Total pages in book: 165
Estimated words: 154925 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 775(@200wpm)___ 620(@250wpm)___ 516(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154925 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 775(@200wpm)___ 620(@250wpm)___ 516(@300wpm)
“I’ll watch him.” It was the one thing he might be able to offer her. “It’s not like I have anything else to do with my time. I’ll follow him for a couple of days to make sure. I have a job coming up. But it doesn’t start until next week. I can do some background work on the guy.”
Jamal’s brow rose. “I didn’t think you did background work. I kind of thought you were one of those guys who did as little desk work as possible.”
Because none of the guys he worked with knew him beyond the fact that he was the boss’s nephew and he was standoffish.
That was starting to get boring.
It had been far easier to hold back when he didn’t give a crap about the people around him, when the people around him couldn’t be trusted.
He could get soft again here. “I’ll have something on your desk in the morning. I can do intel work, too.”
Would his brother’s laptop survive a deep dive into the Dark Web?
He handed MaeBe her keys and backed away. “Stay safe.”
She nodded and then walked on with Jamal.
It was better this way. He would be more careful about staying away from her going forward.
Kyle took a deep breath and walked back to the restaurant, hoping his exile would end soon. Before his heart defrosted and started to ache again.
Chapter Four
Kyle finished the last few keystrokes and saw the light on Hutch’s security alarm go from red to green and sighed in relief.
He hadn’t lost his touch. He’d worried his skills had atrophied while he played down his talents here in Dallas, but he’d needed them tonight.
He was being smothered in this house in a way he hadn’t when they’d been staying at Noelle LaVigne’s. At Noelle’s, it had all felt like work, like they were simply doing their jobs, but something had gone down tonight and he and Hutch had made the decision to move the client to a more secure location. Namely the house Hutch had bought from Beckett Kent when he’d moved to Colorado with Solo and their kid.
This house. It was bland and boring and cozy, and Kyle would never, never have it. He’d already seen Noelle looking around, a gleam in her eyes as she’d obviously thought about what she could do with this place. They’d only started the op a few days before and it was already a given that Noelle and Hutch would end up together.
It had only been a couple of weeks since Kyle and MaeBe had stood in the parking garage and he’d made a complete asshole of himself.
And then he’d tried to sleep and he’d had the dream again.
The one where he stood over Julia and she smiled at him and held out a hand and he joined her.
It was a dream he’d been having since that terrible day in Singapore when he’d confronted her about working for The Consortium. He saw her lying there, blood staining her chest, and he knew he’d killed her. He could hear Drake shouting in the background and feel the heat from the fire that had started. In the dream he thought seriously about standing there and letting the fire take him. It would be easier than going forward. He wasn’t good at this life thing. He fucked up and people died. His friends died. Julia died, and no matter what she’d done he hated that he’d been the one to pull the trigger. So he would stand there and let the flames take him. It was nothing more than what he deserved.
And then her eyes would open and the most malicious smile would spread across her pale face. Her hand would come out, and even though he was screaming inside he couldn’t stop himself from taking it.
That was where he would normally wake up shouting and David would rush in and he would have to make up some excuse. Lately David just knocked and quietly asked if he was okay.
Not tonight. Tonight David wasn’t here and the dream had been worse. This time when he’d taken Julia’s hand he’d felt a tug at his other hand, and he’d turned and realized MaeBe Vaughn was standing in the flames, trying to haul him out, trying to save him. And he’d realized he was going to drag her down with him.
He’d also known a spark of hope. Somewhere in all the despair a voice had whispered to him.
What if she was strong enough to lead him through that fire? What if MaeBe was the one who could show him the way to the other side?
His hands were still shaking even as he reset the alarm and slipped outside. It would be easy to get back in now that he’d hacked the password. The great news was no one would think he could do that. It wouldn’t occur to anyone that the latest bodyguard himbo could hack a system at all.