Undercover Twin

by Heather Woodhaven

  “No. This says nothing was found in Joseph Harrington’s apartment or on his digital record that indicates he’s part of the group. His doctoral review is at the end of this next year.” Lee paled as he read the final paragraph in the bio. “His half brother was in the organization. Bruno Coyne. They were only a year in age difference, and Bruno was the missing member they didn’t get in the raid.”

  Audrey gasped. “So Bruno either followed Adam to Stanford after he saw the raid go down or—”

  “Bruno planned to hide at his brother’s place at Stanford. Either way, Bruno took Adam down and Kendra shot him dead.”

  “If Joseph saw Kendra kill his brother, it’s possible he wants revenge.” Audrey straightened. “If he’s here, if he followed us from the hospital thinking he’d failed to kill her when he shot her...”

  “A guy like this wouldn’t draw attention. He would’ve blended in. He could’ve been the one to pull the fire alarm at the hotel.”

  “A Stanford doctoral candidate in electrical engineering would be able to figure out how to override sauna controls, security cameras—”

  “Given they found an employee in a trunk, he’s most likely pretending to be an employee on the grounds.” Lee stared into the darkness. He was out there somewhere, waiting and plotting his next move. Lee needed to get Audrey under cover, even if it meant enemies were listening. He pulled her to standing. “I can’t foresee any other way he would be able to get in. The good news is now we just need to find a way to give Octavia an anonymous tip. We get his photo and name to her to distribute among the security staff.”

  “If you do and they catch him, won’t they want to know why he’s trying to kill us? And let’s be honest, if he thought he saw Kendra kill his brother, I’m the real target. You’re just collateral damage. Given his expertise and modus of operation thus far, I’d say he doesn’t want to be caught. A guy like this wants to return to Stanford. He doesn’t want to jeopardize his future, but if he does get caught, what’s to keep him from spilling the beans to Octavia that I killed his brother? That will alert the Masked Network that Adam—the referral—had been killed and was also FBI. They’ll connect the dots.”

  Lee would’ve realized all of that before he’d made a move, but her fast analysis grated on his nerves. “Okay. I get it and agree. Bad idea.”

  “Presumably Felicity has seen this file? Won’t she keep an eye out for this Joseph guy?”

  “If she has and does, she can’t do anything about it or she’ll risk blowing her own cover.” Lee shook his head. “The best thing we can do now is to get a good night’s sleep. We’re scheduled to go on a short hike tomorrow, and since it’s the last thing on our itinerary, that should be the final step. We have to meet the CEO tomorrow. If he doesn’t appear, then we leave and let them raid this place and hope they get something we can use.”

  “But Felicity said they bugged our room. Should we really go back there?”

  “I don’t have a better idea. As long as we don’t talk about anything mission related we’re fine.”

  “Who’s to say they don’t have cameras in there, too?”

  Lee exhaled his frustration. “There’s not much I can do about that.”

  “We need to have a fight,” she whispered as their cottage came into sight. “So they understand why we’re not in the bedroom together.”

  Exhaustion seeped into his bones. Everything about this mission had taxed him to the max. He just wanted to crash on the couch, which, like everything at the luxury club, was more comfortable than his bed at home if not for fear that someone would try to kill them while they slept. He needed a few hours to forget about his feelings for Audrey and the fact he would never be smart enough to fit in her world or life. Everything about the mission had unraveled to where he was at a point of surrender. He just wanted to get Audrey back to safety without a target on her back. “Fine. I’ll let you take the lead.”

  The words he spoke aloud were for Audrey but in his heart, he was also praying. He gave up. He absolutely couldn’t continue on his own. He needed help.

  “I think we should plan it out, choreograph the fight.”

  A muscle-bound figure stepped out of the shadows closest to the stairs. Audrey jumped backward, landing on Lee’s foot, but the adrenaline coursed through his veins enough that he didn’t feel it as he picked her up by the waist and placed her behind him. The man moved onto the sidewalk. It was their bodyguard—their former bodyguard—if Felicity’s word on the street could be trusted.

