Page 38 of Reunion at Mistletoe Lodge
“No!” Barb recoiled and stepped back into the hallway. “I need you both to leave.” Her eyes blanked off as they met the real Zac’s before moving to his brother, and she held up a palm-sized gold and silver jeweled bear. “This is Bubbles.”
She shoved it at the real Zac. “Barb, please…” He took a step toward her, but she took another step back.
“Please, just go,” Barb said, her voice trembling as she glanced at the brothers. “Both of you. You have what you want now.”
Zac’s eyes met hers, but she looked away and walked to the door, pulling it open and then waiting for them to leave. Liam walked past his brother and took the bear from him.
“Thank you, Barb,” Liam said. “I’ll get the bear back to you once I’ve figured out how to retrieve the disk.”
“Keep it,” Barb snapped. “Please just don’t come near me again.” She glanced at Zac. “—neither of you.”
Zac and Liam walked out of the bungalow, and as the door shut behind them, Zac couldn’t help but feel it was symbolic of how Barb was slamming the door shut on their relationship. Not that he could blame her, as he deserved to be shunned by her.
“Liam, is everything okay?” Patrickapproached Zac.
“It’s okay, Patrick,” Zac told him. “My brother’s memories have returned. You can call me Zac again.”
Patrick’s eyes widened in surprise as he turned and looked at the other twin.
“Really?” Patrick asked wide-eyed. “That’s amazing.” He glanced at Barb’s bungalow. “Does Miss Gardener know?”
“Yes!” The identical twin brothers said in unison.
“Patrick, if you’re rested, we’re going to need you to take us to Denver to go see a specialist to have Liam checked out,” Zac told him, still trying to fit back into his persona.
He’d been living as his older twin brother for eleven months. He’d almost forgotten who he really was. He wasn’t even sure that Zac existed anymore. He glanced back at Barb’s bungalow as they walked toward their chalet. What he did know was how much he loved Barb, Oscar, and Charlotte. Zac also knew that he more than likely had no future with Barb as she’d never forgive him for this betrayal—and Zac would never expect her to.
“There doesn’t seem to be anything inside this,” Liam said, shaking the gold and silver bear.
“Here,” Zac took the little ornament as they walked into the bungalow and sat on the sofa. He frowned as he noticed that the head and arms had turned.
“I found it,” Liam stated, holding up his phone. “On the internet. How to open the bear.” He took the little ornament back. Turned its head to the side, lifted the left arm, and pushed the right arm back, and the head popped open. “Here we go.” He reached in and pulled out a disk and note. “This is the note to Barb from her uncle.”
Zac got his laptop, and they loaded the thumb drive. There was video footage of Liam’s office at the Deputy General’s office in California. But it was just an empty office, so Liam fast-forwarded it until they both sat gaping at the screen, and the door to his office opened. Two people entered it—a familiar woman and a familiar man.
“You shouldn’t be here,” the woman hissed. “I told you I’d get the information you wanted. You’re being reckless.”
“With my father inhiding, you know if we don’t get the correct information…” the man answered, his voice holding traces of panic in it. “Nothing scares me more than my father. You know what he’ll do to both of us if we don’t do what he wants.”
The woman sat behind Liam’s desk and logged onto his computer, downloading information onto the disk, which, when it was done, she gave to the man.
“Who are you giving this information to?” the woman asked the man.
“You’re already in this too deep,” the man told her with a soft smile. “He’s someone at the FBI who's been working with my father for years.”
“Who is it?” she insisted. “I’m in this with you now, too, and I need to know who I’m dealing with.”
He ran a hand through his hair. “Special Agent in Charge Mark Rogers.”
“Trevor Gardener’s boss?” the woman’s eyes widened. “You know he’s going to give your father the information that’s on that disk.”
“Look, you know I don’t want to do this,” the man assured her. “I want nothing to do with the man, but he just keeps showing up like a bad penny.”
“Then maybe we should be helping to put him away rather than keep him free,” she pointed out. “He’s going to kill them. Your uncle, aunt, and cousin.”
“What do you want me to do?” The man looked at her. They heard and saw the despair in his eyes. “Do you know what it’s like being Niall Pook’s son?” He looked at her, palming the thumb drive. “You know how you gave yourself a whole new identity so no one would know you grew up in a trailer park with a junkie mother and deadbeat dad?”
“Yes, but it doesn’t give us the right to trade the lives of innocent people for our own,” she implored him. “There must be another way?”
