“Perfect.” As Avery walked past Grant, she laid a hand on his chest. “We’ll be right back.”
He captured that hand and held it, not at all happy about her leaving without him, but realizing it was the same argument that had led them to their divorce. “Be careful,” he whispered. “I can’t lose you again.”
She smiled up at him. “I don’t want to lose you either.”
His gaze followed her as she pushed through the door and out into the hallway.
Though he knew he had to let her go, he didn’t feel any better about it. His instinct was to follow.
“Hey, his eyes are fluttering again,” Melissa cried.
Grant tore his gaze from the door and focused on the hitman. They needed answers.
Chapter 15
Avery followed Bree out of the sheriff’s office to her vehicle with the Nebraska tags, silence stretching between them. Yes, she wanted to talk with this unexpected twin. They needed to talk.
Once in the passenger seat, Avery was stumped for how to start a conversation with her only living blood relative. A sister. Her breath lodged in her throat. This was the first time she’d been alone with her mirror image—another human being who, not only shared common DNA, but had shared a womb with her.
Bree backed out of the parking space and pulled out onto the street. “Now’s the time you tell me you’re going to press charges and send me to jail for impersonating a federal officer…?”
“I should,” she answered without thinking, regretting it immediately. “But I won’t. I’d really like to know why you did it.”
For a long moment, Bree said nothing. “I’d lost the only mother I’d known—my best friend. When I took the DNA test, I was still hurting. It was a whim. I was curious about my heritage, never expecting to find a match so close that it indicated a parent. I was at the anger stage of grief. It pissed me off that I’d lost the mother of my heart, a selfless woman who’d chosen to love me and give me a home. Finding out that the woman who’d given birth to me and dumped me at a hospital was alive and well in Texas...hit a chord. Made me mad. I took off work and drove down. I didn’t have a plan. I was running on adrenaline and anger.”
“You say the ancestry app listed her as living in Shadow Valley, Texas?”
“Yes, but they don’t give specific street addresses. Her name was listed as Sandra Raynes. When I arrived in town, I’d driven all the way without stopping to eat. It was early morning. The diner was hopping, and I figured it might be a good place to ask if anyone in this small town knew a woman named Sandra Raynes. A young waitress directed me to an older one.”
Avery’s lips twitched. “Letha Herrin?”
Bree shot her a look. “That’s her. She said she knew most everyone in town but didn’t know anyone by that name. She suggested I check with the sheriff’s office, but that they were busy because they’d found the bodies of two murder victims and were scrambling to find the killer before he struck again.”
“Word got around town quickly,” Avery said.
Bree nodded. “As it does in most small towns. I went to the sheriff’s office, hoping I’d catch someone not involved in the murder case I could ask about Sandra Raynes. I walked in. Agent Bradley pulled me into the conference room, saying she was glad I’d finally made it, and started laying out the information they’d gathered so far. Every time I started to set the record straight, someone would interrupt before I could get started. Then I saw the photographs of the women.” She glanced toward Avery. “They could have been me.”
“Not you, but me. I was the one the hitman came after,” Avery said. “No one knew you were coming or that you even existed.”
“I played along because I felt they needed help solving the case before any more women died. In the meantime, I’ve been looking for the non-existent Sandra.” Bree sighed. “That’s my story. It’s not a good excuse, but it’s all I have. I came angry and stayed to help.”
Avery understood how Bree had felt. She, too, hadn’t wanted to find her biological mother. What mother would abandon her child and just walk away? Now she knew it wasn’t just one baby, but twins—separated so they would have no chance of being placed together to grow up knowing they were sisters. “I can’t claim to know the reason our biological mother left us, and at different hospitals. I am curious about the match you got on the ancestry site and why you can’t find her. If she’s your biological mother, she’s mine, too. Finding her would answer our questions about her motivation to let us go.”
“Except, for all my research, I can’t find a single Sandra Raynes who lives in Shadow Valley now or ever has.”
“Could she have put a false address in the application?” Avery asked.
Bree’s brow furrowed as she pulled into the parking lot of TJs. “I guess she could have.”
“Maybe she had a reason for putting down a fake town.”
Bree nodded. “That did cross my mind. What if she wanted to find us but didn’t want anyone else to find her?”
“You think she could be in hiding?” Avery tilted her head. “Did she try to contact you through the app?”
Bree shook her head. “No. I would like to find her. If for no other reason than because I want to hear her side of the story, not the one I’ve told myself for the past thirty-four years.”
“After we find the killer’s lair, I’ll see what I can do to help find her. Grant has connections with a computer guru who can tap into just about any online database. He might be able to trace her through the app.”
