The Masquerading Twin
Автор
Katie Mettner
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Chapter One
“Getting shot sucks,” Selina grumped, shifting to find a more comfortable position. “What’s worse is this damn hospital bed. It’s like a board with sheets.”
Efren glanced up from his crossword puzzle and raised a brow. “Next time, don’t walk in front of a bullet.”
Her eye roll was epically dramatic. She noticed her reflection in the mirror across from her bed and gave herself a score of twelve out of ten. The airtime before those drugged-up eyes returned to center had earned her the two extra points.
“If I recall correctly, I didn’t, but I’ll keep that in mind. What were you and Eric whispering about while everyone else tried to save my life?”
His sigh was notably a six out of ten on the exasperation scale. “Has anyone ever told you that you’re incredibly dramatic?”
“Not before today. It must be a new skill. You didn’t answer my question.”
“Nothing,” he said pointedly. This time, he didn’t even look up from the crossword puzzle.
“Seemed like a lot of nothing considering the time it took. I was surprised you parted ways without a hug or a secret handshake.”
When he lifted his head, agitation was written all over his face. Good, she was getting to him. Maybe he’d finally leave her hospital room for more than ten seconds. “Is this contrary banter supposed to convince me to leave?” She raised a brow as an answer. “You’ll have to try harder. I’ve protected kids with more game than you’ve got.”
He was so irritating! Selina forced herself to take a deep breath, or at least as deep as she could without pain.
Don’t let him see you sweat. It’s bad enough he sees you in pain. He doesn’t need to know all your weaknesses.
Efren Brenna had been a burr in her side since the day he started working for Secure One. He’d moved down a spot now that she had a bullet wound in her side, but at least that would heal and the pain would disappear. Not the case with Brenna, it appeared. His reputation was that of a hero, and his ego matched. Okay, that wasn’t fair. He was a hero. He’d saved countless lives while bleeding out from a traumatic leg amputation. On the other hand, his ego was too big for her liking. It filled up the room and left no space for anyone else. At least that was her story, and she was sticking to it.
She studied the man who sat engrossed in the newspaper crossword puzzle. Selina knew he was also paying full attention to everything around him in the hospital room and the hallway. She could see his profile from her bed, and she had to admit that some might consider him handsome. His brown hair was cut short in the back with a swoop of hair over his forehead. His skin was the perfect shade of desert tan, and his brown eyes were giant with lashes that any woman would kill for. He was tall to her five and a half feet, but thin and wiry. Under his left pant leg, he wore a high-tech above-knee skin-fit prosthesis with a running blade attached. He always wore his blade when they went on missions, and since he hadn’t returned to Secure One, he hadn’t changed into his everyday leg. She suspected Eric would return with it soon but wouldn’t ask. She didn’t want him to think she cared one way or the other about his comfort when she was the one in the hospital bed.
“If you must know,” he said, setting the paper aside and leaning forward in his chair, “we were talking about the case—”
Motion caught her eye and she peered through the narrow window in the door. What she saw had her heart rate climbing fast. She put her finger to her lips, her gaze glued to the nurses’ station outside her door. Efren swung his head around slowly. Selina wondered if he saw her, too. If she was real. A woman with long blond hair that fell in waves against her back where it blended into her white fur coat stood tapping her bloodred nails on the counter. The door was open a crack so they could hear the discussion between the nurse and the woman.
“I’m looking for Eva Shannon. I was told she was brought to this hospital.”
“I’m sorry,” the nurse said. “I can only give out information to family. Are you a direct family member?”
“Yes, I’m her sister,” the woman answered in a rather bored tone.
Efren raised a brow at Selina in question, and she swallowed hard. There was no way that woman was her sister. She’d put her sister in a body bag eight years ago.
“Let me check,” the nurse said, typing into the computer. “I’m sorry, but I don’t have an Eva Shannon on this floor. You could try two floors up. That’s Med-Surg. She might be there since that’s overflow when our floor gets full.”
“I’ll do that,” the woman said.
Selina recognized the signature sass, and sweat broke out on her brow as the woman turned and sashayed toward the elevator. That woman was her sister. The one who was supposed to be dead.
