Total pages in book: 144
Estimated words: 135382 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 677(@200wpm)___ 542(@250wpm)___ 451(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 135382 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 677(@200wpm)___ 542(@250wpm)___ 451(@300wpm)
Tucker’s face lit up like a kid being given a treat he’d been sure he would be denied. “That sounds great. I’m starving. Airplane food is terrible. And there was so little of it.”
He practically ran up the stairs to the building.
Damn, but he wished he had that kind of energy. Wished the world felt fresh and new. Not that he wanted to get his brain wiped out, but the energy that came from no past weighing Tucker down, that was something he could handle.
He took the lift up. McKay-Taggart occupied the top two floors of the building, with the highest floor used as the main office. He’d only been to the Dallas office on two occasions, but he remembered the way.
Where would he be without this place? And why the hell had Ian Taggart offered him a bloody job? After he’d left SASR, he’d been at loose ends, unwilling to go back to his tiny hometown and work at a station the way his old man had. He hadn’t wanted to go home to his mum’s place and be forced to look at the room his brother had left behind when he’d been killed in combat.
He’d taken a bodyguard job. Stupidest thing he’d ever done because he’d found himself thinking it would be an easy job. All he had to do was escort a scientist named Walter to meet his contact in Finland. No worries. Except he’d been smack in the middle of a bloody global conspiracy.
He’d screwed up and gotten himself taken, but at least it had been by the good guys.
End of the op, he and Walt found themselves working for McKay-Taggart and Knight in London.
What if he’d taken a different path? He would have never met Stephanie and she wouldn’t be a hole in his heart. He wouldn’t have flown halfway around the world to check up on her.
The lift doors opened and he followed Tucker out.
“Nice place.” Tucker opened the big glass and metal doors that led inside. And stopped, his shoulder dropping down before he walked up to the receptionist desk. Walk? More like strode in, as though he’d managed to transform from curious lad to lothario in a heartbeat. “Well, hello, pretty lady. What might your name be?”
The young woman behind the counter looked up from her laptop. Her glossy red hair was in a high ponytail and she was wearing a pretty blue dress that accentuated her curves. “Sadie. Do you have an appointment or are you bringing in the order from the pie maker? I sure hope you are. He’s been in a doozy of a mood this afternoon and his wife is downstairs working with a lady who needs a bodyguard. So the only thing that works is to stuff a lemon square in his face the next time he says something awful. I’ve had one client walk out and he threatened to cut the man bun off the deliveryman. He had the scissors out and everything. I’m supposed to avoid lawsuits, but how can I do that when the boss is a crazy man?”
So Big Tag was still Big Tag. “Not the pie delivery service, luv.”
Tucker’s smile was movie star wide and his voice had deepened. “Not at all. I’m a secret agent. I’m so secret no one even knows my name.”
Sadie was a pretty redhead who looked an awful lot like her Aunt Grace. From what Brody recalled, she’d started working part time at McKay-Taggart after Grace had joined her husband Sean’s growing restaurant empire. They had sites in Dallas and Fort Worth, but Sean had recently been featured on the Food Network and was a rising star in the culinary industry.
“If you don’t have anything sweet and lemony, I have no use for you,” Sadie said with a frown. She sat down and went back to her laptop.
Tucker frowned and turned to Brody. “I’ve been told I’m quite attractive. Did the women at The Garden lie?”
Brody stared for a moment. “How the fuck am I supposed to know?”
“Human attractiveness is an easily settled subject, from what I can tell.” Tucker seemed tense, his hands on his hips as he worked through the problem. “Symmetrical features are important. Women seem to appreciate a fit body on their men. Do I not exude a willingness to both physically and financially take care of a female?”
Sadie stood back up, her green eyes now wide with obvious curiosity. “Oh, you’re one of them, aren’t you? Like my Uncle Theo? He’s not my blood uncle, but they take family pretty seriously around here. I was raised in Waco by my mom, who was Grace’s sister, who is married to Ian’s baby brother, who is half brothers with Theo and Case because their daddy was something of a rogue, as my momma would say.”