LITMIR.BIZ

      4

      LUKE DIDN’T EVEN taste his food as he ate. All he could think about was Vanessa sitting on the side of his bed, naked under the robe he’d worn that morning. She’d gone directly to her own room, and he assumed she went straight to bed. Maybe to avoid him after he caught her in his room going through his files.

      It wasn’t a big deal, really. He believed her that she’d needed the robe and had picked up the file out of curiosity—and he probably would have done the same. She deserved to know why someone was after her and how he had come to find her. What he hadn’t expected was the devastated look on her face when he caught her.

      “Hi. Mind if I join you? It’s too early to sleep, even though I’m worn out.”

      She was standing in the entry, poised as if she were ready to run in the other direction. So different from Nicky. As he took her in, the salad nearly lodged in his throat. He really should have bought her some baggy sweats.

      The shorts hugged her like a second skin, the tank top revealing the curve of her hip and breast. What had he been thinking? The clothing had seemed innocent enough when he’d picked it from the shelves.

      With her damp, curling hair and no makeup, she looked much younger, more vulnerable, and he would never have mistaken her for Nicky. Her breasts were smaller, her general stature a bit more slight. And there was that mole....

      Luke cleared his throat.

      “Sure, come on in. Help yourself if you’re hungry. My eyes were bigger than my stomach,” he managed conversationally, though he had a hard time not watching her cross the room, admiring how gracefully she moved, even with her injuries.

      She sat in the love seat across from him and curled into it like a cat, folding her legs under her in the way that women often did. He loved that.

      “How are you feeling?”

      “Much better,” she said. “Thanks for the supplies.”

      “No problem. We can pick up anything else you need as we go.”

      “About the file,” she said, cutting to the chase.

      Luke nodded. “You’re probably wondering—”

      “Julie. The woman you think is Nicole—Nicky—her name is really Julie. She’s my sister.”

      Well. Luke sat back, hit between the eyes by that bit of information. So that’s why she’d been so upset.

      Her sister, of course. He was an idiot, not putting two and two together sooner. They said everyone had a double, but Nicole told him that she was an orphan. No family. Then again, she’d lied about everything else, so why not this?

      “I see.”

      Though he didn’t really see. Not entirely.

      “We were separated, Julie, our brother and me, when I was six. After our parents died. We all were shuffled into the foster system, separated, and I lost track of them after that.”

      The light went on for Luke. “You mentioned you were looking for someone—so you’ve been searching for her all this time?”

      “Yes. I never stopped. I thought I saw her on news footage coming out of Puerto Rico, so I contacted the news outlet and got a copy of the story. I really believed it was her, so I went there, looking. That was the airport photo you had of me—when I was coming home. How did you get that, anyway?”

      “I used to run a tech company. I owned it, actually. We developed some of the key components that are used by airports for facial recognition. I still have some contacts who are able to let me know when they get a hit on Nicky. Julie, rather.”

      “Oh. Wow. But I thought you said you were a bodyguard?”

      “I am, now.”

      “What happened?”

      Luke immediately lost his appetite. “Your sister happened.”

      “I could see that you two were, um, together? You seemed very close. Is that why you want to find her again?”

      “We were very close. Or that’s what she made me think. You may not like hearing this, Vanessa, but you have a right to know what you’re getting into.”

      Luke filled in all the details, as concisely and unemotionally as he could about what happened between himself and Nicky.

      To her credit, Vanessa listened calmly, having no obvious reaction until he got to the part about finding his employee dead in his office. Her eyes welled, her hand clamping over her mouth on a sharply indrawn breath before she spoke.

      “You can’t think Julie killed him? I can’t believe that. I won’t believe that.”

      “No, it was suicide. But it was because of what Nicky, or Julie, did. She probably stole the code to sell out on the open market, and set this man up to appear guilty. I believed he was guilty. I brought charges against him, wrecked his life and he killed himself. She and I both bear responsibility for his death.”

      It was the first time he’d said that aloud to anyone in years, and he couldn’t stand the horror in Vanessa’s eyes. It was mirrored in his own soul, the guilt and remorse. He’d done what he could for Marcus’s family—the man who killed himself—and all that he could do to assuage the rest of it was to make Nicky pay.

      “That’s terrible. But it wasn’t your fault. You were tricked,” Vanessa said softly. “How could you know how he would respond?”

      He breathed in her scent, his soap. Nicky always used it, too. Said she liked smelling like him, keeping him with her all day.

      Damn it.

      “I don’t want forgiveness, Vanessa. Not yours or anyone else’s. I want justice. I want your sister to answer for what she did, and that’s all.”

      She frowned slightly.

      “I know you can’t understand, Luke, but what we went through as kids... I was lucky. I found a good home, eventually. Even so, I’m a mess. I could have easily gone down the same road if not for my adoptive parents. Who knows where she and Max ended up? I know what she did was wrong, but I don’t believe she could ever kill someone. She was a gentle, kind child.”

      “If you want out of this now, say so. It’s not too late to go into protective custody. But make no mistake, Vanessa, if you want to stay you need to understand that my goal is to find your sister, bring her to the authorities and keep you safe while I do it. Whoever you thought Julie was, she’s not that person anymore.”

      Vanessa stared, muted by his vehemence.

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