Page 94 of Mad Love

“Turn around, bend over, and touch your toes,” he ordered, twirling a finger.

Painfully aware of how vulnerable I was, I gritted my teeth and complied, wrapping my hands around the backs of my knees as I bent forward and showed him everything.

“You can get dressed,” he told me.

I hurried to pull on my clothes.

“For what it’s worth, you’ve got nothing to be ashamed of,” he added. Weirdly enough, it didn’t sound like he was being pervy or threatening, just making an honest assessment.

“Uh, thanks?”

“No problem.” His smile was quick and easy as he crossed the room to the other door, passing me my purse. He kept his body angled so his back was never fully to me. Despite his relaxed stance, he was still very much alert and aware of any threat I might possess.

I quickly rifled through my bag, frowning when I didn’t see my phone. “Uh, where’s my—”

“You get your phone back when you leave,” he informed me with a pointed look that said I should’ve known that, too. “Can’t have you Instagramming inside the vaults.”

Yeah, that made sense.

He pressed his thumb to another scanner by the door. It clicked, and a small compartment beside him opened up.

“Do you have your key?” He turned and looked at me.

Nodding, I tugged it from my pocket and handed it to him. He inserted it into the box and turned it.

“Gonna need you over here, pretty girl.” He waved me over and indicated a blue light inside the box with a camera built into it.

A retinal scan? Shit. I’d done research on how identical identical twins needed to be, and apparently eyes were like fingerprints; they weren’t the same.

My heart thrashed in my chest as I slowly approached the camera like I was walking to my execution. Which, okay, I very well might’ve been.

With a trembling breath, I crouched a little to bring my eyes level with the device. The lights flashed across my vision and finally, thankfully, turned green.

My knees almost gave out in relief, not sure how I’d managed to pass that test. It must not have been a retinal scan. Maybe facial recognition software? Since Madelaine and I had all the same bones and structure on our faces, it was a test I could pass.

Either way, I wasn’t going to question it.

“Thumb,” Jake told me, nodding to the scanner under the camera.

My heart thudded in my chest so loud that he had to hear it.

“Anytime,” he drawled, sighing.

Licking my lips, I pressed my thumb to the device. A second later, I hissed as a sharp prick pierced my skin. Blood welled on the pad of the device.

I waited, holding my breath, until the door unlocked.

Jake grabbed the knob and yanked the door open to reveal a small elevator. “In you go.” He handed me the key back, and I stared at him from inside the little space.

He leaned in and tapped a keyhole. “Key goes here.”

I stared at the blank panel. “There’s no buttons.” Which floor was I supposed to go to? For that matter, how could I even push a button for the correct floor when there were no buttons?

“Hence the key.” He raised his eyebrows, looking at me like I was an idiot.

“Right,” I murmured, inserting the key and tentatively twisting it.

“See you on the other side,” he called as the door shut and the elevator started its descent.

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