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)
Evil man. Couldn’t he give her one thing? She moved past her uncle, who had a hand on his stomach like he might throw up. There stood her cousin. Tasha Taggart was the epitome of modern femininity. She was petite, with lush, dark hair and a figure most men would die to get their hands on. She was curvy and gorgeous, and the energy that surrounded her was calm, as though the very air understood her competence at…well, everything.
And she was loving and kind and completely unhateable because Devi remembered all the times Tasha stepped in when she needed a big sister. She went and hugged her cousin. “Hey.”
Tasha’s arms wound around her, pulling her in. “Are you okay? I know everyone’s talked to you, and Zach has been open about taking care of you, but are you honestly okay?”
She had the sudden urge to get real. Even with her best friends she’d been putting on a front. She’d told her mom how she wasn’t thinking about a future with Zach at all. Same with everyone. She wanted to tell Tasha she was lying because she couldn’t think about anything but Zach’s future.
But she couldn’t. Not when she was the second choice to this woman. She pulled back and gave her a grin. “I’m good. It’s been quiet and then Kala shows up and the world explodes. Hey, do you know why she and Lucy hate each other? I stopped going to Bliss before that happened. All I remember of Lucy and her family was playing at the park with her and her sister Poppy. I haven’t seen her since we were children. Should I have recognized her?”
Tasha sighed. “Lucy is an excellent operative, and she’s pretty cool when she’s not in the presence of my sister. As to why they hate each other, well, she’ll have to tell you. Just know that my sister can hold a ridiculous grudge, and Kenz and I are friendly with her.”
Good, because she kind of liked Lucy. Weeks with the woman had proven there was a good heart under all her sarcasm and aloofness. Kind of like Kala. “Well, she’s going to hate her more because she set herself up as Cooper’s girlfriend so Ben Parker would buy the story that they’re only friendly now. I would say she did it out of spite, but Cooper kind of walked in looking like he’d had raucous sex in a barn.”
“Can we save the gossip for another time?” Her uncle stood in the middle of the living room. “I’ve been on the road for hours and could use some sleep, but only after we figure out what’s going on.”
By road he meant air. Her uncle’s company owned two private jets, and she would bet one of them had been used after Henry made the call. Which brought up some questions.
“How did you get here so fast? The flight’s almost ten hours,” Devi pointed out.
“Well, Kala sent her mom some pictures from dinner the other night,” her uncle explained. “She showed them around the office.”
Kala sighed as though she knew what had happened. “Mae or Hutch?”
MaeBe Hawthorne and Greg Hutchins were the cybersecurity team at McKay-Taggart. They could hack pretty much anything, and Mae, in particular, was excellent at taking apart information on the Internet and proving whether a story was true or not.
“I asked Mae to look at it because I’m not an idiot, daughter,” her uncle announced. “Honestly, I might have bought it if the pics had come from Lou or Cooper. You do not update your mom with pictures of your dinners. So Mae took them apart and proved the dinner you said you had on Wednesday was only available at the resort on their spring menu, which changed two days after you got there. You did a great job on the rest, though she suspected Lou doctored some of them.”
Lou shrugged. “I told her it wouldn’t work.”
“Hey, I wanted to stay at the resort. They had this great buffet.” TJ yawned again.
“Next time I’ll disappear,” Kala vowed. “I don’t know why I should tell you everything when you obviously keep secrets, Big Tag.”
The townhouse was big and comfortably furnished. It made Devi wonder where the family money came from. Or it could be something worse. She turned to Tasha, who seemed to always have the answers. “Is this an Agency safe house?”
If it was, they would have cameras, and Zach would be on them. If the agency was watching, they could walk in at any moment and damn it, she wasn’t ready. She wasn’t. She was supposed to have more time.
“My mother owns it,” Lucy admitted, setting down her bag. “She doesn’t typically approve of owning property, but she made an exception so we would have a European base that didn’t also serve as some youth hostel. Please note she doesn’t have a problem with youth hostels. I thought it could be good cover. She then cried because I think human beings could be cover and she failed as a mother. It was a whole thing.”