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

by Becki Willis

  “You know damn well what I’m talking about. Don’t even try to play innocent with me, Kenzie! Where the hell did you go? Why weren’t you on that ship?”

  “How do you know we weren’t?” she asked smartly, refusing to bow to his angry tone.

  “Because we had an agent on the cruise as a precaution. When he couldn’t locate you, I flew to your first port of call to look for you myself!”

  Makenna’s gasp brought his sharp gaze back her way. “Why did you do that?” she whispered, her face ashen.

  “Why do you think? I was out of my mind with worry! We couldn’t trace your cell phone, there was no credit card trail, there was no hint of where you had disappeared. We thought you had been kidnapped!”

  “I’m sorry, Hardin. I’m sorry we caused you to worry. We-We didn’t think anyone would know,” Makenna murmured miserably.

  “This was one of your hair-brained ideas, wasn’t it?” he demanded of Kenzie.

  She lifted her chin. “It worked, too,” she said smugly. “We spent the week at the cabin without anyone knowing we were even there. I’m sorry you were worried and that we caused a problem, but how were we to know you would have spies on board the ship?”

  “They aren’t spies, Kenzie, they are agents assigned to keeping the two of you safe. You agreed to protection, remember?”

  “Like I could forget,” she mumbled, rolling her eyes.

  Hardin turned away without another word. His movements were jerky as he grabbed their suitcases and pushed through the crowd. From among the milling people, two men - FBI, Kenzie decided, judging from their dark and somber clothing - appeared from behind them, herding them along. There was no slipping away this time.

  The flight back to Texas was stilted and uncomfortable.

  Kenzie tried dozing, with little success.

  Makenna suffered quietly alongside Hardin’s stony silence. His jaw was set in an angry chisel; when spoken to, his answers were choppy and short.

  When Kenzie asked about Travis, his words were sharp. Turning his cool blue gaze upon her, he answered coldly, “Did you consider that? If something happened to him, how would we have gotten in touch with you?”

  Her heart stalled at the thought. “He’s all right, isn’t he?” she breathed.

  “There’s been no contact.”

  After those less-than-reassuring words, sleep was impossible.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Hardin waited until they were alone to unleash his fury. Kenzie disappeared into her bedroom, leaving Makenna and the Ranger in the living room. He rounded on her the moment he heard the bedroom door close.

  “Have you lost your mind? What in the hell were you thinking? What kind of stunt was that!”

  Tears welled in Makenna’s eyes, because she knew he was right. Still, she did not appreciate his tone. She blinked through the tears and gave him her best stare. “Not that you’ve bothered asking, but we had a very productive week. We didn’t learn as much about our past as we had hoped, but we did find some pictures and found out our great grandparents’ name was Hannah. We cleaned the cabin from top to bottom and had the electricity restored. It’s going to make a very nice vacation home.”

  “Vacation? You were off creating a little vacation retreat while I was running around going insane, trying to find out what happened to you?” His roar had an incredulous ring to it.

  Her tone was frosty. “No, Hardin, I was trying to find out what happened to my mother, and why my twin sister and I were separated when we were three years old. I was searching for answers about my past.”

  “You didn’t have to lie to me to do it!”

  Makenna flinched at his angry outburst. She knew the words were true.

  A long moment settled between them, the air heavy with challenge. As Hardin finally released a deep breath of pent-up tension, he seemed to deflate. All his energy drained away as he fell into a nearby chair and dropped his weary head into his hands. When he spoke, his voice was rough with emotion.

  “Do you have any idea what these last few days have been like for me? I imagined the worst, Makenna. I thought you had been kidnapped, or killed. I thought I had lost you.”

  Makenna threw her arms around his shoulders, hugging him from behind. “I’m so, so sorry,” she whispered. “I never meant to put you through anything like that. I never thought…”

  “So what did you think, Makenna?” he interrupted. She realized then that his voice was as stiff as his shoulders, that he had not responded to her hug.

  “I-I guess I didn’t,” she admitted. She came around the chair to fall onto her knees in front of him. “I didn’t think it through.”

  “That’s not like you, Makenna. I thought you were the level-headed one, the one who was supposed to be responsible and sensible.”

  She could not determine if his words were a compliment or an accusation. Either way, they were hardly flattering to her sister.

  Hardin looked at her then, and something in his eyes caused her heart to falter.

  Or perhaps it was what was not in his eyes. There was no warmth in his gaze, no passion smoldering just beneath the blue intensity, no sparkle of humor and delight. He normally looked at her with such adoration. Right now, he looked at her with abomination. Makenna began to tremble, her senses going into shock, even before he spoke.

  “Maybe I don’t know the real you, after all,” he said coldly.

  “Don’t-Don’t say that! Of course you know me.”

  “Do I? This time last week, I would have sworn you would never do what you did. You lied to me, Makenna. You deliberately deceived me. You deceived all of us. Do you realize how many people, how many different agencies, were involved in keeping you and Kenzie safe? And you deceived each and every one of them.”

  When he said it, it sounded so much worse than when Kenzie explained her plan. Tears spilled through her lashes and dribbled down her cheeks.

