Read Online Star Crossed by Rhonda Laurel - Free Book Online Page B

looked at them both quizzically. “No third degree?”
    “Or fourth or fifth,” Billie said.
    Kate looked at Dominic. “What’s going on?”
    Dominic grinned. “After a long talk with your twin, she’s decided to let you grow up. That means no intervening and beating anyone up until you give the OK to do so.”
    “Wow.” Kate laughed. “You are in love.”
    “I love you, and I have to respect your choices.” Billie spoke evenly.
    “How do you know when you’re falling in love with someone?”
    “You start asking questions like that.” Billie smiled.
    Kate smiled too. Dominic shook his head in agreement.
    “Want to come to the photo shoot with me tomorrow?”
    “Sure.” Billie smiled again.
     
    * * *
     
    Dom retired to bed to let the cousins talk. Kate and Billie sat cuddled together on the couch pretending to watch television.
    “So how are you really doing?” Billie asked.
    “I’ll be happy when all this media crap dies down.” Kate rested her head on Billie’s shoulder.
    “Nice monkey wrench with the actor.”
    “Chris and I found ourselves on the cusp of a mutual opportunity.” The last thing she wanted to do was tell Billie how they met, although she had a feeling she already knew somehow. That was another drawback to having a cousin who could be your identical twin. They seemed to have a psychic link to one another. All her life, Billie could sense when Kate was hurting or in some kind of trouble. And she would be right there to fight off whatever evil was after Kate.
    “Dom seems pretty happy you let me handle things on my own and didn’t rush to California with guns blazing.”
    Billie laughed. “Isn’t that mature of me?”
    “Uncharacteristically mature of you. What happened to Ms. Fussy and Overprotective?”
    “Andre didn’t move to the West Coast to soak up those nice California rays.”
    “It’s no wonder he never tires of his babysitting duties.” She sighed.
    “Andre needed a break from New York.”
    “He has saved Atlantis’s collective bacon plenty of times. I didn’t know the music business was so cutthroat, literally.”
    “And that is why people like me and Andre exist. So you can make music while we fend off the wolves at the door.” She pressed her cheek to the top of Kate’s head.
    “Those wolves do like to scratch, don’t they?”
    “And they’re always on the hunt for new prey.”
    “Do you think there was anything I could have done to prevent Malik’s death?”
    Malik’s death still haunted Kate. He had been much more than Atlantis’s superstar rapper. They had been friends. They all grew up together. But he’d had a way of walking razor blade thin tightropes, and it was maddening.
    “You can’t control people, and you can’t hope and wish they will live the life of a solid citizen. Everyone is responsible for themselves.”
    “How can you say that with a straight face? The way you watch over me? With what you’ve been through in your life? You sent Andre to California to be our muscle.”
    “Vice president.”
    “Yeah, right. Do you know where is he is, by the way?”
    “South of France.”
    “Ah. Vacationing?”
    “Something like that.”
    Kate admired and sometimes marveled at the legion Andre declared to her. Andre was originally Harper’s, Billie’s brother, best friend and right hand. The prime suspect in Malik’s shooting was found shot dead three days later. When Kate told Billie, she shrugged and said karma was a bitch. That was the day she stopped being in denial about what her cousin was capable of doing.
     
    * * *
     
    Kate didn’t know what to expect when she agreed to interview with Bella Donna magazine but it ended up being fun. Everyone was so nice and a little perplexed about how much she and Billie resembled one another. The photographer asked if Billie would be willing to pose with her, saying it would be better than a double exposed film effect. The outfits they chose for the shoot were daring haute couture