  The man stepped forward and looked around as if he was hiding from someone. He thrust a small box at Audrey. “I can no longer protect you so take this. It’s the best I can do.” The darkness emphasized his beady eyes. “Now we’re even.” He slipped back into the shadows and disappeared.

  “Um, thank you, I think?” Audrey looked down and turned over the box. “Bear spray.” Her eyes widened. “Do you think there are bears expected on our hike?”

  “I think it’d be more likely to see rattlesnakes or mountain lions.”

  “Why do you think he gave me this then?”

  “I think in his mind you saved his life by warning him before he touched the tennis fence, or maybe you saved him by not complaining about him to Octavia. Either way, guys like that don’t like owing anybody. They have their own unique code of conduct.”

  “You mean they justify what they’re doing.”

  “You would have to in their line of work.”

  She nodded. “And yours.” She headed up the stairs.

  He didn’t like the comparison one bit. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  She stared at him in surprise. “Well, you said so yourself—” Her mouth made an O shape before she winked conspiratorially and opened the cottage door. “And I don’t want to talk about it anymore,” she said theatrically. “You can just sleep on the couch for all I care. We’re here on business so just save the complaining until we get home.”

  Lee remained silent. He hadn’t intended for the question to be interpreted as a fake fight starter, but maybe she had a point. His reasons were noble, but he did have to continue to remind himself of why he was in the business and living essentially a lie. The weariness weighed his bones and he found himself praying again. After this case, maybe he was ready to stop working covertly.

  Audrey had already crossed the room and closed the pocket doors. Lee stood in the center of the living room and didn’t move but let his eyes roam the room. Octavia’s crew was good. He didn’t see a single sign that the room had been tampered with except for the hairs on the back of his neck alerting him to the feeling of being spied on.

  * * *

  Audrey splashed cold water in her face for the third time in a row. She’d tossed and turned in bed until three in the morning. Every little noise outside made her wonder if Joseph Harrington had come for her. It was hard to breathe normally knowing that someone had placed microphones in the room to listen.

  “It’s time to go.” Lee knocked on the door. “Our ride is here.”

  She followed him outside, unsure of what to expect. A Jeep with the top down awaited them as if they were about to go on safari. The driver had a bushy beard, an olive-green sunhat and aviator glasses. He flashed a blinding-white smile and the moment they were seated, took off at full speed, hitting a winding road she’d never noticed.

  Ten minutes later they reached a fence and the driver flashed a badge before they opened the gate. He pulled into a gravel parking spot and pointed at the foothills directly behind them. “Here we go. Let’s hike. I’ll try to stay far enough ahead to give you a bit of privacy. Just whistle if you need me to slow down. Ask any questions you’d like.” He handed them two leather drawstring bags that held a bag of trail mix and a cold water bottle. He swung on his own industrial-size backpack and pumped his arms up the dirt path that seemed to go straight up.

  “What
if we don’t know how to whistle?” she asked out of the side of her mouth.

  The sides of Lee’s lips twitched. “Good thing I’ve got you covered.”

  Audrey thought about moving the bear spray into the drawstring bag, but the designer carpenter shorts she wore had a side pocket large enough to carry it comfortably.

  Lee exchanged a confused glance with her before they pumped their own arms, the sound of their shoes crunching over small bits of rock embedded in the dirt. At the top of the first hill, which felt like she’d already gone a mile, her heart felt ready to shove past her ribs and out into the open. Where was the Masked CEO already?

  “Are you okay?” Lee asked. He didn’t look like he’d even broken a sweat.

  She didn’t waste her breath answering but nodded and turned around to see how far they’d come. The club wasn’t even visible anymore.

