by Nana Malone
"If you love him, maybe you hear him out?"
I shook my head. "Like you've already pointed out to me, love clouds the brain. I made a huge mistake tonight because of love. A couple of mistakes. We had no business being at my old apartment. It wasn't secure enough. He walked right out of an exit we didn't have covered. And he could have died tonight. And then you saw what happened on the beach. Me loving him is not the brightest idea I've ever had. So maybe it's time to pull back."
"That’s not what I'm saying babes. I just want you to be more careful."
"Oh, trust me. I hear you. And you're right. You are absolutely right. I need to be more careful. I really can't trust myself. Theo might have all kinds of things to tell me, but it would be better if I stay the hell away from him. Even if I wanted to listen. Even if I wanted to believe him. It would be better for everyone if I kept my distance. Especially for me."
3
Theo…
I'd lost her.
I knew it the moment I saw her on the beach. Our gazes had locked, and instantaneously, I could feel our connection slipping through my fingers.
The upside was now that Derrick was back, I’d get paid and could go back to my life.
I wasn’t sure I was strong enough to leave Zia though.
She’s made it clear she doesn’t want you here.
When I marched back into the makeshift hospital room, I leaned against the supply cabinet and stared down at Derrick. "What the fuck is going on?"
My double grinned at me. "Aww, is that your way of saying you missed me?" He coughed after that, and the standby nurse rushed to give him ice chips to suck on before taking his vitals again.
He shooed her away but took the ice and crunched down on it. "Jesus Christ, it's not even real food and I love it."
"You’ve got to tell me what the hell is going on. Where have you been? Do you know where you were being kept? Even better, do you know who took you?"
He groaned as he tried to shift and propped up his head on the pillow. "Guess you've been a little worried."
"A little?" I shook my head. "You went MIA. You left me with my goddamn hands tied."
Derrick shrugged. "You seemed to figure it out just fine. And from the tension I could feel between you and Little Miss Tight-ass, I'm guessing you hit that.” He grinned at me. “It's good to be Derrick Arlington, right? I mean, in all honesty, do you think she could tell the difference between the two of us?"
I gripped one of the drawer handles on the supply cabinet so hard I was pretty sure I cracked it. "Shut the fuck up."
Derrick grinned as he lifted a brow. "Oh, you think she'll prefer me? I mean, I am the billionaire, but if I had to guess, I'd say you did something right because she looked all kinds of hurt, like she was planning her move into the penthouse. Here’s a hint for the future; you’re supposed to make them crazy for more, not crazy in love."
Love.
That word equal parts warmed me, spreading sunlight through my extremities, and chilled me straight down the center of my spine. How the fuck was I going to make that work? I didn't live in the islands. And for all intents and purposes, I'd lied to her.
I couldn’t think about that at the moment. I needed to get my life back. "Can we get off the topic of Zia and talk about the shit that's important?"
“Like about the rule to stay the fuck away from the royal family that you couldn't seem to follow?"
I shoved away from the cabinet, intent on throttling the fucker, when the nurse stepped in my way and shook her head. "No. No. No. I don't care what you want to do to him on your own time. He has grabbed my ass twice, so he probably has it coming. But you won't do it on my time. My job is to keep him alive and get paid, so he has to stay alive, understand?"
She was a tiny thing. Blonde. Upturned nose. Cute. But her eyes were all steel. I nodded slowly. "Yeah, got it."
She backed away, and Derrick's eyes tracked her ass as she marched out the door. "Hell, you can keep yours. I like her."
I rolled my eyes. "Can you focus?"
Derrick coughed. "Fine. You were just about to tell me how you broke the most important rule."
"I did stay the fuck away. Then mid-reception after the wedding, some idiot called me by name and tried to kidnap me.” I hitched my thumb toward the door. "In rolls Zia with some badass Taser, downing the guy. Your cousin, the king, caught the end of that dance and insisted I needed a bodyguard. Hence, I, well, you, have been assigned one."
Derrick cursed under his breath. "They clocked you at the wedding?"
