Total pages in book: 158
Estimated words: 149641 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 748(@200wpm)___ 599(@250wpm)___ 499(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 149641 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 748(@200wpm)___ 599(@250wpm)___ 499(@300wpm)
He held on to her and found her lips with his. He kissed her again and again, but there was no expectations of anything this time. This was love and affection with no other reason than they loved each other. With no other goal but to die in his arms.
It was almost time. She wrapped her arms around him and held on.
For way longer than a minute.
Like she could lose track of time, but this was a bit much.
Kenzie sat up and looked at the clock.
“What’s happening?” Ben sat up beside her.
What the hell was going on? She glanced over and the clock read 0:00.
It held for one second and then another.
“It didn’t go off.” Ben started to get out of bed. “What the hell? Fuck. Manny did this.”
“Uh, I don’t think we should be upset that the bomb didn’t kill us.” He was having an odd reaction.
Ben stood in front of the bomb. “This was a trick. He did something. I don’t know what, but I’ll find out. He’s obviously not fucking dead. He planned this.”
He changed so fast. One minute he was her sweet lover and the next… He hated Manny Huisman, and that felt like all that mattered.
She was about to ask him to come back to bed when she was startled by a clanging on the outer door.
“I’m coming in. Dear god, please cover up and don’t be doing something that will make me vomit,” a familiar voice said.
“Oh, shit.” Well, she wasn’t going to have to tell Ben. He was about to meet her sister. For real this time.
Ben went for his gun.
“Don’t. She’s friendly,” Kenzie explained. “I mean that in the secondary usage of the word. She’s actually mostly rude, and she’s going to be very familiar to you. Ben, I’m so sorry.”
The door came open and Ben was left facing… Well, he was facing a second her.
Kala winced as she looked at Ben. “Dude, way more than I wanted to see.” She turned back to Kenzie. “Okay, sis, there’s good news and bad news.”
Kenzie reached for the mems cube, though Kala wasn’t at all affected by her nudity. They didn’t have a lot of boundaries when it came to that, though she didn’t like her sister getting a look at Ben. She was nervous again. Moments before, everything seemed perfect. Besides the whole “we’re about to get blown to bits and scattered across Asia” thing. But she and Ben had felt done. Ready. Settled. Now the ground was shaking again. She could feel his eyes on her, and they were narrowed with seeming irritation. Or rage. She had lied to him, and the proof was standing in front of him. “I take it the good news is that we didn’t blow up, and that’s awesome. How did you manage to shut down the bombs?”
“Lou did,” Kala replied. “With some help from the Canadian dude. He’s not a complete moron, though his British accent is shit. I can’t believe Devi fell for it. Also, we’ve got Devi. She’s cool but we need to move.”
“I don’t understand.” Ben said the words calmly, but there was a hard undercurrent.
Kala sighed and turned his way. “Twins, buddy. I would have thought that was clear now. I’m the one who did all the fun stuff like shooting at you and leaving you behind on a plane with a bunch of killers. She’s the one who flirts and sighs and signs your name in her journal and shit. Also, thank god now we can be clear. I’m married to Cooper. Please don’t kiss me again.”
He stood there wearing nothing but his pants, his arms over his chest as he watched them. “I meant the mission. How the hell did Lou and Tim handle the bomb? Everything is down—Internet, electricity, comms. Or it was. Do you think we didn’t try to get a message out?”
He sounded so cold. Shouldn’t he ask her about the elephant in the room?
She’d waited too long, and now he wouldn’t forgive her.
Kala huffed. “We got the messages. How do you think we knew to send Lou and Tim after that bomb? Devi saw Huisman, by the way. How did he get by you?”
“He faked his death,” Kenzie admitted, knowing damn well what came next.
“And you didn’t put a couple of bullets in him?” Kala asked, all the judgment in the world in those words.
“I thought he was dead.” She wasn’t going to tell her sister she hadn’t done her job because she hadn’t wanted Ben to see her do that to a corpse.
Her sister’s glare told her they would talk about this later.
“He was convincing. I won’t make the same mistake again. I’ve learned appearance can be extremely deceiving,” Ben said. “When did the damn comms come back online? You know there’s a system in here. You could have contacted us. You didn’t have to…”