Love Needed (The Love Is Series) by Talea Botha Page A

doesn't know how it happened. According to her she's done everything expected of her without fail."
    "But surely there's got to be more to it than that?"
    "I don't know, she doesn't look okay Frank, she's despondent and when I pushed it she shut off. I left it, this isn't how I know her. Tell me again what happened at the restaurant, how did she react? I need to get to the bottom of this before have to notify Upstairs."
    "She seemed alright, I was sitting at the bar keeping an eye on her and there wasn't any reason for me to get involved without her asking me to. When he grabbed her wrist she looked startled and she writhed a bit but she was calm and quite emotionless."
    "And the reports? What do you make of that?"
    "I understand it’s a problem that our reports don’t correspond, but I don’t understand her intentions. The things she failed to mention aren’t really that important, but then why leave them out in the first place? She of all people should know the consequences."
    Cara looked down at the reports on her desk. Tash had been at Blackwell long enough to be completely comfortable with procedures.
    "What do we do about Upstairs?" she asked.
    "Don't they know yet?"
    "No, I didn't notify them when Tactics sent the reports back to me."
    "That's risky"
    "I know, but this isn't like Tash at all, and I'm worried about her. I wanted to see if I could rectify it first before I put the Hounds on her."
    "Be careful you don't end up with the Hounds yourself, Cara, I know she's your friend but its dog eat dog up there."
    Cara nodded. She knew it was dangerous keeping Tash under the radar, but she looked so vulnerable. Frank got up and left the office, leaving her to her thoughts.
    Blackwell was a simple institute. It was a dark office building looming in the heart of the city, and legally it was known as an accounting firm. Underground it was a weave of agents and dead ends; paper trails that lead nowhere and question that remained unanswered. And in the middle of the carefully woven web was the Dr Mitchell, founder of Blackwell, the poisonous spider ruling it all.
    The layout was uncomplicated, and everyone knew exactly what they needed to know and nothing else. Research sent files to Agents who went into the field to work with targets that possessed information or locations of information. Tactics sent teams to extract information after the agents finished up, and Upstairs was the board that pulled the ends together of whatever it was that Tactics found, and ruled with an iron fist. The Hounds were there to ensure that everything ran smoothly and to keep everyone in place, they ran tests and enforced the rules, and Dr Mitchell was the king pin, holding everything together.
    That was as much as anyone knew about the overview of what Blackwell was. They were sworn to secrecy, and their silence was rewarded with large sums of money, but in truth, Blackwell didn't have a single soul who was brave enough to break the oath. The Hounds and Dr Mitchell himself fuelled the company with fear and it was effective.
    Cara feared the Hounds just as much as anyone else did, but she didn't want to see Tash crumble. Even though she was her boss now, they'd worked together for a very long time, and Tash didn't know it, but Cara had seen that things hadn't been right for a while. Tash had faces and acts, she could convince anyone of anything, but Cara knew her better than that.
    She called Frank in one last time.
    "I'm going to cook the reports."
    He raised his eyebrows, "are you crazy? Do you know what they'll do to you if they find out?"
    "It's not big information, they won't ask questions. Tactics will be relieved that the hold-up is sorted out and I'll just send the reports to someone else on the team."
    "Ok, it's your decision, but don't look at me if the Hounds are chewing at your neck."
    "They won't if you keep this between us."
    "I have nothing to say about it to anyone. But if it comes out, and they question me, I can't lie for