Efren stood by the door until he heard the elevator’s ding, then closed the door the rest of the way, jammed a chair under it and spun on her. “Get ready. I’m going to let Eric know we’re moving.”
“Get ready? Moving? I just had surgery to remove a bullet from my gut. I’m not going anywhere!”
Efren stalked to her bed in a way she’d never seen him move before. A lion patiently hunting prey came to mind. When he stood over her, his entire demeanor had changed. “Did you hear who that woman asked for?”
Selina swallowed before she answered, afraid nothing but a scream of terror would leave her lips if she didn’t. “Eva Shannon. I don’t know who that is, so I don’t know what you’re so worried about, Efren.”
He braced his hands on the bed and leaned in until he was inches from her face. “You wanted to know what Eric and I were whispering about earlier?” He raised a brow, and she nodded. Having him this close to her was unnerving, and she blinked, afraid to breathe. “It was about the moment before you were shot. Randall Jr. said Ava Shannon right before he put a bullet in you. It was a question, not a statement. Vic also kept mumbling about you being dead, which tells me two things. That woman out there is Ava Shannon, and the woman I’m staring at is Eva Shannon. Cute play on the names. I give your mom props for that. I don’t need to know the rest right now, but I need you to stop playing games. Let that fear you keep trying to swallow down motivate you to get up and get out of here before they finish the job!” The growl of exclamation was intense before he turned and picked up his bag, pulling out an encoded phone all Secure One operatives used.
With the phone to his ear, he stared her down, and she closed her eyes because if looks could kill, he’d do a better job than Randall’s bullet had. The woman from a few moments ago filled her mind as terror shot through her soul. It was like looking in a mirror in a house of horrors. Ava was supposed to be dead. Selina had been the one to shoot her in the chest. The ME had assured her the bullet had done the trick and ended her reign of terror—all evidence to the contrary. Ava was alive and well, wearing her signature fur. That meant one thing. She was out for blood. Ava did not take well to being wronged, especially by her family.
Her mind warred with what she had just seen and what it already knew. How? Where had she been all these years? That night, the night they raided Randall Loraine’s home, things hadn’t gone as planned, but Selina wasn’t sad to put her twin in a body bag at the end of the night, even if it put a target on her back.
“Listen, Eva, we have to talk about your sister,” her police chief said as they strapped on their vests and readied their weapons.
“What’s to talk about?” she asked, tightening the straps.
“You can’t be a risk to the lives of the team. If she’s going to distract you, you need to stand down.”
“You should know me better than that by now,” she answered, and then lined up with the rest of the team.
Eva could only hope her sister was inside those four ostentatious walls. The task force could prove she knew about the counterfeiting ring, but not that she had her hands in it. She did. They’d find that proof tonight. There was no way Ava Shannon-Loraine would let her husband run the ring alone. She was too controlling—too diabolical—to let an opportunity to manipulate and dominate Randall Sr. pass her by. They should both be behind bars, but first, they had to find the proof. Once they did, Eva had no problem being the one to put Ava in handcuffs.
The team spread out around the perimeter of the Loraine mansion. It had so many doors to cover that they’d had to pull in the SWAT teams from two separate counties. The last thing they wanted was for Randall or Ava to escape and disappear when they’d been building a case against them for over a year. If they went underground, they’d be in the wind forever.
Intel told them the couple spent their evenings in the library. Eva snickered to herself. She was the intel. She’s spent enough time inside the mansion to know Ava and Randall’s routine. Their sniper on the hill had confirmed they were there. That meant entering the front door, turning right down a hallway, and right into the first door. The room was small, which left them little room to hide, but Eva suspected they had a way out that even she didn’t know existed.
With a nod from the chief, they rammed their way into the house from both ends. Eva tried to tune out the shouting and shrill alarm as she swung into the room where her sister and brother-in-law sat enjoying a glass of bourbon they’d bought with blood money.
“Freeze! You’re under arrest!” her chief yelled at Randall as he crawled through a hatch in the floor.
