Undercover Twin

Audrey had a twin sister, a spy, who was pretend-married to a gorgeous, intelligent and compassionate man. She replayed the thought in her mind, hoping it would help her accept the reality faster. She twisted the tassels hanging from her purse zipper as tight as they could go as she rode the hotel elevator with Lee.

On a normal day it would be a lot to handle, but the news she needed to take Kendra’s place in an undercover mission rattled her. A few terse sentences, without knowing Kendra was shot, probably didn’t give the most accurate impression of a person. How was Audrey supposed to impersonate a sister she didn’t know, while pretending to be a white-collar criminal?

The elevators opened and she stiffened. Lee expected her to try on Kendra’s clothes—she hoped they fit—and practice mastering the persona of the cover, but all Audrey wanted to do was to go to bed. At one in the morning, her eyes struggled to stay open. Yet, one of the conditions she’d given Lee involved going over every detail of the operation several times before she made her final decision.

She’d read spies were trained in the art of manipulation, so she wondered if Lee could see right through her attempts to act confident and bold. The truth was she’d already decided she’d do whatever it took to keep her sister safe, but she wanted leverage to make sure she got enough details to feel properly equipped for the mission. Success came from the details in her line of work.

Lee pointed to the room at the far end of the hall. He pulled out a key card and opened the door. “I don’t know about you, but I’m exhausted.”

She’d been up since seven in the morning, Eastern Time, which was 4:00 a.m. Pacific Time. That meant she’d been awake—ugh. Math after being awake over twenty-one hours didn’t come naturally. “You have your own room, right? Not just like separate beds?”

Lee nodded.

She exhaled, relieved. It was odd to think if they hadn’t met on campus, they would’ve met at the hotel since Kendra had already checked in under Audrey’s name and upgraded her reservation. All she wanted was her favorite yoga pants, T-shirt and a pair of fuzzy socks. Kendra probably only packed pajamas made with fashion in mind. The only thing Audrey had was the purse wrapped across her torso. Her luggage was who knew where as the airline still hadn’t called to let her know it had been found, and the rest of her apartment belongings would take their sweet time in a moving truck scheduled to arrive in Pasadena after three weeks.

Lee turned to walk back down the hallway when he stopped at the very next door. He slipped a card into the lock while sporting a broad grin. She flashed a sheepish smile and waved as she closed the door behind her.

She kicked her shoes off at the closet. Her feet stung after being in flats without arch support all day long, but the plush carpet underneath her toes relaxed her. She took two steps before a man’s silhouette appeared. She gasped and jumped back as Lee’s face came into view.

“Don’t worry. I’m just closing the connecting doors.” Lee shrugged. “It doesn’t seem like you are up for hearing how we usually do things, so how about I explain everything tomorrow?”

“Yeah.” Exhaustion made it hard to utter more than a word. She closed the additional door on her side behind him and flipped the dead bolt. A suitcase rested on a luggage rack.

Audrey took a deep breath. It felt like snooping without permission, but desperate times... She lifted the top to reveal two very different wardrobes. On the right, sophisticated outfits, many in black, were neatly folded. On the left, a jumble of unfolded activewear, hoodies and T-shirts beckoned. She’d never been so thankful for someone else’s wardrobe.

The pajamas slipped on, neither too tight nor loose. The knot behind her shoulder blade relaxed as she stretched and found socks in the zippered compartment along with a leather-bound wallet. She gingerly opened it.

The top half read “Federal Bureau of Investigation” with a photograph of Kendra Parker. She said the name aloud. Her sister’s real last name was Parker. Were the Parkers all law enforcement agents?

Audrey let her fingers glide over the protective cover. What would it have been like if she’d grown up with her? Would they have switched places so many times for various reasons it would’ve been old hat by now? Would Audrey have taken all Kendra’s science and math tests while Kendra made sure they both won the Presidential Fitness Award? Her fingers slid down to the gold badge and felt the engraved words “Department of Justice.” Audrey’s heart ached for her sister, clinging to life in the hospital.

The sheets on the queen bed closest to the window looked untouched whereas the other bed’s comforter was rolled up on one side. Audrey noted her sister hated for the sheets to be tucked in at the bottom corners, just like she did. She pulled out the sheets of her bed and closed her eyes the moment her head hit the pillow.

The sound of a hammer, a relentless pounding, dragged her eyes right back open. A piercing, beeping sound flooded the lit room. She’d forgotten to turn the lights off, especially disconcerting since she had no idea how much time had passed.

“Audrey! It’s Lee. Open up!”

She sat up and tried to focus on her surroundings. She could see but couldn’t process through the brain fog. Oh, yeah, she was in a hotel room.

“Coming.” Her voice croaked. She took a sip from the water bottle on her nightstand. The beeping continued. “Coming!” She tried to shout louder. Did she smell smoke? The air looked hazy, but it was hard to tell since her vision was so blurry from sleep. Her muscles objected as she shuffled, acting as if they’d been dispatched to swim through quicksand. She flipped the lock and opened the connecting door.

