I planned to release the sleeping gas as soon as they entered their cabin, tie them up, and wait for them to awake before I injected them with the truth serum.
They wouldn’t know who I was at all.The mask comes with a voice modulator, thanks to Amanda again.The padded suit will make it hard to tell if I’m female or not.This job is my last tie to my previous life.I served my time.It’s time to start over.In Costa Rica, with a new identity.I’ll live anonymously until my last breath.
Having a career—although I have no clue what I wanted to be—falling in love, getting married, and having babies, those are things not on my bingo card.Not possible, given the family I was born into.
Okay, first things first.As stealthily as I can, I close the bedroom door.There aren’t any locks, so it’s not like I can keep them out forever.Still, I refuse not to carry out every inch of my mission.This is a setback, nothing more.
I gather up my belongings, stuffing them into my bag, when a burst of squeals and cries reaches me.Children.
Children?
I panic for another moment.Did I get the wrong cabin?No.I don’t allow for errors simply because I don’t make them.This is the right cabin.It belongs to them.Then who are the people I hear entering like they own the place or at least like they belong here?
With my bag and boots in hand, I head toward a cabinet, which I already scoped out as a potential hiding place since it’s completely empty.And I’m still contemplating my crap luck when the door swings open.
For some weird reason, I turn, and now I’m looking into the face of what must be a five-year-old boy with brilliant blue eyes and a mop of black curls.
We both stare at each other in shock.I hold my finger over my lips, hoping to silence him, but my plea falls on deaf ears.
“Mom,” he shouts over his shoulder.“There’s a strange girl in Uncle Tristan’s bedroom.”
Well, damn.
**Chapter Three
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Madisyn
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Within a second, abeautiful woman with equally dark curly hair and brown eyes comes to the door.It’s her turn to stare at me like I’m some sort of rare species in the zoo.
Well, the boy said Uncle Tristan’s room, so I definitely have the right cabin.
“Oh wow,” the woman says, doing a double take.“Oh...Oh...Wow.”She places so much emphasis on the word wow, her entire beautiful face contorts.
She comes into the bedroom, approaching me slowly.
“I can’t believe this,” she says softly.“I can’t believe it actually happened.”Her voice gains traction.“I can’t believe I’m actually looking at you,” she then says in complete, excitable wonder.
“I’m sorry, I don’t—”
Understand what the heck you mean; I want to add on before she continues.
“Oh, they weren’t messing around, were they?You are stunning.Wow!Sorry, I can’t stop staring.You’re just so perfect.I thought it would never happen.Sneaky bastards.Wait, I’m so excited that I forgot my manners.”
She pulls off her gloves and drags me in for an enormous hug.I’m pretty much as stiff as a rod as I try to digest what the fuck is going on right now.
“I’m Tina.I’m their big sister.”
“Madisyn,” I say automatically.Why did I give her my real name?Because my senses don’t perceive her as a threat.Really?Am I rusty or something?She just said she was their big sister.I knew they had family, but I couldn’t find anything on them.
“Madisyn.”She tries my name on her lips.“Lovely.They’re my adopted brothers, by the way.And that little guy over there is my son, Parker,” she says, pointing to the kid still staring at me.“And you’re the girlfriend.The girlfriend,” she says in a sing-song voice, bouncing on her booted feet from side to side.
She thinks I’m one of their girlfriends.I think not.
I shake my head.“I’m not the—”
