That’s her sister. Her twin.
With narrowed eyes, I allow myself to truly look at them. To find the differences. One single thing to tell them apart. “Jessica Ann, lift your shirt.”
She scoffs. “There are cameras here, Kane. And Alex watches them twenty-three hours a day. I’m not lifting my shirt.”
A new kind of dread sits on my chest as I storm forward. Grabbing the brave one, I pull her forward until she slams against the bars and the scared twin yelps.
Jess is strong.
Jess is never scared.
Jess watches me with furious eyes.
I tilt her head to the side and find the silvering scar on her neck. The mark Lance left behind. Then with narrowed eyes, I slide my hand along her body and fist the soft fabric of her shirt. “Show me your stitches, Jessica.”
“Kane.” Teeth gritted, eyes screaming a million things, she gives the teeniest little nod toward the crying twin. “Discretion, please.”
“I don’t give a fuck about discretion!” One of these girls knows the inside of that club, and I need to know who. I pull the fabric up and slide rough fingers along the bumpy flesh.
For the first time in my life, I’m happy for that scar.
The crying twin gasps at the sight of the ugly stitches, but when I turn to her, she sucks it in and clamps her lips shut.
“I’m sorry I kissed you. That was my mistake, but in my defense, Jess forgot to mention she was a fuckin’ twin.”
“Okay…”
“But that stuff we talked about…”
“No.” Backing up, she trips on thin air and stumbles against the wall. “No. Don’t say anything.” Her eyes flicker to the real Jess with the same desperate plea.‘Discretion please!’“Please don’t.”
“That’s two sisters. And two giant ass secrets.” Despite the fact I’m inside a cage and they’re free, I still find myself in more control of this conversation than they are. “You two need to get your shit straight.” I point to the real Jess. “She’s Jessica. She’s dating a criminal. She’s been sexually assaulted twice since I’ve known her. She almost died both times.”
“Kane!”
“But don’t think the stupidity belongs only to her.” I point at the crier. “You have an abusive boyfriend that Iwilltake care of, images on the internet I promise to have deleted, and some fuckin’ therapy sessions you need to attend.”
“Abusive?” Jess turns and squeezes the other blonde’s hand. “Images? Therapy? Laine!”
“Did you fuck someone other than me this week, Jessica?”
“What?” Her angry eyes come back to me. “No, you jerk!”
“No. So that meansshedid. That ain’t my business, you can fuck whoever you want, but the images I saw were not consensual.”
“You saw?” Laine’s eyes spill over.
“You saw pictures of my sister?”Jess’ eyes don’t.“Kane! What the hell is the matter with you?”
“You look exactly the same, Jessica! I didn’t even know it wasn’t you until just now. I thought you’d broken my fucking heart!”
“And yet, you kissed my sister?”
“Yup! I kissed her. I thought I was kissing you. My bad. Next time, instead of saying ‘my sister’ this, and ‘my sister’ that, you should mention an identical fucking twin. A sister isn’t the same as a twin, especially not when she’s identical!”
“What does it matter?” she throws back. “Why the hell am I in trouble right now?”
“Because bad people want to hurt me! The only thing I have in this world worth losing isyou. Now there’s two of you!”