Kate Donovan - Parallel Lies

“Are you talking about new identities? Isn’t that a little drastic? Just take Shellie to your house while I go after Adonis.”

“Is that what your father would have wanted?”

Sabrina’s eyes stung with the return of her tears, but she wiped them with miserable determination. There would be plenty of time—the rest of her life, in fact—to cry. Right now, she had to concentrate on protecting her sister and avenging her father.

In that order.

Because she knew exactly what her father would want her to do. She could almost hear his voice instructing her, the same way he’d done just one week earlier at the end of his visit.

Take care of your sister. I’m entrusting her safety to you. I know you won’t let me down.

He had charged her with this responsibility since early in their childhood, and she had always taken it as a compliment. Now she knew it for what it was—a curse.

“What’s going on?” a sleepy voice demanded from across the room, and eighteen-year-old Michelle stepped into view, her feet stuffed into fuzzy pink slippers, her lightweight robe belted haphazardly and her arms cradling their new kitten, a black-and-white fur ball known as Zorro. “Uncle Theo? Is everything okay?”

Theo crossed to her, clearly intending to hug her with the same unrestrained affection and sympathy he had bestowed on Sabrina. But Michelle sidestepped him and walked over to her big sister.

“Brie?”

“It’s Dad, Shell. Adonis Zenner killed him.”

The girl’s blue eyes widened. “With a gun? Or a bomb?”

It was another blow to Sabrina’s equilibrium, and she grabbed her sister into an embrace while demanding over her head, “Uncle Theo? It wasn’t a bomb, was it?”

When his gaze fell, she wailed in disbelief. “I’ll strangle him with my bare hands!”

“Me, too,” Michelle insisted, but her voice was hushed and broken by sobs.

“Shh…” Sabrina patted her sister’s blond curls. “There’ll be time to cry later, Shell. We have to get moving. Uncle Theo thinks Zenner might come here next.”

“Bring it on,” Michelle retorted, raising her tear-filled eyes to stare straight into Sabrina’s. “I want him to come here. Then we can kill him for Dad.”

“No. We’re going away. Someplace safe. The CIA will go after Zenner. That’s what Dad would have wanted.”

Michelle took a step backward, then folded her arms across her chest. “I’m not going anywhere but after Zenner. I can’t believe you want to run away.”

“Listen to your sister,” Theo murmured. “The CIA will catch Zenner. And in the meantime, you’re in danger. He’s a ruthless assassin. You’re no match for him. I know, I know, your father trained you to shoot and fight and take care of yourselves. But not against men like Zenner. If you don’t cooperate with our efforts to protect you—to give you a new life where you can be safe—one or both of you could die. Is that what you want?”

“Brie?”

Sabrina banished her own misgivings and said in as authoritative a voice as she could manage, “We’re going into some kind of witness protection program. Once they catch Zenner, we can be ourselves again. Go and pack.”

“No packing,” Theo corrected her. “Just put on jeans and a sweatshirt. Leave everything else behind. We’ll supply what you need at the safe house. But we have to move now.”

Michelle seemed about to argue, then she leaned down and scooped up the kitten instead. “Come on, Zorro. Let’s get dressed.”

“The cat can’t come,” Theo began, but Sabrina waved her hand at him in cool dismissal.

“The cat was a gift from Dad. He comes with us. That’s not negotiable. We’ll leave everything else behind though.”

Theo hesitated, then nodded. “We can bend the rules a little.”

“What about you, Uncle Theo?” Michelle demanded. “Aren’t you worried Zenner will come after you, too?”

“Your father killed Pluto as part of a CIA operation. It wasn’t directly related to his job at Perimeter. In fact, as you know, I disapproved of—Well, none of that matters now.” He touched Michelle’s cheek, then turned to Sabrina. “I won’t see you again after tonight. I hope you’ll always remember that I loved you like daughters.”

“We’ll see you soon,” Sabrina reminded him. “As soon as Dad’s crew and the CIA catch Adonis.”

“Right.” His red-rimmed gaze faltered, but he recovered and agreed more heartily, “Shouldn’t take them too long. Then you’ll come to live with me in Monterey.”

“And we’ll work for Perimeter, just like Dad promised we could,” Michelle said. Then her hands flew to her face and she began to cry again. “He can’t be gone. He was just here.”

Sabrina and Theo hurried to her, murmuring words of comfort mixed with gentle reminders that they had to get moving. Quickly. Before Adonis Zenner had a chance to kill another Sullivan.

Five years later

“Can I help you, miss?”

Sabrina hesitated, knowing that the next words she uttered would change the course of her life. But she had carefully weighed every alternative before making this decision and, absent new information, wasn’t about to second-guess herself.

Her father had trained her better than that.

Smiling at the young man guarding the entrance to Theo Howell’s Monterey estate, she announced, “I’m Briana York. A friend of Mr. Howell’s. I don’t have an appointment, but I can guarantee you he’ll want to see me.”

“I’m sure he will,” the guard said, returning the smile as he scanned her bare legs. She had dressed in shorts and a tank top for the long, hot drive, not really caring how she looked.

Well at least he can see you’re not armed, she told herself ruefully.

“Just give me a second, Miss York.” Stepping back into his booth, the guard punched a button and an intercom began sputtering static.

Then a female voice from Sabrina’s childhood demanded, “Fred? Is the repairman here?”

“It’s someone to see Theo. Her name’s Briana York. She doesn’t have an appointment.”

“Briana York?”

Until now Sabrina had been so focused on the danger in visiting Theo’s house after all these years, she had failed to anticipate how wonderful it would be to see the place—and its inhabitants—again. Thoroughly charmed, and no longer hesitant about revealing herself, she waved her hand to catch the guard’s attention. “Is that Marietta? The cook? Tell her it’s Sabrina Sullivan. She’ll know who I am.”

“Sullivan?” The guard’s eyes widened. “As in Sully Sullivan?”

“Just tell her.”

The guard nodded, then cleared his throat. “Marietta, the guest says her name is Sabrina Sullivan.”

A delighted squeal emanated from the intercom, then the cook instructed Fred to admit the guest right away.

“Go on up to the house, Miss Sullivan. Stay to the right—”

“I’ve been here before. Thanks.” Sabrina edged her car up to the gate and sped through as soon as it had opened.

He didn’t even ask you for identification, she told herself in amused disbelief. If Dad were here, he’d give that poor guy such a lecture!

It didn’t bode well for the state of affairs at Perimeter Security Incorporated, she decided. Apparently discipline had fallen apart after her father’s death. Hopefully they still knew how to run a background check, which was all she needed from them.

And security aside, she was relieved to see that the estate was as stunning as she remembered it, with the sound of waves crashing in the distance while the wind whistled through the twisted limbs of hauntingly beautiful Monterey cypresses.

The house that Perimeter built, she reminded herself, proud that her father had been part of Theo Howell’s phenomenal success. The story was a classic. Howell had come from modest wealth, eventually inheriting the family business—a burglar alarm company. In a stroke of brilliance, he had invested every dime—including a few borrowed ones—and had transformed the company into a full-scale security provider called Perimeter, utilizing sophisticated computers, state-of-the-art monitoring and highly trained bodyguards. Almost immediately, Perimeter gained global prominence, and in the years that followed, became the preeminent provider of security to corporations, dignitaries, movie stars and other assorted clients.