He closed his eyes, and his life flashed before him. Well, the parts that mattered.
His life with her.
Part One
Chapter One
Australia
One year before
Kenzie Taggart looked at herself in the mirror.
“She’s going to kill you.” Louisa Ward stood in the doorway that led from the bathroom out to the big hall where the medical conference was currently in full swing.
Kenzie wrinkled her nose and finished the last of her makeup. She looked good, if she did say so herself. She looked like Kara Trent, a pharmaceutical rep from Sydney, Australia. Normally she would have done her hair and makeup from the comfort of the safe house, but the quarters were tight with the whole team hanging out. Hopefully, if all went well today, Tasha wouldn’t be going back to the safe house. “Is Tasha ready?”
She ignored the other part. Kala would be pissed that she’d snuck out before dawn and left her to get stuck in the safe house all day, but she would survive it. It was one of the pitfalls that came with being a spy. More specifically, one of the pitfalls of being a spy when one shared the spy identity with her twin sister and no one was supposed to know there were two of them, even the hottest man she’d ever seen.
Kala couldn’t appreciate Brian Peters. No matter how many timesher twin told her she was asexual and hated all peoples far too much to touch anyone, much less let one in her lady space, she was in love with Cooper McKay and legit didn’t see anyone beyond him. So beautiful Brian was absolutely wasted on her, and it was Kenzie time.
If Lou was here it was because Tash was, too. Louisa Ward had been part of her girl gang since they were kids. It had been her and her sisters Tash and Kala and their cousins for as long as she could remember. They’d stuck together through everything. Through every teen drama and college despair. Through all the broken hearts and exploration that ended with them founding their own sex club—as one did—her girls had been by her side. It was kind of the same as high school except now they were a CIA team and had way more access to guns, and the enemies were more impressive than mean girls who called her a slut.
She wanted to be a slut for Brian.
Damn, it had been a long time, and her sexuality wasn’t tied up in one dude. She had an itch, and she was worried the hot guy who worked with their target was the only one who could scratch it.
“Tash is nervous,” Lou admitted, leaning against the sink. “She’s worried he’s going to reject her, and I’m worried that will hurt her in a way that has nothing to do with the mission. Is this a good idea? I think she really likes this guy. He’s the first man she’s slept with since that asshole man-douche.”
Kenzie managed not to spit. Barely. It was an instinct when she thought about Chet Whittington, the asshole who broke her big sister’s heart. Why hadn’t her mom assassinated the fucker yet? Oh, yeah. Tash said no. But accidents happened, and Chet was a CIA operative so he could get in a fight where his insides came outside and die and no one would think much of it.
Sometimes she thought she probably needed therapy.
But then she remembered that all the violence was part of her sunny disposition. And it wasn’t like she visited trauma on the undeserving. She was like karma but with good lip gloss.
“I have a feeling about those two.” She gave herself one more glance, ensuring her magenta hair was soft around her face. Her dad had argued they should go to a more natural color for this assignment, but she’d started talking about the patriarchy, and when that didn’t work how much her period hurt and voila, she kept her favorite color. “Dare seems like a great guy.”
“You’re not worried about his divorce? Tris seemed to be,” Lou said.
Tris hadn’t met the man. “You know I have a sixth sense about these things. I am an excellent matchmaker. Like Emma from Jane Austen.”
“Uh, I don’t think you actually read that book,” Lou countered.
She hadn’t. One of the great things about having a twin was halving the homework. Mostly. Kala had read that one, and Kenz had taken onThe Great Gatsby, which had like a lot of great literary merit and stuff. Sigh. It could have used some murders and definitely needed some spicy scenes. Maybe some horny fairies. “Anyway, I think Dare is Tasha’s match, and the fact that he’s suddenly become our target is the universe’s way of telling her this is the path to take. Like me and Brian.”
A brow arched over Lou’s glasses. “There was nothing fateful about you sneaking out of bed to take Kala’s place. You’re supposed to be backup on this assignment. I know you two have the whole twins, we-can-switch-out-at-any-time thing down, but it’s better if one of you does most of the work.”
It was how they functioned. One twin took the majority of the op, with the other as backup because no matter how careful they were about reporting back on what happened, there were always mistakes to be made. They could be tripped up by the smallest things.
But it wasn’t fair that Kala got to work the hottest guy she’d ever seen. Kala wouldn’t even flirt with him. Unless one counted evil stares, sighs that reeked of disdain, and a lecture on proper torture techniques flirting. That was how Kala’s meeting with Brian had gone. Kenzie should know because she’d watched the whole thing through Lou’s spy glasses.
And the guy had totally seemed into her. Was he into her twin? Would he find her boring and docile? Though he’d also seemed frustrated with Kala’s attitude. “This guy is a good way to get close to Dare Nash.”
“I thought Tasha was the way to get close to Dare,” Lou challenged.
“And someone needs to back her up, and that’s going to be easier to do if we can move around as a foursome. Kala didn’t set that upproperly,” Kenzie pointed out.
“Uhm, Kala thought Tash was blowing off steam with some random hottie. She didn’t know he would become the target. She certainly didn’t know the guy who came on so strong would end up being important.” Lou’s arms had crossed under her breasts, her intelligent eyes narrowing.