  “I think we should keep moving.” Lee gestured toward the guard, who had already reached the bottom, and waited at a turning point. Lee took a step, offering her a hand, and she would have begrudgingly accepted except the zing she’d felt when she’d kissed him returned.

  She pulled away. “I’m fine, thanks.” If she didn’t start distancing herself now, her heart was going to take even longer to recover once she was back in the lab, alone. She followed his steps, focusing on the sound of a babbling creek that echoed through the small valley.

  Hours seemed to pass as they continued in the trenches of the foothill valleys. The guide stopped once and pointed at two fallen logs. He pulled out three boxed lunches. “It’s time to eat. I will return in a minute.” He passed them two white boxes and seemed to disappear behind the grove of trees behind them.

  Audrey was so famished and weak from the multiple bad nights of sleep that she didn’t even taste the first few bites. “I’m not used to this much exercise.”

  He stared at her inhaling her food. “You really should make that a priority for your health.”

  “Why? I don’t have what it takes to be in your world so why should I pretend?” She took a giant gulp of water, berating herself for letting the pent-up feelings erupt. She had no right to be angry. It wasn’t Lee’s fault. She was the lesser twin, and she needed to accept it.

  “I think maybe it’s time you tell me what Felicity said.”

  “Why? Feeling nervous because you didn’t get to eavesdrop on that conversation?” She set down what apparently was a smoked ham and Brie sandwich on French bread and moved to angrily chewing on the fruit salad in a cup.

  Lee held his hands up. “Okay, obviously I deserved that, but I did try to explain it was an accident. I closed the window as soon as I realized. Surely, you can understand.”

  She did, but it was still humiliating to know he heard her practically gush about her feelings for him before he’d kissed her and admitted it was all a big mistake.

  “So what did she say?”

  She shrugged. “Basically that I’m not cut out to be an agent and it’s not the life for me and—” A hiccup interrupted her. As if she needed more embarrassment. She’d forgotten that whenever she ate or drank too fast, the hiccups always came.

  Lee stared at his box, fighting a smile as he took a potato chip. “As for what Felicity said, I don’t think you can know what you’re capable of before you try.”

  A little hope flared to life in her chest.

  “But,” he said, “I think she’s right about the rest.” His eyes met hers. “It’s not the life I’d want for you.”

  “Because it’s hard or because it’s lonely? Based on those observations, I’d say you have no idea what my life of sixteen-hour days has been like for the past several years and shouldn’t I have a say—”

  “He’s coming back.”

  She fought down her frustration and ate another grape, hoping the sugars would calm her hiccups. The air stilled. Why should she let Felicity or Lee or anyone else decide what was best for her? They’d never been in her shoes. They really, truly didn’t know what stress load she carried in the interest of her students and her research.

  Her shoulders pulled back. God had given her gifts that they knew nothing about. If Lee wasn’t the man for her, she trusted He would show her, but Audrey was done being scared that academia was the only place for her. She loved her job, but it didn’t mean that her life had to be limited to only that world.

  She wasn’t the lesser twin. She was a unique twin. She might not have the same skills as Kendra, but if she could handle the past week, she could also handle whatever was coming her way. She felt her diaphragm relax. The hiccups were gone.

  Lee twisted and took a hard look over his shoulder. “There’s some kind of shed back there.”

  “Oh, like a bathroom?” She really didn’t want to have to find a set of trees that provided privacy again. If someone had asked her a few months ago, she would’ve said she adored hiking. Being outside, the smell of cedar and pine, and the woodchips underneath her feet renewed her energy levels before returning to the lab. Now she understood the well-maintained trails near the university she roamed would probably be considered walking paths, not hiking.

  Sweat ran down the back of her neck and a merciful breeze blew past. The guide reached them and sat down with an electronic lockbox in his lap. He entered a code and lifted out two smartphones. She exchanged a glance with Lee before he nodded for her to accept, and they both reached out to take one.

