Total pages in book: 155
Estimated words: 146417 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 732(@200wpm)___ 586(@250wpm)___ 488(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 146417 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 732(@200wpm)___ 586(@250wpm)___ 488(@300wpm)
She’d worked hard to try to get his job back. He knew she was one of the reasons the Agency hadn’t come after him harder when he’d left. Big Tag had been another, but Kim had actively worked to keep him safe. He could trust her in this. “I helped Big Tag destroy the final formulary. We found it at the secondary base here in France. I came in a few hours after they freed Theo. Big Tag thought it would be good to have an Agency operative there so he would have accountability. He picked me because he knew I would do what he wanted. He knew I would help destroy that woman’s work and I would cover for him. Not even the rest of the group knew I was there until later. It’s all gone.”
“Well, the first versions of it are now in Levi’s hands, and I assure you, he means to perfect it all over again.” She sighed and took a sip. “Like I said, I’ll write it up tonight.”
“I would rather you told me. I was surprised. The fucker finally managed to shock me. When I realized something was going wrong, I thought it would be me he arrested.”
“Only because you fundamentally misunderstand what Levi wants out of this war we’re in.”
“Oh, I understand. He wants you. He wants to be able to say he took you from me.”
She laughed, though the sound held not an ounce of true amusement. “You genuinely think he’s doing this to prove he’s better than you? That’s why you were surprised?”
“He hates me.”
“No, babe. He hates me and that’s why he fucks with you. You think this war is between you and Levi and that I’m some pathetic prize one of you gets at the end, but you’re wrong. I’m not blaming you for thinking that way. I did for a long time, too. But I hate to burst your bubble. You’re incidental to this war because it would have happened whether or not you showed up.”
His first instinct was to argue with her. This was obviously something between himself and Levi. After all, he’d been shot by the fucker and left for dead, not her. But arguing wouldn’t solve anything. “Why do you think that? You know he’s hated me pretty much from the moment we met.”
“You were a prick to him, but then he was annoying and trying to show off for me,” she replied. “Though I didn’t realize it at the time.”
He’d met Kim when she was in training. She and Levi had been members of the same class. They’d been in a seminar that Ezra hadn’t intended to teach. He’d only been working for a few years longer than their training class. “He didn’t understand geopolitics the way he thought he did. He was a showoff, and I put him in his place. It was the incident that proved to the instructors I wasn’t cut out to be one of them.”
But he’d noticed her. He’d taken over three days of lectures on the political situations in smaller, often overlooked countries. Levi had been an ass, but he’d noticed the woman with all the blonde hair and the smile like sunshine. He hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her and when he’d found out she frequented a bar in Foggy Bottom, he’d found himself hanging out there more and more. It had been before he’d gone into the field, when he’d been an analyst.
“See, he’s always wanted to get back at me for that,” he replied. “You don’t understand the male psyche. I wounded his pride that day.”
“And I wounded it when I wouldn’t love him back.”
He felt his spine straighten. He didn’t want to hear about what she’d done with Levi before she’d met him. Sometimes he thought half their fights had been about that fucker. If she needed to believe she was the center of the universe, then he was going to let her. “There’s no point in discussing ancient history.”
She sat back. “Of course there isn’t. I’m going to pull up the laptop. I’ll stay on the couch tonight.”
“I can handle the couch.”
She stood up and grabbed the sleek computer and brought it back to the table. “I’m going to check my messages. I want to see if he called.”
“By he, you mean Levi?” She wanted to know if he’d left her a damn message? “You so desperate to hear his voice?”
She didn’t look up at him, merely stared at the screen. “The door is that way, Beck. You should feel free to use it.” She sighed and looked up at him. “If you won’t talk about the past with me, could you at least not accuse me of things you don’t understand? That man has ruined my life in numerous ways. You don’t want to hear about it? I get it, but you can keep your mouth shut about things you don’t understand.”