"I don't know what the hell happened. The guy walked right up to me and called me Theo. Someone has been watching you."
Gone were his glib remarks and flippant comments. "Fuck.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “I got snagged as soon as I landed in Antigua, black-bagged and everything. I'm not sure if I was on a boat the whole time, but clearly, I was on one during the last part of my captivity, because that was how I escaped. I grabbed a life raft and got the hell out of there. The damn thing capsized when I hit a swell." He shrugged. "The next thing I knew, Gorgeous-lips was planting one on me, and I could feel a jump in my heart. I suppose that was you."
I inclined my head. "I think the word you're looking for is thank you."
His brow furrowed. "For what? I wasn't going to die."
I lifted a brow. "All right, because you're a billionaire and you'll live forever."
He grinned. "Now you're getting it."
"Shut up. The point is someone knew we switched from the beginning. So I couldn't very well tell your cousin, the king, that I wasn't going to comply with his direct order that I had to have a bodyguard."
Derrick glanced at the door again. "And what a bodyguard you got. You couldn't get one of the ugly ones?"
"I'm not sure they have any here. Ariel Scott is a looker herself."
Derrick whistled under his breath. "Jesus fucking Christ, she's Royal Elite?"
"Yeah. What’s the problem?”
Derrick groaned. “The problem is Royal Elite won’t let this go. They’ll insist in seeing this through.”
I shook my head. “But it’s over now. We’re done. You’re back. I’m going back to my life.”
“The hell you are. We’re not done here.”
"What the fuck are you talking about?" I asked. "My tenure is up in a week. Done. So far, someone has tried to kidnap me twice, poisoned me, and damn near killed me. Give me one reason why I should stay?"
"I'll give you another two million dollars."
What the fuck? "Are you fucking serious right now?" I laughed. "That's insane."
He tried to sit up and groaned. “Look. Someone kidnapped me, they tried to take you. Are you really going to go home before we figure this out? You’re telling me you’re just going to walk away from her?”
I worked my jaw. That was below the belt. “She’s had enough. She deserves better.”
“I get it. I’m responsible for this mess you’re in. But it’s not over yet. Some motherfuckers are trying to kill us. They kidnapped me, tried to kill you, and you think you can get away with just going back? What happens when they come after her to get to you?”
I worked my jaw. “They’re not after me. They’re after you. I’m nobody.”
“What if you weren’t a nobody?”
I frowned. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Twin sons of Timothy Arlington would be a hell of a coup for someone, don't you think?”
My blood froze. “Did you just say twins?”
Theo…
“Keep up, little Theo. This only works if you’re smart.”
I narrowed my gaze at him. “Enough games. Fucking explain what you’re talking about.” He tried to push himself up, but the IV got in the way and then he tugged at it. "Stop it. What the fuck is wrong with you?"
As I was trying to stop him from ripping out his IV, the door swung open. And when I turned, Zia was followed by Ariel, Prince Tristan, and someone I didn't expect, the king.
&nb
sp; I swung my gaze back to Derrick, and he gave me a full smirk. "Well, looks like the gang is all here."
Sebastian glowered at me. "I should have fucking known. No way you were this dickhead."
Derrick chuckled. "Nice to see you too, cousin."
Tristan glanced back and forth. "Jesus Christ, I thought I’d missed something, but they really are the fucking spitting image of each other."
Ariel crossed her arms and glowered at Derrick. "Looks like you're well enough to chat at least, so start talking. We're on a time clock, because if someone is trying to kill you, we need to get you secured."
Tristan stayed by her side. Sebastian was closer to the door and fresh out of fucks apparently, because his voice went icy cold. "Talk. Now."
Derrick shrugged. "Jesus, cousin. Always so authoritative. Fair enough." He lifted his gaze to mine. "Like I was saying before the entourage strolled in, Theo is my brother. My twin."
A hush fell over the room. Somewhere to the left someone muttered a curse.
There was that fucking word again. I stared at him, my brain refusing to compute the insanity that was coming out of his mouth.
