Total pages in book: 160
Estimated words: 149137 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 746(@200wpm)___ 597(@250wpm)___ 497(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 149137 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 746(@200wpm)___ 597(@250wpm)___ 497(@300wpm)
“They know it. Believe me, I’ve explained all of that. Theo Taggart is safe, but the rest of them aren’t. Owen Shaw is safe because he’s known to the British government. We can’t take a known British citizen in for experimentation without causing an international incident, and MI6 can’t because they won’t piss off Knight. But that leaves a bunch of boys with no protection beyond what McKay-Taggart gives them. At some point, Knight has to think of his own team. It won’t be merely the Agency or MI6 or even MSS who comes after them. When rogue elements get involved, all bets are off, and The Garden won’t be as safe as you think it is.”
The Garden was filling up with happy couples. Damon and Penny, Nick and Hayley, Brody and Steph. There were two kids living there now. Oliver and Nate. She could imagine Nick and Hayley wouldn’t be far behind in the procreation game.
Would those kids be in the line of fire? Could she live with herself if one of those babies got hurt?
“Hey—” Ezra leaned over, his expression softening. “I’m not going to let it get there. I know I’m barely hanging on to this job and that my connection with Taggart and Ten Smith doesn’t help, but I still have some influence. I have people on the inside who I believe when they tell me they’ll give me a heads-up. I promise I’ll do everything I can.”
“Does Damon know? Big Tag?”
“Ten Smith knows. I can’t get too close to Dallas right now,” he explained.
But if Ten knew then the rest did, and if Big Tag thought someone was coming after his family, well, she hoped the Agency or whoever it was went quickly and without too much pain. “I would hate to be here if I was needed in London.”
Ezra shook his head. “I think the fact that you’re here and McKay-Taggart is helping out is the bridge we need. Right now everyone’s playing nice and I want to keep it that way. I’m working on pinning down the rogue group that’s taken up McDonald’s cause. I’ll find them and take them out, and then we’re all back to players with too much to lose. That’s the way I like it.”
The Agency would be predictable, as would the other intelligence groups. It was the rogue nations, the anarchist groups, the criminals who wouldn’t care that they could destabilize the fragile peace they lived in that she feared.
So she would do her job. The wavering had to stop. Her London family was at stake, too. She had to do her job so Ezra could do his and keep Levi Green in line.
“What do you need from me?” She shoved aside all those dumbass girlie feelings about Josh. She couldn’t be his girl. It was time to be Knight and Taggart’s operative again.
Ezra sat back and went over the plan.
* * * *
“So how’s it going with Kayla?” Jared asked, looking out over the dungeon floor. “It’s been two weeks and you seem to smile more. It kind of scares me. Are you doing that because it’s good between the two of you or because you’re thinking up ways to murder me for talking you into this crazy plan?”
Josh chuckled at the thought of finding somewhere to bury Jared. It would have to be a decent-sized hole because the man was jacked. He was taking his workout routine to the limit. Josh hoped that was all about the upcoming movie they were set to film and not about the new woman in their lives. More than once, he’d found Jared working out on his balcony while talking to Kay as she sat on theirs. Suspicions. He hated them. “It’s good, man. We’re getting along okay.”
Okay might be putting it mildly, but he wasn’t one to overshare.
The truth was it was going so well, he kept waiting for the rug to get pulled out from under him, and that was where all those nasty suspicions came in. He glanced over at the hallway that led from the dressing rooms to the dungeon floor. She would walk out here any minute wearing her corset and tiny thong, her feet in ridiculous heels that he’d had wound around his neck far too often in the last two weeks. He fucked her in the morning, going straight from his room to hers the minute he woke up. If he’d slept too long, he had to go find her, always sitting on the balcony, watching the ocean as high tide brought the sea to their doorstep. He would drag her back to her room like a caveman. He fucked her every night, taking her hand after dinner or when they came in from whatever event they’d attended and leading her up to either the playroom or her room, or when he couldn’t stand another minute, he’d picked her up in the front hall, pressed her against the wall, and shoved his dick inside.