Page 55 of Twin Deception

I shook my head. “She was often in rehab or therapy, and that was where she stayed.” Then I scoffed. “I thought you said you had a file on me.”

“I do. And I saw that she’s in rehab and had been on and off for most of your life.”

Just what the hell is in this file? And who compiled it?Anger relit within me, but I wasn’t completely shocked. Back before I severed ties with Louis, I was publicly known as his daughter. I was afforded no privacy then.

“My mother suffered from the chaotic life of being with a criminal asshole businessman like Louis. She couldn’t handle him, and he never cared about her or what she was doing. He only cared about his power and wealth. And to keep it, he taught me how to hide and avoid the cops when need be. So I couldn’t be taken in and used as a witness or anything. He never,evershared details with me, especially not when I was a kid, but the fear was out there that someone could use me as collateral damage to get to him.

“What that was back at the clinic was me touching up what I learned in theater classes. When I was young and too naïve to understand how bad Louis was, I loved theater. I loved being on the stage, almost as much as I loved art. They were times I could pretend to be someone else, someone with an actual family. I could live creatively to escape reality. Those were the best times of my life.”

“Being a kid?”

“Being stupid enough to think I could be happy alone and never need anyone.”

He didn’t reply for several minutes, licking his ice cream and walking with me like we were two normal people out for a stroll along the sidewalk adorned with poinsettias and Christmas trees in front of shops.

Opening up to him that much was a risk. I’d exposed myself, not sexually, but deeper than that.

He took my hand, holding it, and I tried my hardest not to react.

Not to smile. Not to let him see that his taking my hand was quite possibly the sweetest, simplest, and most sincere thing he could’ve done to offer me comfort at what was admittedly a heavy admission to share.

“I’ve come to learn that…” He heaved out a deep breath. “Being alone has become overrated.”

I looked at him, peering into his deep brown eyes. “Agreed.”

“Your file didn’t?—”

“Okay. What’s…” I stopped short, pulling him to cease walking too because he didn’t let go of my hand. “What’s this file? A file from where? Why?” I stared up at him, daring him to evade an answer this time. “Why were you stalking me?”

He stepped closer, trapping me in his intense gaze. “Because someone wants Louis dead.”

I nodded. “Figures. I can’t say he hasn’t had it coming. A long time coming, actually.”

“The hit put on him was canceled at the last minute. He was tipped off and went into hiding.”

I narrowed my eyes, connecting the dots. “You… you were hired to kill him?” I glanced around, almost suspended in disbeliefthat we were standing in the middle of a busy sidewalk, just a couple staring into each other’s eyes as a single mariachi band member played a trumpet at the street corner, a cup out to collect coins people tossed in when they passed by.

“Yes.” He licked his lips, stalling on the thin cut he’d gotten from one of his fights. “But when he was tipped off and went into hiding, my contact said to go for you.”

I swallowed hard. I’d already suspected this could be a possibility. I wasn’t stupid. I’d known all along that this could be the case.

“To…” I lowered my head and fought the slight stunned feeling of hearing it out loud. Thinking it was one thing. Hearing it was another.

He tipped my chin up with two of his fingers, forcing me to maintain eye contact. “At first, to kidnap you.”

This was surreal, talking with this sexy, strong man who both infuriated me and filled my heart with joy.

“Is that the reason I woke up with cuffs this morning?”

“No. I cuffed you so you couldn’t run away while I was sleeping.” He slid his tongue over the cut on his lip again as he advanced another step into my space. Flush to him, I reveled in the familiar warmth and security of his arm sliding around my back.

“So you wouldn’t leave and prevent us from talking.” He dipped in to kiss me, completely disarming me.

“Oh,” I replied after I kissed him back tenderly. “Talking? Is that what you call this?”

“Fuck, you’re trouble,” he growled as he dipped me back in a deeper kiss. “Fucking irresistible, sweetheart.”

I hummed, kissing him back. It boggled my mind that I was kissing my stalker. A man ordered to kidnap me.

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