Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 74597 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 373(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74597 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 373(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
He was glad he had a few stories to tell her, too. “It was back when my brother had first joined the CIA unit. They all came out here and they were trying their damnedest to recruit Chelsea. Simon didn’t want her to join the Agency.”
“Shouldn’t it have been her choice?” Nina asked in that way that let him know there was only one answer.
Except he knew the truth. He’d been there. “Ten was blackmailing her.”
“Ah, that sounds like the Agency. So your mother decided to shoot everyone?”
It was so good to hear the amusement in her voice. “That was actually my plan. See, we have lots of tranq darts because this is a ranch and we don’t always want to kill an animal that’s gone a little rogue. But I couldn’t do it on my own, and my dad has an all-American respect for government employees. I do not. Oh, I respect the ones who deserve it, but Ten Smith was wrong. So I didn’t have a problem teaming up with my surprisingly-accurate-when-she-shoots momma. It gave Si a chance to make his case to the woman of his dreams. Now the woman of his dreams was Chelsea Denisovitch.”
Nina laughed at that. “He’s got some interesting dreams. She was The Broker. Interpol had eyes on them. I know everyone wanted us to believe it was Charlotte, but I knew the truth.”
“That’s what I’ve figured out, too. But at the time all that mattered was Simon was in love with her and Ten had convinced her she needed to give it all up and work for him. I believe he’d promised he would solve all of Simon’s problems if she would come work for him. I knew my cousin was in trouble and I wanted to give him a shot at talking to her. So Momma and I very quietly took out a CIA special ops team.”
He made it to the end of the long drive to the farm road that would take them to the highway. From there they would pass Fort Worth and the suburbs and make their way back into Dallas.
Where apparently he would sleep alone tonight.
“That was quite brave of you. Do you know what Ten could have done?” Nina asked.
He hadn’t really thought about it at the time. “It was important. I had to gamble that he needed my help more than he wanted revenge. Like I’ve mentioned before, the Agency has used Malone Oil more than once. International companies can give an operative excellent cover.”
“And it didn’t hurt that he wanted Michael on the team.” She sat back and seemed to relax as they started down the long highway.
“No, it didn’t.”
“Is it odd to be a twin?”
He took it as a good sign. She was asking him something personal. “Not to me, but then I’ve had a twin since I was conceived. He’s always been there.”
“And then he wasn’t.”
“And then he wasn’t.” He didn’t talk about this much because no one ever asked him. “He didn’t even tell me he was going into the Navy. We graduated and I thought we would take a month off and travel some, but he was on his way to Great Lakes the day after.”
“He didn’t tell you?” The question was quiet but conveyed a sense of shock.
“He left me a note,” JT admitted. “I suppose he didn’t want me to try to talk him out of it. Or he didn’t want to talk about it at all. He’d made his decision.”
She was silent for a moment before she asked her next question. “Are you the one who always compromises?”
“I don’t think Mike would put it that way. I think he believes the first twenty years of his life were a compromise. I don’t know. I was happy.”
“Because of Dana?”
She’d learned a lot about him. She obviously hadn’t been lying when she’d said she’d spent her time thinking of him. Still, he wasn’t sure he wanted to talk about this.
“It’s all right,” she said as though she’d read his mind. “You don’t have to say anything.”
But shouldn’t he want to have someone to talk to? He’d made a friend a while back. Jared Johns. They’d gotten pretty close. He and his new wife Sarah had moved to California, and they were waiting on their first baby, so they talked less now. He didn’t blame the guy, but for a moment it had been good to have a friend. He was friendly with guys on the rigs, but he never stayed long enough, and he was the boss. He had some guys he’d hung out with in college, but they were all getting married and having kids.
“Dana was the daughter of my father’s best friend. We grew up together. Our parents always joked that she would marry one of us—either me or Mike, but everyone knew it would be me.” His heart hurt whenever he thought of Dana. “I don’t know. She was always there, too.”