Borrowed Identity (18 page)

“How was Michael mean to you, Wade?”

“He calls me names when we’re alone. He told me to get lost. He told me you didn’t want me around ’cause I was dumb. And he took the key you gave me.”

She felt the color drain from her face. Michael didn’t speak like that around her. She couldn’t imagine him being so cruel. Taking the key from Wade was ridiculous. Michael had no right to do such a thing.

“You know that isn’t true. I enjoy having you around. I gave you the key. Remember?”

“Yeah. He’s a liar.” Wade’s worried gaze traveled to the door. “Is he here? I don’t want to see him.”

“I don’t know where he is, Wade. I just woke up.”

“I need to go.” Wade backed up fast, leaving the box on her lap. “I trust you. You can keep my things. Don’t lose them.”

“Wait, Wade.”

It was too late. He was gone in a flash.

Even though he had given her permission to go through his stuff, Kelly felt like an interloper as she opened the box. She pulled out items a handful at a time, glanced at them and set them aside. If she had ever imagined what Wade’s lost-and-found box would be like, this would be it. There was nothing terribly exciting.

Wade had collected quite an array of odds and ends. There was an assortment of change, old pencils, paper clips and pieces of scratch paper. She pulled out a small box of rocks, a couple of cigarette butts and a snapshot of a loving couple, complete strangers to Kelly.

Her hand settled on what appeared to be a thin, black wallet. She flipped it open and took a long, painful look at it. There was a badge and an identification card with a small photo.

The badge belonged to a CIA agent.

Michael Taggert.

Chapter Eleven

“Is something wrong?” Michael asked later that morning. He turned the steering wheel slowly and headed down the dirt road that would eventually take them to the wrought-iron gates separating Moore House from the rest of the world. “You haven’t said a word since we left the hospital.”

Kelly’s fists curled in her lap, but she remained stubbornly mute.

“If you’re worried about the house not being safe, we can go somewhere else. A hotel maybe.”

Michael turned the car into the gravel driveway, stopping near the porch. He glanced up at the sky through the windshield, scanning the dark clouds there. A few snowflakes began to drift down, dissolving as they touched the glass.

“I think the weatherman’s finally hit the mark,” he said. “I guess he had to be right eventually. He’s been running around like Chicken Little, crying snow every day.”

Kelly didn’t bother to look at him.

Michael turned to her. The silence had gone on long enough. He didn’t know what he was going to say. Somehow, he hoped words of wisdom would spill from his lips.

Before he could utter a single syllable, Kelly sprang from the car like a jack-in-the-box. On quick feet, she disappeared
into the house, not giving him time to think, much less speak.

The car’s engine was still humming, so he switched it off and pocketed the keys. Following Kelly’s lead, he entered Moore House. From outside the structure appeared massive in height and width, but inside it was a whole different story. The walls seemed too close together for his comfort. The air was old, stale, as if he was breathing the same air John Moore, the original owner, had breathed over a hundred years ago.

Michael didn’t have to search the house to find Kelly.

She stood just inside the door, her stiff back to him.

“Kelly.” He squeezed her trembling shoulders, hoping to reassure her without speaking. Something was wrong. Why wouldn’t she confide in him?

She spun around, knocking his hands away.

“Why the hell didn’t you tell me? Was this all a game to you?” She shoved her palms against his chest, forcing him to take a step backward. “You never intended to marry me, did you?”

“Kelly, if I did something to upset you—”

“Did something?” She interrupted. “
If
you did something? You lied to me!”

“What?” The bottom dropped out of his stomach. He had a sick feeling he knew exactly what she was shouting about. “What did I lie to you about?”

“The jig is up. You can stop pretending.” She laughed, but there was no humor in it. “Why are you really here? Are you looking for buried treasure? Is that it? Are you just another stupid fortune hunter?”

“No.” Fear slammed his heart into fourth gear. He had wanted to confess before she’d had the chance to figure things out on her own. “I’m not here to steal anything from you.”

“Then why are you here? Are you investigating me?”

She withdrew an item from her purse and dropped it onto the floor near his feet as if it was a piece of garbage. It bounced off the toe of his sneaker before coming to rest nearby. He recognized the object on sight. He’d had an intimate knowledge of it for years.

