Ellie clasped her hands together in prayer, kneeling beside her bed. It had been a while since she’d actually prayed, besides the bedtime prayers with the kids. After what happened with Ellsa, she’d lost a little of her faith. First she lost her parents in the shooting with that corrupt cop leaving just her and Ellsa alone in the world. Then her sister, her only family just suddenly loses her mind and tries to kill the family she’d made with Dale… there wasn’t much to have faith about. But now…
God please let it all workout! Please give me back my sister the way she used to be. Spoilt, high maintenance, a snob—vices and all, but sane.
She jumped when the door slammed shut followed by loud arguing voices. She’d been a little jumpy since Ellsa escaped. Not, that she doesn’t love her sister, but she needed to be realistic about a few things, and her children’s safety came before her hopes of a happy reunion.
And speaking of happy reunions… She pushed herself off her knees and rushed out of her bedroom, hoping to catch the two before blood was spilled. By the time she got to the living room, there was barely an inch of space between Dale and Damien as they yelled at each other. She squeezed herself between the two, pushing Dale back with her ass and Damien with her hands.
“Quiet down you two, unless you want to wake the kids,” she scolded looking up at them. “Now, why don’t we all sit down and calmly talk instead of yell.”
They still glared at each other, standing rigid with their fists clenched at their sides. After a few more seconds of the standoff, Ellie pushed against both of them again, but this time hard enough to send Dale a few steps back. He stared down at her in exasperation before he back away completely, falling into the love seat. With him taken care of, she turned her attention to Damien, who was looking down at her with a weird look on his face.
Please let it be something other than him claiming I’m his Victoria Secret again.
“You two don’t look that much alike.”
“What?”
His lips twitched in a smile. “You’re face is round and hers is long.”
Ellie could hear her heart beat in her ears. He couldn’t mean what she thought he did, could he? She didn’t want to hope; too much had gone wrong already.
“You—you saw her?” her voice barely above a whisper.
Without answering her question he went on, “I read somewhere twins sometimes think the same, but I wasn’t so sure until today.” He raised his hand to her hair, combing his fingers through it. “Both your hair is cut in exactly the same length and styled the same way.”
She grabbed the wrist of the hand in her hair and demanded impatiently, “So you saw her?”
He grinned, “I would have thought it was you if not for the obvious reasons.”
She clapped her free hand over her mouth to keep the grunted mix of laughing and crying from escaping. With blurred eyes she demanded, “How is she? Did you arrest her? Can I see her? Dale—” she sobbed her husband’s name as she turned to him.
He watched her, his expression shadowed from her except for his intense eyes. Then with a sigh he said, “Romeo there helped her escape so no, she wasn’t arrested.”
She ignored the venom in his words and turned to Damien, “You did that?”
She was happy and yet sad about that. The last thing she wanted was her twin being locked up for the rest of her life, but she still needed help if she was to gain her sanity. She didn’t care what anyone else said, Ellsa could be cured because she wasn’t born insane. Nothing in her DNA or whatnots made her a sociopath or a psycho. Otherwise, she’d be just as insane.
He clenched his jaw turning his hand in hers so that they were clasped palm to palm. “She wasn’t well, I needed to get her to a hospital.”
She felt the panic settle in, “What do you mean? What was wrong with her?”
“She fainted when she saw me. Then she got feverish and all sweaty.”
“Why didn’t you start with that? I need to go to her.” She turned to rush out of the room, but Damien’s grip on her hand drew her back.
“No need for that. We didn’t get to the hospital,” then he looked behind her at Dale, who in turn returned the solemn gaze. Ellie felt the dread settle in. Was this nightmare never going to be over?
“What? What is it?”
Dale stood, pulling her against him, back to chest, his arms winding around her waist. “A man and a woman, both armed, forced Damien out of the car and drove away with her.”
She slumped against him, “What?”
“We don’t know what they wanted with her or the boy—”
“I do.”
****