Chapter 33
Andrea didn’t know how long she stood in the shower for. Minutes. Hours. Days. The hot water managed to chase the chill away. The blood was washed clean from her body, but she could still feel it on her hands as she tried to put pressure on her sister’s stomach.
Her sister was dead. That thought was on repeat cycling in her head. And now she was in the home of a man she didn’t trust, with a drive she didn’t know what was on it, and a gun she didn’t know how to use. A wave of helplessness crashed over her.
Why had her sister given her this responsibility?
She didn’t want it. She enjoyed her quiet, simple life.
Now it was all gone. Andrea would have to start over somewhere.
A new name. A new identity. She hadn’t liked doing it once, and now she would be forced to do it again.
Would WITSEC even help her this time? Her sister was no longer a concern, but her enemies were still a problem.
Whoever they were. All she knew was the name Carlos.
There were probably millions of Carlos’s in the world.
They wouldn’t protect her from all of them.
So what was she to do? She knew she couldn’t hide in this bathroom forever. The real world awaited her outside the door.
The water started to turn cold, so Andrea turned off the shower.
She wrapped herself in the fluffy towel and stepped out of the stall.
She kept her gaze averted from the clothes she’d taken off covered in blood and focused on the ones on the bathroom sink.
It was a white T-shirt, grey hoodie, and grey sweatpants.
Obviously, he wouldn’t have clean underwear or a bra for her.
Forgoing putting her old set on, Andrea slipped into Michael’s clothes.
Was that even his real name? Doubtful. Was everything about him a lie?
She was willing to bet so. Andrea had slept with a total stranger. The thought turned her stomach.
Figured, the one time she let a man into her life, he turned out to be a lying asshole. An asshole who had saved her from Carlos’s men, but to what end? Was he an enemy of Holly? Did he work for another dealer?
Andrea faced the sink and grabbed the corners, closing her eyes and taking a calming breath. “Damn you, Holly,” Andrea whispered, feeling a new wave of tears threaten to leak out of her eyes, but she refused to let them shed. Tears weren’t going to help her now. She needed to think rationally.
She opened her eyes to see the flash drive sitting there harmlessly next to her left hand. She picked it up and studied it. Funny that something so small was something people were willing to kill over.
Andrea caught her reflection in the mirror and gasped. Her eyes were red and puffy from crying. Her skin pale. Her hair a tangled mess from towel-drying it. She hardly recognized herself.
Andrea stuffed the drive in her pocket—it was a worry for later—and focused on making herself appear more human. She found a comb in the one of the drawers and a toothbrush still in the box along with a tube of toothpaste.
Andrea combed her hair until she got all the tangles out and brushed her teeth. She looked better. At least not the walking dead.
She hung up the towel and tossed her clothes in the trashcan before stepping out into the hallway. The door to the bedroom across from her stood open. She heard Michael moving around in the living room.
Andrea could either go to bed and deal with the issue at hand tomorrow, or face Michael and get answers now.
She turned right and headed into the living room. She needed answers now. Andrea would never be able to get any sleep if she had to wait to know what was going on.
Michael stood up from the couch when he saw her walk in. “Are you hungry? Or thirsty? I’m afraid I don’t have much, but I have coffee, tea, and soup.”
“Tea would be nice.” Andrea wasn’t feeling hungry, but her throat was parched. As much as she loved coffee and could use the caffeine, she wanted something to help calm her nerves not amp them up.
Michael nodded and headed into the kitchen. Andrea watched him move around the space as if he knew where everything was. He pulled out a mug and filled it with water before putting it in the microwave.
He opened one of the sparse cabinets and pulled out a small green box. “I’m afraid all I have is green tea.”
“That’s fine.” Andrea didn’t really care.
The microwave beeped, and Michael pulled the mug out and added the tea bag to it. Next, he pulled down a bottle of honey and added some and a scoop of sugar. “Here.”
Andrea took it and hissed at the hot porcelain burning her fingers. She took a tentative sip, feeling the hot liquid slide down her throat.
Andrea’s eyes fell down to the gun resting on the counter to her right. It was in more pieces than before. Why?
