence. So much more than his Agency contacts. It’s nice to meet you. And our girl here has decided she doesn’t want to go to Loa Mali. She’s had enough sun. I think she should come with us on our op.”
Erin laughed. “Holy shit. Did the boys think you would do their bidding?”
“I didn’t lie. But I’m also not sending a sister where she doesn’t want to go.” Taylor glanced around the office, taking it in. “Have you seen my boyfriend? He’ll be the one who’s ticked off I didn’t do as I was told. We should get this fight out of the way.”
“No fighting, baby.” Drake rounded the corner with Adam Miles behind him. “I don’t know what I was thinking. Chicks before dicks is your favorite phrase. I should have taken that as a warning.” He moved in and put a hand on Taylor’s hip, gently urging her close so he could press his lips to hers. “Did you two have a good plotting session? I would like to point out that this was Kyle’s plan. Not mine. So any plotting should be strictly against him.”
“We had pancakes,” Taylor replied with a smile. “Only a little plotting.”
They’d mostly talked about the case. It had been odd to listen to Taylor going over the horrors of what had happened to them in London. Taylor had been trying to go undercover, to become a Consortium agent so she could map the organization from the inside much like certain FBI agents had done with mafia organizations.
Though Julia Ennis hadn’t been her original contact, she’d been the Consortium agent Taylor had met with that night in London. Her first assignment—the one that would prove her willingness to work for the group—had been to assassinate Drake Radcliffe’s mother. Senator Samantha Radcliffe had no idea her daughter was still alive. She’d been mourning her, and now she had to mourn her husband as well. Don Radcliffe had been a double agent for years, working for the Agency at the highest levels, all the while holding a place with The Consortium and bringing his daughter in.