Chapter 12

Shock would have held my body immobile if it weren’t for the fact that Gabe pulled me through the doors of the house.  If what he had said was true, why was I here?  Why would Mitch send me here if Dorothy was not the target?  It didn’t make sense.  Looking down at the hand that held mine, I contemplated the fact that this could be a trap.  Gabe could be the bad guy here, leading someone who should be Dorothy into the arms of his boss.

Did it matter though?  Either way, I would find out who was lying and who was telling the truth.  Could it be that Gabe, the man I knew nothing about, was the only one who was honest with me, or was it Mitch who had told the truth?  Doubt flew into my mind, threatening to push me off my game.  I couldn’t let my emotions rule me, couldn’t let them see a weakness.  If I did, even the gun strapped to my thigh wouldn’t get me out of this mess.

The hand holding mine dropped as Gabe threw the passenger’s door open and ran around to his side.  I slid into the vehicle, not wanting to think about the fact that this couldn’t be Gabe’s car.  He cranked the engine and pulled out of the driveway before whoever the owner of the vehicle was could stop us.

Glancing towards him, I noticed the worry around his eyes.  “You like Genna?”

“What?” he didn’t look over at me, but the way his face turned slightly, I knew he wanted to.  “She’s a nice person, and my job.  The only problem was that when I was assigned to her, the Morgenstern’s didn’t have an opening.  Luckily, Dorothy is known to have mood swings in which she lays off plenty of her staff.  There was an opening there, and I took it, knowing that it was as close to Genna as I could get without blowing my cover.”

“How long have you been there?”

“Six months,” he answered without hesitation, “which is why it didn’t take me long to figure out that you weren’t who you said you were.  Whoever thought that you would be a good substitute for Dorothy was a joke.  You look nothing like her.”

My eyes narrowed at him.  I knew it wasn’t the time or the place for small insecurities to shine through, but the next question still flew from my mouth with a twinge of anger in each word.  “What is that supposed to mean?”

This time, he turned towards me long enough to allow me to see his eyes roll before turning back to the road.  “You have to be kidding me.  You didn’t go through your life not knowing how beautiful you are.  I bet it comes in handy when you’re on the job.”

Red flew onto my cheeks as I glanced out the window.  I couldn’t blame him for his words seeing as I was practically fishing for compliments, but I didn’t expect them.  “Where are we going?”

He laughed, the sound making the gloomy situation brighten slightly.  “Stop trying to change the subject.  You wanted an answer, and you’re going to get one.  Dorothy,” he spat the name, “is nothing but a bitch.  She’s mean to the boy, which annoys me to no end, but you want to know something that really bothered me?”

Knowing that he was trying to get me into the conversation, trying to make me admit how much I wanted to know what he was going to say, should have bothered me.  One of my major downfalls has always been my curiosity though.  “What?”

“It’s not the fact that she sleeps with half the staff, the other half being female, that bothers me, it’s how she goes about it.  If they want to stop the relationship, they’re fired.  Do you understand how hard that makes some of their lives?  For some of them, this job is the only thing keeping them going, and then you have Dorothy.”

“Why doesn’t someone just tell her parents how she is?”

“They’re afraid.”

Turning away from the window, I stared at the side of his face.  “And you?”

His whole face turned to an expression of disgust.  “I would never sleep with her.”

I let out a laugh as I shook my head at him.  “That’s not what I meant.  Why haven’t you told her parents?”

“I need to keep the job,” he answered with a shrug. 

His hands on the steering wheel tightened before loosening.  “There’s something more,” I mumbled, hating the way he froze in his seat before relaxing once more.

“If I could pull the car over and look at you while you talk, I would.  You don’t know how damned hard it is not too.  I can’t tell when you’re lying, when you’re holding something back, and its killing me.”

“Part of the job is watching body language, but a lot of it can be listening to the voice.  If a person hasn’t perfected the art of lying, their voice will crack, maybe squeak at certain times.”

“Too bad for me,” he said with a small chuckle, “everyone in this car is an expert when it comes to lying.”

Watching as his hands tightened on the steering wheel once more, I reached out and pried one of his hands from it.  He glanced at me with a little bit of shock, before turning his eyes back to the road. 

“Just relax,” I whispered, freeing his hand.

He placed it back on the wheel, but this time, his fingers weren’t white from holding it so hard.  “Whoever sent you into this assignment knew that you would be blown.  There is no other explanation as to why they think you could pull of being Dorothy.  You may have killed people, of that I’m sure, but you’re a good person.  It doesn’t take a genius to see that.”

“I have a feeling this is leading somewhere,” I mumbled under my breath.

The small smile he graced me with shouldn’t have made me feel more relaxed, but it did.  This man was a force to be reckoned with.  “I’ve ruled out the CIA and FBI.  They are strangely loyal when it comes to their people, but a private company is usually made up of a band of brothers.  There is only one other person I could think of that would be your boss.”

“Don’t.”

“Mitch,” he said.  “It all makes sense now.  There was a rumor, and now looking at you, it has to be true.  You’re the one, who he adopted, aren’t you?”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

The car swerved to the side, before stopping in a darkened area.  As he cut the engine off, he turned towards me completely.  “Yes, I do, but for now, we have Genna to worry about.”

Without another word, he jumped from the car.  I sat there for a moment, contemplating the best way to go about this.  I could deny everything, or I could admit to it. Either way, Gabe wouldn’t know who I really was; he wouldn’t know the name I was born with.  Making my decision, I reached out to open the door only to have it opened for me.  Gabe grabbed my hand, helping me from the car.  Once I got on my feet, he smiled at me.  “When this is over, I’ll get my answers, and don’t care what I have to do to get them.”

The small nod that I sent him must have been enough for him, because he started pulling me towards a nearby building.  I glanced down at his hand with a frown.  What the hell was wrong with me?  I never let people pull me around like Gabe was.  If I was being honest with myself though, I would admit that it was strangely nice, knowing that he cared enough to take me along with him.  Or was it the fact that he didn’t trust me enough to let me go on my own?  I shrugged, either way, I didn’t mind.