Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 65222 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 326(@200wpm)___ 261(@250wpm)___ 217(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 65222 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 326(@200wpm)___ 261(@250wpm)___ 217(@300wpm)
“Oh no,” Jackson says, chuckling at the thought. “She’s looking for a house to buy and until then, we’re staying at the Fairmont.”
“Does it bother you that your girlfriend is richer than God and is essentially your sugar mama?” I ask slyly.
“Not one fucking bit,” he replies with a snort. But I know Jackson isn’t into Camille because she’s a princess and her family is one of the wealthiest in the world. The dude is truly in love, and she loves him back.
Lucky bastard.
I turn my head toward the conference room door and see Cage entering. He nabs the remote control from the end of the table and points it at the large-screen TV on the wall. As the TV is always tuned to a national news station, immediately the screen is filled with the charred remains of an airplane that crashed last night at the Pittsburgh Airport.
And not just any plane.
This one was chartered by the Pittsburgh Titans professional hockey team, and everyone on board was killed.
“Can you believe this?” I murmur as everyone silently watches the news coverage.
“It’s horrible,” Jackson replies, shaking his head.
The plane had what they’re calling a “catastrophic failure of the landing gear” that caused it to somersault down the runway on landing before breaking apart and bursting into flames. The news was confirmed this morning that no survivors have been found. The city—actually the entire nation—is reeling from this, and I’m a bit tired today as I admittedly stayed up until the wee hours watching the coverage, hoping they’d pull at least one person out alive. I finally fell asleep around three a.m., and I’m on my third cup of coffee this morning. I’m only feeling slightly sluggish.
More people file into the conference room that can easily seat twenty, but usually has no more than fifteen agents at any one time. The others are spread out around the world on missions. Kynan McGrath’s Jameson Force Security has more than quadrupled in size this last year alone and has become the preeminent private security agency in the world, as evidenced by the king of Bretaria hiring us in January to protect his daughter from a kidnapping and assassination plot. There are offices located in Pittsburgh and Vegas, but there’s a rumor that Kynan’s looking to put one on the West Coast and possibly one in Europe somewhere.
Our esteemed leader walks in last, closing the door behind him. Kynan glances at the TV grimly, picks up the remote, and shuts off the TV. Immediate silence settles over the room as we all turn our chairs Kynan’s way. He takes a seat at the head of the table.
“You’ve all obviously seen the terrible news about the Titans’ plane crash,” Kynan rumbles low, his voice filled with sorrow. His eyes shift left to Malik, sitting four chairs down from him. “Your brothers okay?”
Malik’s two brothers, Lucas and Max, play hockey for the Carolina Cold Fury. They, no doubt, had personal ties to people on that plane. Malik’s lips press flat. “They’ll be okay. Pretty shaken up, though.”
“If you need time off,” Kynan says, letting the offer hang in the air with sincerity.
Malik shakes his head. “I’m good.”
Kynan holds his gaze a second, just to be sure he is in fact good, then nods. His gaze moves right and he nods at Anna Tate, who sits directly across from Malik, and is coincidentally his girlfriend. She’s also Kynan’s right-hand woman, so to speak, and has taken to presenting cases to us at the start of each week. Her job is to update the team on current missions as well as highlight potential cases for consideration.
Kynan used to handle all of that himself, but he’s a smart enough man to know he’s surrounded by a wealth of talent and experience, and he values our opinions so much that decisions are made via group consensus. He has final say-so, of course, but it’s usually majority rules if we have concerns about accepting a particular case.
Anna doesn’t bother to stand but clicks a different remote at a SMART Board on the opposite end of the room, and we all turn our chairs to look. She puts together a PowerPoint each week with succinct summaries while she provides additional narration.
After she goes through the current cases, she says, “We only have one new case to consider, and this actually came in this morning, so I don’t have any formal slides prepared.”
She appears embarrassed by that, and it’s adorable. Malik seems to think so, too, because he’s smiling at her in an amused but I love you with every breath in my lungs way.
Also a lucky bastard.
Anna clicks the remote, and a copy of a news article pops up on the screen. I don’t bother reading it, knowing Anna will summarize. “This was published this morning in a San Salvador newspaper. An American was arrested and accused of being a spy.”