Total pages in book: 111
Estimated words: 110273 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 551(@200wpm)___ 441(@250wpm)___ 368(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110273 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 551(@200wpm)___ 441(@250wpm)___ 368(@300wpm)
She paused another beat before she finished.
“He’ll take over your life as if you never existed.”
THIRTY-SEVEN
Bailey
“Bailey.”
I’d fallen asleep. Crap. How had I fallen asleep?
A hand smoothed up my arm and he leaned over me. “Bailey. Wake up.”
My heart spiked.
It was Kash, but it wasn’t Kash.
That hand wasn’t Kash.
The lights in the office were off, but there’d been a lamp on. I knew Kash left it on.
What was he doing? No.
“Bailey.” A bit more insistent. His hand shook my shoulder harder. “Come on.”
“What are you doing?”
I winced, hearing my voice. It was raspy and barely there.
“We have to go.” Now his voice was more clear, louder.
He sounded like Kash.
His head moved closer, and my eyes were adjusting. He looked like Kash.
But he wasn’t Kash. I knew it. I felt it.
“Who—” I stopped. There was a nagging in my mind, in the back of it. This guy … I knew him.
My heart dropped.
This was the twin.
Was it?
Wait …
No.
But.
This wasn’t Kash.
He looked like Kash. He was speaking like Kash.
He was acting as if he was Kash.
But he was not Kash.
The realization hit me hard, in my chest.
I started breathing hard.
Sweat ran down my back, chilling me at the same time.
This was him.
The twin. I knew it. I so knew it.
Oh my God.
What should I do?
Kash! Where was Kash?
I froze, my entire body locking up.
“What’s wrong?” he clipped out, impatient.
I had to try it. “Raccoon.”
And I waited.
Nothing. No reaction.
Sooo not Kash.
So seriously not Kash,
But there was another thing bugging me.
It was in the back of mind.
It was there …
Something about this guy. Something else about this guy.
Who … What?
An alarm was blaring inside of me.
Screw all that.
What do I do here?
Lie. Be fake. Act.
I felt the answer as sure as if it’d been Chrissy speaking in my head. I even heard a hint of her voice in the air. My stomach still locked up tight, I tried to sound drowsy. “What’s going on?”
“We have to go, babe.”
Babe.
Kash called me that, but not like this. Not now. It would’ve been in a casual way, not in a way that he knew I would be alarmed. Or baby. He called me that, too, but in the throes, as he was moving inside of me.
This guy was really truly and ridiculously not Kash, but he pulled me up.
I didn’t want him touching me.
I didn’t want his hand on me.
He took my hand—but he didn’t lace our fingers. Thank God.
Kash would’ve laced our fingers. And he was pulling me from the office. His head was kept low, but as we stepped into the hallway, the guards didn’t say anything.
He was dressed like Kash.
Fitz was there, pushing the elevator button.
He glanced over Kash’s brother, to our hands, and then to me as the doors opened.
I looked hard at him, and he frowned, but followed us inside.
Then there was that nagging in my head. Again.
I knew him, but I didn’t.
Right?
Right …
That had to be it.
Two worlds. Colliding.
Why was I getting that feeling?
A bad sense of déjà vu, again. It was washing over me, giving me chills.
Was that why I wasn’t saying anything? Fitz was here. He had a gun. I’m sure he could overpower him easily. But I knew this guy.
I couldn’t shake this nagging voice in my head.
How did I know him? Was that just the likeness to Kash?
Was it?
That didn’t feel right.
It felt like there was more, something else here. Something I wasn’t remembering—and I remembered everything!
Then we were at the bottom, and the elevator was opening.
I had to alert Fitz. I had to say something. Only Kash knew about raccoons.
Not Kash tightened his hold on me and walked forward.
Kash would not do that. He had carried me. He had led me places. He had guided me. But he never dragged me somewhere, not in the state he had left me.
“The street exit?” Fitz’s question was directed to Not Kash.
“Yeah.”
God. Even his bark was like Kash, the perfect pitch.
I tried to eye him better, to pick up any differences in the face, but he kept his face turned down and away. He was keeping it at an angle on purpose, but it was good. He was good at this, and a chill went down my spine, adding to my alarms.
I had to say something.
How did I know him? And why was that bothering me so much?
But Fitz was going to the exit door. He was opening it. There was a vehicle parked out there. I could see the red brake lights on. Someone was in there and waiting, and this was a setup.
I couldn’t wait any longer, so I spoke, my voice coming out calm. “I know you’re not Kash.”
He froze.
I saw Fitz freeze, and then bam! Both sprang into action.
It took a second for me to comprehend what happened, because I expected Fitz to take him down. That didn’t happen. In fact, pretty much the opposite.