“Asshole,” I murmured as I flopped back down onto the mattress.
As I laid there, wanting to die of embarrassment, thoughts of my twin sister consumed me. Heat burned my cheeks at the anger I still held toward my parents for never telling me. All my life, I’d felt this hole in my heart. Like part of me had never truly been there. I talked to imaginary friends as a child, praying that one day they’d come to life, so I’d be less alone as an only child.
I was never an only child, though.
“My God,” I whispered as I closed my eyes.
I’d seen that shit on the news all the time, those expose pieces where twins were reunited after so many years apart. I had always been so drawn to them. So enraptured with the idea that, somewhere out there, I had a sibling looking for me. Searching for me. Wanting me to come into their life. I fantasized about it as a teenager. Fantasies where my sibling showed up at the front door, ready to become one big, happy family.
No wonder I had felt incomplete my entire life.
For all the years I had been alive, I never felt adequate. I got straight A’s all throughout high school, but it wasn’t enough. I graduated at the top of my class, but it didn’t fulfill me. I worked with children that would otherwise be sacrificed to a brutal public school system, and yet I found myself questioning my life’s work at times. But now, I understood why.
Because an entire chunk of my life had been missing.
A chunk that shared my exact DNA.
CRASH, THUD!
“Aaaahhh!” I shrieked, scrambling to get to the other side of the bed.
I heard his voice before I saw his looming, shadowed profile. “Do you want to help?”
I swallowed hard as Axton’s voice fell heavily against my ears. “What?”
He stalked closer, coming all the way to the edge of the bed. He stared down at me, raking his gaze along my comforter-covered body as his nose wrinkled in disgust.
At least, I thought it was disgust, what with the deep furrow of his brow and the disapproving look in his stare.
“Do you want to help us or not?” he glowered.
My head tilted. “Depends on the help. Why?”
He didn’t hesitate. “There’s a party we’ve been asked to provide protection services for.”
My eyebrows slowly rose. “Seriously?”
“Helps us bring in residual income as a crew.”
“Who do you provide protection to?”
He shrugged. “Elitist assholes with too much money.”
“Ah.”
“And in exchange, it provides us with a chance to rub elbows with those that have connections to make our lives easier.”
I didn’t even want to ask what that meant. “How exactly would I be helping, then?”
He drew in a deep breath. “We have reason to believe that your sister might be there. We think seeing you will throw her off enough for us to catch her.”
“Which means releasing me.”
“Yep.”
I chewed on the inside of my lip. “Formal event?”
He nodded. “Uh huh.”
