Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 133213 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 666(@200wpm)___ 533(@250wpm)___ 444(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 133213 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 666(@200wpm)___ 533(@250wpm)___ 444(@300wpm)
“You went because your bosses were at The Court. It’s practically a social event in DC for certain members of the Agency.”
It was good to know Aidan was supporting him, but there was one problem. “You know socializing wasn’t the only reason I went.”
“You were lonely, and you needed to keep one thing from your previous life.” Aidan put a hand on his shoulder. “It’s going to be okay. She’s going to rail and roar, but we can handle it.”
Tris was worried she wouldn’t roar at all. He followed Aidan in and noticed Carys had left a seat. For Aidan. Well, they were the couple for this mission. Still, he knew why she’d done it. To show her anger.
He could handle her anger. But her indifference scared the hell out of him.
“Go,” Tris whispered. “Show her all the affection she needs to get through this. Then we’re in for a hell of a night.”
He didn’t want to sleep outside the door. He happened to know the room they were in was the honeymoon suite and it had a big-ass bed, and he’d prepared for a fun night. They’d spent days reintroducing Carys’s pretty asshole to a plug, and tonight was supposed to be the night when she got reacquainted with his cock up her backside.
Tristan took a place beside Ian, the one usually reserved for Charlotte, and Tara moved in beside him. He kind of wanted to put distance between them because he saw the moment Carys’s eyes narrowed.
Now she probably thought he’d been sleeping with Tara. He wanted to get offended, but he’d put his own damn self in this position by leaving her alone for two and a half years.
“Parker, you know most of the team, but you haven’t met Aidan O’Donnell and Carys Taggart. They’re friends of TJ and Lou, who recently had their wedding wrecked via helicopter attack,” Ian explained.
“Seriously?” Parker huffed. “That’s some soap-opera level shit.”
“Yeah, well, we’re not getting those deposits back,” Carys grumbled.
“Uh, sorry about the wedding. So if TJ was the target then someone still thinks TJ is working with The Jester,” Parker said.
“Duh.” Kala’s eyes rolled.
Ian growled, a low sound that had his daughter sighing and sitting back as though telling her dad she would be a good girl. Or at least a quiet one.
Now he knew how much Tara had left out. He glanced to Ian.
Ian’s head tipped slightly.
It was good he’d learned to speak Big Tag over the years. Ian was leaving the decision to him. He’d been given clearance to bring CSIS fully up to speed if he thought it was necessary. He’d been alone with only Zach and Tara for the longest time. “I’m The Jester. Or at least I have been for several years.”
Parker sat back, his poker face on. “This is new information. Did you kill the original Jester? What have you found out about him? If I’m allowed to know.”
He was a prickly dude, but then he’d had his world tangled up by twins, so Tris was giving him a pass. “I didn’t kill him, though I did kill his assassin. I was lucky Zach came after me because it was a close thing. Zach walking in startled the fucker long enough for me to get a shot in.”
“I didn’t realize Zach was there,” Ian said quietly.
“It’s in the official report, sir.” Zach had his tablet out. “I’ll send it to you. We both wrote up one. Tara and I were in town with Tris. She caught the assassin on CCTV as he was going back into The Jester’s building.”
“He had an Interpol red notice on him. It wasn’t hard to ID the man,” Tara admitted. “I sent Zach in because I thought Tris might need backup. He hadn’t gotten the comms back up at the time, so I couldn’t warn him. There was a jammer in place, and the assassin had knocked out the CCTVs on the actual building. Luckily I managed to slide into the ones on the underground entrance a block away.”
“All right,” Parker said. “So the assassin kills The Jester and then what? Went out for lunch?”
“I believe he probably heard something that scared him off,” Tris explained. “Our theory is he left and when he realized no one had called the cops, he came back to get what he’d really come for. The laptop. It was in a safe. It took me a couple of hours to crack it, and then I got to work on the system itself. I had access to certain things like his basic communication system, but his financial and business records took longer.”
“So you clean up the scene, leave the assassin’s body behind as a fuck you to whoever hired him, and take over The Jester’s online persona,” Parker surmised. “Or was it more? Have you been selling arms?”