Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 56395 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 282(@200wpm)___ 226(@250wpm)___ 188(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 56395 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 282(@200wpm)___ 226(@250wpm)___ 188(@300wpm)
Wraith scratched his jaw and glanced toward the rising sun. “That doesn’t give us much digging time.”
“Then don’t fuck up.”
Ghost took a sip of his coffee. “We’ll keep her safe. Save the hole for Kessler.”
“Fuck, I hope so.” I started to turn toward my truck, then glared at Bishop when he grinned like he had one more thing to say. “You boys enjoy living dangerously?”
Bishop closed his mouth. “No.”
“Smart.”
Twenty minutes later, I was at Black Castle’s headquarters. It wasn’t long before I’d checked in with my assistant, stopped by one of our operatives’ offices for a quick word, and was behind the glass desk in my executive office reviewing a threat brief. But part of my mind remained at home with Jacqueline warm and naked in our bed.
I loved my jobs, both as president of the Black Crowns and for Rook Holdings. Black Castle had been built around standards I believed in, employed people I trusted, and protected clients who understood the value of preventing a crisis instead of reacting after it began. But today, every executive summary stood between me and the ranch, while the memory of Jacqueline’s sleepy smile and the slick heat of her body around my cock made concentration far more difficult than any client had paid for.
The morning meetings ran into each other. Even my increasingly surly attitude and deepening scowl didn’t discourage more delays in my exit.
Cipher walked into my office in the late afternoon without knocking, dressed in dark slacks and a black button-down that made him look like one of our intelligence analysts until a person noticed the way he moved.
He shut the door, dropped onto the chair across from my desk, and slid a thin tablet over the polished glass with one finger. “Loader got us a name. Stolen from a ranch-equipment yard just outside Sable Canyon six weeks ago.”
I looked over the report, recognizing the owner from a community fundraiser Rook Holdings had sponsored two years earlier. “How’d it get into Wade’s barn?”
“According to Wade, his employees purchased it from an unknown seller who appeared from the mist, accepted cash, and vanished without leaving a name, phone number, vehicle description, or single useful fucking detail.” Cipher pushed his hair away from his eyes with an irritated flick and leaned back. “According to him, he’s a private man.”
“Can Raines tie Wade to the theft?”
“Not yet.” Cipher’s mouth flattened as he tapped the screen, bringing up the purchase documents his search had uncovered. “Trent was standing beside the machine, Kessler’s truck hauled it, and their equipment stripped the identifiers, but Wade claims his son believed the purchase was legitimate. The bill of sale runs through a subcontractor, the signature is probably fake, and everyone involved has suddenly developed the memory of a fence post.”
I set the tablet down before the urge to put it through the wall became stronger than my respect for expensive equipment. Wade had built his operation around layers of plausible ignorance, always close enough to profit and far enough away to claim someone beneath him had made the dirty decision. “Everything’s still circumstantial.”
Cipher nodded, his expression turning colder. “Judge is pulling at the subcontractor, Raines is leaning on the three idiots who made bail, and I’m tracking every device that touched those replacement GPS units. Somebody fucked up. We just haven’t found the mistake yet.”
“Find it.”
“Already on it.” Cipher rose, retrieving the tablet before he reached the door, then glanced back at me with one brow lifted. “You know it’s Tuesday, right? A typical work day.”
I stared at him.
“Just checking. You’ve looked at the time eleven times in twenty minutes.”
“Get out.”
His mouth twitched. “Going.”
The few hours I’d promised Jacqueline became the entire fucking day. A client protection issue in Los Angeles required a revised team, a diplomatic movement needed resources Helix had to pull from another operation, and Ledger cornered me over acquisition numbers while Hawkeye sent increasingly unhelpful messages asking whether Black Castle had taken me hostage.
By the time I approved the final personnel change and left the campus, the sun had already dropped low enough to turn the western sky orange. And I was pissed off at the day for stealing hours I could’ve spent at home.
I wanted to go straight there, but the clothes I had there would only last a few days, and I had no intention of repeating this stop every time I needed another suit. I pulled into the compound, went straight to my room, and filled two duffels with clothes, extra boots, toiletries, weapons, and everything else I intended to keep at the ranch.
Hawkeye appeared in the doorway while I cleared the final hangers from one side of the closet, his shoulder braced against the frame and pale eyes moving from the packed bags to the empty shelf. “Taking the whole closet?”