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)
Had he betrayed her because he was jealous of Kyle?
She stalked through the familiar halls, her mind whirling as her cell rang.
It was the new John. She stared down at the phone. Could she trust him? Could she trust anyone at all? She slid her finger across the screen to accept the call even as she made it to the landing where she could watch the big guard she thought was named Ken drag MaeBe in. Usually she didn’t believe in letting men hurt women unless it was absolutely necessary, but she would allow this one. This act of anger and misogyny would let MaeBe know what was going to happen when a real expert had her.
“Did you get it?” There was only one thing that mattered more than whatever knowledge MaeBe had.
“I have it, and I’ve already looked through some of it,” John said over the line. “I can verify a couple of the items in this report. Some it’s going to take time. However, if this is true, your father had a lot of material on the board. What the hell was he planning on using this for?”
She didn’t have time to explain things to him. The truth was, she might have to deal with him sooner rather than later. It might be time to work on her own.
John couldn’t be alive. MaeBe was lying, and she intended to find out why.
“Get back here and fast. I need you to deal with the Taggarts,” she said as she took the stairs quickly. The guest room was code for torture chamber. It was really an interrogation room, but her father had taught her that interrogations went so much faster when there was torture involved. “They won’t wait long.”
“We need to talk about this,” John insisted. “This is dangerous information. If The Consortium ever…”
She cut him off, anger rising. “We’ll talk when you get the job done. Get back here and contact the Taggarts. Give them some bullshit about picking up the kid in thirty minutes somewhere in DC.”
“Well, I don’t have the kid,” John pointed out.
He wasn’t as smart as she’d hoped. “I didn’t intend for that to be the actual pickup spot. I’m not an idiot. If we give Taggart a real time and a real place, he’ll have a whole team waiting for us. But I need him to think this is happening now. Then we’ll leave the kid somewhere in the woods. I’m sure she can find her way out. It’ll keep her parents occupied while we move Kyle to the island. Get everything ready. We’ll leave as soon as we dump the kid.”
She was no longer considering keeping the kid around. Up until a few moments before it had been an actual thought in her head. She could use something like family, and the girl would be an excellent way to keep Kyle in line until she could get through to him. She could teach the girl as her father had taught her. It could be fun.
But the thought that John wasn’t who he was supposed to be had unsettled her.
Luckily she’d caught another little fish who might do well. The question was how many others had she brought with her?
Though it would be like a man to not listen to a woman. She could see Taggart ignoring poor MaeBe’s warnings. It wasn’t like she herself hadn’t dealt with men who didn’t listen to logic. Drake would have told her to follow whatever plan he’d come up with. Another man who thought he knew everything.
“You’re probably correct about Taggart,” John was saying. “But we’re going to have to talk about what’s on this drive. I’ll make the call now and set the meeting at the Lincoln Memorial. It’ll still be packed at this time of day.”
It would be chaotic, and that was exactly what she needed. “Good. I’ll talk to you when you get back.”
She hung up. She was going to have to figure out how to deal with the new John. The old John would never have questioned her. He would have verified the data and passed it over to her.
Had that perfect obedience hidden his real agenda?
“Ma’am, the power is back on, and I rebooted the security system.” There was a guard waiting at the end of the stairs. “It’s working now. I think there was a glitch in the system, but not long enough to go to the generator. Do you want me to go and do a perimeter check?”
Something wasn’t right. It pricked along her spine, that feeling that something was about to happen and she wasn’t ready for it. She should lock everything down.
And then the guard dragged MaeBe in, and all she could feel was rage.
MaeBe’s head came up. “Just let me see Kyle. I’ll tell you what you want if you let me see Kyle.”