The Girl from Her Mirror (Mirrors Don't Lie Book 1) (24 page)

“Aw, sweetie,” Kenzie said, reaching out
for her best friend’s hand. “What about you? How do you feel about him?”

“He’s amazing, Kenzie. He’s such a
genuinely good guy. He’s funny and sexy and brave and strong. I could go on and
on.”

“You’ve got it bad,” her friend said
softly, reading the lovesick expression on her face.

“And I’ve probably ruined it by agreeing
to this entire farce in the first place,” Makenna whispered miserably.

“I’m sorry. I should have never asked
you to do it. Me and my schemes. They always get us in trouble.”

“It wasn’t your fault. I knew better,
and still I went along with it. And even after that, I could have told him the
truth. I should have, the very first time he kissed me.”

“Good kisser?” Kenzie asked with a grin.

“Amazing.” She said the word through the
side of her mouth as Hardin rounded the corner from the kitchen. As he came
forward, she eyed the items he carried on a tray. “That looks like more than
water.”

“Just a few things I know you like,” he
shrugged. “Carrots with ranch dressing. It’s not quite the same as that dip in
the picnic basket, but maybe it will do. And I found some chocolate to feed
your addiction.”

“Oh, girl, this man is definitely a
keeper!” Kenzie proclaimed, her smile wide and approving. “And he knows you so
well.”

Hardin unloaded the tray within easy
reach, added a pillow beneath Makenna’s foot, and brought her laptop and camera
to rest against the end table by her side. “Anything else I can get you before
I go?” he asked, crouching down in front of her at eye level.

“I-I think that about does it.”

“I see you have your phones and the
remote within reach, and both sets of crutches.” He shook his head again, still
astounded by their unique predicament.

“We’re good, Hardin,” Makenna assured
him, even though the warble in her voice said something different.

“Then I guess I should go.” His blue
eyes sought hers and held. She could see uncertainty in their depths, mingling
with regret and sadness and more than a touch of desperate desire. Her own
green eyes misted, and she nibbled on her lower lip.

Seeing Hardin’s hungry gaze follow the
movement, Kenzie tried to be gallant. “Give me five minutes to get moving, and
I can give you two some privacy.” She started to push up from the couch, but
Hardin motioned for her to stay.

“No need to uproot yourself.” He spoke
to Kenzie without taking his eyes off Makenna. He reached out a hand and
touched her cheek, fingering the fading scar. “Don’t let her forget to doctor
her cuts and scrapes. She has thirteen stitches. She needs to clean them and
change her bandages daily.”

“Girlfriend, what did you do?” Kenzie
asked, eying her suspiciously. “I was in a car wreck and didn’t get as banged
up as you!”

“She’ll tell you all about it,” Hardin
assured the other woman, his eyes still roaming over Makenna. His gaze was
hungry, thorough, as if he were trying to memorize what she looked like. Fear
clutched in Makenna’s chest and made breathing impossible. “She has a lot of
things to tell you.”

Kenzie tried to be polite and look away,
but she was fascinated with the scene playing out before her. The man was
obviously reluctant to say goodbye, but there was a wariness in his amazing
blue eyes. He was staring at her best friend as if he wanted to devour her, but
he made no effort to do anything other than touch her face. Tears were now
streaming down her roommate’s face, a sight Kenzie seldom saw.

Hardin leaned in, resting his forehead
against Makenna’s for a long moment. They were both struggling to get their
emotions under control. Kenzie forced herself to look away, to give them a
modicum of privacy as they whispered to one another.

“You’ll be all right here till your mom
comes?”

“We’ll be fine.”

“You have a lot to talk about.”

“Yes.”

“So do we.”  

“Yes.”

“Makenna-” Hesitantly.

“Hardin.” Desperately.

Instead of saying more, he pressed his
mouth to hers. “I’ve got to go,” he whispered.

“Okay.”

“I’ll call you this evening.”

She nodded slightly, the movement
bumping their faces together. His mouth grazed hers again, open and hungry for
the slightest contact.

“Hardin, please -”

“It’s going to be all right,
sweetheart.” He finally offered her the reassurance she craved. He rested his forehead
against hers again, his fingers tangling in her curls out of habit. “There’s a
lot we have to hash through right now, a lot of it to do with the case. We’ve
got to make sure you two are safe, before you and I sit down for a talk. But
it’s going to be okay, babe, I promise.”

“I trust you,” she said without
hesitation.

He touched his mouth to hers again. She
thought she tasted a promise in his kiss this time.

