Total pages in book: 148
Estimated words: 139606 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 698(@200wpm)___ 558(@250wpm)___ 465(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 139606 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 698(@200wpm)___ 558(@250wpm)___ 465(@300wpm)
She’d wondered if she’d see her biological mother and father again. In those moments when the rogue CIA agent named Levi Green had drugged her, that had been the only sweet thought in her head. The rest was anger and fear and a not small dose of shame because she’d known her family was going to be so sad.
“Did he kidnap you?” Brian’s voice had gone soft. He was good at projecting empathy. “If you don’t mind talking about it. You don’t have to.”
“He did not. He was after something else. I was nothing more than a pawn to slow my father down.” She would never forget how she’d woken up. In her father’s arms, his tears falling on her face.
She’d never once seen her father cry at that point.
“I’m glad to hear that.” He sank down to the couch. “Maybe we started off on the wrong foot. Some things have been happening around Dare that make me worry I don’t understand what’s going on.”
“And a new woman shows up in his life, and you have to wonder if I’m using him.” She sat across from him. It looked like he was trying a new tactic with her. “I am, of course, but only for sex and companionship. I like him. If you want the truth, I walked into that pub looking for a man to spend some time with. I recently came out of a bad relationship. I wanted to get back on the horse, so to speak. It was a random bar to me. I don’t know how to prove that to you. You should feel free to do a background check on me. I can put you in touch with my father.”
Who would be played on this day by Zachary Reed. They’d set everything up because she liked the idea of bringing a bodyguard in—of their own choosing, of course. A bodyguard would be able to get into Oakley’s estate, and no one would wonder why he was armed.
Now that she thought about it, attacking Dare was an excellent play to bring in someone.
But it hadn’t been Brian’s play, otherwise he wouldn’t have felt the need to take out the attacker. He would have shaken the man’s hand and called the police and pretended to be the great savior.
She wondered if the man had been alive when Brian turned him over.
“I’ve already run a background check on you,” he admitted.
“That’s fair. Dare’s what we would call a high-value target in my profession. If I was working his case, I would background check anyone he got close to.” She could play this game with him. “What did you find out? Anything you’re worried about?”
“Sometimes security companies have ties to the military, like you said. I have to wonder if your father isn’t interested in Dare’s family.”
She was intrigued at where his mind had gone. He must be feeling comfortable with her if he was willing to give up that kind of information. “Why would my dad be interested in him? Is it the stuff Dare’s worried about?”
A brow rose over his eyes. “He mentioned his father?”
“Yes. I know you think all we do is have sex, but there’s some talking in there, too.”
“I’m surprised he told you about his relationship with his dad,” Brian admitted. “I’ve been working with him for months, and he’s only recently started opening up. He’s got a lot of walls up, and there’s a good reason for them.”
But they’d connected in a way she’d never connected before, and Dare had felt it. There was something between them she couldn’t deny.
Something that could easily die if he ever found out who she really was.
“Why would my father potentially be interested in Dare’s? That’s a question I ask sheerly out of curiosity because we’re just a security company. We offer security systems and bodyguards and have an investigative team, but they work with businesses. We’re not some front for...military intelligence? The CIA?”
They kept the two completely separate. Mostly. She was pretty sure a whole lot of the staff at McKay-Taggart had their suspicions. After all, she and the twins went on a whole lot of business trips.
“Well, I know the Agency sometimes uses outside teams,” he said and then shrugged. “I read a lot. And Dare’s father has his hands in some unsavory pies. At least I think he does.”
“What does that mean?” She hoped she was keeping her tone totally clueless, but she wanted the answer to that question.
Brian glanced over at the closed door as though wondering how much he was giving away and whether it would hurt his friend. “It means the Nash Group is only part of the business. It’s the only part Dare knows, but the family company has more than forty subsidiaries. When you put it all on a white board it’s like one of those conspiracy theories. There could be more. They do what they legally can to make the connections as fuzzy as possible.”