Page 39 of Protected by the Sinner (The Sinner’s Touch #2)

Two Days Later

“Someone’s investigating you.”

“What else is new? Wouldn’t be the first time.”

“Yeah, but before, it was more or less familiar enemies.”

“Ethan, I’d appreciate it if you were more direct.”

“Jesus, your mood really never improves. I thought my sister would’ve tamed you by now.”

“She has—but I save my smiles for her. Now quit stalling and tell me what this is about.”

“Nothing to worry about. Someone—a woman—in Italy hired a private investigator to dig up everything on you.”

“A woman?” I look at him and immediately know what he’s thinking. He and I have been best friends for most of our lives, and yeah, we had a wild past when it came to casual sex with random women. But all that ended when I got married. “Don’t even say it. I’d never cheat on Lilly.”

“I know you wouldn’t. If I had even the slightest doubt about that, this would be a very different kind of conversation. It’s only because I’m sure you love my sister more than you love yourself that I didn’t even consider she might be a mistress.”

“Great. Now that we’ve established I’m not a scumbag,” I say sarcastically, “how about you just get to the damn point? I don’t believe for a second you don’t already know everything.”

“Of course I do. You’re my brother-in-law, but you’re also my best friend. I’ll always have your back.”

I say nothing because we don’t need words to reaffirm our friendship. I’d die for him—and he’d do the same for me.

There was a time, back when I first got involved with Lilly, that we fought. He didn’t want me near his sister and ended up doing something so stupid it caused a months-long break between her and me—and almost cost us our friendship.

We’re both proud men, and it wasn’t easy for either of us to let it go and move forward, but today, years later, our bond is just like it used to be.

“I’m going to ask you something, but fair warning—you’re going to think I’m crazy,” he says.

“I never thought you were normal to begin with.” It’s the plain truth. He’s my best friend—loyal, honorable—but also totally capable of killing the men we hunt [11] without losing a single minute of sleep over it.

“Is there any chance you have a twin sister?”

My whole body tenses. Talking about my childhood isn’t something I do.

It’s all shitty memories of foster homes, the second-to-last one being the one that made me who I am today.

Because no matter how much falling in love and marrying Lilly changed me, there’s still a dark side in me always ready to surface.

“You know I have no clue about my past. Never had a way to find out. Whoever left me at the orphanage door didn’t want to be found.”

“I know, but I still want you to take a look at something.” He nods toward an envelope on the table.

I pick it up and pull out a photograph—and it’s like looking in a mirror.

The woman in the photo is my female counterpart.

Same hair color, same skin tone, and those same strange, yellow-tinted eyes.

I sit down and study the photo more carefully. Sure, there are doppelg?ngers out there, but this? This is something else.

“Why a twin and not just a sister?”

He shrugs. “We don’t know your exact birthdate, right? We could be off by a few months either way. But to me, she looks like she’s your age.”

“How’d you find her?”

“By retracing the investigator’s steps. She’s American but currently living in Italy. But that’s not what caught my attention. Aside from the fact that she hired someone to look into you, her past is a mystery. Just like yours.”

“No one’s untraceable.”

He gestures for me to calm down. “I was getting to that. I will find out everything about her, no matter how well she thinks she covered her tracks. But I’ll need a few days.

I figured you might want to keep this,” he adds, pointing to a slip of paper on the table. “Just in case you want to contact her.”

I pick it up.

Elodie Martin.

A sister? No way. If that were the case, why would she wait until now?

“What are you going to do?” he asks.

“I don’t know yet. I need to think.”

That night

Lilly looks at me, clearly holding back from asking something. One thing that hasn’t changed over the years is that my wife still has no filter between her brain and her mouth. She doesn’t beat around the bush.

“What’s wrong?”

“You tell me, Amos. You’re totally out of it. You didn’t even complain when Bruno [12] let the soaking wet dog climb onto your favorite armchair.”

I shrug. “He loves that mutt, so I don’t mind.”

She huffs and stands up. “Fine. Keep your secrets.”

“Lillyana.”

“Don’t start with that macho-alpha ‘Lillyana’ voice. We have a deal: you’re in charge in bed, but outside of it, we’re a team,” she says, turning her back on me—pissed as hell and sexy as ever.

I go after her because, as usual, she’s right. I catch her in the hallway. “Ethan thinks I might have a twin.”

To my surprise, instead of being shocked, she smiles.

“I knew it.” Then she runs off to our bedroom and comes back a few minutes later holding her wallet.

“I bumped into a woman at the mall the other day and thought she looked just like you. Now I’m guessing she was following me.

She seemed really nervous. But wait . . .

Something is off. She looked too young to be your twin. ”

“Are you calling me old?” I try to joke, but inside, I’m spinning.

Could it be? A sister?

The heart I didn’t even know I had before Lilly pounds in my chest as I watch her pull out a small piece of paper from her wallet.

“I wrote down her name to give it to you and totally forgot. Here.” She hands it to me. “Amber Martin.”

“No. Elodie Martin.”

I go back to the living room and grab the envelope Ethan gave me that morning.

I pull out the woman’s photo and once again, I’m stunned by the resemblance.

“Is this her?”

She takes the photo from my hand and studies it silently for a few seconds.

She looks back and forth between me and the picture, then shakes her head.

“It’s not her. But the woman I ran into looked exactly like this, just younger.

Still very similar to you. So there’s only one explanation: there are three of you. ”