Total pages in book: 154
Estimated words: 145091 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 725(@200wpm)___ 580(@250wpm)___ 484(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 145091 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 725(@200wpm)___ 580(@250wpm)___ 484(@300wpm)
She’d relented a bit after talking to base and confirming Drake’s status. He was going over some of the communications she was monitoring concerning Russian separatists in old Eastern bloc countries. The Kremlin was always trying to foment trouble in that part of the world, and the mafia had made a massive resurgence lately. Her father believed the mafia was beginning to work with a group of corporations, taking a cut of profits for doing the dirty work they needed done while the CEOs kept their hands clean.
Drake had been interested in her father’s project.
She had to make sure no one found out about her father’s other project. They were due in Havana in three weeks, and she would have to find a plausible reason to be in the Caribbean.
Of course it had to stop snowing or she might be stuck here with Drake forever.
Would that be so bad?
“Maybe I do have cabin fever.” She stood. “I’ll go and chop some wood. That’ll clear my head.”
He reached out, catching her wrist and gently drawing her toward him. “It’s almost dark and there’s a brown bear in the area. We have plenty of firewood. Come on. Tell me what’s going on in that head of yours. Did you find something today?”
She found herself falling deeper and deeper into this guy’s web, and that was a terrible idea that seemed less terrible every day she spent with him.
Once her father was done with his business in Havana, he wouldn’t need her to cover for him and she could go to a crappy community college because her high school diploma was a GED. But from there she could get the grades she needed for a four-year school. She would be the oldest freshman there, but she didn’t care.
“No, but I’m sure I’ll find the connection,” she insisted.
“Did you hear from your dad today?” He didn’t let go of her hand, and she didn’t pull it away. “I’m sorry. I should call him your operative. Is it weird?”
She gave up and sat down beside him, breaking their contact. If he kept touching her, she might end up on his lap. “So weird. But you know how it is. You worked with your dad.”
“I was trained by my dad. I never actually worked with him. He retired before I went active, which was good because I probably would have murdered him.” He sobered and then stood, crossing to the small bar and grabbing the good whiskey. It was Irish and deliciously loamy. He popped it open, the cork sounding through the room. “Of course I didn’t know he was retiring. I thought he would be there for me, but he kind of walked away and didn’t look back.”
It was there on the tip of her tongue to talk to him about her dad. About how close she’d come to losing him.
But she could still lose him, and he could lose everything if she talked.
“It was a real punch in the gut. It was like my dad had done his job in preparing me and then I was totally on my own. You know he kept the secret from my mom,” Drake said, pouring himself a healthy glass of the whiskey and looking her way.
She nodded. It was a whiskey kind of night.
Yes, and if you drink enough we might get over our puritanical senses and fall in bed with the hot guy.
Her inner voice was super horny tonight.
That was wrong. Horny she could deal with. Horny could be handled with a couple of fingers in the shower or the “massager” she carried in her suitcase. This was beyond horny because it was no longer about how hot he was. It was about how they connected. It was in the weird sense of peace she had when he was around.
Safe. He felt safe.
She could ignore dangerous attraction. Safety? Oh, that word had a pull she couldn’t deny.
She had to remind herself that he was involved in a world she was leaving and soon. It would be a good time to tell him she was tired and to go to bed. They’d had dinner and it was time to separate.
“How did he keep it from your mom but not you? I got the feeling you knew back then.” She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t walk away. She wanted to know his story.
“Oh, I knew. My dad told me when I was ten, and he started training me then. My sister was twelve, and he told her too. I think he meant it to bond us.”
“I didn’t know you had a sister.”
He stopped, staring at her like he was deciding how to proceed. “Her name was Julia. Technically she was my half sister. We share a mom, but her dad wasn’t in her life, so she called my dad her dad. He was the one she knew.”