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)
Tara nodded. “I’ll put it together. I’ll get it to you and then I’ll help Mr. Miles. I suspect he’s going through CCTV cameras across the city. I managed to pull the plates of every vehicle Huisman owns along with all the foundation’s vehicles, and I have a list of properties associated with his businesses.”
He knew Carys worried Tara had feelings for Tris, but it was obvious the woman knew how to do her job. “Thank you.”
Big Tag gestured her way while looking at Cooper. “Yes, thank you for being sensible. Now let’s sit down and figure out where we’re looking. I know I’ll get a call at some point.”
“You’ll get a video,” Parker countered. “One that details what your operative is going through. Or perhaps a finger. He won’t call you himself. He doesn’t need you to acknowledge it was him. He simply needs to know you’re in pain.”
“It’s almost like you hoped this would happen.” Cooper was staring at Parker like he was going to use one of those big knives on him. “Is this another situation like the one in Dallas with Lou?”
Parker’s eyes rolled. “No. I did not…what? Tell the man I’ve been trying to stop for years to kidnap a woman I have complex feelings for? It’s obvious your feelings for her aren’t.”
“She’s my teammate.” But Cooper wasn’t trying hard.
He wasn’t about to have them fight over Kala right now. “Mr. Parker, do you have any idea where he might take them?”
Adam snapped his fingers. “Hey, Lou, get on your laptop. Tara, too. I think I have something. Ms. Magenta’s tracker came back online briefly. I think whoever said they have a jammer is right, and it briefly went out. I’ve got a location, and I think it’s on a street.”
Tara and Lou scrambled to get on their systems.
“I would bet he’s on a road that will take them to a private airport.” Parker moved behind Adam. “You’ll be looking for at least two vehicles. He might split them up. Two and two. He’ll have almost certainly drugged them.”
“Ka…Kara would have tested any drinks,” Big Tag said.
Lou stared at her laptop screen. “There’s not a lot of defense against a tranq gun. If they couldn’t get her drink, they would have gotten them another way. If they didn’t drug her…”
“Something would have blown up by now.” Even Cooper looked like he was standing down from his scorched-earth plan. “Can we get to the airport in time?”
“No,” Tara said, her eyes on her screen. “But I can see who’s filed a flight plan. They have to file something thirty minutes ahead of take off since they’re in regulated air space.”
Parker leaned against the wall, looking over the whole room. “No need. I know where they’re going.”
“Enlighten us,” Big Tag said in a tone that should have had Parker intimidated.
Instead, the Canadian simply smirked. “Back where it all began. We should go to Toronto.”
Aidan grabbed the kit. He prayed he wouldn’t need it.
Chapter Seventeen
Carys came awake slowly, the peaceful darkness peeling back in nausea-inducing strips. There was light—too much light—and she could hear the sound of boards creaking. Something was moving.
Her brain was heavy, filled with cobwebs she tried to push aside.
Something had happened. She’d been with Kala in the bar talking about Tris and then… Kala. Something had happened to Kala.
She forced her eyes open. Where was her cousin?
“It would be better if you went back to sleep, Carys,” a voice whispered from her left. “Pretend if you have to. I don’t want to get to the torture part of our day.”
They’d been in the bar at the hotel, and someone had drugged them. Except there was a problem with that scenario. Her head was so foggy she barely registered what that voice had told her.
She forced her eyes open because panic was starting to push all that fog to the side. She tried to move her legs but came up against some kind of resistance.
“Or you could ignore me.”
There was no way to mistake the sarcastic tone. Kala.
Carys forced herself to breathe, to take stock of where she was. On her back, staring up at a vaulted ceiling. There was a circle of light above her, bright light. Was that a surgical lamp? “What? Where?”
She heard the sound of someone speaking in French in the distance.
“And now he knows we’re both awake,” Kala said quietly. “Remember we’re on a mission, Ms. Taggart.”
Why the hell was her cousin calling her Ms. Taggart?
The night flooded back. The mission. They weren’t supposed to be cousins. Kala was supposed to be her bodyguard. She remembered right before the world had gone dark someone else had called her Ms. Taggart. “What happened?”
She heard the sound of a door opening, and terror threatened to overwhelm her. But she couldn’t seem to move her limbs with any precision. A light came on, brightening the room to a painful degree. That was when she realized she was on some sort of exam table.