“The car is being brought around now. I need to tell you something.”
“Good something or bad something?” I stepped away from the bathroom mirror and turned to face him.
He moved in and placed his hand around my throat but didn’t squeeze. “Good for us. Not so good for them.”
I raised my brows in question. “Them?”
“Yes. I’ve already made the call, now there’s someone I need you to meet.”
“You’re being super cryptic. Are they somehow related to this ‘call’ you made?”
He stroked the column of my throat and gave me a kiss. “I love feeling your pulse beneath my hand.”
“That’s kinda creepy, Judas. And a nice change of subject.”
“I can’t tell you why you need to meet them yet. Once we’re there, I’ll help you understand.”
“Okay?” I swear talking to him sometimes was like trying to constantly solve a crossword puzzle of riddles that lacked context.
“Come on, we can wait downstairs.” He dropped his hand from my throat to mine and led the way.
I knew something was off the second we got back to the house. Gavin and Theo remained quiet as church mice as they followed us inside.
Seeing Brianna and Owen lingering in the living room with the television off gave me my first real clue.
The second was Audrey being here too. With her not having a poker face to save her life, she didn’t bother trying to pretend everything was fine. She gave me a sympathetic look before outright glaring at Gavin.
“What is it?”
“You didn’t tell her?” Audrey leveled Judas with an accusatory stare.
“Why is everyone making a bigger deal about this than necessary?” he asked no one in particular.
I grabbed his arm to get his attention. “Deal about what?”
“Bring her in.”
I wasn’t sure who he was talking to until Owen opened one of the French doors that sat off the back of the house and motioned for someone to come forward.
He stepped back and a girl in a boho-like dress and flip-flops brushed past him. Her unwavering, brown-eyed stare was trained solely on Judas.
“It’s about time you got here. Do you know how hot it is outside?”
“You shouldn’t have arrived early. I told you I wasn’t letting you in the house until Rhiannon was here.”
Her attention shifted to me at the mention of my name, as if she hadn’t fucking noticed me at all until just then and I wasn’t hard to miss.
“Oh, wow. This is her?”
I furrowed my brows and studied her. She seemed to almost be vibrating in place. Was she on drugs? Furthermore, “Why are you talking about me in the third person?”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean anything by that. I can really see the resemblance.”
Audrey snorted her disagreement. “Like apples and oranges.”
I grinned and looked at the animated girl in front of me a little closer. I sure as hell didn’t see what she did. Our hair matched pretty evenly, and she had brown eyes, but our body shapes were different. For the most part… If someone were to look at her from behind, she could pass as my stunt double…or a doppelganger.
The longer I stared the more I could actually start to see it. A little green monster told me that this was not okay. It hadn’t reared its head with Charlie, but this girl’s appearance had it rising to the occasion. Why had he wanted me to meet her?
He was standing here not saying anything, just watching us interact. In fact, no one was speaking. The girl noticed the quiet too and began to look around the room.
“Is everything okay?” As she twisted a tattoo of a crest, I was becoming increasingly familiar with snagged my attention.
It was on her ankle, covering the entire thing. Why the fuck did she have that?
“Who the hell is this?” I asked Judas outright, doing the same thing she just had.
“This is, Rochelle.”
Her name was Rochelle and if you stared at her long enough you could pretend that she was me. I had to wrestle with indecision and not jump to any wrong conclusions about why any of this was necessary. Judas wouldn’t set me up to meet her for nothing, but that didn’t mean I had to like it.
“Okay, well, you all enjoy your time together.” I turned to Judas and gave him a dark look. “Can I talk to you?”
Without waiting for an answer, I turned and walked out of the room.
“Get her settled,” he directed at someone before following after me.
I didn’t know where to go for a private conversation because I had yet to explore the house.
Going all the way up to our room seemed unnecessary for what I wanted to know. He said this was our home so that should mean there wasn’t a single damn room off-limits to me. I flung open the first door I came across off the back hallway, finding myself in a large laundry room.