Light from Her Mirror (Mirrors Don't Lie Book 3)

by Becki Willis

  She crashed into the tree hard enough to deploy her airbags and jar every bone in her body. Dazed, Kenzie slumped in her seat, staring blankly at her crumbled hood as steam billowed out from beneath. She heard sirens in the distance, was vaguely aware of people pouring out into their yards and surveying her path of destruction, but she was too numb with shock to move. Relief washed over her, making her limbs weak and her body tremble.

  Someone opened her door and spoke to her. Kenzie nodded that she was all right, groped along the seat for her purse, and used what little energy she could summon to crawl from her wrecked vehicle and collapse promptly on the bed of grass.

  Chapter Two

  “Kenzie?” Makenna Reagan called her sister’s name softly.

  “Hmm?”

  “Are you okay, honey? Can I get you anything?”

  A six-foot-four, blond-headed Texas Ranger, Kenzie thought groggily. Nothing else could soothe her. Instead, she gingerly shook her head and said, “No thanks.”

  Makenna sat down beside her on the couch, reaching for her sister’s hand. “You really should have let the ambulance take you to the hospital and check you out,” she admonished.

  “I’m fine. A little sore and a lot shook up, but the airbag did its job and kept me safe.” She offered a rueful smile. “I’ve spent more time in the hospital over the last few weeks than I have in my entire life.”

  The car wreck two months ago had earned her several days in the hospital, while she recuperated from surgery on her leg and complications from cracked ribs and a bruised spleen. Two weeks ago, she once again ended up in the emergency room after the ordeal with Bernard Franks.

  “You’re being stubborn,” Makenna accused.

  “Would you have me any other way?” Kenzie grinned.

  “Yes. Healthy. Safe.”

  The jab about being safe sobered her. “Could Hardin tell if my brake lines had been tampered with?”

  “He said it was a little hard to tell by just looking, something about too many twigs and pieces of shrubs and fence caught up in the undercarriage, but they’ve taken your car to the lab. Since this is a weekend, it will be Monday before they know for sure.”

  “Not a fence. A beautiful little lattice arbor,” Kenzie said wistfully. A frown drooped from her lips. “I totally obliterated it. Smashed it to smithereens. And you should have seen what I did to Dr. Carmine Angola’s yard. It won’t be on any magazine covers anytime soon.” She put both hands to her head and shook it hard enough to make raven curls dance around her face. “Argh! I hope my insurance pays for all the damage I wreaked. And for a new car. Again!”

  “Aw, come here,” Makenna said, gathering her sister into a warm embrace. “It’s going to be okay. One way or another, it’s going to work out.”

  “Will it? I’m beginning to have my doubts. Even for me, these past two and a half months have been crazy.”

  “I know you don’t do well with changes,” Makenna commiserated. “And there have been quite a few these past few weeks, haven’t there?”

  “Oh, you might say that. Three months ago, my life was nice and stable: my career was going great at the magazine, I had a good social life, I thought my past was finally behind me, I was driving my old and faithful Myrtle, and I thought I was finally going to visit New England. Life was good.”

  “And then you had your wreck.”

  “It’s funny, how one little thing can cause a chain reaction, setting off a whole series of events. I conned you into pretending to be me for my dream assignment. And sometime in between being chased off the road and nearly being kidnapped, you figured out that you and I weren’t merely friends and roommates, we were actually sisters.” Kenzie shook her head in exasperation. “How we missed such an obvious thing, I will never know.”

  “How could we have known? My parents adopted an abandoned three year old. Your parents let you think you were an only child. We may look a lot alike, sound a lot alike, but we had no reason to suspect we were related.”

  “Yeah, well, finding out I had a sister was the only positive thing to come out of all of this mess. I could have definitely done without finding out my father was a criminal. Sure, I always suspected it, since we moved around all the time and changed our names as often as most people change batteries in the TV remote. But thinking it and knowing it are two different things. I still can’t believe that a genius like my father was stupid enough to get involved with crooked politicians and the Zaffino Mafia. He was the one to set up this entire thing, after all, creating all those dummy corporations to collect grants and credits from the government, taking advantage of the move toward green energy.”

