“Why the hell would you want to hang around with the whore who’s leading you astray?” She was getting sick of Ben’s crap.
Kala’s head shook as she considered Ben. “What are you talking about? You’re listening to Huisman? About what? You’re supposed to hate Huisman. We went through this months ago when that fucker told us you were working with him. Kenzie is the one who convinced us you would never. Now you’re having long phone conversations with the man?”
“He told you I was working with him?” Ben asked, his eyes going hard.
Kenzie didn’t care. She wanted to get this over with. “It doesn’t matter.”
“When we were in Nepal, Huisman had some interesting thoughts about you,” TJ pointed out. “He told Zach you were working with him. According to him, you were the reason they found us in Liverpool. Kenzie shut that down quickly because she knows he lies.”
“I would never work with that sociopath,” Ben said.
“But I would.” Kenzie knew the answer to that question. She’d known it would all go bad the minute he answered that call. He would believe Huisman because he desperately needed their game to continue.
She wanted out now. She’d thought she could save him.
You can’t save someone. You can only love them enough that they want to save themselves, but sweet girl, sometimes it doesn’t work and you have to know when it’s time to save yourself.
She could hear her mom’s words. She should have listened better. Her dad was all about the condom, but her mom was about protecting her heart.
“Did you or did you not know that Manny was aware the two of you were twins?” Ben asked the question like he already knew the answer.
What the hell? “Of course I knew.”
He nodded like she’d made his point. “You told him. Did you do it in Australia? How long has he known while you lied to me?"
Kenzie was so fucking confused. “Ben, have you read the files my father sent to your handler? He sent everything to you after Nepal.”
“Of course,” he replied. “Not that I can trust a word in those files since your whole family lies.”
Kala seemed to deflate. She moved in and put an arm around her sister, letting her know she was going to be what Kenzie needed her to be. “Dude, Huisman’s been watching our family since before we joined the Agency. Did you read that part? Because I know my mom and dad made sure your agency knew.”
Ben went still as though trying to figure out what he was missing. “Manny blames your father for his father’s death.”
Even though her father hadn’t been there that day and it hadn’t been one of his men who’d shot the elder Huisman. “Yes, and Huisman’s grandfather kept a file on us from then on. When we joined the Agency and they erased Kala and me, Huisman had the files from before. Of course he knew. His family has been watching mine since we were children.”
He didn’t move, as though he needed time to process information he should have already known.
“Wait, all of this is about Ben being pissy that Huisman knew you two were twins?” TJ asked, sounding confused. “But you sent him the intel as soon as you brought him in.”
“It didn’t say Huisman knew,” Ben argued, his hands in fists at his sides.
“Logic states that he knows if he’s been watching us since before we were redacted from life,” Kala said with a sigh. “Seriously. Did youeven read the file? Should I tell you the moon is out or would you know that because it’s nighttime?”
“It’s not about that.” She had lost him, and this turn of events wouldn’t solve the problem. “He can’t ever forgive me for lying to him, and beyond that he won’t ever trust another woman because the one he really loved chose Manny over him and then she died and he couldn’t beat Manny and win her back.”
“I didn’t love her,” he said between gritted teeth.
“Okay.” She wasn’t going to argue with him. “I’m going to get dressed. Do what you want, Ben.”
Her heart was a dull thing in her chest.
She loved him. She wasn’t sure why right that second. It had felt like fate, like an invisible string tethered them together, but she could get some psychic scissors and clip that right away.
“Kenzie,” Ben called out.
But she walked away, her sister at her side.
It was done.
