Text copyright ©2019 Lani Lynn Vale
All Rights Reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Dedication
To my husband, that is sick right now, driving me insane and making me feel bad all at the same time. I love you, even though you’re probably going to get me sick.
Acknowledgements
Golden Czermak- Photographer
Danielle Palumbo- My awesome content editor.
Ellie McLove- My Brother’s Editor & Ink It Out Editing
Cover Me Darling- Cover Artist
My mom- Thank you for reading this book eight million two hundred times.
Kendra, Diane, Sarah, Kathy, Mindy, Barbara & Amanda—I don’t know what I would do without y’all. Thank you, my lovely betas, for loving my books as much as I do.
Table of Contents
Prologue
Prologue II
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Epilogue
Coming Soon
Other titles by Lani Lynn Vale:
The Freebirds
Boomtown
Highway Don’t Care
Another One Bites the Dust
Last Day of My Life
Texas Tornado
I Don’t Dance
The Heroes of The Dixie Wardens MC
Lights To My Siren
Halligan To My Axe
Kevlar To My Vest
Keys To My Cuffs
Life To My Flight
Charge To My Line
Counter To My Intelligence
Right To My Wrong
Code 11- KPD SWAT
Center Mass
Double Tap
Bang Switch
Execution Style
Charlie Foxtrot
Kill Shot
Coup De Grace
The Uncertain Saints
Whiskey Neat
Jack & Coke
Vodka On The Rocks
Bad Apple
Dirty Mother
Rusty Nail
The Kilgore Fire Series
Shock Advised
Flash Point
Oxygen Deprived
Controlled Burn
Put Out
I Like Big Dragons Series
I Like Big Dragons and I Cannot Lie
Dragons Need Love, Too
Oh, My Dragon
The Dixie Warden Rejects
Beard Mode
Fear the Beard
Son of a Beard
I’m Only Here for the Beard
The Beard Made Me Do It
Beard Up
For the Love of Beard
Law & Beard
There’s No Crying in Baseball
Pitch Please
Quit Your Pitchin’
Listen, Pitch
The Hail Raisers
Hail No
Go to Hail
Burn in Hail
What the Hail
The Hail You Say
Hail Mary
The Simple Man Series
Kinda Don’t Care
Maybe Don’t Wanna
Get You Some
Ain’t Doin’ It
Too Bad So Sad
Bear Bottom Guardians MC
Mess Me Up
Talkin’ Trash
How About No
My Bad
One Chance, Fancy
It Happens
Castiel and Turner
Snitches Get Stitches
F-Bomb
The Southern Gentleman Series
Hissy Fit
Lord Have Mercy
KPD Motorcycle Patrol
Hide Your Crazy (Logan and Katy) (6-11-19)
Blurb
Good vs. Bad.
Light vs, Dark.
Right vs. Wrong.
There are always two sides to every coin.
Josiah ‘Liner’ Paldecki knew the moment he laid eyes on her that there was something different about her. Something special. Something so unique that it practically poleaxed him the moment that their eyes met.
Except, the next time he saw her, it was like she was a different woman altogether. There was a blankness to her eyes that concerned him. An air of menace about her that honestly scared him to death. He’s more than man enough to admit it.
At first, Liner thinks it’s because she’s bi-polar, or possibly psychopathic.
Then he realizes the truth.
That there isn’t a single person that exhibits such different personalities, but two.
Two identical twin sisters, both completely different, yet exactly the same.
One with a soul, and one without.
One that has his heart, and one that only wants to destroy it.
Prologue
Do not accept a friend request from Hormel Foods. It could be Spam.
-The only thing to make Theo smile in 4 weeks
Theodora
6 years ago
“You’re going to do it, and you’re going to do it now, or I’m going to make your life a living hell,” my sister hissed in my face.
Another slap, followed by a vicious right hook to my stomach.
The air whooshed out of me all over again, yet I still didn’t agree.
I wouldn’t.
I wouldn’t.
Not today.
Not this time.
“Did you know that Tyson is in town?” my sister suddenly hissed.
I felt my belly start to sink.
No.
No, no, no, no.
“You’re going to do it.” My sister smoothed a palm down my hair, her breath fanning my face. “If you don’t, I’ll go do the same thing to our brother.”
I wanted to say that she wouldn’t.
But she would.
Mostly because she had.
My brother, Tyson, was my one and only friend in life.
He was my confidant, and the only other person aware of the sickness that ran in our family.
He was the success story, too.
