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)
Tired. She was so tired.
“Just rest,” he said. “It’s going to be okay.”
It wouldn’t, but there was nothing else to do. The drugs were winning, and she gave in to the velvety darkness.
* * * *
Zach held her in his arms and didn’t give a fuck about the wound he’d taken while he and Cooper had fought their way through Huisman’s mansion to get their women. When he’d learned Devi had been kidnapped along with Kala, he’d almost lost his mind, but he’d known he had to do something. He’d put everything he and Lacey had been working for in jeopardy, but he wouldn’t take it back.
Devi had been acting out and putting herself in danger again and again. She wanted his attention? She had it.
“Is she finally asleep?” Lacey asked.
“I think so.” He was pissed about the drugs even though he knew he would probably have been forced to do it himself. Devi was mad, and a mad Devi was a chaotic Devi, and he couldn’t have chaos right now. When they got to the farm, Devi could get as angry as she wanted. For the most part the cows and the chickens wouldn’t give a damn.
“You could have gotten arrested.” Lacey was driving, and she wasn’t happy about it. “Taggart should have taken you in the minute he saw you.”
All the intelligence agencies out for his blood were a point of contention for Lacey. She had her own work to do, and Zach was fucking it all up. It was precisely why he’d spent the last couple of weeks in the Colorado wilderness with his aunt. He understood her frustration. “I knew he wouldn’t.”
That was a bit of a lie. He’d thought Big Tag wouldn’t arrest him. He hadn’t been certain. Coop was more of a risk. His brother had discovered the truth about their relationship in Colorado, and he had not taken the news well. Naturally Kala had, and she’d listened to him and chosen to leave him be.
For now.
But when he’d walked up to Cooper and his former team this evening, there had been nothing but affection for him. Well, Big Tag called him a dumbass, but that was practically a declaration of love from him.
It filled him with hope, and wasn’t that the most dangerous of all emotions because he knew deep down this didn’t end in a white picket fence and two point five kids with the woman of his dreams.
There was a reckoning coming, but not until the people he loved were safe. Once he’d found his mother and gotten her to a secure location and ensured all of her research and notes were destroyed, he would deal with the fallout. He didn’t intend to spend the rest of his life on the run. He would stand in front of the people he cared about—the family he could have had—and reveal all of his secrets. Every single one.
“You were lucky, Zach. I’m surprised you’re being this reckless.”
“That’s what happens when you’re in love.”
She groaned. He should have expected it. Lacey Rook wasn’t much of a romantic. She was far more practical. In the two years he’d known her, he’d never actually seen her hit on anyone. He still wasn’t sure what her type was. Man. Woman. No idea. He did know she had specific tastes when it came to food. She was a vegan. They were likely in for some meatless living in the place she was taking them to.
“Now I think you’re even more reckless,” she replied as she turned down the road that would lead to the private airfield. Super private. Like the Agency hopefully didn’t know about it private.
His life now revolved around hiding from the Agency, and that meant going to some unsavory places. Was he doing the right thing? He immediately answered his own question. Zach Reed followed his instincts, and he knew this woman.
“I couldn’t leave her. She’s on Huisman’s radar now, and she’s been ditching her guards. She’s here apparently because she wriggled out of a bathroom window to prove she didn’t need one.” He sighed and stroked her hair. Damn but he’d missed all that curly red stuff. And her freckles. He gently traced the line of them that went across her nose and cheekbones. So fucking pretty. “I think if I let her uncle take her back, she would try again.”
“Well, now you know why I sedated her,” Lacey said with another huff. “Zach, you have to know we can’t keep her.”
“I don’t see why not.” The farm was private and quiet, and he rather thought Devi would prove reasonable when she remembered what had happened tonight. She loved her family. She wouldn’t want them in the line of fire.
Of course maybe she would wake up and be so happy he saved her from Huisman that she fell into his arms and proclaimed her love and willingness to be a wanted criminal with him.