She’d found his badge.

“I can explain,” he said.

“Oh, I can’t wait to hear this.” Counting on her fingers, she listed all the ways he had wronged her. “You’ve used me. You’ve lied to me. You’ve almost gotten me killed. No one tried to hurt me until you came onto the scene. Coincidence? Somehow I doubt it.”

“That’s not exactly true.” He sighed and rubbed a hand over his tired eyes. “Can we sit down? This is going to take a while.”

Without a word, Kelly spun around and headed for the parlor. She took a seat on the far end of the sofa, her arms crossed in front of her chest, her eyes averted. She wouldn’t even look at him. Michael wasn’t so sure she would forgive him after she heard the truth. But he had to try. They’d shared an extraordinary night in each other’s arms. He wasn’t quite sure if they could have anything beyond the here and now, but the possibility of something wonderful happening between them was worth a fight.

He sat on the other end of the sofa, silently praying she would listen to the whole sordid story before flying off the handle again.

“I need to start from the beginning,” he said. She waved him on, still refusing to look at him. He continued, “I told you about my brother. What I didn’t tell you was that Jimmy was my twin.”

Michael opened his wallet and withdrew a picture of himself with Jimmy. The two boys stood side by side, each with an arm slung over the other’s shoulders. The photo had been
taken on their tenth birthday. It was the only picture Michael had of his brother—the only one he would ever have now.

Her eyes reluctantly fell to the photograph and she gasped. “Oh, my God. The resemblance is remarkable.”

“Looking at him was like looking into a mirror,” Michael said, “As I mentioned before, Jimmy and I were raised separately. I didn’t see him for years. Then one day he showed up at my door, out of the blue. We talked for a while, but it didn’t go very well. Jimmy wasn’t doing anything productive with his life. He hated me, I think, because I seemed to have it together. I think that’s why he did it.”

“Did what?” Kelly’s eyes locked with his. “Tell me the rest. What did he do?

“He borrowed my identity,” Michael said. “I’m not the man you got engaged to. You agreed to marry my brother Jimmy while he was using my name.”

He saw her shocked expression but forced himself to continue. “I know this is hard to understand. Please bear with me while I try to explain. Jimmy conned women for a living. He convinced them he loved them, proposed to them. Even occasionally married them, all with the support of my name. Then he took them for every cent he could get.”

“You’re saying he just wanted my money?” Pain filled her blue eyes. She turned away. Bitterness dripped from her voice. “Of course. What else would he want?”

“Don’t do that.” Michael touched her fingers briefly, moving closer to her. “I met a few of the women my brother conned. Every single one of them felt small because of it. They blamed themselves, felt stupid. Don’t do that to yourself. You are worth ten of Jimmy.”

“Why would somebody lie like that for money? It’s disgusting.”

“Angel, I’ve seen people do a lot worse in the name of the almighty dollar.” Michael moved closer still and tipped up her chin, turning her face so he could look her in the
eye. “Jimmy was a fool. You are incredibly beautiful and strong. You’re intelligent. Any sane man would thank his lucky stars to have a woman like you in his life.”

“Don’t try to sweet-talk me, and don’t call me angel.” She turned her head, escaping his grip. “I’m not interested in your lines. You are just as much a liar as your brother was.”

“True,” Michael said. “I apologize for last night. I shouldn’t have made love to you while you were still in the dark about my identity. I shouldn’t have let you down. Maybe if I’d been guarding you instead of losing myself in you, we could have prevented the fire. Maybe I would have even caught the maniac behind all of this.”

“You didn’t make love to me,” she denied hotly. “You used me. You had an itch to scratch, and I was convenient.”

“Don’t say that.”

“Why not? It’s true.”

“No, it isn’t.” He grabbed her shoulders and lifted her to her feet. He had to make her understand. “I care about you.”

“You bastard!” She practically spat the words from her compressed lips as she slapped him. Michael’s head snapped back, and tiny needles seemed to sting his cheek. He released her.

His own hand went to his face, testing the injured area. He opened and closed his jaw, making certain nothing had been knocked out of position.

“Don’t you dare tell me you feel something for me!” Her face burned red. “Don’t insult me like that.”

