He seemed surprised at first and then his hands came out and hedeepened the kiss. This. This was what she needed. He didn’t get that it was perfectly fine to make out in the middle of a meeting. Her parents did it all the time. But Ben was Canadian and they probably were polite and stuff in all the meetings he had. Yeah, her whole body was relaxing under his lips and tongue and…
Something soft hit Kenzie’s head, and she sat back.
“Lou, I need you to make me a water gun out of parts you can find in this building,” her father said.
Lou opened her bag. “Oh, I have the sprayer ready.”
“Do not give that to him,” Kenzie warned. Her father was a terrible hypocrite.
Eve slapped at the desk. “Guys, I know you’re used to playing around, but this is serious and we’re on a timer. I wish I had weeks with them, but I think this is all the time I’ll have.”
“Why would you say that?” TJ asked. “We can keep them safe.”
“I don’t know if they’ll let you. I don’t think they’ll hurt anyone here unless they feel threatened, but I also can’t promise you that they’re not biding their time until they can run,” Eve countered. “Okay, the Canadians have been tracking a couple of groups that like to kidnap young women.”
“There are thousands of traffickers,” Kala pointed out. She looked down at her tablet, studying the reports they’d been sent. “Why is Joseph interested in these?”
Ben sat back up, looking more professional. He looked hot when he was being professional. Could an All-American Bratz doll and a Canadian Ken doll make it work? Their parts fit together perfectly. Would their hearts do the same?
“I don’t know what you’re thinking about, sis, but it’s making me nauseous,” Kala said without looking up.
She glared at her sister and thought lots of mushy things. They weren’t the twins who could truly read each other’s minds, but Kala was apparently sensitive when it came to perfectly normal romantic thoughts. Like when they made love, she was almost certain their heartbeats had been in synch and she could hear the music of the earth.
Kala went a shade of green.
Ben chose to ignore them. “Canada takes human trafficking seriously, but my team is studying a very specific type that we believe have a direct impact on national security and our intelligence-gatheringoperations. We’ve identified three separate groups that target young women.”
“Because they’re doing more than offering them up for wealthy men to rape,” Kala said tonelessly.
Her twin was already thinking of who to kill. Kenzie didn’t have to read the reports to know what came next. “They’re being trained as assassins.”
“They’re being trained as spies,” Eve corrected. “At least Sosa and Gabby are. Assassination is merely one of their jobs. What they truly are is information brokers. Well, they gather the information and secrets and place powerful people into compromising situations. Sosa talked about several corporate clients and gaining intel into certain governments her group considers either unfriendly or potential targets. Gabby recently got dirt on a politician in Asia, and I hate thinking about how she was forced to do it.”
“So they are being used as prostitutes.” Lou glanced out as though she could see them. “Didn’t Sosa say she was eight when they took her?”
“She thinks,” her father said. “If we can trust a word she says since she’s been taught to lie.”
“She’s an adult now, right?” Cooper asked. “I understand she’s been conditioned to obey, but we’re offering her a way out.”
Kenzie might not like the girl, but she understood her. “She’s worried about what happens to her sisters. I don’t have to read reports to know that one of the ways they would condition children is to hurt the people they care about. They need leverage over a kid, and teaching them they have to obey or they lose the only people in the world who matter is one way they do it. So they’re teaching them criminal arts. I would bet she’s also excellent at breaking and entering, safe cracking, and hacking.”
Lou held up a hand. “Uhm, shouldn’t we think about that since I watched Landon walk out with Aidan? It’s Sunday. No one’s here. There’s a lot of confidential information in this building.”
Her dad nodded. “Which is why I left a laptop and several folders in the break room. So far all they’ve done is flirt with Landon and demolish the chips Boomer left up here. I really do have to make a Costco run now. They’re either smart enough to know I’ve got a camera on them or they want to snack down on a bunch of carbs andpretend to be normal.”
“There’s nothing normal about them,” Eve said gravely. “The good news? I don’t think they’re lying about the group they belong to.”
“Forced to be a part of.” Words mattered, and they should use the right ones. Sosa hadn’t made the choice. It hadn’t been a cozy boarding school. She hadn’t been a kid obsessed with gymnastics or trying to be the world’s next figure skating icon. She looked to her dad. “Is that why you took her in? You wanted to see what she would try?”
“I took her in because if she’s older than twenty, I’ll eat my own shoe. And there’s this thing called irony. Russian girl forced to assassinate people she doesn’t know? Trying to save her sisters from pain? If someone had turned your mother in, none of you would be here,” he replied with a solemnity she rarely saw in him.
“Remind me to ask about your mother’s history,” Ben whispered before leaning forward and addressing the group. “I think Sosa and Gabby both have important intelligence, though they might not know it. Being able to have either of them ID who hired the group would be helpful. I would also like to map the structure of the group and how it works.”
“Why would they know who hired them?” Lou asked the pertinent question. “I can’t imagine they would be involved in the decisions about who to take on as clients. Also, aren’t we afraid they’ll send someone else when they realize Uncle Ian isn’t dead?” Her hand slapped across her mouth. “I called him uncle.”
They’d been so careful up until now because they’d been actively hiding their family ties from Ben Parker. “It’s okay now.”
“I watched Gabby call back to base and explain that she’d wounded me but some asshole pushed me out of the way so she’s trying again.” Her father took another sip of the Scotch he would use to blunt the discomfort he had to be in. “According to her she’s got forty-eight hours to complete the assignment, but they’re wary because they can’t confirm the injury. Which is why Tris is uploading Aidan’s report. It will state that I was admitted to Parkland and spoke with police but have no idea what happened.”
