Page 4 of Redemption
He nods slowly, as though he understands that I’m a woman on the edge and about to lose control. “I’m going to reach inside my breast pocket and pull out a piece of paper. It’s a copy of a DNA match between your husband’s results and my own. We truly are identical twins.”
“What?” The word rips from my lungs with shock as he pulls the paper free and holds it out. I make no move to take it from him. “No. That’s not possible.”
I shake my head as he continues, “My mother and brother were kidnapped when he and I were both four months old. My mother was ransomed back to my father. He believed he was getting both of them. When she came back alone, without my brother, it destroyed our family. Please, Keira. I have no reason to lie to you. Look at my face. You can see the truth with your own eyes.”
“Plastic surgery could do that too. I don’t believe you. And no piece of paper is going to make me believe it either.” Even as I say the words, I know I’m lying to myself.
“Look at me, Keira.” He points at his face. “Plastic surgery can’t do this.”
“A clone then. Some high-tech trick to bring us down.”
He smiles, and it takes my breath away. It’s the same smile I’ve seen countless times before on my husband’s face.
“Really? I mean, I believe they can clone people, but I promise I’m not one. My father and mother had identical twins. It’s well documented, as is the kidnapping. I can show you the newspaper clippings. I can take you to my mother and father. They’ll tell you the truth.”
My knees lose their strength, and I tip backward to rest against the brick wall of the courtyard.
“This is not happening right now. This isn’t real. I’m dreaming.” I shake my head back and forth, as though to clear the overwhelm from my mind but I can’t.
“Ma’am, are you okay?” Sal, one of the housekeeping staff, steps into the courtyard. As soon as she sees the man twenty feet away from me, she instantly apologizes. “I’m so sorry to interrupt. I didn’t mean to bother you. Sir”—she nods to the man who isn’t my husband—“please forgive me.”
I reach out and grab Sal’s arm. “Go to the library and knock on the door. Get Mount. Now. Right now.”
Sal’s head jerks from me to the man in the courtyard. “But?—”
“Go do it—right now. And tell him he’d better be strapped.”
“Ma’am?” The single word is drenched in confusion.
“Now.” My implacable tone leaves no room for further questioning, and she scurries away.
“Are you going to let him shoot me?” he asks from across the cobblestone expanse separating us.
I bite down on my lip, body still shaking with every breath. “I don’t know yet.”
He smiles again, his perfectly even white teeth flashing. “This must be where they get the saying, No good deed goes unpunished.”
“I don’t know who you are, but you came here for a reason, and clearly, that reason involves my husband, so you’re going to get Lachlan Mount in his full glory, whether you wanted to or not.”
The stranger’s smile morphs into a grin. “The family reunion is going to be exciting then, isn’t it?”
Chapter Three
Mount
“Go away!” The pounding on the door of the library doesn’t stop. I bury my face into the carpet. “Go away!” I roar.
“Sir, Mrs. Mount needs you right now in the courtyard. Your twin is there. She says you’d better be strapped. You need to come now!”
Instantly, the self-pity and self-destruction I was intent upon evaporate like raindrops on a hot New Orleans sidewalk.
“What the fuck did you say?” I’m on my feet, gun in hand, racing toward the door before I can even think about moving. Muscle memory controls my every move as I rip open the door and plow by the petite housekeeper.
“He looks like your twin, sir!” she calls from behind me as I break into a run down the hallway.
My toes dig into the carpet as I sprint toward the courtyard, cold metal in hand, ready to kill anyone who threatens my wife or child.
Never. Again.
