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)
Sure, that was happening.
Lacey snorted. “Because it’s called kidnapping, and it tends to get nasty. Her parents are going to lose their shit when they don’t know what happened to her. Unless she doesn’t have the kind of Taggart parents you so often describe.”
“Kala was conscious when I took Devi out of there, but I get your point. It’s not the same as knowing she’s being taken care of.” He would have to deal with that. “You gotta burner in here?”
She popped open the glove compartment and tossed him a small cell. It wasn’t smart. It wasn’t luxurious. It would get the job done, and no one would be able to trace it. Even if they could, the signal would put them in Virginia, and they would be gone in an hour. “Are you going to call her uncle and tell him where we are so we can both go to jail?”
He wasn’t the only one with the authorities after him. Lacey had a long rap sheet and her own reasons for staying underground.
“No, I’m calling someone who will be reasonable about this whole thing.” He dialed the number, and it immediately picked up.
“This is Erin. Who the hell is this?” The woman he wanted as his mother-in-law sounded irritated.
“Erin, it’s Zach.”
A pause came over the line, and she sighed as though relieved. “Well, hello, Zach. You have some explaining to do, son. A lot of it, actually. But first, do you know anything about what’s happened to my daughter? Ian hasn’t called yet.”
Zach wasn’t surprised she was calm. Erin Taggart had been Army intelligence, and she was cool under pressure. “I have her and she’s safe.”
“You? What were you doing with Huisman?” She stopped. “Damn it, Zach. Did you hear about it and go in?”
Another relief. She hadn’t immediately thought he was working with Huisman. “I monitor several sites Huisman works with when he needs muscle. I also might have someone on the inside with the Disrupt organization, and she tipped me off that something was going down. You should also know that I had someone watching Devi. She managed to give him the slip along with her bodyguard. I wasn’t going to leave her there. Erin, I know I have a lot of things to explain, but the one thing I have never once lied about is how I feel about your daughter. I walked into the op knowing I might be arrested because I was not going to leave her in his hands. I won’t allow that fucker to touch her again.”
“Well, good luck because she’s proven to be stubborn when it comes to her own safety. Can I talk to her?”
“I can’t believe you rang up her mum,” Lacey said under her breath.
He ignored her. He could see the small runway up ahead. They would take off from there, land at a private airfield in upstate New York, and make their way to the UK from there. “I’m afraid she’s asleep.”
“You mean you drugged her.” The sound became muffled as though she put a hand over the receiver. She still talked loud enough he could hear her. “Theo, calm down. I don’t think he wants to hurt her.”
Devi’s dad would be way harder to deal with. “I don’t. I’m trying everything I can to make sure she doesn’t get hurt.”
“Well, you could turn yourself in,” Erin pointed out. “Then Huisman wouldn’t need to grab Devi.”
She didn’t know the whole situation. “Oh, but he would. I assure you he would grab her, and I would find myself needing to break out of prison. He doesn’t want me in prison, and he’ll do what it takes to have me out here in the field where he wants me.”
“Why does he want you, Zach?” Erin put the question out there. The question he hoped to never have to answer.
“Because my mother is the bombmaker.”
A whistle came over the line that proved Erin knew more than she should. “Damn. All right. This is probably already way more classified than I should be involved in.”
“I can send you everything I have. My career is already over, and we both know there are two ways I get out of this.”
“Prison or a coffin,” Erin answered with a weary sigh. “I’m sure that’s what you think, but you have to know Ian has some pull.”
“Which he isn’t going to want to use on me. I lied to my team. I had my reasons, but I lied to them.” Here was the big one. “I lied to my brother for years.”
“No one cares about that.” He heard Theo talking in the background, so it was a pretty good bet they were on speaker. “Who doesn’t have a sibling or two who shows up out of the blue? It’s the kidnapping my daughter part that I’m upset about.”