I frowned, shaking my head. “My past is cloudy. I don’t remember a lot.”
“I’m going to get you, girly!”
I shrieked, giggling as I ran away. “No, no, Mama!”
I shook my head. AJ’s face loomed over me next. “It’s dangerous.”
I focused back on Andrea. “I think I remember playing hide-and-seek with you, but then I remember AJ saying it was dangerous.” At the mention of my brother, a scowl formed on her face.
“AJ.” I frowned at her. “Our brother.”
“He’s not my brother, and he wasn’t yours either. He was your kidnapper.” Her eyes grew heated, and her arms crossed over her chest. “I can’t listen to you talk about him like that.”
My own eyes darkened. She couldn’t listen to me? “You might want to leave right now then. I don’t know what happened, but I remember my brother taking care of me, raising me, making sure I went to school every day. He made mistakes, but he loved me.”
Her lips pressed together and she went still, standing like a statue. “Then you and I have very different memories.”
This was insane. “You were young. Me, too. I don’t know what happened, but I should remember you. I don’t. There are lapses with both of us, but AJ did nothing except try to raise me right.”
She shook her head, blinking rapidly. “I know. I…” She let out a resigned breath. “I’m sorry. I…maybe we’re getting into too much too quickly? Maybe we should scale back. I mean—” A rueful laugh slipped out, and she gestured to Carter. “I never would’ve known about you if it weren’t for him. Carter Reed. You’re with Carter Reed. I saw you on television and fell off the couch.”
A ball of tension started to loosen inside me. She started to laugh, and I wanted to laugh with her. The DNA tests were done. This was my sister, no matter what. Whatever had happened in the past, whatever she felt about AJ, this was still my family.
As she continued talking, saying how she couldn’t believe it was me and had Kevin, her family friend, reach out to a private investigator, I realized I really did want to get to know her. She was different than me—I knew there were differences between us, but I felt a connection, too. She was like me in some ways. I wanted to find out all of them. I wanted to know everything.
“So…” She was trickling to a stop. “Carter Reed, huh?”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
“He’s, uh…” She waved a hand toward him. “He’s got the whole mysterious and deadly attractive thing going for him. Kevin picked that club tonight to meet you. We were up all night, and I got myself worked into a frenzy. I declared it was now or never.” She laughed. “I can be a little dramatic, but Kevin read in a magazine that it was the safest of all his nightclubs.” She laughed to herself. “When they searched us and told us we had to come with them, I think he almost peed himself. He’s still out there, quaking in his boots.”
She was fond of him, but there were no romantic undertones.
“Who is Kevin to you?” I asked. “You said he was a family friend?” I moved closer, my arms falling to my sides. Who had adopted her? Were they good people? Was she loved? I looked at her hand. There was a ring on her finger. That meant she was married?
“He is. He’s, um...” She began fiddling with her ring. “He grew up with me. When I was adopted, I moved to Hillcrest. It’s an uppity town, and my family was wealthy. Kevin’s family was, too. There’s a whole scene there. I guess you could call me a socialite. This—you and who you’re with—has everyone salivating back home. They couldn’t get over it. Half of the girls I know wanted to come with us. Then our PI told us you were in New York, and we hopped another plane to come here. I…anyways, I’m digressing. Kevin. You asked about how we know each other.”
Her head bobbed up and down. She kept playing with her ring. “Kevin was friends with Jamis.” She laughed again, but it sounded nervous. She wiggled her fingers in the air, pointing at the ring. “Jamis is my husband—no, was my husband. We divorced a year ago. He cheated on me. Like, with thirty women, so Kevin chose my friendship over his.”
She wasn’t looking at me anymore. She was staring at the ground with a distant expression on her face. I saw the pain there. I heard it and felt it. My own pain recognized it immediately, and I wanted to go to her, hug her, and comfort her.
I didn’t. I held back and reminded myself that I didn’t know this woman. She had my face, but she had a whole other life.
“I’m sorry,” I murmured.
“Yeah,” her voice was hoarse. “Anyways, maybe—I mean—can we shelf this?” A tear slid down her cheek, and she brushed it away with the back of her hand. The entire movement was very graceful. She was sophisticated and elegant. After a moment she smiled at me, her eyes warming. “It’s obvious that you’re loved very much. Is there a way we could get to know each other? Maybe even meet for a glass of wine one night? I’ll leave Nervous Kevin behind.”
Emma had a sister. Wonderful.
Truly, wonderful. That had been my first response. She missed AJ. She could talk to this woman, get more information, and maybe get more closure on AJ’s death. Those had been my initial thoughts about this new chapter in Emma’s life.
But that had been then. That was when the woman was far away. Emma didn’t know her. She wasn’t in our lives. This was now.
Emma had a sister—I hated it. We needed to move. Emma needed to be hidden, but instead, we were in a warehouse while she chatted about the past with this stranger. And her man looked ready to bolt or mess himself. My men had taken their phones away, but if they hadn’t, I had no doubt this man would’ve called the police just because he was scared.
He wasn’t worth our time. Neither was this reunion. It was only endangering Emma further. The longer we stayed in town, the more chances it gave the Bartels to hurt her. A growl formed in the pit of my throat. It wanted to be unleashed, but I forced it back do
wn. I forced myself to stand there, letting Emma spend this time with her sister, when I wanted to rip open the door, haul her out, and keep her safe.