Total pages in book: 34
Estimated words: 32155 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 161(@200wpm)___ 129(@250wpm)___ 107(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 32155 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 161(@200wpm)___ 129(@250wpm)___ 107(@300wpm)
“Once we have a location where your mentor lives, I’ll call Ian, and he’ll send a team to have our backs. Just in case.”
She visibly swallows hard. “Okay.”
I grasp her forearms in a sign of reassurance. “Ready?”
She nods.
Grabbing her hand, I lead her back to the bedroom, standing by the bug. “You’re sure there’s no way to contact your mentor faster?” I ask. I give a squeeze of her palm to let her know to answer.
“I can’t. He’s eccentric. He already knows to meet us at Providence Portland Medical Center, where he has an office. Hopefully, he has the rest of the formula with him there.”
I wink at her, mouthing, good job. I deliberately give a loud yawn. “I want to turn in early. I’m exhausted. You wore me out,” I say with a laugh.
She narrows her gaze.
I place a finger over my mouth and gesture to the bathroom again, where we can talk in private.
She follows me into the room and turns on the shower.
“What’s going on?” she asks in a whisper.
“I don’t want to sleep in here. We’ll get another room and come back in the morning to shower before we head out. No reason to be aware of a bug all night. We’ll be up tossing and turning. Let’s just go back out there, make some noise, and pretend to go to sleep. Then we’ll sneak out again.”
She nods, eyes lit up at my plan. “Sounds like a good idea to me.”
Acting on impulse, I lean over and press a kiss on her lips.
Just because I want to.
Chapter Eight
Shane
In the morning, I check in with Ian, then we proceed with the next part of our plan. I am relying on the bug and the people who planted it and have been listening to our conversation to head in the direction of the hospital, but I also know there is every chance they have at least one guy with eyes on Talia. The fact that she doesn’t have the entire cure in her possession and they now know it, however, will definitely buy us time to get to the cabin. Because the people after her will wait for her to lead them to the remaining pieces of the formula.
Meeting in a public place with plenty of people around will prevent anything dangerous from happening. At least that is my hope. Considering I haven’t a clue how they keep tracking Talia, I am wary of taking anything for granted.
Not with Talia’s safety at stake.
We sit inside the coffee shop with a view of the window and the sidewalk outside, waiting for Jonah Goodwin. I wrap my hand around a warm coffee cup, my second of the morning.
“It’s been years since I’ve seen Jonah,” Talia says, taking a sip of her latte.
“Were you close?” I ask, wondering about the relationships in her life.
“He was my professor in medical school.” She smiles at what must be a good memory. “He drove students crazy with his erratic schedule, requirements, and theories. But I liked him immediately. He took me under his wing.” She shrugs. “Got me my current position because I wanted to follow in his footsteps and work on the cure for what my mother had.”
Her eyes suddenly light up. “Oh! Here he is!”
I turn to catch sight of an older man who looks just as I pictured for a reclusive eccentric. His hair is to his shoulders and bushy, his face covered in a grayish-white beard. His jeans are old and faded, a plaid flannel shirt covering a T-shirt. And probably because he didn’t expect this urgent meeting, he keeps looking over his shoulder and glancing around.
He steps inside and Talia shoots out of her seat. “Jonah!”
The big man sweeps her into a hug, confirming their close relationship despite not having seen each other in a while.
He ends the embrace and meets her gaze. “Who’s this?” He gestures to me, hovering protectively nearby.
Talia steps back. “This is Shane Landon, my bodyguard.”
Goodwin narrows his gaze. “You need protection? What’s going on?” he asks without acknowledging me or shaking my hand.
“Let’s sit,” Talia suggests. She gestures to the table and chairs behind us.
He pulled out a seat and settled into it. Shane and Talia did the same.
“Talk to me,” Jonah says, never truly relaxing.
“Okay, so the good news is that Christopher and I were finally successful in working out the right treatment. We were ready to go into the testing phase, and the company knew it. Next thing I know, someone wiped my lab clean, took the computers and equipment, and I’m sure they assumed they’d gotten the whole formula. Of course, they didn’t.”
“Because you listened to me and broke up your results,” he says, nodding as he takes in her story.
She rubs her palms against her leggings. “Someone’s been after me ever since. They want the rest of the formula.”