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)
Taggart’s head dropped, his laughter booming through the room. He was smiling when he looked back at Drake. “I should have known you would be the self-aware one.”
He sank back into his seat. “I fucked her over. Not personally, but I let them take her.”
Taggart sobered. “You couldn’t have stopped them from questioning her.”
“I could have been there with her. I could have stood by her.” He could have had some faith in her.
“Why didn’t you?” Tag asked.
“Because I didn’t trust her. I didn’t trust anyone.” He’d had a hole in his soul, and he hadn’t realized how she’d filled it until he’d seen her again.
“So this happened right around the time you figured out your sister had been tricking you for years. I can understand that. But I can tell you that if someone had shown up to take my Charlie, no matter how pissed I was at her, I would have gone after her.”
“I had a plan. I’ve been trying to figure out exactly where she was being held, and I was going to break her out. I’ve been thinking about it for months, and then my sister showed up again. Taylor’s never going to believe me.” He wouldn’t believe him. She couldn’t know how much he’d missed her.
“Not at first.” Tag sat back. “You would have to regain her trust, but you’re not going to do that by taking away her job.”
Why couldn’t he understand? Julia had already hurt people. “This is dangerous.”
“And how would you feel if she tried to get you fired?”
“Oh, I’m sure she would have.” He’d seen it on her face the night before. She’d been ready to do anything she had to in order to not work with him. It was precisely why he’d made that call. “I already cut her off at that pass. If I want to get her off this project, I can.”
Tag sighed and nodded. “And then you will lose her. I will be right there to swoop in and give her a job because I really do need smart women agents. I can convince her. She’ll come with me and long before I’m ready for it one of my dumbass single guys will figure out she’s hot and smart and a good catch, and they will fumble their way into her life and you won’t have another chance.”
He wanted to argue, but he’d seen it happen way too many times. “And if I asked you not to hire her?”
Tag’s head shook. “I would say you owe me way more favors than I owe you, and I would never not offer to help Lev Sokolov’s daughter. If only for Nick’s sake. So you have two choices. You can be an asshole and protect the little woman from herself or you can see if you work as a couple. You know there’s more to it than sex, right?”
He rolled his eyes. “I wouldn’t be making an idiot of myself if this was merely about sex.”
“All right. Then what’s it about?”
How did he put this into words that didn’t sound dumb? Maybe it would always sound dumb. Maybe part of being in love with someone was a willingness to make of fool of oneself. “When I’m with her, I feel...peaceful. Like something is whole in me that wasn’t before.”
A long sigh came from Tag’s chest. “Fuck.”
It was good that he understood. “Yes. We did that. I think our real problem was timing.”
“Don’t be so literal. I was saying a universal fuck, as in we’re all fucked because this doesn’t sound like you’re just trying to get into her pants. I was going to find other pants you could get into,” Taggart explained.
“I don’t want other pants. I want to get into her pants.” Honestly, he would prefer she wasn’t wearing pants at all. This was a weird conversation to have, but there was something comforting about it. This was something like what he’d had with Kyle for a while. When they’d worked together, they’d found a friendship that didn’t have to be all about work. Being friends with Kyle had made him understand he hadn’t really had friends before. He’d had coworkers and classmates, and he’d been taught to be ready to turn on any of them if he needed to use them to gain valuable intel.
That was what his father had taught him, and then when he was done with his work he’d expected Drake to pretend like it didn’t exist.
He’d been brought up to believe he wasn’t worth much beyond the information he could bring his father, and if he had no intel, then he wasn’t worth anything to his dad at all. He had to face facts. “I have serious issues.”
Tag pointed a finger his way. “Oh, yeah, you do. You look fine on the outside. Like you’re perfectly normal and shit, but you have lied for so long about every aspect of your life that you sometimes don’t know how to tell the truth.”