Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 122440 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 612(@200wpm)___ 490(@250wpm)___ 408(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 122440 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 612(@200wpm)___ 490(@250wpm)___ 408(@300wpm)
She couldn’t help laughing. “You’re impossible.”
“I just know what I want and need, Harlow. That would be you.”
“And are you going to continue to work for Blom?”
He tucked her hand against his chest and directed her along the fence toward the gate separating her property from her neighbor’s. “I think my time with Blom has officially come to an end. When I’m concerned about reporting to him that I’m still alive, trust has definitely been broken.”
Harlow heard the concern in his voice. He was genuinely worried that Blom had set him up to be ambushed and murdered. “Why would he want to do that? You aren’t the only one. From the little I know, it sounded as if there was a traitor feeding enemies information on various agents.”
“We knew there was a leak a couple of years ago. One agent was ambushed, and no one should have known where he was. Our tech guys looked into everyone. They set up traps. Nothing came of it. Then, suddenly, agents we sent into the casino last year disappeared. We never found their bodies, but we knew there was a leak. Several went in undercover. Blom ran that operation exclusively. Several attempts on Zale and Rainier’s lives were made. Again, everyone was scrutinized. I believe even Raine was pulled in on that investigation.”
Harlow could understand. Raine had been present with the other women when Zale and Rainier had been attacked. Not just once, but multiple times. Rainier and Zale had come to the Airbnb that the women had rented. Vienna helped them, but in the end, they had to call in a doctor for Rainier’s wound.
It worried her that Wilder had found his way to her home in the middle of the night, and Rainier was helping him hide from Blom. Wilder’s employer was a very powerful man. She had no doubt that he could order Wilder’s death and never be held accountable. What would he do when he found out Wilder was alive, and Rainier was aiding him?
“What do you plan on doing?”
His gaze met hers. His entire demeanor had changed. His eyes were the eyes of a predator, glacier-cold, merciless. A little shiver went through her. She was looking at the Wilder she feared him to be. She knew him to be. She’d just allowed herself to forget because he had that sweet side to him.
“Whoever is betraying us has gotten several good men killed.” His voice was low, an intense weapon that brooked no argument.
Harlow had no doubt that he was going to find the traitor, and whoever was betraying the agents would be taken somewhere far from help and subjected to interrogation methods she didn’t want to know anything about.
“Someone has to protect our people, Harlow. You should have been protected. Hell, I should have been protected. I made up my mind, at a very young age, that I would develop the skills to stop the predators from destroying the lives of innocents.”
“So you made yourself into a predator,” she said. She wasn’t judging him. She had grown up desperate for protection from the very people who were supposed to keep her safe. There had been no one. She knew her father was a criminal and her mother was complicit. The world did need men like Wilder. Some might even call him a hero. She just knew she wanted him. She knew he was the one. She also feared she would always be afraid he would turn his skills against her if she didn’t comply the way her mother always had.
The gentleness in his voice was so disarming. Too disarming. She didn’t want to ever be like her mother. Childhood examples of right or wrong could be self-perpetuating. Everything her mother had done, when it came to her father, was wrong in Harlow’s eyes. She didn’t want to take a chance on being that person. She didn’t want to stand by in silence while her man did something very, very criminally wrong.
“I tried to tell my tutors about my father. I warned every new maid we had. It earned me beatings, but I wanted to save them. I wanted someone to save me.” The confession poured out of her despite her determination to stay quiet, to not give him any more of herself.
Wilder was silent, clearly comprehending the extent of what was behind her statement. She allowed the rest to come pouring out. Maybe she felt safe because he wasn’t a saint and would never be. She couldn’t live up to sainthood.
“No one believed me when I was a child, so I stopped trying. Since then, I stood up for one person and forced my mother to help, but had I talked my friend into reporting the senator to the police, maybe this woman who has disappeared and is presumed dead would still be alive. Even after that incident with my friend, I knew he continued his behaviors, but I left as soon as possible and never said a word to anyone. Doesn’t that make me the same as my mother?”