Two SWAT guys hauled him out before he could shut it and handcuffed him before he got a word out. Eva swung her gun around the room. “Where is she?” It wasn’t a question as much as a rebel yell at the man who had somehow helped her twin escape.
“Tag, you’re it. Run, run as fast as you can, big sister, but little sister can’t be caught.” Randall’s words were spat at her with so much distaste it made Eva laugh.
“You don’t know me very well then, Randall.” She swept her gun and flashlight down the hatch, but her twin was nowhere in sight. She didn’t let that stop her. Eva’s feet barely touched the ladder’s rungs before she jumped onto the concrete floor below. The tunnel only went one way, so on instinct, she ran, knowing it was leading her toward the property line to the south. Ava couldn’t have that much of a jump on her. Maybe thirty seconds. How far could she get in that time? With her gun tight to her chest, Eva noticed movement ahead of her. The swish of long blond hair as she climbed a ladder before popping out into the night.
“Ava, stop! You’re surrounded!” she yelled to her twin, but Ava didn’t stop.
The adrenaline had Eva’s legs and heart pumping as she ran full out toward her twin, knowing that if she escaped, Eva would never be safe. She’d always have to look over her shoulder for a bullet that one day would come. Ava believed in an eye for an eye, but if her family betrayed her, she would burn down the world.
Eva reached out, her fingers grasping Ava’s long hair. She pulled her backward and to the ground, where she landed with an oof. “Stay down!” Eva yelled, pointing her gun at Ava’s center mass.
“What are you going to do, sis? Shoot an unarmed woman?”
“If she doesn’t stay down, I won’t hesitate,” Eva growled. Her body shook with anger, but her gun remained steady.
“What happened to you?” Ava asked, shaking her head in disdain.
“What happened to me? I’m not the one on the wrong side of the law, Ava.”
“You think you’re holier than thou because you’re a cop. You have no idea what real life is like for me. You’re about to find out.”
Ava launched herself at her twin but didn’t get far before Eva squeezed the trigger. The bullet knocked her back, and shock filled her eyes as she glanced down at her chest, where blood turned her white cashmere sweater bright red.
“You shot me,” she hissed, that shock turning to fury. “I can’t believe you shot me!”
“I warned you,” Eva said, her gun still pointed at her twin. With one hand, she pushed the button on her walkie. “I need EMS on the south side of the property. I have Ava Loraine. She has a bullet wound to the chest.”
“Selina!”
She started at the name, opening her eyes to stare right into Efren’s brown ones.
“Sorry, what did you say?”
“I said it’s time to get you up and dressed. We have to go.”
There was a knock on the door, and Efren had his gun out and was next to the door before she saw him move. He opened the door a hair, but Selina couldn’t see who it was.
“Quickly,” he whispered, and opened the door wide enough for a nurse to slide through. He had the door shut and the chair under the handle before the nurse made it to the side of her bed.
“I have your discharge papers,” she said cheerily, as though there wasn’t a man with a gun in her room.
“Discharge papers?” Selina asked, her heart pounding in her chest as she pushed herself up in the bed.
The nurse shook the papers in her hand. “Everything you need to finish your recovery elsewhere. Eric told us to be alert for anyone asking about you who looked suspicious,” she explained as she busied herself with the machines by Selina’s bed. “When that woman looked exactly like my patient, I decided chances were good that was who he was referring to. I know you’re an APP, so I’m confident you can take care of your wound, correct?”
Selina nodded, and the nurse smiled. “Good, let’s get your IV out and find you something to put on that’s a little less memorable.” The nurse turned to Efren. “I have enough medication for the day, but she will need more than this.”
Efren dug in his bag and pulled out a slip of paper. “Call it into that pharmacy, under that name. We’ll pick it up.”
The nurse stuck it in her pocket and set about removing Selina’s IV and checking her wound. The drugs had made her head hazy, but she forced herself to concentrate. Her twin had returned from the dead, and now Selina and Efren were in her crosshairs. Her gaze drifted to Efren, his backpack on and ready to go while he glared at her in confusion and anger. She was going to have to trust him to keep her safe, but she suspected she was anything but when it came to Efren Brenna.
