Page 182 of You Betrayed Me (The Cahills 3)

“Oh, now you’ve just made a mess of your face.” Straightening, Julia scowled. “You’re just lucky I really wanted a sister and right now I can’t find it in my heart to get rid of you too. So you stay here, okay? And you think about everything we’ve done, how involved you are, how you tricked James, how you were a part of the scheme to fleece him and get rid of the other women in his life!”

“Nnnnnnnnnoooooo . . .”

“Oh, shut up!” She stared down at the wretched being that was her identical twin. So alike they were, and yet so very, very different. “Rebecca’s got to go,” she said and felt her heart warm a bit. Now that she had free rein, that she didn’t have to worry about Sophia messing things up, that she didn’t have to rely on her twin for every little, inconvenient alibi, she could deal with Rebecca Travers on her own.

In fact, if push really came to shove, she might find a way to use her sister as the sacrificial lamb, though she probably couldn’t go through with it.

Just like she didn’t have the heart to kill her.

A flaw. One she’d try to correct.

She remembered to slide Sophia’s phone out of her pocket, then started for the door again.

Sophia, damn her, lunged upward.

Nearly got her feet under her, but stumbled and twirled, her arm flailing outward in a wild arc.

Thwack!

Her fist connected, banging against Julia’s shoulder before Julia could spin away.

“You bitch!” Julia cried, scrambling to the door before her twitching, gurgling, wild-eyed thing of a sister launched herself again.

Fingers fumbling, she locked the door and swore loudly, the wind tearing at her jacket and slapping her in the face. Never had her sister attacked her. Never!

It was time to get away before Sophia was able to control her body again.

She just needed time to cool off and put things in perspective.

Of course, Sophia would try to escape.

Who wouldn’t?

But soon enough, Julia thought, alone up here in the middle of no-damned-where, Sophia would realize that she had to acquiesce, that Julia knew what was best. For both of them.

They were twins, after all.

That should count for a lot—maybe everything.

Julia climbed behind the wheel.

As she drove through the surrounding forest, she plotted her next move and felt her anger returning. She’d have to do this alone.

“You stupid, stupid bitch,” she ground out, fury coursing through her veins. Her shoulder was really throbbing now, and she rubbed it. She’d probably have a major bruise. At the gate, she got out and locked it, worried a little about the tracks going into the woods, but couldn’t let it bother her. More snow was predicted, though, so the bad weather should take care of any impressions in the snow.

She should just let Sophia rot up there and die. Alone. Not knowing when anyone would come for her. If ever. Serve her right.

No way, no effin’ way was Julia going to lose out now. She got back into her car and headed back to town, the wheels of her hatchback slipping a little with the ice that had built up on this rarely used Forest Service road, the damned heater not throwing out enough warmth. God, it was hell to have to scrimp and save and sacrifice!

She was so close to the Cahill money, she could almost taste it. That fortune was going to be hers. While her mother, Deidre, and her grandmother, Marla, only wanted revenge, Julia wanted more. And she’d thought Sophia was on board.

Until the idiot had fallen in love with James.

Julia hadn’t spent the last three months wearing ugly wigs, brown contacts, and thick glasses, forcing prosthetics into her cheeks, and strapping on that degrading fat suit to alter her appearance for nothing. No way.

She rounded a corner, taking it a little too fast, and she fought the steering wheel for a second, still wound up in her thoughts.

She probably should have reversed the roles, let Sophia wear the disguise while Julia had seduced James, but really, Sophia just didn’t have the brains to pull it off, and Julia had had a few brushes with the law that would have been a liability had she been found out.

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