Chapter 36
Andrea woke slowly like a fog lifting in morning light. Her eyes remained closed, not yet ready to face the day. She assumed it had to be day, but without checking, she wasn’t sure. Right now, though, she could pretend she was still asleep.
Her cheek rested on a warm chest, the rhythmic thumping of a heart therapeutic. It probably hadn’t been her wisest decision to sleep with Jack, but despite everything, she cared for him and trusted him to keep her safe.
She didn’t know if that made her pathetic or not, but she didn’t care.
At the moment, she didn’t know where else to turn.
WITSEC could send her away. The police might not help her since she didn’t have any way of telling them who the bad guy was.
Jack was the only person who might be able to help her find justice for her sister and stop Carlos.
The man had found her once. Which meant he could do so again.
He would never stop coming. Part of her wanted to just throw the drive away and pretend she didn’t have it.
Maybe cast it into the ocean, then no one could have it.
If she did that though, it wouldn’t stop others from coming after her for it.
She wouldn’t have a bargaining chip. As Jack had said, she’d be on the run for the rest of her life. Always looking over her shoulder.
Getting rid of the drive wouldn’t change anything. They would just kill her for spite. She had to keep it safe.
Andrea hummed when Jack’s fingers stroked through her hair. It wasn’t a sexual gesture but a calming, sweet one.
“Morning, sleepyhead,” he husked before she felt soft lips at her temple.
“Morning.” She cracked her eyes open to see light filtering into the room. The curtains blocked out the worst of it.
“How did you sleep?”
“Like the dead.” She chuckled then gasped at what she had said. How could she be so careless? Her sister hadn’t even been dead for one day, and she was making dead jokes.
Jack’s arms tightened around her. “It’s okay.”
“It’s not. How could I be so thoughtless?”
“You’re not. A slip of the word. It happens.”
His words did nothing to ease her guilt. “I’m a horrible sister.” She had just left her sister there. Though logically, she knew there was nothing she could have done for her.
“You’re not,” Jack reassured again. “Leaving her behind feels wrong, but there wasn’t anything you could do to help her,” he explained, repeating her thoughts as if he had plucked them from her brain.
“Why are you in witness protection?” Jack asked softly, his fingers continuing to run through her hair.
Andrea clamped her mouth shut. It was a secret she had guarded for seven years now. But what was the point anymore? He might as well know. It wasn’t like Andrea had anyone to protect anymore.
“We agreed you’d ask your questions, and then I’d ask mine,” he prompted when she remained silent.
“I don’t recall actually agreeing,” she griped, stalling, hoping to find a way to talk around the subject. It wasn’t something she’d ever discussed with anyone.
“So you get to ask your questions and leave me in the dark?” Jack continued on, not giving her a chance to respond. “I want to help you, Andrea, but you have to meet me halfway.”
“It has nothing to do with my sister’s killer. We should focus on the drive.”
“And we’ll get to the drive, but I think I should learn some background information. Learn something about you. I know so little. It won’t hurt you to let someone in.”
“Someone who lied to me to get close for my answers?” she quipped.
Jack’s lips pinched as if in irritation. “I already apologized for that, and I told you my reasons, but everything I said about me and growing up was real.”
There was no getting around the subject. He was just going to keep pushing until he got what he wanted. “Very well, but I can’t have this conversation like this.” She felt vulnerable lying in bed naked. Pushing out of bed, she quietly got dressed. Her only option was to put Jack’s clothing back on.
As comfortable as they were, she needed real clothes, and a bra wouldn’t be remiss. She glanced over at Jack to see him getting dressed as well. He put on cargo shorts and a dark grey tank top. Of cours,e he would have multiple outfits here if this was his safehouse.
She had nothing, not even the clothes she’d arrived in anymore because they had been covered in blood.
“How about we have this conversation in the living room?” Jack offered. “I can make some breakfast, or I have coffee and tea.”
“I’m not hungry, but coffee would be amazing.”
“You got it.” Jack stepped past her and disappeared down the hallway.
She could hear him moving around the kitchen.
Getting dressed only took a moment since she only had two things to put on.
It was too warm for the hoodie, so she only had the shirt and sweats on.