“Okay. I won’t… Why don’t we get back to the facts then?” he suggested. “I’m sure you have more questions. What else do you want to know about Jimmy and the situation?”

“If what you say is true, where is this brother of yours?
Why isn’t he here? And how did you know he was conning me in the first place?”

Michael sighed. “Well, it all started when I found out I was on the top of a hired killer’s hit list. Zu Landis killed some of our top agents. He moved me to the top of the list after I tried to trap him. The agency wanted me to travel, leave a trail for the assassin to follow. Then other agents, the ones that were going to follow me, would swoop down and bag the guy. One problem, though. My brother was using my name again.”

Kelly blinked at him, looking a bit seasick.

“I tracked Jimmy to Tinkerton,” Michael said. “I told my superiors I needed a few days of personal time to take care of a problem. I came here one night to confront Jimmy, to scare him with the possibility of being mistaken for me by a killer. But I’d arrived too late.”

He watched the color drain from Kelly’s face as she made the connection.

“I found Jimmy in the closet,” she said. “He was dead. Then I ran down the hallway and you were there. It was you, right? Then I fainted, I think.”

“Yes,” he admitted. “And I caught you. I carried you to your room, and I found Jimmy on the floor in front of the closet. My brother was dead, and you were out cold on the bed. I had to make a quick decision. Either I could tell you everything and risk you forcing me out before I could find the killer, or I could play the part my brother had conceived. I had no idea if you would help me or not.”

“Who killed him?” Kelly asked, her mouth barely moving. Her brow creased. “The assassin? This Zu Landis person?”

“He’s my number one suspect. That’s the problem. I had to stay here, pretend to be the Michael Taggert you knew in order to flush out the killer. I’m afraid the person responsible for my brother’s death is still around somewhere.
He could be close by, watching the house, watching us. If it’s Landis he probably knows that the man he murdered wasn’t his intended target and he’s coming back to finish the job.”

Kelly stood slowly. She went to the old stone fireplace and turned around, but she didn’t look directly at him. Her eyes were on the wall as if she could see through it.

“I can’t believe this,” she said, hugging herself. “Your brother was killed in my home. Someone was murdered while I slept not more than ten feet away.”

“You weren’t asleep. You were drugged. I found the vial,” he explained. “Jimmy gave you something to knock you out, probably so he could search the house and take what he wanted before you woke up. He was planning on making a clean getaway. He would have probably succeeded if it hadn’t been for the intruder.”

“The jewels,” she said. “Do you think your brother was looking for the jewels?”

“I don’t know.” Michael shrugged. “Did Jimmy seem a little too interested in the legend?”

“He mentioned it a few times. Asked questions.” She laughed derisively. “I thought he was interested in me. It was flattering. He even dropped the idea of writing the book because he said he didn’t want to upset me. Of course, now I know he never had any intention of writing a book in the first place. That was just a ploy to get close to me.”

“Did you love him?” Michael leaned a bit closer, waiting for her to answer.

“I thought I did,” she admitted with a deep frown. “But I didn’t know him, did I? He was pretending to be someone else.” Her eyes narrowed on Michael’s face. “Like you. He was playing a game with me. There were times when I caught a glimpse of the real man, his selfish nature, but he covered it quickly enough. He would focus on me, my
needs, like no one else ever had. I thought he was an incredible man.”

“How long did he live with you?”

“A couple weeks.” She shrugged. “I let him move in because the motel was costing him a fortune and he was constantly complaining about it. Like he said, we were about to be married. Why shouldn’t he move in with me?” Looking away from Michael, she said, “At least I didn’t sleep with him. I have that to be grateful for, but I still feel like such a fool.”

“Well, you’re not.” Michael took a chance; he went to her and tried to take her into his arms. She didn’t have to hug herself anymore for comfort. He wanted to make her understand that. He was with her now, ready and willing to embrace her whenever she needed it. He added, “My brother was an expert. He could trick anyone into believing him.”

“Don’t act as if you’re on my side.” She stepped away, reading his intentions and spurning him. “You must have thought I was a fool, too, because I fell for your line. You came in here and turned my life upside down without a moment’s hesitation. You are a vile, low-down, sneaky son of a—”