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19
TWINLESS TWINS
The waxy burgerpaper crunched beneath my grip and my fingers now smelled like cheese, but my stomach had formed into a full, meaty smile.
I reached into the cupholder between Theo and me, nabbing some fries.
“You were hungry,” Theo said, staring out into the road.
“Famished. What I’m wondering,” I said once I swallowed, “is how you’ve managed to subsist on half a slice of cucumber. You haven’t eaten anything.”
“I’ll have time once you’re inside.”
I paused in licking salt off my fingers. “Oh?”
“I’m not going anywhere,” he said, the left turn signal clicking in the resulting silence.
“But … it could take hours.”
“I’m aware.”
“And you’re just going to stay in this car?”
“There’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”
The car coasted to a stop on the side of the road, a golden wash covering the hill in front of me, a curved horizon to my right. The glow of the duke’s house created its own sunlight during what should be moonlight.
Theo turned so he faced me, dead on. “I want you to feel like when you’re in there, you’re covered. That no matter what happens, I’ll be here in case anything goes wrong.”
The interior was so dark as to be black, but Theo’s eyes glinted through like chipped, broken glass.
“I’m pretty good at having my own back,” I said, but it wasn’t with my normal gusto. Any time Theo caught me in his sights, my resolve unraveled. Not so much as to become loose strands pooled at my feet, but enough to think I needed him.
“I have no doubt about that,” he said, and what was left unsaid was,I forced you to be that way when I left you.“But I’m here now, so keep your phone on.”
“I get my phone back?” I dropped the napkin I’d been using to clean up, but then thought, “They’ll search me. There’s no way MMA Edgar and Detective Steve won’t notice my phone lighting up.”
“Your phone can be traced by the FBI. So this is a burner. And Rada made a call. You’re being treated as a VIP so you’ll avoid the search.”
“Oh, yeah? What have you guys made me to avoid something like that? A sheik’s son’s fiancée?”
Theo said nothing.
“You’veseriouslymade me the heiress to a sheik dynasty?”
“Named Vivienne Mathis. Rada also has a special relationship with Henry Whittacker.”
“Meaning she’s slept with him,” I said.
“Just keep your phone on,” Theo repeated. “I’ll hear what I need.”
“All right,” I sighed.
Theo started the car and drove slowly around the bend of the hill and up a long, curved driveway. “I’ll drop you off, then stay close by. The code word for if you need me immediately can be…”
“Cassie,” I blurted. He glanced over, and I nodded my affirmation. “I can bring the name up in conversation easily enough, but it’s not something I’d be forced to say unless it was deliberate. It’s perfect.”
“Yes. It is.”