He thought he’d made it.
But in reality, the only reason that he was able to live a life that was free of anything remotely sick—i.e. my sister, father, or my other brother, Andy—was because I sacrificed my freedom for his.
He didn’t know it, though.
I’d made sure of that.
“W-what do you want me to do?” I asked softly.
“I want you to go sleep with someone.” She smiled. “And make sure you get pregnant when you do.”
I would’ve laughed in her face had she n
ot been serious.
“I…I can’t do that, T,” I said softly. “That’s immoral.”
My sister glared at me. “You can, and you will, sister. At least the sleeping part. I’ll take care of the rest if you don’t end up making a baby tonight.”
She sounded so sure of herself that I realized she would figure out a way to make it happen.
“Why?” I asked softly.
“Daddy wants this man’s support.” She shrugged. “I’m just following orders.”
I looked away.
There was no way. None. I just wouldn’t be able to do it.
My virginity had been the one and only thing I’d been able to keep.
So she and I would agree to disagree.
“I won’t do it,” I said firmly.
God help me and my brother.
My sister smiled. “I was hoping you’d say that.”
***
4 months later
“Listen, Theo,” my brother, Tyson, whispered. “You need to take this money and go.”
I looked down at the money and shook my head at his sweet gesture.
My brother had found out that I was pregnant, and he’d cashed out his 401K, his savings, and liquidated almost all of his assets just so I could have a fresh start. But…it wasn’t enough and we both knew it. That money would buy me a year at most. A year. And that wasn’t enough. Not nearly enough, unfortunately. Not when it came to my father. Tara. Andy.
Ugh, how I wish life was different.
But it wasn’t.
The life I led was a sad one. One that didn’t have a happy ending.
“It’s too late for that, Ty,” I whispered, palming my belly. “It’s too late for that.”
Tyson looked down at my belly and I could see the frustration clear on his face.
“A baby will just be another pawn to them,” he promised. “You’re going to see. This isn’t going to go the same way that you think it will. That you’re hoping it might. There’s no good inside of them. Only hate, destruction, and in Tara’s case, nothing. They’re going to hurt you, and your baby, and where will that leave you?”
He was right. I knew he was right.
Yet, I couldn’t let that happen.
If I left, it would mean safety for me and my baby—maybe. There was absolutely no guarantee that I could stay hidden. But what I knew for sure was that it would mean the death of my sister’s child. The death of my brother. Because there was no way that my father, Andy, my brother’s twin, and Tara, my twin, wouldn’t figure it out. Wouldn’t realize that Tyson had helped.
And there was also nothing in the world that would be able to stop her from using whatever she could to get me to come out of hiding, even threatening the life she carried.
There were only a handful of people that even knew where I was. And none of them would betray my father but one.
I knew it.
He knew it.
Yet he was offering me this chance, anyway.
“I’m not going to do that to you, Ty,” I told him bluntly. “Then neither one of us will be happy. At least this way, you can go about your business, live your life, and be somewhat happy.”
Tyson gave me a quelling look.
“You’re my baby sister.” His voice cracked. “I can’t leave you here like this. It’s time for you to be free, Theo. Free to live your life. Free for your baby to live his or her life.”
I threw myself into his arms. “You can and you will. Because if you don’t, I won’t have anyone to take care of this baby.”
He seemed to understand completely what I meant and froze.
“You’re not dying, Theo,” he growled.
“No, not yet,” I admitted. “But they’re going to find a way to ruin this for me, and you know it. You know it.” I looked at him sadly. “Wasn’t that the whole point of my life anyway? It’ll be okay, big brother. I promise.”
With that, I pushed him toward the door.
He didn’t want to go.
I couldn’t blame him. I didn’t want him to go, either. Because the moment he left my father’s house, I’d be locked into this hellhole until he could convince my father that another visit would be nice.
“Ty?” I called when he got to the door.
He looked over at me, his face distraught.
“Yeah, Theo?” he asked.
“Don’t worry about me,” I told him. “I don’t want you coming back here. Ever.”
He looked like he wanted to turn around and beg me not to do this.
But he’d give it to me.
Because there were only a few things that I had control over in my life anymore.
“And don’t ever mention me to anyone. My child’s life depends on it,” I said.
Tyson closed his eyes.
“I love you, Theobird.”
“I love you more, Tyrosaur.”
Prologue II
I don’t think the therapist is supposed to say ‘wow’ that many times during a session.
-Coffee Cup
Liner
2 years ago
I stared at my good friend with a thoughtful expression.