“I’ll call you,” he repeated. He got to
his feet, his fingers - and his eyes - trailing slowly away from her face. To
Kenzie, he said, “It’s been a pleasure meeting the infamous Kenzie Reese.” A
teasing light came to his eyes and gave Makenna even further hope.

“Likewise, I can assure you.”

He looked back at Makenna, suddenly
uncertain again. “You’re sure you’re okay? I feel like a heel, leaving you two
like this.”

“Like you said, Kenzie and I have a lot
to talk about.” There was a trace of hopefulness, excitement, even, as she
glanced at her sister.

“Okay, so I’ll go.” He was obviously
having trouble with his own decision. “I’ll lock the door on my way out. There
will be an officer on watch at all times, but I want you to let me know if
anything happens, if anyone tries to contact you, if something doesn’t feel
right. Call me if you need
anything
.”

“Officer?” Kenzie butted in, alarmed.
Drawing their sharp attention, she made an innocent face and held up her hands
in surrender. “Okay, okay, I’m sorry. I know I shouldn’t be listening, but an
officer
?
What is going on?”

“Call me,” Hardin repeated sternly,
ignoring the outburst. “No matter what time it is. Promise you’ll call.”

“I promise.”

He leaned down for one more quick kiss.
“Take care. Later, babe.”

“Later.” She watched him walk to the
door, her heart heavy. Just as he reached for the door, she called his name and
he turned around. “Thank you for everything. Be careful.”

He winked at her. “Always, sweetheart.
Always.”

Hardin was barely out the door when
Kenzie turned to her friend and demanded answers. “What is going on? Why is
there an officer outside? What happened this week?” She took a deep breath and
asked in dread, “It has to do with my father, doesn’t it? All those questions
you were asking… what has he done?”

“I’ve got a story to tell you, Kenzie,”
Makenna said slowly. “Remember how you said I needed to go on this trip to get
out of my rut, add a little excitement to my life? Well, I did that, all right.
You can’t imagine all that has happened this week. It’s going to sound a little
far-fetched, but believe me, it’s true. So here goes….”

An hour later, Kenzie was still shaking
her head, trying to organize the information into a conceivable thought.

“I have no idea what to say,” she
murmured for the dozenth time. “I just can’t believe this.”

“I know, sweetie. It’s a lot to
comprehend.”

“And someone tried to kidnap you? They
tried to hurt you, because they thought you were me, and they thought you - or,
I - could lead them to my father?
Our
father? Oh, God, I can’t believe
we’re sisters!” Her thoughts were going round in circles, but for all the
sorrow on her face, the joy of having a sister, a twin, brightened her eyes.

“My mom really wasn’t that surprised,
you know,” Makenna said softly, as the sisters sat with their heads touching,
coal against copper. “She said she had always wondered.”

“You know, I think Mom, your mom, has
hugged me more times than our birth mother ever did.” Long ago, Kenzie had
taken to calling Makenna’s parents Mom and Dad.

“I’m so sorry, Ken. I’m sorry I was the
lucky one who was given away, and that you had to stay behind, with them,”
Makenna whispered.

“I wonder which child they thought they
were helping the most… the one they gave away, or the one they kept.” 

“I wonder if they thought of either of
us, or just themselves.”

The sisters sat in silence,
contemplating their parents’ motives and the lives altered forever by their
actions.

“I remember, you know,” Kenzie finally
whispered. “I thought it was my imagination, the warmth I remembered feeling
when our palms met. I convinced myself it was just the game I played with the
girl from my mirror, that the palm I touched was my own. But I remember the
warmth of your touch. It was real. You were real.”

The sisters hugged, their tears
mingling.

After a while, they went back to their
musings, trying to make sense of it all. They were interrupted when their
neighbor Linda came to check on them and when Makenna called her parents to
tell them she was home. Without waiting to be asked, Madeline Reagan said she
would be there within the hour. And then it was back to the wonder of it all,
rehashing the topic again and again.

“Another thing I don’t understand,”
Kenzie said at random. “If these Zaffino people have been watching me for a
couple of weeks, not to mention the Rangers, how did they not see the
resemblance between us and figure out before now that we were twins?”

Makenna shrugged. “Hardin and I
discussed that on the plane. It was a charter by the way, did I tell you that?
Anyway, I guess the chance of twins, separated at such a young age, with one of
them being adopted out, then somehow finding one another again years later,
totally at random, was such a long shot that no one even considered it.” She
smiled as she remembered a conversation from earlier in the week. “When I first
told Hardin that my best friend and I looked so much alike, I could see the
gears turning in his head. Now I know he was putting the pieces of the puzzle
together, but he decided they didn’t fit, simply because it seemed too
improbable.” 