  “Depending on how you look at it, he was either smart enough/stupid enough to document his dirty deeds and everyone involved.”

  “This is so like him,” Kenzie complained. “He creates a big mess and just walks away from it, leaving me to deal with it. Now that NorthWind is getting so much attention, the worms are beginning to crawl out of the woodwork. Everyone’s afraid that their involvement in the scam will be exposed. And for some reason they think they can get to my father and his evidence through me. Little do they know what a dysfunctional family I come from! I have no way to get in touch with my father, no idea where he is or what name he’s using these days. A lot of good it would do to kidnap me.”

  “Especially since you’ve had the evidence all along, you just didn’t realize it.”

  “Sometimes I wish I’d never opened that envelope my mother gave me. I mean, I had had the thing for eight years and forgotten all about it. What made me find it and look at it after all this time? I still don’t know everything she meant in that letter. I think there’s still something missing, still some other big change just waiting to happen.” Kenzie grunted. “And just wait until we go public with the evidence we found. These are Congressmen and judges and billionaires we’re talking about that were part of the scam. We’re about to rock the entire political foundation of this country. Who knows what kind of changes will happen then?”

  “Some of the changes have been good,” Makenna reminded her. “Your career is stronger than ever. After the NorthWind piece-”

  “Which technically you shot. I just edited it.”

  “- you caught the attention of Senator Lawrence. Having a U.S. Senator specifically request you for his special project and personal interview is pretty impressive.”

  “I thought it was, anyway. Now I realize it was probably all orchestrated by Bernard Franks as a way to get close to me and to try and find my father.”

  “There’s been a positive change to our bank account. Technically, you and I are wealthy. We own a house and everything.”

  “True. Even if it is in New Hampshire and we live in Texas. And now that we know our real names are Tamara and Tressa Mandarino, we at least know our true birthday.”

  “And you left out the best change. We both met the men of our dreams.”

  “Yes, and I couldn’t be happier for you and Hardin, honestly I couldn’t.” Kenzie’s smile was warm and genuine. “Hardin is a wonderful man and you’re going to marry him and live happily ever after.”

  “What about you? You met the man of your dreams, too.”

  “You’re right, I did. But I didn’t fall in love with him. I fell in love with Travis, instead.”

  A frown wrinkled Makenna’s brow. “You’re talking about Craven Shaw?”

  Kenzie nodded. “He’s wonderful. Handsome, smart, and funny. We just clicked, you know? We have so much in common. A part of me is already a little bit in love with him. So I’ve decided the rest of me is going to fall in love with him, too.”

  Makenna laughed at her sister’s outlandish comment. “Silly woman, you can’t just decide who you’re going to fall in love with. Your heart does it all by itself.”

  “But obviously my heart needs a little nudge in the right direction. Craven’s personality is much more suited to mine than Travis’s is.”

  “Here you are whining that Trav
is moved four hours away, but did you forget Craven lives in Washington, D.C.?”

  “I am not whining,” Kenzie denied indignantly. “And Craven already lived there, before he met me. It’s not like he deliberately moved away from me.”

  “And neither did Travis. He got a promotion, Kenzie. A very well deserved and prestigious promotion. You can’t seriously hold that against him.”

  “I don’t. And I’m not going to let it bother me, because I am no longer in love with him. Or at least I won’t be, as soon as I fall in love with Craven.”

  “Yeah, good luck with that.”

  “You don’t even know Craven! You have no idea how easy it would be for me to fall head over heels in love with him.”

  Makenna leveled her green eyes on her sister, making her squirm. “If you weren’t already head over heels in love with my fiancé’s partner,” she said softly.