“Why is Tara being all nice and shit?” I asked softly.
Rome shrugged and looked over his shoulder at Tara, who hadn’t immediately screamed at us as she walked out the door.
She’d smiled sadly, waved, and disappeared into her bedroom.
“Her eyes are different,” Rome said. “I think she’s wearing contacts.”
I’d noticed something different about her, but now that I thought back to it, I realized that it might’ve been her eyes.
I tried not to look at or anger Tara in any way. And we all knew that I did and would if I engaged her in any way. I just couldn’t help it. Tara was such a bitch to Rome, and even to their kid, Matias.
It was hard to see a kid treated like that because then I’d think about my own childhood, and get all the angrier.
Needless to say, Tara was a crazy Bitch with a capital B. Rome had really picked a winner to have a kid with, that was for sure.
“I didn’t notice,” I said. “Other than the fact that she didn’t storm out of here and bitch about our coasters.”
Rome grunted and pointed toward the coffee table where Matias’ drink, a glass of chocolate milk, was sitting on the coffee table. Without, might I add, a coaster.
That was so unlike Tara that it had my eyes narrowing in surprise.
“What the fuck?” I asked.
“No clue,” Rome murmured. “And I’m not rocking the boat. It was nice to walk in here and not be treated like I was a piece of shit or the antichrist.”
Or yelled at. Or a punching bag.
There was that one time that I’d walked in on Tara going to town on Rome, calling him every name in the book, all the while little Matias watched on from the couch.
I snorted. “That’s the truth.”
Tara hadn’t even yelled at me, which she would have under normal circumstances. She hated me. Despised. Loathed.
There wasn’t a single piece of her that didn’t dislike everything there was about me and more.
Hell, all I had to do was look at her as we took our trash out at the same time for her to lose it.
As it stood, today’s Tara had only given me a wary look and walked away when she realized she wasn’t needed any longer.
“I guess yell if you need me, then,” I murmured as I headed for the door. “Doesn’t seem like you need a buffer today.”
Rome nodded and went to the couch where his son was lying, watching How to Train Your Dragon.
“Thanks, man,” he said. “Appreciate it.”
I walked out of the house, but the rest of the day I kept my wary eye on the place, waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Yet it never did.
It was about five hours later, an hour past when Tara would’ve normally kicked Rome out without thought or c
are, that I got curious.
What the hell had happened to Tara, and who had replaced her?
First, she doesn’t lose her shit when we go inside—like she normally would have.
Then she doesn’t leave, storm out like her ass is on fire.
Followed by her leaving him alone the entire freakin’ time, allowing Rome to spend time with Matias without worry that Tara would slam inside, losing her shit, and demanding him to get out hours before his time was up.
And now? The icing on the ‘holy shit, she’s acting somewhat normal’ cake? She allowed him to stay past his normal four hours.
That was a miracle in and of itself.
Which was why I was curious.
So fuckin’ curious.
What the hell was going on that she was acting like a decent human being for once?
Which was the reason I was now on my back deck, staring in Tara’s bedroom window.
I’d learned really early on that I could do this. When I’d bought the house next door, it was because the house was too close to mine. I hated people being that close to me, but I’d wanted my house. It’d been my grandmother’s, and I’d grown up in the house. But as I’d grown older, and life had happened, I’d started to get an aversion to people—especially when it came to my domain.
After having one too many asshole neighbors in the rental next door, I’d made the owners an offer they couldn’t refuse.
Needless to say, I’d seen my fair share of weird shit off of my back porch—hey, it wasn’t my fault that the neighbors never put up blinds—but what I saw when I looked inside her windows wasn’t what I expected.
She was just sitting there, on her bed, crying.
Not loud, wracking sobs.
Silent tears that coursed down her cheeks like tiny rivers, slow and steady.
I felt my heart pinch, and I hated that.
Hated that I felt sorry for the woman. Hated that I even cared.
Usually, I didn’t.
Tara’s attitude was bad enough that most of the time I didn’t have to work at hating her at all.
Only, now that I was sitting there watching her cry? Yeah, that was a tough thing for me to accomplish at that moment in time.
And when she looked up, eyes of vivid blue.
I’d never in my life seen eyes that blue.
That brilliant.
They almost seemed unearthly as they shimmered with tears and seemed to be locked directly on me.
Even though it was highly doubtful that she knew that I was there. I was deep in the shadows of my porch, and there was no way in hell that she knew I was staring at her.
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