by Brenda Joyce
Lana flipped through a fashion magazine, admiring first a Dolce & Gabbana dress that would be perfect for Puerto de Raya, her final destination that day. She was smiling, an image of herself and Colin on the beach, sipping celebratory frozen drinks coming to mind. God, no one looked better than Farrell in his tight little Speedo swimsuit. Other images came, of her and Colin in bed in their bungalow, tearing each other’s bathing suits off.
It had been so easy.
Not that she wished a prison term upon her sister. Truly, Lana didn’t. But there was no way she was ever going to jail, just as there was no way she would give up the life she now lived. The tiny beach community where they would briefly linger was only their first stop in a series of small, desolate Caribbean communities. By the New Year, they would be in Rio de Janeiro, and if all went well, it would become their new home for years and years to come.
Kait was so naިve. And so desperate. Lana loved her, but she also felt sorry for her. Any woman who could fall in love with a man so quickly was hopeless. And as for the fall she would take, she would get a good five years, but then there would be parole. It wasn’t that bad, and as Kait had always had it so easy, Lana felt that the time she spent behind bars would be good for her. It would give her some character.
Lana had the oddest feeling that Trev Coleman would wait for her, too.
Annoyed now, she slapped her magazine closed. She told herself not to be annoyed, because they were perfect for one another, but she couldn’t help it—in a way, it was unfair. She didn’t love Trev and she never had, but Kait was always the favorite with everyone. Her mother had held Kait’s hands and told her how proud she was of her when she lay dying, but her words to thirteen-year-old Lana had been quite different. She hadn’t been proud of Lana, not at all. She hadn’t told her what a wonderful student she was, or how kind she was, or anything like that. She hadn’t even told her how beautiful she was. Instead, she had chastised her for her latest sport, motocross, and then she had begged her to stay home more, to help more, to be with Kait more. She hadn’t even told her that she loved her, but she had managed to tell that to Kait.
Kait had been their father’s favorite, too. After their mother had died, Lana had always felt like an outsider in her own home, a home that belonged to the two of them. It had always been Kait and Dad in the kitchen preparing supper, or working together in the yard. And all through high school, every single teacher had doted on Kait, the perfect student and class valedictorian.
Lana had had any boy she wanted, but secretly they had all been in love with Kait, and what they had done with Lana hadn’t had anything to do with love.
But who cared? Lana stood and stretched lazily, instantly aware of a dozen pairs of male eyes veering toward her, especially as her sheath dress rode high up on her thighs. She smiled then. She was insane to be even slightly jealous of her meek and mild sister. She was wearing a pale blue sleeveless dress that clung to her curves and was several inches above her perfect knees and she knew that every man at her gate wanted her.
She looked carefully at them all.
A muscular blond who was not even twenty-five caught her eye and gave her a suggestive look.
Lana smiled back, because the flight would be a long one and she was bored and she particularly enjoyed the mile-high club.
Besides, it would be another full day before she met up with Colin at Puerto de Raya.
And then instinct made Lana stiffen.
She quickly turned.
Two men were approaching on the other side of the gate. They were wearing business suits, but Lana knew they were cops.
She told herself to remain calm. They could not be after her. No one knew where she was, except for Colin, and even if he had been caught, he would never betray her, not in a million years—just as she would never betray him. She picked up her purse and carry-on, then glanced carefully up at them again. They were entering the gate.
Her gaze took in the entire area, and she saw two policemen in uniform several paces behind the undercover cops. There was no way she could make a run for it.
Kait.
Lana blinked and thought about how willingly Kait had agreed to remain at Fox Hollow as her twin, about how easily she had accepted the ring. She thought about the newspaper headlines in Three Falls, baldly announcing Lana’s arrest. Comprehension flooded her, and with it came sheer disbelief.
Her sister had done this? Weak, naިve, hopelessly vulnerable Kait? She had been outwitted by Kait?
Then she began to laugh. This was a joke!
The two plainclothesmen stopped before her. “Lana Coleman?”
