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)
So everyone knew.
“Zach, what my husband is trying to say is you handled the situation the best way you could, but now it might be time to come in and let the family figure out what to do,” Erin said in that reasonable tone.
“I’m close to finding my mother,” he told her. “I’m working with some people I trust, and once I make sure she’s safe from Huisman, I’ll do exactly that. I’ll turn myself in to Langley.”
“You will fucking not turn yourself in,” Erin practically snarled. “Zachary Reed, you listen to me. I am trusting you with one of the most precious people in my life. If you are lying to me or playing her then you should turn yourself into Langley because they might, and I mean might, be able to protect you from what I’ll do. If you’re not, then all you will be doing is putting your team in the position of having to break you out. You fix this and you come to Dallas and we will find a way out.”
“Or he could drop our daughter off with her cousins and go about his business,” Theo said in the background.
He was not going to cry. Nope. He’d been alone and hungry and cold for freaking weeks. He’d felt his singularity in ways he never imagined before, and the fact that Erin Taggart wanted him to come home… Home. That fucking word. Had he ever truly had one? “I can’t, Theo. It’s too dangerous. I’ll find a way to get what intel I have to Ian, and I’ll set something up so you can talk to Devi. If I think she’ll take her safety seriously, we can talk.”
“I expect a call tomorrow,” Theo said.
“When you settle in,” Erin corrected. “Tell my daughter I love her and we’re going to have a long discussion about what it means to have a bodyguard. Or apparently two. She got away from the one she knew about and the one she didn’t. So there’s that. Don’t take your eyes off her, Zach. I will hold you personally responsible for her safety from now on.”
It was how he wanted it. “I’ll take care of her.”
“Also, tell her Eve survived. Barely. She’s going to be okay.”
His heart squeezed at the news. Cooper had only told him part of the story since they’d been preoccupied with saving their women at the time. Devi had been through a lot of traumatic shit today. “Good. I’ll let her know. Talk to you soon.”
He hung up, rolled down the window, and let the burner fly out to the highway.
“Well, she seems like an interesting woman,” Lacey commented.
“Like you don’t know her. I’m sure you have a file on all the Taggarts.” Lacey kept copious files on everyone she came into contact with, and that didn’t have to be physical contact. In her world, Lacey was considered an expert on intel gathering. She knew where all the bodies were buried, who buried them, and how much dirt they got under their nails while doing it.
“Not for the reasons you think,” she admitted. “They’re not on my organization’s radar. Look, the Taggarts don’t have anything to do with the people I work with. They’re strictly about saving lives, and I appreciate that. I have nothing against them, but they are Agency and have ties to law enforcement across the globe who could try to stop my friends from doing what they need to do.”
Save the planet. It was what Lacey Rook wanted to do. Even if she used some fairly illegal tactics to do it. It was precisely how she had contacts who knew his mother. “The Taggarts have never been involved in the green underground, so you have intel on them because they’re connected to me.”
She turned slightly and gave him that uptick of her lips that always made him think she knew more than she was saying. “They’re connected in ways you haven’t thought of yet. But I do trust them to do the right thing for the most part. What I worry about is the people who want to take them down. Wasn’t that part of your job?”
He looked at the woman on his lap. How much did Devi know? What had his team told her? She knew he’d lied, but did she realize how far it went? “It was how I got the position. I was supposed to spy on them, gather evidence to help bring the team down. I did a terrible job, and that’s why no one at the Agency will save me.”
No one except his team. Maybe.
Lacey took a deep breath and seemed to settle down. She took the exit ramp that led to the small airfield. “Then we have to save ourselves. Let’s start with getting you stitched up and then I’ll give you your new ID. I’ll have someone meet me in New York with ID for our guest.”