Though the sweatpants were rolled up above her knees.
She headed into the bathroom for her morning absolution and brushed her hair and teeth. Her hair was a tangled mess, and it took her a few minutes to get all the knots out. She couldn’t hide in here all day, so she stepped out, knowing she couldn’t delay this conversation any longer.
It wasn’t that it was a bad story, she was just a personal person, and WITSEC had stressed the importance of guarding her secret.
She had kept her life private for so many years it felt strange to tell someone now.
Especially a government agent sent to extract all of her secrets, though it was supposed to be Holly and not her.
But if she could help in any way to bring those who’d killed Holly to justice, she owed it to her sister and everyone she had hurt over the years.
Jack handed her a plain white coffee mug. “I don’t have any creamer but powdered stuff. But it’s loaded with sugar.”
“This is fine.” She blew over the rim of her mug as she stepped into the living room and sat on the corner of the couch before taking a sip. It was more bitter than she liked, but she wouldn’t complain. Things could be a lot worse. There could be no coffee at all.
Jack sat on the opposite side of the couch, not wanting to overcrowd her. She appreciated that. He just sat there watching her silently. Letting her start whenever she was ready. Andrea took another sip of coffee; she was ready. Well, as ready as she’d ever be.
“My sister, Holly, has always been more free-spirited than myself. She was popular in school and had a glib tongue that could get people to do whatever she wanted. Because we are identical, many mistook me for her. I went out of my way to dress differently so I wouldn’t be mistaken for her.
She was flamboyant with her clothes. Very revealing; I was more conservative.
“She always hung out with the wrong kind of crowd too. Rough-looking biker-type guys that scared the daylights out of me. Nothing our mother did could control her. Dad left when we were babies, and Mom worked two jobs to keep food on the table, but it meant she was never around for us.
“That’s not to say she was a bad parent,” Andrea quickly added.
She cared for her mother, and she had done her best. Just in the end, her best hadn’t been enough to wrangle Holly in.
“Mom was always getting phone calls about Holly’s behavior from kids’ parents, but no one could ever point it to her, they just suspected.
Mom tried to ground her, but never being around, she couldn’t really enforce it.
Holly probably conned someone into committing crimes for her so they could take the fall while she walked away.
“Holly left before we graduated high school. Just woke me up in the middle of the night and said she was leaving. I finished high school and went off to college. I was only a semester in when one day I was in town getting supplies, and I was kidnapped. Two guys just grabbed me and dumped me in a car. They mistook me for my sister. They roughed me up a bit and scared the daylights out of me. They kept demanding a payment that I didn’t know anything about.
Suddenly, the FBI stormed into the place I was being held.
They had been watching the people who’d kidnapped me.
“I spoke to the agent in charge. He thought I was Holly too. Apparently, since she’d left high school, she’d fallen into a bad crowd.
Worse than the biker-looking guys. She’d started with small petty crimes like stealing men’s wallets, but then she’d advanced to company data.
They offered to put me in protection so I didn’t get mistaken for her again in exchange for any information I could give them.
I didn’t know anything about Holly, but I told them everything I’d learned about the guys who took me.
I’ve been hiding ever since, waiting and hoping no one ever recognized me as her, forcing me to run. ”
“That’s why you were always distant from everyone. You didn’t want to form attachments.”
“If I had to run, I didn’t want anyone remembering me.
” Andrea took a drink of her coffee, needing its heat to warm her.
She felt so cold inside. Andrea may never have been close to Holly, but it still hurt knowing she had wasted her life.
Not that Andrea had been any better. She’d spent the past ten years trying to be invisible.
“Or get hurt losing someone you got close to.” Andrea could only nod, a knot forming in her throat making words difficult. “I’m sorry, Andrea.”
For once, Jack didn’t wear that easy grin. He looked serious. Andrea wiped a tear from the corner of her eye and shrugged. “It is what it is.”
“You don’t have to play tough for my benefit. It’s natural to grieve for your sister.”
“It’s funny, for twins, we didn’t even know each other. We always did our own thing. We were happier apart than together. It was as if I never really had a sibling.” Or any family. She’d never been close to anyone. Not even her roommate in college. Andrea had just always been a loner.