  “Ex-partner. He left, Makenna,” she said flatly. “No, I can’t fault him for taking the promotion, but it still hurts, knowing he chose to follow his career instead of his heart.” She held up her hand to halt her sister’s rebuttal. “I know what you’re going to say, that we can still have a relationship. But that’s a little hard to do, when he won’t even call me. He’s called me twice, Kenna, since he’s been gone, texted me three times. Craven texts me that many times in a single day, and he calls me every single day, sometimes more than once. I think it’s pretty obvious which man cares about me more.” Her cell phone chirped with an incoming message. Without bothering to look at the screen, Kenzie said, “Care to bet which one just sent me a text? The loser buys dinner.”

  “My money will always be on Travis.”

  Kenzie grabbed the phone and read the message aloud. “And I quote, ‘Hey, gorgeous. Can’t wait to see you in a few days. Thinking of skipping the Convention and spending all my time with you. Miss you like crazy. XOXO’, unquote. Hmm. I think Italian sounds good tonight, what about you?”

  Makenna ignored her twin’s cheeky grin. “I think you knocked something loose in your head today when you hit that tree.”

  Chapter Three

  “I called in a favor from the guys in the lab.” Texas Ranger Hardin Kaczmarek made the announcement as he rummaged through the refrigerator in search of a snack. He eyed the empty shelves with a frown. “When was the last time you ladies went shopping?”

  “I don’t know,” Makenna shrugged. “When did you cook last?” Since neither sister was overly fond of cooking, most of their home-cooked meals came via compliments of Makenna’s mother or Hardin.

  “You’d think I took you to raise,” the blue eyed man pretended to grumble. “Guess we’re going grocery shopping this afternoon. Honestly, how did you two survive before I came into your lives and fed you properly?”

  “I have a cookbook full of take-out menus,” Kenzie said in her own defense.

  “I have a mother who’s an excellent cook.”

  “Lucky for you, you’re about to get a husband who’s an excellent cook, as well.” He dropped a kiss onto Makenna’s upturned lips and went to study the equally barren pantry. “You two do get paid, right?” he asked, peering at them over his shoulder with his piercing blue gaze. “This isn’t a poverty issue, is it?”

  “More like a lazy issue,” his fiancé admittedly readily. “But we have the essentials. Ice cream, wine, and pretzel chips.”

  “Well then, as long as you have your priorities straight…” He grinned at her indulgently.

  Kenzie drummed her fingers on the kitchen counter. “You mentioned the lab?” she asked impatiently.

  “Right.” Hardin pulled his eyes from the auburn haired twin to concentrate on her sister. “Your brakes had definitely been tampered with. We got a partial print, but so far no hits from IAFIS.”

  “So who do you think did this? Foto and Franks are both dead, but obviously someone is still trying to get to my father through me.”

  Hardin shrugged a well-toned shoulder. “Hard to say. Any one of the eight other people involved in the scam could be behind this. With Franks’ death drawing so much attention, you know the others must be sweating it out, waiting for their own part in the scam to be discovered. So far, the Justice Department is keeping their findings low-key. I think there are three possibilities. Either your father was exceptionally good at covering his tracks and they honestly don’t know about the scam he set up, they know something and just haven’t shared it yet, or someone’s being paid to blame the entire scheme on Bernard Franks, therefore avoiding a full-blown investigation.”

  “After all, dead men tell no tales,” Makenna murmured.

  “But we have the proof. Once we go public with our files, they will have to investigate. And prosecute,” Hardin said.

  “And when will that be?” Kenzie asked on a sigh.

  “Soon, Sis, soon,” he assured her, patting her hand. “In the meantime, you have to be extra vigilant. If you refuse Witness Protection-”

  “I do.”

  “- then you have to be on guard at all times. Why didn’t you call the police as soon as you realized you were being followed?”

  “I called Travis. And by that time I had lost them, so I thought I was okay.”

  “What did he have to say about your latest wreck?”