“It is pretty incredible, you know. Of
all the universities out there, we somehow chose the very same one, and even
wound up in the same classes.”

“You know what they say,” Makenna
grinned, “Two great minds think alike!”

“And this great mind is thinking what a
hottie Hardin Kaczmarek is. Do not let that man get away, sister dear.”

“I’ll try not. But you heard him. We
have a lot to hash through. And right now, as much as my heart says
differently, my brain knows that the top priority is to focus on our safety.
These Zaffino people are no one to take lightly, Kenzie. I know it sounds like
something out of a movie, but they’re the real deal.”

“But neither one of us has any idea
where our father is.”

“But until the Zaffinos get wind of that
fact and are convinced it’s true, we still may be in a lot of danger. I guess
it’s a good thing we’ll both be laid up for the next couple of weeks. As long
as we can’t go anywhere and the police are here to keep an eye on us, we should
be relatively safe.”

“If not, we could always call your
handsome Texas Ranger to watch over us!” Kenzie suggested with a cheeky grin.

Two days later, Hardin appeared at their
door. The twins were in the living room, sorting through pictures Makenna had
taken, putting together a presentation for
Now Magazine
. When Makenna
heard his pleasant voice at the door, her heart did a triple somersault and her
nerves went on high alert. She was thankful she had just taken a shower and was
wearing something other than pajamas.

Yesterday, the sisters had indulged in a
totally lazy day by not even getting dressed. Today, however, Makenna was
sporting a pair of jean capris and a new aqua t-shirt from the White Mountains.

She heard her mother’s delighted laugh
and knew Hardin Kaczmarek had already charmed another female in her family. So
far he was three for three.

“Girls, you have visitors. Handsome
Texas Rangers, no less. You gentleman have a seat, and I’ll bring in coffee.”

“We don’t want to be a bother, ma’am.”
Hardin smiled at her mother and Makenna could have sworn she saw the woman
blush.

“Oh, no bother at all. I’ll just be a
jiffy. Please, have a seat.” With only a half effort to hide her actions,
Madeline Reagan sent her daughter a wink and a thumbs-up sign of approval.

Makenna would have rolled her eyes at
her mother’s theatrics, but her eyes were suddenly glued to Hardin. It was the
first time Makenna had seen him in a button-up dress shirt. The mere sight of
him in his uniform - starched white western shirt, pressed khakis, navy blue
tie, white straw hat, cowboy boots, shiny silver badge  - was enough to
make her mouth water. She was so busy staring at him, she almost didn’t notice
the man beside him.

“Makenna.” Her name on his lips was like
a caress. Makenna felt her world shift before slowly settling into place,
centering around the handsome man with a badge.

They stared at each other for a long,
hungry moment, their eyes drinking in the sight of the other. They had spoken
on the phone twice, texted several times, but this was the first time they had
seen each other since coming home. They might have continued to simply stare at
one another, but the man with him quietly cleared his throat.

Hardin snapped out of his trance, but
his eyes still lingered. “Ladies, let me introduce Ranger Travis Merka. Merka,
these two beauties are Makenna Reagan and twin sister Kenzie Reese.” 

Travis Merka was several inches taller
than Hardin, with long legs and a lean physique. Where Hardin’s muscles were
well defined and larger than life, Travis’s were less obvious at first glance.
Blond and clean-shaven, the handsome but somber Ranger had surprisingly dark
eyes beneath his straw hat.

“Nice to meet you,” Makenna murmured,
trying unsuccessfully to pull her eyes from Hardin’s. She had missed him like
crazy, not realizing the half of it until this moment.

“So,” Kenzie said saucily, “you’re the
one who’s been watching me for the last couple of weeks.” Her tone was almost
accusatory as she eyed the tall Ranger.

“That’s right, ma’am. Just doing my
job.” His tone was cool and detached.

“Guess you didn’t see the car that
plowed into me,” she smirked.

“Actually, ma’am, that was my car that
hit yours. The perpetrator ran into me, causing a chain reaction.”

Taken aback by his honesty, Kenzie had
no ready reply. Instead, she turned her focus to his partner. “Hey, Hardin,
how’s it going?”

“Good. And you?” Out of politeness, he
forced his gaze to the woman sitting on the couch beside Makenna.

“Learning to walk with these sticks.”
She gestured to the ever-present crutches. “I don’t graduate to a walking cast
for another couple of weeks still.”