“Andrea, I’m not going to hurt you.”
“You already did.” Not physically but emotionally. Her eyes rose to his, and she could see the regret in them, but she hardened her heart to them.
“I’m sorry.”
“Are you?” She wasn’t so convinced.
“I was doing my job.”
Andrea stepped away from the kitchen and headed into the living room.
Her eyes drank in the view. There were several one-story buildings in front of them, giving her a perfect view of the coastline and highway not far off.
The city looked pretty from here. She turned her back on it and sat down in the middle of the couch.
Michael was still standing in the kitchen, giving her space.
“I’m sure you have lots of questions. You can ask yours, and then I’ll ask mine.”
“I don’t have to answer anything.”
Michael shrugged as if it made no difference to him. “And neither do I. We seem to be at an impasse.”
They were in a standoff. Neither wanting to be the first to break. Fuck it. Andrea took a sip of tea and asked her burning question. “Who are you?”
“My name is Jack Williams.”
So his name had been a lie. She’d guessed, but hearing it confirmed sent a pang to her heart. “You’re not in IT, are you?”
“No, I work for an organization that deals in different government work. We do missions to survey and extract people and intel.”
“How was I targeted then?” She wasn’t involved with any of those things.
Jack stepped into the living room. For a second, Andrea worried he was going to try and sit next to her, but he remained standing.
“It wasn’t you but your sister. There have been numerous military base attacks over the past few months.
No witnesses or understanding what was stolen if anything.
A few weeks ago, we got a facial recognition.
It was your sister. The intel we got pointed to you, but it was blocked by WITSEC. ”
Of course, there wouldn’t be information on Holly.
She didn’t exist. She had been living underground for close to a decade.
Andrea was in the system because of WITSEC protecting her, but she didn’t think they would just easily hand over her information simply because he worked for the government. “Did WITSEC tell you how to find me?”
Jack’s mouth turned ruefully. “Yes and no. I don’t know all the details, but your file was blocked by WITSEC. My boss somehow got enough information to locate you but nothing else.”
“So that’s why you went to the store? To get more information on me.” She didn’t bother asking how he knew about it. Last night, when Maya said he was outside her house, he’d probably broken in. She felt so violated.
“Yes, but I didn’t know if it was WITSEC or something else,” he finished slowly, averting his gaze from her.
“Right, because you thought I was my sister, so you probably thought WITSEC was protecting a criminal, and the boutique wasn’t a safehouse if needed but a place of operation.” Andrea didn’t hide the sarcasm in her voice.
If her sister was still alive, she’d be laughing that anyone would mistake her for Holly.
“I was going off the intel I had.” As if that were an excuse.
“So what exactly was the plan, move in and get close for me to confess?”
“Something like that.” Jack stepped to the edge of the couch and sat on the arm of it, his feet on the cushion facing her.
“To something I never did,” she spat. She pushed to her feet and started pacing, feeling all sorts of a fool for trusting this man. Everything about him had been a lie. Everything.
“Well, how was I supposed to know you had a twin sister?”
She whirled around and glared at him. “Too bad for you. You could have fucked the fun sister. She’d be into the whips and chains and shit.” Maybe. Andrea had no idea, nor did she care.
“Who says you weren’t fun?” Jack asked, his head cocking to the side as if studying her.
“It doesn’t matter. You thought you were fucking her.” He hadn’t wanted her at all but her sister. The thought shouldn’t upset her. Everything had been a lie, but it still sucked. Once again, a man chose Holly over her.
Jack stood up and walked toward her but stopped in front of her, his hands lightly touching her arms. “No, I wasn’t. Well, I thought she was you, so I was in a way, yes, but I’m glad it was you and not her.”
Andrea snorted and shrugged off but didn’t move. “I’m sure.”
“Andrea, I developed feelings for you. Feelings I would never have for a mark. You don’t know what a relief it is knowing I wasn’t sleeping with the enemy.”
“I’m so happy for you,” she hissed between her teeth, needing to step away from him before she punched him in the face. “So was that your grand plan to get information from me? Fuck it out of me?”