  The guide pulled back. “Half the money now. The other half when you’re granted access. The rest of the phones will be waiting for you when you return.”

  Lee shook his head. “I haven’t had any cell signal.”

  The guide reached in his backpack. “Now you should.”

  Audrey blinked in surprise as Lee’s phone seemingly came to life. So the guide had to have been blocking their signal. But why? Maybe to hide their location from anyone else? If they were getting phones but not being granted access that must mean the guide wasn’t the CEO.

  Lee pulled up an application and began to transfer money to the bank account the guide rattled off. After a “transfer complete” signal the guide nodded and reached into his bag. The bars morphed into the words “No Signal” at the top of the screen.

  Lee exhaled. “Okay. Now we get the phones?”

  The guide extended his arms and they accepted. “They’ve already been equipped with the three words you’ve spoken. If you say them by accident, there’s nothing I can do.”

  “Surely it’s not—” Lee started.

  “Don’t say it,” Audrey said, but she blushed slightly knowing the three words chosen had been her doing.

  The guide pointed out the key features. “All new members to your organization will have to be added through the admin. Once they’re installed you’ll be able to talk, email or text each other and only each other. There are no other functions on this phone but it’s completely safe from government eyes. Think of it like incognito office messaging.”

  Lee grumbled. “Okay. So when do we get access?”

  “Just one more meeting,” the guide said as he stood and headed back for the trail.

  All of Audrey’s bravado drained from her. They were about to meet the CEO. If she didn’t convince him she was Kendra, they might not ever return to civilization. She patted the outline of bear spray for a burst of confidence and strode ahead.

  THIRTEEN

  Lee prided himself on physical fitness, but if he had to guess they’d hiked somewhere between six and eight miles. If he was on a flat surface, the distance would be no problem, but he wasn’t used to the terrain and his feet began to complain. Audrey stumbled on a rock and he caught her. Her eyes drooped. “Sorry. I’m just so tired.”

  As if hearing her proclamation, the guide beckoned them to round a corner where a lush meadow awaited them. In the center a fire pit glowed, the smell of roasting chicken and steak wafting past them on
the breeze. Just beyond bushes, a yurt three sizes bigger than any he’d seen in national parks stood.

  A Jeep waited just beyond the yurt, an employee sitting at the wheel.

  “We eat then you drive us back?”

  The guide grinned. “No. You enjoy your stay.” He began walking to the Jeep.

  “Wait. We’re supposed to stay here overnight?” Audrey’s voice rose.

  “Everything you need is here.”

  Lee glanced at his phone. Still no signal. He couldn’t even guess where they were in relation to the highway. He’d let exhaustion and the promise of meeting the CEO dull his senses. Maybe if they backtracked he could—

  “It’s not on the itinerary,” Audrey said.

  “The CEO enjoys the element of surprise.” The guide hopped into the passenger seat of the Jeep.

  “But we still don’t have a cell signal,” Audrey called out.

  “Not my doing anymore. A gift from the great outdoors.” The guide waved from the passenger seat as the driver took off, bits of grass and mud flying behind them as they made their way, off-roading out of sight.

  Audrey stood in the center of the meadow, hands on her hips, staring at him. “I went in with eyes open that my life could be in danger, but I draw the line at camping. It’s a game-changer.”

  He smiled and approached. “I’ll keep that in mind the next time I ask, but where’s your sense of adventure?”

  She eyed him. “Are you just asking that to help me stay positive?”

  Lee didn’t want to admit she’d guessed his game plan, so he pointed to the fire. “At least the food smells good. Shall we see what kind of conditions await in the yurt? I’m guessing there will at least be a nice bed or two. Has a real door, so shouldn’t be bugs.” He tried to smile, but after a long day covered in sweat and dust, he wanted modern conveniences like a shower, air-conditioning and ice water. Even though the sun had begun its slow descent, hanging low over the tops of the trees, they still had a fair amount of daylight ahead of them.