“All in good time,” he assured her,
seating himself in one of the chairs flanking the sofa. Travis Merka took the
other. “I’m glad to see you two looking so well and healing.” Once again, his
hungry gaze roamed over Makenna, noting the fading bruises and a mere trace of
the scratch along her jawline. With great discipline, he kept his eyes from
following the known path of that scratch.

“Getting better every day,” Kenzie
declared. Makenna remained silent.

“Good. That’s good.” Hardin paused for a
moment, before leaning forward. “As much as I wanted to see that for myself,
we’re here today in an official capacity. Ranger Merka and I have been assigned
to security for you two ladies.”

Makenna’s heart did another acrobatic
feat. Her first thought was of joy.
I’ll get to see him every day!
Reality
set in almost immediately.
We’re still in danger.
“For-For how long?”
she managed to ask.

Travis Merka spoke up. “For as long as
it takes, ma’am, to keep you and your sister safe.”

“But I thought you had that woman with
the terrible voice locked up! Her husband, too, and the bald man,” Kenzie said.

“We do,” Hardin assured her. “And it
turns out Lisa’s real name is Irene Goldberg, and she’s not even married to Bob.
They were simply on assignment. But until we can convince the mafia that
neither of you have any idea to your father’s where-abouts, either Ranger Merka
or I will be with you at all times.”

“How do you convince them of that?”
Makenna asked quietly, her face pale.

“We’re putting word out among our
informants and the lines of chatter. It may take a few days, but they’ll get
the word.”

“And in the meantime?” Kenzie asked.

“As Ranger Kaczmarek said, one of us
will be with you. You’ll have round-the-clock protection from the Ranger
service. If there’s somewhere you have to go, we’ll take you. If someone comes
to visit you, they have to be cleared by us first.”

“So basically we’re being held prisoner
in our own home.”

“You’re being protected, ma’am.” His
tone was calm, but his dark eyes flashed with irritation at Kenzie’s smug
retort.

“Why the sudden change? We’ve been fine
these past two days, with the police officers stationed in the lobby.” Makenna
suspected there was something they weren’t telling them.

Hardin’s eyes lit with appreciation of
her sharp mind. “Intel got word that Ray Foto boarded a flight to Texas. He’s
the man believed to have approached you in the general store. Bob and Lisa - or
Irene - were contract hires, probably by Foto himself. He’s a major player in
the Zaffino organization.”

Madeline came into the living room,
carrying a tray of coffee and freshly made brownies. Hardin further charmed her
with his appreciation of her culinary talents, and after just one bite, even
Travis Merka presented her with a smile that brightened his solemn eyes.
Makenna noted that the power of his smile was not lost upon her sister, even
though she tried not to show it.

“Tell me, Mrs. Reagan,” Hardin said as
he reached for his second brownie. “Does your daughter share your talents in
the kitchen?”

Madeline gracefully arched her brow.
“She has her specialties,” she said diplomatically.

“Doesn’t matter,” Hardin said, wiping
crumbs from his mouth. He shot Makenna a look that warmed her blood and caused
her heart to hammer wildly in her chest. “I’m an excellent cook, if I do say
so, myself.”

The encouraging words were all Makenna
had to sustain her for the next week and a half. Although she saw Hardin almost
daily, he kept a polite distance and was nothing if not professional.

As promised, he or Travis stayed close
for the next several days. Some days, one of the men would be stationed in the
lobby, where their presence made all the tenants in the building feel safe and
protected. The apartment dwellers were told they were part of a pilot program,
a new task force aimed at random protection for residents of the city. On other
days, the Rangers watched the apartment complex while parked on the street in
unmarked cars, or occasionally sat in a chair outside the women’s door, where
only the few people along their hall were privy to the fact. At night, the men
took turns sleeping on the sofa in the living room, and one time each, they
stayed inside the apartment for the duration of the day.

Yet other than polite conversation and
the occasional lingering gaze, Hardin made no attempt to communicate with
Makenna on a personal level. The stress of seeing him, day in and day out, yet
being held an arm’s length away, was wearing on Makenna’s nerves. When her
doctor’s appointment finally arrived, she was more than happy to get out of the
apartment and spend it in the company of Ranger Merka, while Hardin stayed at
the apartment with her sister.

“Good news, Makenna,” the doctor
reported. “Your x-rays look fine. I wouldn’t do any running or jumping for a
couple of weeks, but I think you will be able to go without your air cast. Just
take it easy, continue to elevate your leg while you’re sitting, and call me if
you have significant pain. Anything requiring more than Tylenol to ease the
discomfort should be of concern. Make a follow up appointment for next month,
but I think you’ll be fine.”