Well you do look like him. It’s not outside of the realm of possibility. Except for there to be any truth to it, everything about my life had to be a lie. And that, I couldn’t swallow.
It took me another three seconds before my world started to tilt. The ceiling spun, lights became too bright, my skin heated in a way that was uncomfortable, as if someone had lit a Bunsen burner under me and started to roast me slowly.
I shook my head. "No, I don't have a twin. Timothy Arlington is not my father."
Arlington shook his head. "Believe it. What, you thought you were just my less handsome doppelgänger?"
I continued to shake my head. "No. No. My mother..."
He nodded slowly. "Our mother. Apparently, mum and dear old dad pulled a little parent trap situation. Separated us at birth. Dad's idea. So, I grew up with my alcoholic, zoned-out version of a mother, and you had the real deal. And lucky you… you had no dad to fuck you up."
My gaze swung to Zia, and I saw that her eyes were wide, locked on mine. I don't know why, but I looked to Ariel for confirmation, but she was just staring at Derrick. "How long have you known?" she asked.
Derrick swallowed as he focused on me. “Look, I’m not an idiot. I knew the numbers with Inline didn’t add up. The kind of data access and encryption techniques they claimed to have were next level. To force their hand, I asked for a show of good faith. I wanted proof of sensitive data that had never been leaked.”
I frowned. “Inline were the ones who told you?”
He nodded slowly. “Rocco Stains seemed almost gleeful to tell me. As soon as I found out, I came to see you in New York. I had to.”
“So instead of telling me the truth, you dragged me down here?”
“I wanted to see what you were made of. I was angry. At Dad, the circumstances, you. All that time… that feeling that something was missing, it was you.”
I still refused to believe. Even after the pieces started to line up. “No. I’m done with the games. I’m done here. Have a nice life. I’m going back to mine.”
Again, he tried to push up out of bed. “We talked about this. You can’t just go home. That’s not how this works. Sooner or later your world is going to be disrupted, like it or not.”
He thought I could just stay after what I’d learned? “You lied to bring me here and kept this from me.”
“Thirty days as me. No big deal. As soon as I found out about you, I went to New York. And sure enough, you were a fucking copy of me. And for what it's worth, I think I'm older by two minutes."
I shook my head. I refused to believe it. "No. I'm not a twin."
"Oh, come on. Can you tell me you didn't feel it? Our automatic closeness?"
"You recognize I hate you, right? You're a dick."
He grinned. "Yeah, I get that a lot. But it's still the truth. You know it is."
He's right. You do know it. The resemblance was beyond uncanny.
"Jesus fucking Christ."
He held up his hands. "Technically, we're fraternal. I think you're taller by a quarter of an inch and our eyes are slightly different, but it's not really a noticeable difference. We're like Mary Kate and Ashley."
I scrubbed my hand down my face. "Somebody shut this idiot up."
I was going to pass out. There wasn't any fucking air, and it was so goddamn hot.
There was another knock at the door just before it swung open. It hit Sebastian on the back, and he groaned. "Christ."
In marched Penny, her belly leading the way. "My God, there is no way you guys are leaving me out of this. Sebastian, did you really think the guard would stop a pregnant woman?"
He rolled his eyes. "I need to fire them all."
"You won't do any such thing. I'm their queen." She turned her head, and her eyes went wide at the sight of Derrick in bed. "Oh, two of you. Fantastic. So, what do we have here? Evil twin situation? Doppelgängers? Oh, wait. No, don't tell me." She waved her arms around excitedly. "Oh my God, separated at birth."
When no one responded, her mouth hung open. "Are you serious? I was kidding. Mostly. Separated at birth? That is outstanding. Sebastian, you have two cousins."
Sebastian wrapped an arm around Penny's shoulders and pulled her in. His hand tangled in her wild curls, and he kissed her on the forehead. As soon as he did that, she took a long deep breath. As I watched them, I felt a pang in the center of my chest. That was love. He just let her have her moment, even though she probably should be off her feet. "Yeah, we'd just discovered that, and I would have told you when I got back to the palace if you’d just waited. You shouldn't be out."
