Heather Woodhaven - Covert Christmas Twin

She stepped out and Joe stood waiting, holding a bag in one hand and offering her a water bottle in the other. It was as if they’d both switched on autopilot. Within fifteen minutes, they’d returned his car to the garage and managed to escape town in her rental, even though they’d passed plenty of parked police cruisers and black SUVs, likely assigned to federal agents. They both kept their hats and sunglasses on despite the overcast skies, until Joe found the dirt access road on barren farmland that had already been harvested.

Another sixty minutes later, they returned the rental at the airport and bought separate tickets on Southwest with direct service to Los Angeles. Since there was no assigned seating on the airline, they could sit together without fear of someone looking at the manifest and connecting the dots. By the time the attendant announced boarding, they’d gone three hours without speaking, which was fine with her.

“You know what I remember most at the academy?” Joe asked, as if he’d heard her thoughts and wanted to correct her. He leaned back in his seat, ignoring the flight attendant’s safety speech. “Boxing.”

She cringed. “I have a lot of memories of Quantico, but that’s one of many I definitely choose to forget most of the time.” The boxing test was a necessary, but painful, part of training. All trainees had been paired up in a boxing ring, men against women, and told to beat on each other in order to prove they could defend themselves. “I’ll never forget that poor accountant. Cynthia, was it?”

He groaned. “Brandon popped her right in the nose, and that was it. She quit.” He shook his head and sneaked a glance at her. “I wouldn’t have lasted, either, if I hadn’t been paired with you.”

“Maybe.”

“No, I’m sure. I’ll never forget tapping you on the shoulder while the instructor yelled to hit you harder. If you hadn’t made it clear you knew how to defend yourself with that fake-out jump punch to my jaw, I wouldn’t have passed.” He shook his head. “I still don’t agree with that part of our training. If I’d actually made any contact with you or caused any bruises like some of the others...”

“You can thank my three older brothers and my Tang Soo Do instructors. I had to be an expert in wrestling and blocking maneuvers.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s what you told me back then, too.”

She found herself smiling, not at the memory of having to fight each other, but from remembering what happened afterward. “I never thought I would be consoling a guy who tried to hit me—even though I totally know you took it easy on me—with burgers and fries.”

He laughed. “I felt horrible. Never thought I would ever try to hit a girl, even if it was for training.” His smile morphed into a frown. “I think that was when I first questioned whether I’d taken the right path.”

There he went again, implying he was serious about leaving the FBI. She refused to believe it. “I’m sorry I got you wrapped up in this. Obviously, it’s not normal FBI work, so you can’t really judge—”

“You heard Beverly. She had this in mind for me ever since I met her, just shortly after I arrived as the interim associate pastor. I was just too trusting to see it.”

Kendra chose her words carefully because she knew—despite the loud aircraft noise—that someone might overhear bits and pieces of their conversation. “But if you hadn’t needed to help me this morning, she might not have been able to manipulate you into coming with me. For that, I’m sorry.”

He leaned slightly toward her so only she could hear. “There’s no need to apologize. While I stood in line, I realized that it wouldn’t have mattered.” His voice was soft and caring. “All Beverly would’ve needed to do was mention your name, and I’d have come running. I think she knew that.”

Kendra felt her eyes widen but didn’t reply. What did he mean? Because they could never, ever, be more than friends no matter how strong the attraction. Agents together as a couple never worked.

He clenched his jaw and looked down as if he’d said too much before he leaned back and closed his eyes.

Joe thought he managed to act nonchalant the rest of the way to Los Angeles and even through the insanity of renting a car and driving to Pasadena from LAX in rush-hour traffic. Inwardly, though, he worried that his admission to Kendra sent the wrong message. Her eyes widened as if he’d just proclaimed romantic intentions, but if he tried to correct her and explain that he just meant he would do anything for his friends, that would just add fuel to the fire. He would have sounded desperate, like a man who had said “I love you” without hearing it back. No, the right thing to do was to let it go and act cool.

Even though the drive was only supposed to be a little over twenty miles, the trip took over two hours. He blew out a forceful breath as he finally got to California Boulevard. “So, you never told me, what was it like to meet your sister for the first time? I mean besides being shocked.”

She tilted her head from side to side as if considering how much to share. “Well, I had a scheduled meet with a contact, but bullets started flying before I could get there. I was trying not to let on that I’d been shot so I might not have been thinking clearly. Mostly, I needed to understand why my partner was running with someone who looked identical to me before I acknowledged I needed help. I had no idea what was going on.”

The news almost made him pull over. “What?”

“I didn’t want to get into it with Beverly, especially since we were short on time, but I didn’t meet Audrey inside a conference like she intended. It was a mission gone wrong. I was in the middle of trying to get the answers I wanted when I passed out, hit my head and ended up in surgery. When I woke up, Audrey had taken my place on the mission. She was actually the one with my partner, Lee, who took down the communications of Masked.”

“Whoa. I’m glad they got you into surgery in time.”

Kendra smiled. “So you really didn’t know about that? It may sound weird, but it brings me a little solace that Beverly doesn’t know everything.”

He couldn’t imagine what she had to feel like knowing Beverly had kept tabs on her for all her life, but had never reached out.

“Anyway, to answer your question, I didn’t really process that I had a twin until I woke up in the hospital with nothing to do but wait for updates from Lee and Audrey. After the fact, though, I—I guess it’s almost like finding a part of myself I’d been missing.” She shook her head. “That probably sounds melodramatic. I love my adoptive family. I can’t imagine if someone else had raised me.” She held up a hand as if shaking the thought away. “We’re here.” Her voice changed to a businesslike tone.

“I have brothers. I can’t imagine what it would feel like to meet them as adults.”

She shrugged. “Audrey and I are very different people, but we’ve discovered a few areas of similar taste. Well, you’re about to see for yourself.” She glanced at him. “I know it’s dark already, but I think we should keep the hats on in case someone is watching for us. Audrey lives in faculty housing just ahead.”

“Understood.” He parked and stepped out of the vehicle. Behind them, many of the undergrad houses were decked out in Christmas lights, but as they crossed the campus they passed a hundred-foot-tall building, where strings of sixty-foot rope lights formed the shape of a Christmas tree that reached the rooftop. “Does your sister know we’re coming?”

“I texted her at the airport that I needed to speak to her in person, urgently. She should be waiting for me.”