She smiled seductively at them. “I’m afraid you are mistaken,” she said. “My name is Kait London.”
“You’ll have to come with us,” the younger one said. His expression was ice cold and he gripped her arm firmly. Instantly Lana knew he was indifferent to her as a woman.
“Would you care to see my ID?” she asked sweetly.
“We know you’re carrying Kait London’s ID,” the older, portly detective said. He wore a wedding ring. “I’m afraid you will have to come with us.” He gave her a kind smile. Lana’s heartbeat quickened when he glanced down at her bare thighs.
“What have I done?” Lana asked as if surprised as she was escorted from the gate area. “This has to be a mistake! I’m not Lana—she’s my twin! I’m Kait London and I can prove it.”
The older detective met her gaze. “We really don’t know what this is about, but there is an APB out for Lana Coleman. Just relax. We’ll sort all of this out when we get to the precinct.”
Lana smiled gratefully at him.
There was no way that Kait was going to win.
Kait heard the door at the end of the hall opening. She leapt to her feet and ran to the edge of her cell, gripping the bars. Her heart felt as if it were wedged in her throat. Hope renewed itself, but the fear of never getting out of jail remained. The past two days had been the longest of her life. And being accused by Alicia of stealing her husband hadn’t helped.
But that was all that she had done, other than to strike Kait once across the face. And she had been as stunned as Kait by the blow. She had then choked out how much she hated her and, sobbing, she had left.
The only bright side to the two days she had spent in jail was that Alicia had not returned and that Sam had found her a top criminal lawyer. They’d spoken twice on the phone and were meeting first thing tomorrow there at the county jail. Kait could hardly believe that she needed a lawyer to defend her against the charges that should be leveled against Lana. She could hardly believe that this was really happening after all...
Kait pressed her face to the bars. If only Lana had been arrested, she thought wildly. And then she realized that it was Rafe Coleman sauntering down the corridor toward her. Kait tensed, rigid with sudden, real hope. And even before he paused at her cell, their gazes locked.
Kait wet her lips. “What’s happened?”
His expression was mild. And then he smiled. “Your sister was caught at Reagan National just before boarding a flight to Mexico. I don’t know the details yet. Your plan worked.”
Kait almost collapsed. Instead, she backed up and sat down on her cot, breathing hard. She had done it. Lana had intended to set her up to take a very hard fall for her criminal ways, but she, Kait, had figured it out and she had actually outwitted her sister.
There was no glee. There was relief, and there was regret. “Farrell?” Kait asked harshly.
“She was traveling alone. Unless she talks, I think he’s already out of the country. I don’t think we’re going to grab him.”
Kait simply looked at him, unable to move or speak or even think clearly. She was in the throes of exhaustion now.
He unlocked her cell door. “You okay... Kait?”
She met his oddly neutral expression now. “No. No, I’m not.”
He hesitated, standing in her cell doorway. “You did the right thing.”
Kait
spoke, but her mouth barely moved. “I know. But that doesn’t change the fact that she’s my twin. She’s twisted and ill, but she’s my sister. Nothing will ever change that.”
“She brought you down here to take the fall for her,” he remarked flatly. “It was her or you. Don’t be too hard on yourself.”
She finally met his eyes. “Does this mean that you don’t hate me?”
He started. “I don’t know how I feel about you. You lied to my brother, Sam, and Marni, but without your help, we wouldn’t have brought Lana down. I’ve done a bit of checking. You’re as well liked in New York as Lana was disliked down here.”
Kait got to her feet, weary in every fiber of her being. “What I did was wrong. And the more I fell for Marni, Sam, and Trev, the harder it was to justify what I was doing and to continue the lie. She told me Marni’s life was in danger. That was a crock, wasn’t it?”
“She played you,” he said softly. “But she’s good at playing her cons, now, isn’t she? That’s what she does. She knows how to find a man’s—or woman’s—weakness, and then she goes for the jugular, all with an easy smile on her face.”
