Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 136425 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 682(@200wpm)___ 546(@250wpm)___ 455(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 136425 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 682(@200wpm)___ 546(@250wpm)___ 455(@300wpm)
Shannon shook her head, fear on her face. “Please, Mr. Taggart. I would rather die than have to work for anyone. I won’t make another one. Not even for the Agency.”
The chopper landed in the bay, and Devi started to move.
Zach stopped her. He pulled her close and whispered in her ear. “It’s all for show. They’re going to take her to a black ops site and then when the coast is clear, they’re going to move her to Bliss. She’s going to stay there from now on, and we’ll put the word out that she’s working for us. We’re doing it here because Huisman will see it. He’s still watching us. So cry a little for me.”
She was the one who was going to sell it. The rest would be in on it. She pulled back and shook her head. “You can’t.”
She played the scene out, putting all her adrenaline and fear into it. By the time they took Shannon away, she was weeping in Zach’s arms.
He carried her to their helo. He sat down, cradling her on his lap. “You were perfect.”
She sniffled.
“You were excellent, niece.” Her uncle took the copilot seat. “There’s a place for you if you decide to give up the whole clothes thing.”
“Abso-fucking-lutely not.” Zach’s arms wound around her.
“Oh, hey, maybe not on the missions’ part, but I definitely need her on the design front.” Lou looked cheerful now that they were out of range of the security cams. “I think the field test went well.”
“I think Kenzie might have thought about her mission more if she’d been wearing a chastity belt,” her uncle complained.
The pilot door opened, and Coop hopped in. “Is Shannon off okay?”
“She’s good. Drake’s explaining it to her before they go to the first site,” Zach explained. “And he’s smoothed things over with the base we stole this sucker from.”
“Excellent. Jail was not how I wanted to end the day.” He started his precheck.
Kala stepped into the back, followed by a glowing Kenzie.
Kala looked at Devi and made a gagging sound before taking her seat.
Kenzie sat down beside her.
A laugh went through Devi because she felt safe and warm. “Just tell us.”
“She doesn’t have to. We saw it,” TJ complained.
Kenzie ignored them and told her tale.
Devi sat back, utterly happy with where she was.
Zach still had things he would need to do. Huisman was still out there. Her cousins were in danger.
But as long as they were together, they would win.
Epilogue
Dallas, TX
Many years later
There were days when Theo Taggart wondered what his life would have been like had he not had his past ripped from his brain. Days when the memories that were still gone would surface and whisper along his mind like a ghost trying to take him to the past.
He’d learned long ago how to deal with them.
Despite the crowd milling around Top’s private banquet hall, he let the world shrink down, followed the training that had become so engrained in him by the deeply caring professionals who had created whole protocols to help him deal with his trauma.
In that moment he thanked them. Kai and Eve. He said a quiet prayer of gratitude and began the process.
He took a long breath and let the memory flow over him. A vision of the most beautiful woman in the world punching him in the gut assailed him. He could practically feel the air whooshing from his lungs.
Damn, that woman took his breath away. He didn’t fight to stay in the memory, simply let it be.
“You okay, Dad?”
He opened his eyes and his baby girl stood there looking up at him. She was her mother’s mini me at one point, though there was zero doubt that kid had a lot of his soul. “I’m good.”
“What was it?” Devi Taggart-Reed might be a mother of two and wife with many years of happy marriage under her belt, but she remembered her childhood.
They talked about what happened to him. Even when she and TJ were kids. He’d never hidden the fact that it was hard for him to remember most of his life before Hope McDonald had experimented on his brain. He’d gotten back a lot, but it was by using methods like this one. Not chasing the memory. Simply letting it come, feeling the emotions connected to it, and then talking.
Sometimes he wasn’t completely sure if the memories he had from those methods were true or some variation his brain created to fill the void.
He no longer cared. All that mattered were the feelings. The love. The passion. The deep sense that this was right and he was home.
“I got a little flash of how your mom and I met the first time.”
Devi grinned. “You mean the first time she kicked your ass.”
He couldn’t help but laugh. “Yes, that is absolutely what I mean. That woman took my breath away within seconds of meeting her.”