Total pages in book: 155
Estimated words: 146392 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 732(@200wpm)___ 586(@250wpm)___ 488(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 146392 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 732(@200wpm)___ 586(@250wpm)___ 488(@300wpm)
“But you can unravel that thread, can’t you?”
Her head was starting to hurt. She shouldn’t have skipped breakfast. “Given some time. I think that’s the way to go. Follow the money. You’re right—the rest could be coincidence, or it could be someone who wants to fuck with TJ. Who would do that? Everyone loves TJ.”
“I wouldn’t say everyone, but I do get your point. Besides stringing you along for years he’s fairly unproblematic. More importantly, what would they get from framing TJ?” Kala stared at the screen. “Unless the point is to hurt our team. I can think of a lot of people who would love to get me in a bad position. If fucking Chet was alive, I’d point the finger at him, though he said he was coming specifically after my dad.”
Chet Whittington.
Who hadn’t liked having to deal with Taggarts.
Chet, who worked for the Agency and might have known about The Jester.
“I need to talk to Zach,” Lou said. He might be able to figure out if Chet had worked with any team that might have known about The Jester.
“I was hoping you would talk to me for a little bit, sweetheart,” a familiar voice said.
Kala whistled under her breath. “Damn, they teamed up on you, Lou. Your dad was a distraction.”
Oh, she doubted that. Her dad would absolutely be doing that staring thing he did when he was disappointed. For a man who hadn’t come into her life until she was twelve, he quickly picked up on the dad thing, as TJ was currently learning.
But there was someone she wanted to talk to less than her dad.
Her mom stood in the doorway, a bag in one hand and her brother, Jayce, at her side. He was adorably gangly at twelve years old. He was all long limbs and blonde hair that matched his father’s.
He grinned at her. “Hey, Lou. I heard you’re going to marry TJ. That’s awesome. I love TJ.”
A flash of anger went through her. This was why she’d wanted to keep the whole thing under the radar. She looked at her mom. “Who told him that?”
A brow rose over her mom’s eyes. “I think he’s making a leap that you can’t be surprised he would make. Jayce, I told you it’s early days.”
“But they’ve mostly been together for years. And all her other boyfriends suck,” Jayce said.
Kala grinned. “We should discuss this, little dude. Come on. I’ll take you down to the cafeteria so your mom can talk to your sister.”
“But…” Jayce began.
“They are serving chicken tenders and fries.” Kala knew how to deal with her brother. Her kid brother looked like a younger version of their dad, and he had Boomer Ward’s appetite. And metabolism. “Also, there’s going to be a lot of feelings discussed.”
“We should talk about our feelings,” Jayce told Kala, but he was already moving behind her.
“Daphne, you ruined this child,” Kala said with a shake of her head as she held the door open. “Come on, buddy. We’ll get lunch and talk about how to properly shove all your feelings down deep.”
Her mom frowned. “Maybe I should stop that.”
“Or maybe you should say what you’ve come here to say so I can get back to work.” Lou winced. She hadn’t meant to sound so cold.
“Okay.” Her mom set the bag she was holding down on Lou’s workstation. There were several of them through the suite, this one containing the smart watch she was playing around with. The Daphne’s Delights bag sat right next to her tool kit. “I don’t think macarons are going to solve this. I came by to see if you’re okay, and I can see plainly that you’re not. What’s he done to you this time?”
Wow. This was a problem she hadn’t counted on. All this time she’d worried that TJ would leave her, and she hadn’t thought about the ramifications if he stayed. Her mom was always circumspect. When she had a problem, her mom gave her reasonable advice on how to handle it, and for years when it came to TJ it was all about getting out there and finding someone else.
She’d never thought about the fact that her mom might not like TJ. Her mom liked everyone. “It’s not a big deal. We kind of fell in bed together, and he’ll be gone in a couple of months. We’re working on an op and it’s…”
“Classified.” Her mom knew the drill. She sighed and moved in, a frown on her face. “So much about your life is classified. Sometimes I think I would resent Kala if I hadn’t known her as a kid, hadn’t watched how closely she protected you.”
“Mom, she’s my best friend.”
“And she pulled you into a world I can’t understand,” her mom pointed out.
“Dad does.”
Her mother’s head shook. “Well, Dad lived it, but he didn’t have a wife and kids. He wasn’t close to his family, so he made one out of the men and women he worked with. I assure you he feels it now, though I know Big Tag tells him what he can. All I’m saying is sometimes I wonder what your life would be like if you hadn’t met Kala Taggart. If Boomer hadn’t been involved with the Taggarts, and we were a family of four.”