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)
It had all been a lie. MaeBe had told her she couldn’t forgive Kyle, but here she was, a pathetic creature begging for love from a man who shouldn’t be bothered to look at her. She wasn’t beautiful or exciting or even intelligent. She was nothing compared to Julia.
Was this what Kyle wanted? This mewling idiot?
The instinct that she was in trouble dimmed in face of the real threat. Nothing was more important than Kyle and proving to him once and for all who was the right woman for him.
“Take her inside.”
Julia wanted to be alone with her adversary.
Only one of them would walk out of that room.
Chapter Twenty-Two
The minute the lights blinked on and off, Kyle knew the game had changed and he had to be ready.
He looked over to where Kala had been lying on her back, seeming to nap, but now she shifted, turning to her side, and easing up to sitting.
He would give it to his cousin. She was a cool customer. She glanced over and the guard was yawning. He might not have even noticed.
How many guards were in the house right now? He’d counted a solid eight, but had overheard two talking about who would be going to DC to take the drop-off.
When he’d heard the word drop-off, he’d known they were moving into the most dangerous time he and Kala would face, and it had happened far faster than he’d thought it would. He’d expected at least another couple of days.
Unless they’d found the intel exactly where they’d thought they would.
Or…unless MaeBe had found a way around it all. Giving Julia the intel was dangerous to the world. Keeping it would be dangerous to him and Kala.
So the only way MaeBe could meet both needs would be to fake it all.
His adrenaline started pumping as the door above came open.
“Hey, everything okay down there?” a deep voice asked.
At least two. Two guards close to them. There would be more, but she would have sent several to protect that all-valuable data. Julia was paranoid and almost certain there were other Consortium operatives watching her. If they’d started with nine, they would definitely be down to at least six. Maybe less.
The guard sat up straight and tried to cover a yawn. “It’s fine. What’s going on?”
“You didn’t see the lights flicker?” the mercenary asked. “Are you fucking sleeping again? I warned you about that. Check the security cameras.”
“Fuck. It looks like the Internet is out. I’ve got to reset it.” The guard moved over to the bank of tech equipment.
“I have to go to the bathroom.” Kala stood up and moved to the bars.
“In a minute, kid.” The guard sighed as he looked over the many high-tech blinking boxes with their lights and multitudinous switches.
“Is it back up? You know she’s going to freak out if some power surge knocks out her cameras,” the guard above said. “I don’t want to deal with her. John’s not here, and she’s a mean bitch when he’s not around.”
So she’d sent John.
Kala’s hands held on to the bars as she looked out. “I really have to go.”
Something was about to happen. He knew it. That power surge wasn’t a coincidence.
“We’ve had three surges since we got here. It’s an old house,” the guard argued as he flipped a switch and then waited.
Or it could be coincidence.
Either way, he needed to be ready.
Could they have figured out where Julia would take them? Yes. Absolutely. MaeBe could find him. If anyone could, it was her, and if she could, his uncle and aunt would come up with a plan. If they had any doubt at all that Julia might not honor the deal, they would do what they had to. For some people that would mean bringing in the authorities. For his family it meant taking matters into their own well-armed hands.
Which meant this all would go down very quickly.
“Dude, I’m going to pee myself if you don’t let me out of here,” Kala insisted.
The guard growled and went back to look at the monitors. “She should have put a fucking bucket in there.” He glanced at the security cameras which appeared to have come back online. Appeared being the operative word.
How would they come in?
“The cameras are fine,” the guard said.
“We have a situation up here,” the man on the stairs announced. “Check the locks and get your ass up here. Someone’s on the grounds.”
They must be down to a small team if they were leaving he and Kala alone.
“What do I do about the kid? I don’t think we have anymore clothes, and I don’t want to sit in a car with her if she’s covered in pee.”
“She can wait.” Kyle didn’t want to get separated at this point.
“No, I can’t.” Kala managed to squeeze out a tear and look an awful lot like her sister. Despite the fact that they were twins, it was always easy to tell the difference between them. Kala was hard where Kenzie was soft. Some of that vulnerability her twin never hid was coming out right now, and he could see it was working on the guard.