Read Online Twin Targets by Marta Perry - Free Book Online Page B

earned herself a lot more hurt.
    But he couldn’t do that. Soft, he told himself. You're too soft.
    “I’ll have a look at the files,” he said cautiously. “I can’t promise anything. Where can I reach you?”
    A smile blossomed on her face. “I’m staying at the Elmhurst Inn.” She thrust a card at him. “I’ve written down the number of the inn and my cell. I’ll be waiting for your call.”
    “I can’t promise it’s going to be immediate,” he said, but he suspected she didn’t hear him.
    She went out quickly, her step light, apparently confident that he was going to solve her problems. He doubted it. He glanced at his watch. He had to see Jade, had to find out what, if anything, she might know about her mother’s onetime boyfriend. But she was probably at work now, and they’d need privacy for that conversation. He might as well spend a few minutes on a probably fruitless search for Kristin Perry’s missing mother.
    A half hour later he was reflecting on the fact that he might have been better off if the search had been fruitless. If so, he wouldn’t be on the phone to his big brother, wondering what connection an old case of Jackson’s might have to Ms. Kristin Perry.
    “McGraw here.” Jackson’s tone was curt. He resisted the impulse to respond in kind. “This is Micah. An odd thing has just come up that I thought you should know about.”
    “So spill.”
    He took a breath, mentally condensing the story. “A young woman named Kristin Perry showed up here today, looking for information. It seems she’s recently discovered that she was adopted and that her birth mother was in Witness Protection here in Montana.”
    “What did you tell her?”
    Was it his imagination, or had his brother’s voice sharpened considerably?
    “The usual. That we couldn’t reveal information about people in the program, that I couldn’t confirm anything, that after twenty-two years, it would probably be impossible.”
    “You did the right thing.”
    “Yeah. Then I had a look through the files for anyone placed in the program in Montana twenty-two years ago. The only case that fits is one that you worked.”
    Silence.
    He tried again. “I don’t think she’s going to leave it at that. She’s going to keep pushing.”
    Another silence, for the space of a heartbeat. Then—
    “I’ll be on the next flight out. Call you when I get there.”
    The line clicked. Jackson had hung up.
    Well. Obviously his brother remembered the case. Just as obviously it was important, or he wouldn’t be dropping everything to hop on a plane to Billings. There was no point in wondering. Jackson would tell him about it if and when he decided to, and nothing would move him.
    Micah mentally calculated the earliest possible time for his brother to arrive. Not until well into the evening, certainly. He could drive out to talk to Jade and still be back in plenty of time to pick up a few groceries, assuming his brother would want to stay with him. He rose, reaching for his jacket. Seeing Jade again was business, not pleasure, he reminded himself. And the very fact that he needed reminding told him more than he wanted to know about his feelings.

SIX
    Jade unlocked the door to her little house and hesitated. Where had it come from, this reluctance to go into her own home?
    That was a silly question. She knew the answer to that. Nothing had been the same for her since the day Micah had walked up to her door.
    It wasn’t his fault. He was doing his job. She’d always known that Ruby had hovered on the edge of danger for too long. That someday it would come crashing in on her sister, and that Jade could well be caught in the aftershocks. Pressing aside her reluctance, she stepped inside and closed the door. Since the day she’d moved in, she’d experienced a wave of pleasure each time she walked through the door. Today her only sense was that her house seemed different. Not hers.
    She forced herself to go through her usual routine of