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Eli made no move to accept the man’s offering.
But the giver of the envelope also didn’t seem like he was going to slink away.
Without thinking, I reached out and snatched the package from Joel’s hand because I could see the tortured expression on Eli’s face, and I couldn’t take it anymore.
“Thanks,” I said abruptly, willing to do almost anything to vanquish the tormented look in Eli’s eyes.
Joel turned, smiled sadly at me, and then quickly retreated into the crowd.
“What’s in this?” I asked Eli. “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t really know what it is, and I don’t care,” Eli said in an agitated tone. “Leave it. Throw it away. I don’t give a fuck.”
I fingered the envelope, and I couldn’t help but notice that it was lightweight, but the contents felt like very substantial cardboard or a similar material. “Can I open it?”
I sensed that it wouldn’t be wise to just trash the contents.
I took the complete silence from Eli as permission, and I slowly opened the envelope.
Surprised, I glanced at the photos that appeared to be of Eli.
Eli mountain climbing.
Eli fishing.
Eli skydiving.
By the time I flipped to the last picture, I was wondering why I never saw him smile the way he was doing in all of the photos.
I frowned as I viewed the last one.
Two men were standing side by side, and they were mirror images of each other.
One was Eli without his tribal tattoo.
And the other was Eli with the markings he had now.
“I don’t understand,” I said to myself as I traced the marks with my finger. “Are these both you?”
I recognized Eli’s grin, but it wasn’t on the face of the man with the tat.
Was the image some kind of double-image photography?
“Are they both you?” I mumbled again.
My escort finally broke his silence as he turned his hardened expression to the photo I was holding.
“No, they aren’t both me,” he said harshly. “This is me.” He tapped the picture of the man without the tats.
“Then who is this?” I asked as I pointed to the other guy.
I was seriously confused. The two guys were identical, but I’d been able to recognize Eli’s smile.
“The other man is my brother, Austin,” he said in a low, dangerous tone. “He was my identical twin.”
“Where is he now?” I asked in a tremulous voice.
“Dead. He died almost four years ago,” Eli said in a raspy voice.
I nearly dropped the envelope as I hurriedly returned the pictures to the envelope, my heart squeezing like it was in a vise as I took Eli’s hand and led him toward the exit.
CHAPTER 22
JADE
My heart was still racing even after Eli had silently driven us back to his place.
I couldn’t seem to catch my breath as we walked inside his modern beach house. “Tell me what happened, Eli. Please.”
Maybe most of the people at the cocktail party hadn’t seen or felt the pain I could sense coming from Eli. I hurt because I knew that he hurt. I wasn’t sure why it was happening, but I could experience his emotional pain, and feel it like it was my own.
Maybe it was because I knew what it was like to be bonded to a twin, and I couldn’t even imagine living through the death of my sister.
I followed Eli as he shrugged out of his black tuxedo jacket, dropped it on the dining-room chair as he passed through, and proceeded to the living room to fix himself a drink.
He didn’t bother to even take ice from the bar. He just turned up a tumbler and poured a significant amount of Scotch into the glass.
I reached around him and got into the fridge to pour myself a glass of wine, then sat on the couch.
“I don’t talk about Austin,” he said with a growl. “Never.”
I breathed out a sigh of relief as he sat across from me in a chair. I kicked off the heels I was wearing and drew my legs up in front of me. “How can you not talk about it?” I asked, desperately hoping he’d tell me what happened.
It was pretty plain to me that Eli was haunted. I could see the lost look in his eyes even now.
He gulped down half of the glass of fine whisky before he answered roughly, “It happened four years ago. Joel was Austin’s best friend. He was a photographer, so he apparently thought I’d want the pictures. End of story.”
I could hear the warning in his voice, but I wasn’t going to stop pushing. I knew in my heart that he needed to talk about his twin. Everything made sense to me now. He still needed to accept his brother’s death, no matter how painful it might be to get there. “How did he die? He must have been young.”
“Young and stupid,” he replied sharply.
Eli looked up at me and continued, “Austin and I were close, just as tight as you and Brooke are now. But shit happened after we went away to different colleges.”
He gulped down the rest of his drink and went to get another. I took a sip of my wine and waited. I’d sit on the couch the whole night if that’s how long it took Eli to tell me everything.
He sat back down, his glass filled almost to the rim this time. “If you want the whole damn story, I’ll tell it,” he said huskily. “And then I never want to talk about it again.”
I nodded, but didn’t say a word.
“Austin was sixteen minutes older than I was, and he was the heir apparent to my father’s businesses and fortune. Not that I wouldn’t get my share, but it was always assumed he’d be living this life, not me. And I didn’t give a damn. I never wanted this. I never wanted the attention. My dream as a kid had always been space technology, and I happily went away to Caltech to get my PhD. I didn’t really want to run the family business, so I was glad that Austin was prepared to go off to Harvard and get his business degree.”
“Did you get your degree?” I asked breathlessly, stunned by the fact that Eli had wanted to be a real rocket scientist. And maybe I was a bit in awe since Caltech was so damn hard to get into.
He nodded right before he took another gulp of his drink and kept talking. “I’d just finished my PhD when Austin died.”
“I’m so sorry,” I answered in a rush. “What happened?”
“Austin and I were always different. He was always in the limelight because he was a lot more social than I was. There wasn’t anything Austin wouldn’t do to get attention. And I idolized him because I was the shier kid. I was the quiet reader, and Austin was always the sports fanatic, an interest that my dad shared. So the two of them spent a lot of time together watching games and participating in different sports events.”
“Did you feel left out?” I queried softly.
He shook his head. “No. My dad made sure we did other things together. I know that he loved me just as much as he loved Austin. But my brother was always the bright light, and I was pretty much the science geek.”
Eli was like me.
It was pretty hard to imagine him being socially awkward, but it was possible that he’d grown into the role that he occupied today.
“You’re not a geek anymore,” I reassured him.
He shrugged. “Like I said, I didn’t care. I was more than happy to sit back and let Austin be the outgoing brother. I was content with my own fate. In fact, it was what I desperately wanted.”
