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“I left because I was embarrassed.” She avoided looking at him, blinking rapidly.

Normally, I’d call that a lie, but there was no denying the immediate flush on her skin, which was very, very hard to manufacture under false pretenses.

“You want the pathetic but real version? Fine. I woke up naked between three strangers, after doing things I didn’t know were possible, and I decided that once you sobered up, you’d take one look at me and wonder what the hell you were thinking. So I left.” She swallowed hard.

I flicked the license back and forth over my fingernail, making an annoying clicking sound. “I think it’s time we send someone to your house, Anika.” I almost tripped over the name, appreciating how it rolled off my tongue.

“Is the license real?” Maksim stood next to me, his expression carefully closed off.

Anika rolled her eyes. “No. I created an entire fake identity in case I was kidnapped and three Russian psychopaths bought me at an auction.”

God I loved when she did that. I laughed without bothering to hold it back, and slid the license back into the holder. The edge of a photograph stuck up from a side pocket, and I pulled it free. A little girl smiled at the camera, chestnut curls everywhere and cheeks rounded with baby softness. “Ah, you have a daughter.”

Rage turned her face into a glorious fury of red cheeks and veins popping along her neck and forehead. “Put that back. So help me god, if you so much as look at that too long, I’ll castrate you.”

“I think she means that.” I returned the picture to the wallet. “We found our pressure point.” I took out my phone, unlocked it with a swipe, and lifted it toward my ear.

“What are you doing?” Her eyes went wide, fear clawing its way through her with such obvious swiftness that her skin went from cherry red to ghost white in a breath. “Don’t. Please.”

Roman shook his head. “No.”

“She’s four.” Her voice broke. “I told her I’d be home in twenty minutes. My neighbor is with her, but she’ll know something is wrong. I don’t…I don’t even know how long I’ve been gone. They took me after work. From my bakery.”

You have the wrong woman. That was the phrase that kept bothering me. SHe denied taking our money, but that exact phrase hadn’t changed. Wrong woman.

“Did the men who grabbed you say anything?” My heart gave an extra thump when she snapped to attention.

“What?” Confusion twisted her expression, then turned into understanding. “Fucking drugs. I forgot. They made me forget. Assholes.” She lifted her hands and rubbed at her head. “They called me Alina. I tried to tell them they were wrong.”

“Who is Alina?” Roman barked the question with enough force the room chilled. “Answer me now, Anika. Who the fuck is Alina?”

She looked at him, then at Maksim, and finally me. Whatever she saw there apparently convinced her that keeping the answer a secret was no longer worth the effort. “My sister.” Tears shone in her eyes and she didn’t bother trying to hide them.

I reared back without meaning to. “Did you just say…your sister?”

5

ANIKA

Fuck the drugs they’d pumped into my system that had left me dizzy, disoriented, and out of my head with fear and anger. I’d completely forgotten why they thought I was the right woman. Damn it. Could I have saved myself all this trauma? Maybe. Too late to take it back so tally ho and forward go. “Alina is my identical twin sister.”

For the first time since these men had brought me in, tied me to a chair, and stripped me naked, all three of them shut the hell up.

I would’ve enjoyed the accomplishment a lot more if I weren’t freezing my literal ass off in a wooden chair with chains around my wrists.

“Identical?” Roman scrubbed a hand over his mouth.

I’d managed to pick up their names through listening to them speak to each other. If not for that, I’d still be thinking of them based on the masks they’d worn that night. A new kind of shudder worked through me. What the hell was my body thinking trying to turn horny in the middle of an interrogation?

My legs trembled from the cold as I shifted in the seat. It didn’t help, but I couldn’t keep still. “Yes. Identical.”

Kirill walked closer, his face empty of everything except an intense concentration that brought his eyebrows down in a sharp V. “You have a sister who looks exactly like you?”

“Congratulations, we’re making tremendous progress.” I groaned, then sighed when all three of them appeared shocked. I couldn’t help the sarcasm. I’d had the defense mechanism so long there was no way to shut it off.

Kirill dropped a hand onto Roman’s shoulder, and I couldn’t tell if he was hiding a smile behind his smirk or preparing to finish what they’d started. Not knowing turned my knees weak, and I was almost grateful to be sitting.

“Why didn’t you tell us sooner?” This came from Maksim, who stood behind me, just far enough out of sight that the hairs on the back of my neck prickled.