  Hardin averted his eyes, no longer able to look at her. “You two tricked the Rangers into flying you to where you wanted to go, with no thought to all the resources you were wasting. And once we realized you weren’t on board the ship, do you have any idea how many people were looking for you? Coast Guard, FBI, Rangers, Homeland Security, Customs, state and local police in multiple cities, multiple states. The list goes on.”

  “I-I had no idea,” she whispered in horror. As he detailed some of the efforts used to look for them, she berated herself for agreeing to Kenzie’s scheme. Hardin was right, this was so unlike her!

  Hardin was shaking his head slowly. The expression on his face could only be described as tortured. “I don’t know, Makenna. I just don’t know anymore.”

  Her heart stopped. It literally stalled in her chest, dragging slowly through a full beat. “Wh-Wh-What are you talking about?” she managed to breathe.

  She almost wished he still avoided her eyes. If he hadn’t finally looked at her, she would not have seen the utter desolation in his normally intense blue gaze. Without their luster, they looked defeated. Lost.

  “You. Us. Maybe we moved too fast. Maybe we didn’t take the time to really get to know one another.”

  His words shattered her heart into a million pieces. Makenna stared at him in shock, too stunned to say a word. All she could do was tremble as ice settled into her soul.

  Hardin’s hand was unsteady as he reached out to touch an auburn curl. He kept his eyes on the task as he tucked the tendril behind her ear. “I could have sworn….” His voice was low and raw. He swallowed hard and picked up a new thought. “I thought I knew you so well. But I guess I was wrong.”

  “That-That’s not true!” she whispered desperately. “You do know me. You know the important things.”

  “Maybe that’s the thing.” His voice was sad. “Maybe what’s important to me isn’t so important to you. Things like honesty and truthfulness.”

  “How can you say that to me? I’m sorry I deceived you, Hardin, but there were extenuating circumstances! You have no id
ea what it’s like, not knowing what happened to your own mother. There is literally a piece of myself missing, and sometimes I think I will go insane if I don’t find the truth, once and for all. Our father erased their electronic trail, so we knew we had to look for a more tangible link to the past. And we couldn’t do that here. We had to go back to New Hampshire.”

  “I’m not arguing that, Makenna. I’m saying you didn’t have to lie and cheat to get there.”

  “Really? If we had come to you and said we were going up there, what would you have said?”

  “That you would have to clear it with the Rangers in charge of your safety.”

  “Exactly. Then the FBI would have gotten involved. And they would have called in New Hampshire police and maybe one or two more agencies. Before we knew it, a dozen people would be following us around. Not to mention that all the activity would have flagged the attention of whomever it is that’s still after us. It would be like traveling with a three ring circus.” Her green eyes snapped with growing indignation. “And you know good and well, you would never have agreed to any of it! You would have said it was too dangerous, too reckless, that we needed to wait to go.”

  “And you would have known I was right.”

  She could not argue his quietly spoken words, so she found another point to defend. “We had a solid plan. If there hadn’t been an agent on-board the ship, no one would have been the wiser. No one knew we were booked for that cruise, so no one was looking for us. If you Rangers had left well enough alone, none of this misunderstanding would have happened in the first place!”

  “If you had been honest, none of this would have happened in the first place!” he yelled in correction. He jumped to his feet, shoving past her roughly.

  “Again, there were extenuating circumstances,” she insisted coldly. “It’s not like I’m a habitual liar, you know.”

  “No, I don’t know!” he said, whirling around to glare at her. “When I first met you, what did you tell me your name was?”

  “Kenzie.” Her chin was still jutted out stubbornly, but her voice lost some of its bravado.

  “The first time I kissed you, who did I think I was kissing?”

  “Kenzie.” Her voice faltered.

  “When we were in that cabin and we almost made love, who would I have thought I was making love to?”

  Her answer was little more than a whisper. “Kenzie.”

  “You let me believe you were someone else. You told me you were someone else. It wasn’t until I insisted you go to the hospital with your leg that you finally told me the truth. And the only reason you did it then was because the doctor called you by your real name. All that time, you let me believe you were really your friend.” His voice was cold and flat when he summarized, “So, no, Makenna, I don’t know. I don’t know that you’re not a habitual liar. Apparently I don’t know you at all!”

  Tears streamed down her ashen face. “You can’t mean that.”

  “Tell me something, Makenna. When do you plan to marry me?” he asked suddenly.

  “You mean, what date?” she squeaked. “I-I don’t know. Soon. I hope.”

  “But after you get this all settled about what really happened to your mother?”

  “I-I know you don’t understand, Hardin, but I have to know the truth,” she whispered. She fisted her hand and put it over her belly. “It’s like a little fire burning inside me. It started out with just a flame, but it keeps getting bigger and brighter. I’m afraid it’s going to consume me, if I don’t find out the truth.” She shook her head helplessly. “It’s the only way to put it out.”

  “I know about that fire, Makenna,” he said lowly. “I felt it the first time I saw you. Marrying you has become my single most goal in life. I want to marry you and have a family with you, and I want to do it now, not when we get around to it.” Sometime during his eloquent but raw speech, he had shifted toward the door. “That’s the fire that burns inside of me.”