Lee’s concerned face looked her up and down. Audrey glanced down, making sure she was still appropriate. Yep. She’d picked silver yoga pants and a long shirt that read, Do Not Disturb: In Training For Sleep Marathon.

Lee held a gun in his right hand, which he slid into the band of his jeans and covered with a royal blue polo. “I can’t get confirmation if there’s a real fire or not. No one’s answering the front desk. I need you to stay with me just in case. Slip your shoes on, please.”

Alertness rushed up her spine. She shoved her feet inside her flats, the same ones she’d worn all day yesterday. “Just how long have you been trying to wake me up?”

He reached for her hand, and she let him take it. “Maybe thirty seconds. Come on.” They rushed through the door into the hallway. It sounded as if the phones in their rooms started ringing. Maybe to tell everyone the fire was real? Her throat tightened at what they might be about to face.

Despite the overhead lights still on, strobes flashed at incremental spots. She kept her gaze down to avoid a migraine, since her head already felt as if it’d been left in a vise.

“I tell you what, though,” Lee said as he opened the door to the stairs and released her hand. “If I’m going to keep you safe there will be no more locking doors inside a suite we share. I need to be able to get to you.”

Her cheeks heated. She could understand his frustration, but in her defense, she had no real reason to trust him besides the small favor of getting her out from under a dead man and away from gunfire. And while she’d seen Kendra’s official badge, she’d yet to see his. “As soon as we lay down some ground rules, I might agree.”

He grunted but didn’t reply. Her feet barely kept up with him down the stairs. After two flights her breathing grew heavy, but Lee didn’t so much as pant. He glanced at her loafers and raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t Kendra’s sneakers fit you?”

“I didn’t take the time to look through all of her stuff.”

Lee jumped to the landing and shoved the crash bar to open the door. “Stay here.” He peeked around the corner. “Clear.”

“Where is everyone?” The fire alarms continued their cry.

“I imagine they’re still in their rooms trying to decide whether to come down or not. Unfortunately, false alarms are common in hotels. I didn’t want to take the risk.” She stayed behind him as he slowed his pace in the hallway. “I feel a lot better being on the ground floor and seeing no signs of smoke.”

A police officer rushed toward them, his hand on his gun. The alarm cut off midcry. He held up a hand. “Sorry, folks, I need to escort you back to your room.” Behind the officer, he saw other officers approaching, and three more at the opposite end of the hall, accompanying a group of older ladies in quilted robes and slippers.

Lee pulled out a wallet-size badge like the one Kendra had stashed in her suitcase. Audrey resisted the impulse to grab it and compare. He flashed it open to the officer so fast she couldn’t read anything. “Off-duty FBI. Can you tell me what’s going on? Why can’t we exit?”

The officer didn’t so much as blink at the badge. “We’ve issued a shelter-in-place. According to the hotel manager, a gunman in a ski mask was seen on the security footage pulling the fire alarm. No one saw him exit, but we haven’t been able to locate him yet, either. The hotel was supposed to have called all the rooms to inform everyone to stay put until we could get the alarm off, but a few of you were too quick.”

Lee asked another question, but Audrey didn’t hear him. She was still stuck on the word gunman. Had the danger Lee forecasted already found them?

* * *

What the officer described sounded like a plan to ambush innocents as they left the hotel. Despite the officer doing a good job guarding them up the stairs, Lee still kept a hand on his own weapon. He handed Audrey the room key so that both directions of the hallway could be covered as she opened it. The officer insisted on sweeping the room while they waited near the bathroom, but Lee could hear the man’s radio go off.

“Both rooms are clear, so I’ll mark you off.”

“Any news?” Lee asked, pointing to the radio attached to the officer’s shoulder.

The officer shrugged. “Possibly a disgruntled ex stalking his girlfriend, but until it’s confirmed, we’ll be checking all rooms until we’re sure there is no threat,” the officer said. “Make sure you lock up behind me and—”

Lee had to bite his lip from interrupting when the officer reminded them to use the peephole and not open the door for any strangers. FBI agents didn’t need lessons on security. Instead, Lee thanked the man and locked up behind him.

“Are you worried?” Audrey crossed her arms over her chest.

“They’re checking every nook and cranny of this hotel. I trust they know how to do their jobs. You can go back to sleep with confidence.”

“Do you think the gunman was trying to lure us into the open, or does the story about the stalker ring true?”

That was exactly what he was wondering, but he didn’t want to worry her. “As far as the Masked Network knows, we are due to arrive at the resort tomorrow afternoon. I see no sign that our covers have been broken.” Despite saying it aloud, he couldn’t shake the uneasiness. The timing bothered him, but he didn’t want to worry Audrey. “Crime and danger happen, Audrey. It’s Palo Alto and—”

“The chance of being assaulted is one in forty-four people.” Audrey finished with a nod, even though that wasn’t at all what he was going to say.

“How do you know that?”

“I always look up crime statistics before I visit a new place. Doesn’t everyone?”