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)
Ian growled, but he stood back.
“Well, I was wondering if you might want to come out a bit early,” Huisman began.
Tristan shook his head. No way it was happening.
“I’m sorry, Dr. Huisman. I had a kind of rough day. I was supposed to get married today,” Aidan admitted.
Ian nodded, confirming it was okay to tell him.
Because Huisman already knew. Because Huisman wanted to know if Aidan would lie to him.
“Married?” Huisman sounded surprised, but then the fucker was an excellent actor.
“Yes.” Aidan wasn’t, but he didn’t need to act now. “We put it off a couple of times, so I wasn’t willing to disappoint my fiancée again. She’s a doctor, too, so she understands how important being invited to this symposium is.”
This would be an excellent way to let Huisman down. And it would be all his own damn fault. The doctor wanted Aidan and Carys in his grasp. Well, it wasn’t happening. If Huisman hadn’t pulled this shit today, Tristan would have had to work much harder to come up with a reasonable excuse to get Aidan out of this trap.
“But you said supposed to get married.” Huisman’s voice was all sympathy now. “Did something go wrong? Forgive me if it’s none of my business. I know you might not understand, but we actually have a connection, you and I. I didn’t realize it until I saw where you were from. You’re Liam O’Donnell’s son, right?”
Sure, he hadn’t realized. Tristan was sure Huisman knew who they all were and what they did. And how close they were to exposing him. Which was precisely what Tris had been trying to avoid. By splitting off from Aidan and Carys publicly, he’d hoped to take them out of the line of fire.
He’d failed. Well, everyone had told him he was a dumbass.
“Yeah, he’s my dad.” Aidan was looking to Ian for his prompts. Not to him.
Ian nodded, letting him know to keep going. But then Ian turned to the white board and wrote.
This is your choice.
It took everything Tris had not to growl right back. It wasn’t Aidan’s fucking choice. It was his. He wrote again.
Tell him you have to cancel.
Aidan turned away. “Li O’Donnell is my dad. And we had some trouble. I’m still not exactly sure what happened. My family and Carys’s family… They’re involved in the security and intelligence worlds. I think maybe her uncle’s business came back to bite us in the ass, or shoot us in the ass, so to speak. I’m sorry. I’m still a bit rattled.”
Thank god. He was going to bow out. It was going to be okay. He was surprised at how hard his heart was beating.
Aidan was talking to Tristan’s biggest fucking nightmare. It was everything he’d attempted to avoid, but it was going to be fine because Aidan was sane. Carys would do it just to throw him her middle finger. When Carys got mad, things could go seriously south, but Aidan was reasonable. Aidan would make the right choice.
“Of course you are,” Huisman said. “Is everyone okay?”
“Well, the dudes in the helicopter aren’t,” Aidan replied with a long sigh. “I’ll be honest my fiancée’s uncle has some…rough connections. I think something went wrong and someone was looking for revenge. I won’t probably ever understand it. I’m sorry I can’t talk about it. I’m sure it’s classified.” Aidan groaned. “I shouldn’t have said that.”
Maybe Aidan was better at this than he thought.
Cooper had made his way over while Ian watched Aidan. He leaned in. “I looped Zach in earlier today. He said he’ll be in Dallas in the morning. I’m sure he’ll want an update.”
Zach Reed.
On the outside they were simply teammates on the group run by Ian and Charlotte. They weren’t even very good friends. Zach held himself somewhat apart, though he hung out with Cooper a lot. When he was in Dallas he was friendly with the gang at The Hideout.
No one knew Zach was his partner in tracking down The Jester and had been since the beginning.
“Good,” he whispered. “We’ll debrief in the morning after we’ve settled Aidan and Carys into the safe house.”
A brow rose over Cooper’s eyes. “Sure.”
“It’s not a problem, Dr. O’Donnell,” Huisman replied. “It sounds like you had a troubling day, but you don’t have to worry you’ve said something you shouldn’t. Like I said, I have some ties to your family. I assume this has something to do with the Taggarts. Your father is an executive at McKay-Taggart, correct?”
Aidan’s frown deepened. “I’m sorry, how would you know that?”
“Our families go back quite a ways,” Huisman admitted. “It’s why I was so surprised to see your name and called you on a Saturday evening when I should have waited until Monday morning.”
Sure, that was the reason for the call. Tristan didn’t bother to hide his eye roll.