  “I want the same thing, Hardin, you must know that.” Her eyes were wild with panic.

  He nodded, but the movement was sad and slow. “I do,” he admitted. “But you want it after. After Kenzie gets her life together, after you find out about your mother, after all the pieces of all the puzzles around you fall into place. I want it now.” He continued to back toward the door, until his hand touched the doorknob. His voice was on the verge of total heartbreak as he said softly, “Another difference of what we think is important, I suppose.”

  “Hardin, don’t do this,” she begged. “I love you. I want to marry you.”

  “Do you?”

  “How-how can you even ask that!” The tears were falling so hard she could barely see. She shoved them away angrily, scampering after him.

  “Because you lied to me, Makenna. Again. After we swore we would always be honest with one another.”

  “And I’m sorry. I should have never gone along with it.”

  “You said that last time,” he reminded her. “And I have a feeling it will always be that way. Kenzie will come up with some hair-brained scheme, and you’ll just fall right in line, even when you know better.”

  “You make it sound like I don’t have a mind of my own!”

  Hardin’s face puckered in a frown. Her logic of defending herself did not make sense. “Okay, so maybe next time it will be your hair-brained idea. The problem is, there will be a next time. And it will present you with another challenge: do you tell the truth to the man you supposedly love, or do you lie to him? Again.”

  Makenna’s chin snapped up in defiance. “I don’t ‘supposedly love’ you. I love you, more than you’ll probably ever know. And don’t you dare act so superior with me. You lied, too, you know, when we first met. You never told me you were a Ranger. You didn’t tell me you were there to spy on Kenzie. And for that matter, you knew there would be an agent on the ship, and you never told me that, either, so that’s a lie by omission!”

  She expected more fireworks. What she got was a quietly asked question. “Is this how you justified lying to me?”

  She was courageous enough to own her mistake. “No. Lying to you can’t be justified. I was wrong to mislead you that way. I was wrong to deceive the people who were trying to protect me.”

  “But?” he prodded. “I hear the ‘but’ in your voice, I see it in your eyes.”

  Makenna lifted her chin. “But this was something I had to do. I’m sorry for the trouble I caused and I’m especially sorry for the heartache I brought upon you.” Her eyes turned troubled, dwelling on the pain he had endured at her expense. She forced herself to focus and to be brutally honest, something she should have done days ago. “But I’m not sorry I went.” Her words were soft, low but determined.

  Hardin stared at her for a long time, his blue gaze unreadable. A nerve worked along the angry set of his jaw, jumping just above the thin line of his neatly trimmed beard. His teeth ground together as his lips puckered in determination. A blaze flared in his eyes before flickering out and leaving the blue depths empty and cold.

  Finally he spoke, and the voice did not even sound like his own. “Then I guess there’s nothing else to say.”

  Even the shattered fragments of Makenna’s heart cracked yet again, splintering into tiny particles. Before she could utter a sound, Hardin slipped out the door and was gone.

  ***

  The hours blurred together. Time had no purpose.

  Makenna cried until she made herself sick, and then she cried some more. She cried until she had no more tears.

  She would not eat, did not drink, could not sleep. When at last exhaustion and dehydration overtook her, she slept for fourteen hours straight.

  When at last she woke up, she had no choice but to piece her heart back together again.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  While her sister’s heart was breaking, Kenzie hovered close by, offering a shoulder to cry on, an ear to listen, a heart to beat in her stead. She said very little with actual words, but Makenna foun
d comfort in her nearness.

  Not until Makenna wore herself out and succumbed to sleep, did Kenzie finally leave her side.

  She showered and dressed for a quick trip into town, where she planned to run several errands. The grocery store was just one of the stops; without Hardin there to do the shopping, their food supply was practically non-existent, and it fell upon her to go to the market.

  She was fastening a rhinestone belt around her waist when the doorbell rang. Tugging a paisley print blouse over the tucked-in t-shirt, Kenzie checked through the peephole before answering the door. Their ‘protectors’ screened all visitors, but it never hurt to be vigilant. That was how Raymond Foto gained access to the apartment in the first place.

  Her heart began to thud when she saw Texas Ranger Captain Raul Ramirez on the other side. She knew in that instant that something had happened to Travis. Her fingers fumbled with the locks until she finally managed to twist them the correct way and to fling open the door.

  “What’s wrong? What happened to Travis? Is he alright?” she demanded, foregoing a traditional greeting.

  “Travis?” The Captain looked confused as his dark brow puckered. “I haven’t heard from him in a few days, but as far as I know, he’s fine. Making progress, in fact.”

  Kenzie’s knees sagged in relief. “Oh, thank God,” she murmured. It occurred to her that for a person not overly religious, she seemed to be praying a lot these days.

  “May I come in?” Captain Ramirez asked.

  “Oh, sure, sorry.” She stood aside to allow him access. Still reeling with the residue of fear, it took effort to summon her hostess duties. “May I offer you something to drink?”

  “No thank you. I just wanted to drop by and update you and your sister on the case.”

  Kenzie glanced toward Makenna’s closed bedroom door. “I’m afraid my sister isn’t feeling well right now. Please, have a seat.”