Kait stepped out of the cell. “Why do you hate her so much? Did she try to seduce you?”
He laughed briefly, without any mirth. “She was too smart to ever try to put me in her sights. I hated her from the day Trev brought her home, because I could read her like a book. I know a con when I see one, Kait. But she’d gotten Trev good and he refused to even speak about her with me.” He was grim. “We didn’t speak for six months after the wedding, actually. It was pretty bad.”
“I’m sorry,” Kait said, meaning it. “I know how much you love him and your nieces.”
He didn’t respond. But he stared at her oddly.
Kait knew what he was thinking. “I am different. I’m not her. We only look alike.”
“Actually, you don’t look alike, not at all. Your eyes are different from hers. Gentle. There’s a smile there, even now. I never saw a smile in Lana’s eyes, not once in six years.”
They walked down the corridor slowly. Each step felt like a vast effort for Kait now. “You were so convincing that I was afraid you had set me up, Rafe,” she said, searching his face.
“I believed you—but not completely. I had some doubt. I mean, after all, why should I trust you? You could have been the one robbing us all of these years. She could have been the honest one. I figured we’d bring her in and then sort it out. But Sam claims you are who you say you are—and most importantly, Trev seems able to tell the difference between the two of you with his eyes closed.”
Kait flushed. She hoped Rafe didn’t mean what he had said literally, but he was precisely right. “I’ve been really scared,” Kait said. “I was scared you’d never find her and I’d go to jail in her place.”
“Trev wouldn’t let that happen,” Rafe said. “And I was pretty sure you were who you said you were—I had to overdo the theatrics so no one would ever think we had concocted up such a crazy scheme in order to apprehend Lana.”
Kait halted and gripped his arm. “Really? Trev wouldn’t let me go to jail? How can you say that? Did he say something?”
He smiled in that slight, understated way she was becoming familiar with. “Why don’t you go home and find out?”
“Home?” She didn’t have a home. Not in New York, and not in Skerrit County.
“And let go of the guilt. This is a case where you are only guilty of being easily manipulated by your sister, and having some pretty bad judgment—nothing more.”
She was guilty. “Is it so obvious?” she whispered.
He finally smiled. “A man can read your eyes, Kait, and that’s the biggest difference between you and her.”
“Truce?” she asked softly.
“Truce?” He was startled, a rare moment for Rafe Coleman. He hesitated, then held out his hand. “Yeah, we have a truce.”
Kait shook his hand. His grasp was hard and strong and very much like his brother’s. She thought about losing Trev and the girls, and tears clouded her vision. But at least she had done the right thing. At least Lana was in jail.
“Look, you’re exhausted—and probably more so emotionally than anything else. Go home and get some rest. You’ll feel better in a couple of days.”
She stared at him. “I don’t have a home.”
He returned her stare. “I think you do, but, then, last time I meddled in my brother’s affairs he ignored my advice completely. In any case, two of my favorite girls are waiting to see you.” He pushed open the corridor door.
Kait could not imagine facing Trev. She was filled with dread.
“You’re right,” she finally said, because there was no avoiding it now. She had to pack, and she had to say good-bye.
An officer gave her a ride back to Fox Hollow. Kait thanked him, and as he drove away, she looked up at the front door of the big house, her heart sinking. She didn’t want to leave. But she was unwanted now, and she didn’t have any choice.
Kait slowly started up the front steps. The door flew open, Marni dashing out, screaming, “Mommy, Mommy!”
Kait stooped and caught Marni as she ran directly into her arms. She stood, the child in her embrace, holding on to her for her dear life, her sanity, her future.
“Mommy, I’ve missed you! You went away!” Marni cried in protest.
“I’m so sorry,” Kait returned, finally setting her down. “I had to go away, but just for a few days.” Then her heart sank. She had to be very careful about what she said now, and how she said it.
“But you didn’t say good-bye and you didn’t tell me where you were going!” Marni wailed, clinging to her hand. Then utter determination covered her tiny face. “You are not going away again.”