"I am pregnant, not dying. And do I have to remind you that Serena Williams won the Australian Open when she was pregnant?"
He sighed. "Goddamn Serena. I’m just looking out for you."
"I'm growing a human. Tell me the last time you did that?"
Sebastian wisely shut his mouth, but he still held her tighter. Penny’s narrow gaze lifted to me. "Ah, so, it's been you we've been dealing with for the last couple of weeks."
I nodded and bowed slightly. "Your Majesty."
She waved a hand. "Hi, cousin."
I couldn't help but laugh. "Oh, I don't want to disappoint you, but I'm not his twin."
She glanced up at Sebastian, who nodded, and then she smiled back at me. "Oh, you're still in the denial phase? Okay. Yeah, I mean, if I found out that my twin brother was Derrick Arlington, I'd be denying everywhere I could."
Her smile was warm. Her tawny cheeks lifted, showing off rosy apples and the sweetest smile with a peek of dimples. Jesus, she was cute. I couldn't help but smile back. "You get me."
"I told Sebastian. I told him that you were far too nice and you'd had a full personality transplant."
"I've been getting that a lot."
Derrick groaned. "You guys are all assholes. I'm not that bad."
But everyone nodded as if they were in full agreement that he was an asshole.
She shut up after that. I shook my head as I tried to get my world to settle. "Can we get back to the problem at hand? So, you're telling me you asked Inline Technologies to give you some kind of sensitive information. And in exchange, they gave you this bullshit?"
He nodded. "I get it. This is a shock. But it’s the truth, like it or not.”
Sebastian rubbed his jaw. "Any thoughts on who the fuck is trying to kill you?"
Derrick shrugged. "That's the thing. I have no idea. Smart money says the old man." His gaze flickered to me. "I'm guessing he wasn't any nicer to you than he was to me."
I shook my head. "He's a piece of work." I couldn’t help staring at Derrick. This guy claimed to be my twin. Was that the truth? How do you feel? Like I always felt with him since we’d met. A little unsettled. But my world was off-kilter. "Look, the whole twin thing, while it would be cool if somebody found out that I was a pseudo-billio
naire, I'm going to need some verification."
"Yup. Can do. We can do a little DNA test, and it will be fantastic. Open your mouth. Someone grab a swab. You’ll get the truth, and you’ll see I’m right. Leaving would be a mistake."
Sebastian sighed and ran a hand down his face. “Look, while we’re sorting out exactly who Theo is, everyone is staying put. And we’re doubling the guard.”
Derrick’s head snapped up. “What? No. I mean, yes, we need to keep Theo here, but I’ve got obligations. I’ve already been gone for weeks.”
Sebastian crossed his arms. “What is more important than your life?”
Derrick scowled at him. “Nothing, but you can’t be serious. I can hire my own team to cover Theo and myself.”
“Any of you assholes ever consider asking me what I want?” I asked.
Sebastian lifted his brow as if I’d lost it then he turned back to Derrick. “Since you had your own security and got kidnapped while Royal Elite kept Theo alive, I’m going to have to veto that decision. Everyone stays put until we know more. With any luck this will be sorted by the Queen Mother’s birthday gala. For once I want it to go smoothly.”
Derrick cursed under his breath. I couldn’t help it. My gaze drifted to Zia. With wide eyes and her lips drawn into a rare frown, she looked ready to flee.
Yeah, you and me both.
I turned back to the man who claimed to be my brother. I hated being caught up in this situation, but if any of it was true, everything I knew about myself and my world was a complete lie.
4
Zia…
I needed to think. And I couldn’t do it in that room with Theo looking at me with pain in his eyes.
I would rather have avoided that tense scene altogether, but Ariel had arrived, so I didn’t really have any other choice than to join the impromptu meeting.
Maybe I was overreacting. I could be. Hell, I didn't know. All I knew was that I couldn't think, so I made an escape to the kitchen. I knew almost immediately when my boss followed me in the expansive white room.
