“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.
“I’m no expert, but I think your sister was trying to protect you by keeping her distance.She loved you in her own way.”
She sure had a funny way of showing it.“I didn’t want her protection; I just wanted my sister.What happens now?”Andrea rubbed her hands together, trying to rub some warmth back into her body.She felt so cold down to the marrow of her bones.
“We uncover what was in the data and find out who wants it.”
“She said Carlos was after it, but there could be a million Carlos’s in the world, so I don’t know how that will help.”
“Carlos Verana.”
Apparently, it wouldn’t be so hard after all.“How can you be so certain?”He had said the name so quickly, as if he were sure, but how could that be when she’d just mentioned the name?
“The guys who cornered you at the bar the other night, they work for him.”
“Oh,” was all she could think of to say, then she remembered something.“Holly said she double-crossed him and was planning on selling the drive to someone else.”
Jack’s eyes flared in interest, and it had nothing to do with sex.He reminded her of those crime shows when a clue had been revealed.“Did she say who?”
“No.”
“Oh.”His shoulders deflated.
“Maybe Carlos knows.If we can track him down and question him.”
“That’s a big if.Did you sister tell you anything last night?Even the most unimportant detail,” Jack pressed, inching closer to her on the couch but still not touching her.
Andrea wracked her brain.Her sister had only been there for a few hours.“No.”
“Walk me through the meeting.”
“You dropped me off; Maya mentioned she saw you in front of the house.”She was no longer angry about it, she realized.Andrea had forgiven him.She couldn’t fault him for doing his job and trying to protect national security.“I walked inside, and Holly was there.She said she needed a place to lay low for the next few days.First, she told me her boyfriend had hit her, and she’d run scared.I called my work to call off for a few days.”
“That must have been when she answered the door,” he said as if to himself.