Kait somehow smiled, but it was wooden. “Sit down with me, honey,” she said, and they sat down on the front steps of the house, hand in hand. Her heart was already broken, so how could it be breaking again, but this time into a thousand shards, each one more painful than the one before?
“You’re not going away,” Marni stated stubbornly.
“What did Daddy tell you?” Kait asked carefully.
“He said it was an emergency and that you had to go, and that when you came back, he would explain everything,” she said. She stared at Kait. Kait heard a sound behind them and stiffened, knowing it was Trev. “I know he knows now, Mommy, that you’re a new mommy.”
Kait felt Trev’s eyes on her back. “Yes, he does.” She slowly shifted and met his green gaze. She didn’t know what she expected to see when she finally looked at him, but to her amazement, she saw sadness. She started, realizing that his heart was broken too.
“Hello, Kait,” he said softly.
She had seen hurt and pain in his eyes before, but never like this. She stood up. “I...I was just going to explain everything to Marni.”
He nodded, walking over to his daughter and cupping her head. He seemed incapable of speech.
Kait wished desperately that he would forgive her so they could rekindle the love they had briefly found. But she knew her wish was a flight of pure fantasy. “Honey? I have a story to tell you, a story about sisters,” she said to Marni.
“A story?” Marni began to relax, although she darted another suspicious glance between Kait and Trev.
“Sit down,” Kait said, and they both sank back down on the front steps of the veranda. Trev moved to lean against a column. Kait glanced at him and their eyes briefly met. Quickly, they both looked away from one another.
“There were twin sisters, Marni, two little girls who looked exactly alike,” Kait began nervously. “But these little girls weren’t alike at all. One was shy, a bit afraid of her life, even afraid to have friends, and she spent all of her time reading books or working at the stable so she could ride a pony there. The other twin wasn’t shy at all. She had lots of friends, especially boys, she was always laughing, running, jumping.
She never studied and she almost failed all her clas
ses, while the shy twin always got the highest grades.” Kait had Lana on her mind now, and it more than hurt. She felt a tear rolling down her cheek.
“What were their names?” Marni asked with avid interest.
“Lana and Kait.”
Marni stared, no longer smiling. “My other mommy was named Lana. My mommy who went away.”
Kait stroked her hair. “I know. The twins lost their mommy like you. She died of cancer when they were thirteen. Their daddy was so sad, his heart broken, that it was hard for him to be a good daddy afterwards, like Trev. The twins had never been like other sisters, and now they grew even further apart. Lana had a lot of boyfriends, she skipped school, she bought a motorcycle, and she went to wild parties. Kait studied hard. Kait dreamed of having one boyfriend, just one. And then one day, after they went to different colleges, Lana just never came home.”
Marni was wide-eyed. “Never?”
“Never,” Kait said, feeling another tear. She didn’t dare look at Trev now, for she might lose it. “So the twins, who were never like real sisters to begin with, were apart for many years. Kait thought it was sad, and she missed her sister so much—and then she saw her sister once or twice—Lana would suddenly come to Kait’s town, and they’d have lunch or dinner. And then she was gone again. Kait never understood what she had done wrong, so that her own twin sister didn’t love her.” She had to stop. Marni patted her knee. It was hard to see.
“Don’t cry, Mommy,” Marni whispered.
Kait nodded, fighting the need to choke out a sob. A handkerchief was dangled in front of her. She looked up and met Trev’s pain-filled expression, accepted the handkerchief, and dabbed her eyes. “But one day,” she choked, “Lana came home. And she said she was in trouble, and she begged Kait to do a terrible thing.”
“To change places?” Marni asked.
“Yes.” Kait nodded. “Lana asked Kait to go to her home, and pretend to be her. I was so happy to see her again, so desperately happy, that I couldn’t refuse. You see, I’m Kait, honey. I’m your mother’s twin sister.”
“But you’re my mommy now!” Marni cried, on her feet like a shot.