  “Hey, neither of them has been my fault,” she defended herself. “I’m an excellent driver. Both wrecks have been orchestrated by the mafia or Franks or whoever it is that’s after me this time.”

  “All the more reason you need protection. You’ve been extremely lucky so far.”

  “Or maybe I’m just able to take care of myself, ever think of that?” she asked smartly.

  “So what was Travis’s reaction?” Hardin asked again.

  “I don’t know. I didn’t tell him.”

  “What? Why not?” he asked sharply.

  Kenzie gave an indignant sniff. “I haven’t told him because I haven’t talked to him. He said he would call last night, but he didn’t. Just like he didn’t call the night before, or the night before that. And don’t either one of you dare call him and tell him. When and if he finally calls me, I’ll fill him in on all the details of what’s he’s missed not being here.”

  “Kenzie, he deserves to know.” Hardin’s tone was disapproving.

  “Why? Because he was originally assigned to spy on the daughter of a known felon? I’m sure babysitting doesn’t fall under his impressive new job description.”

  “He deserves to know because he has a personal stake in this.”

  “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure he gets credit for helping crack the case. That should be another boost to his career,” she said tartly.

  “He cares about you, Kenzie.” Hardin defended his friend almost angrily. “You know that.”

  Kenzie nodded her head with exaggerated innocence, causing her curly locks to dance around her shoulders. “Oh, yes, he looked really torn up about leaving,” she said sweetly. “Of course, it was hard to tell, since he was driving away.”

  Makenna rolled her eyes skyward and blew out a noisy sigh. “She’s being impossible,” she told her fiancé. “I can’t talk any sense into her.”

  “But in case you’re wondering,” Kenzie said, her smile saccharine sweet as she tossed her ebony hair, “when Craven called last night - as he always does - he was so worried about me that he wanted to fly in immediately. I had to beg him not to come. Still, my guess is I’ll see Craven face-to-face before Travis even bothers to call.”

  “So you and Travis have broken up?” Hardin asked with a frown.

  “Broken up? We were never going together to begin with.” She tried to sound sassy, but her voice broke with sadness. Without another word, Kenzie whirled and fled the room.

  ***

  Makenna bit her lip worriedly as she watched her sister go. “She is all torn up. Travis broke her heart when he took that job.”

  “He really didn’t have much of a choice. It was a hell of a promotion.”

  “And deep down,
she knows that. But it couldn’t have come at a worse time. Can you even imagine all she’s gone through these last two months? She’s had such a hard life, Hardin. She didn’t have a normal childhood, not like you and I did. Sometimes I feel so guilty, because I was the one adopted and allowed me to have a normal, happy life. Our parents kept her but emotionally neglected her. All she’s ever wanted in life is stability. That’s why she refuses WITSEC, because to her it feels like her childhood, when she was forced to move from place to place and pretend to be someone she wasn’t. It’s a wonder she’s as sane and normal as she is, after all she’s been through.”

  Hardin folded Makenna into his arms, his heart full of compassion for her troubled twin. “I guess to her it feels like Travis deserted her in her time of need. She probably feels betrayed. Unworthy.”

  “She loves him so much.”

  “I’m pretty sure he loves her, too. But he has his own demons, you know. He was seven years old when he saw his grandmother gunned down during a bank robbery. She was his only family. After that he was raised by the orphanage.”

  “Then they do have something in common, after all,” Makenna murmured. “Sad, lonely childhoods.”

  “Witnessing his grandmother’s murder was what drove Travis to become a lawman. Sometimes he takes life too seriously, but it was because of his sad childhood.”

  “And her sad childhood was what drove Kenzie to be the exact opposite. After being deprived of so much as a child, she’s determined to have it all as an adult, and all at the same time. She’s morphed into a social butterfly, always the life of the party.” She squeezed Hardin’s muscle-carved waist. “So much in common, and yet so different.”

  “Give them time, they’ll work it out.”

  “Not if she goes and does something foolish, like convince herself to fall in love with Craven Shaw.”