Texas Target (An O'Connor Family Mystery) Read online

  “You lied to me?” He gripped the edge of the counter like he needed to ground himself.

  “No, I didn’t. I’ve never met you before in my life. You were married to my identical twin sister.”

  Chapter Four

  Dawson studied the woman in front of him, trying to give his brain a minute to process what he’d just heard. He must’ve looked her up and down like she was crazy, because she put her hands up in the surrender position.

  “I know how that must sound but it’s true. I should probably be surprised that you don’t know about me. In a normal family, we would. My sister kept secrets. We’re identical twins and I absolutely know something happened to my sister. I tracked her to Austin where a pair of men found me. They said I wouldn’t die and that they intended to finish the job.” Those honest violet eyes blinked up at him and his heart stuttered. “If my sister was alive, I would’ve heard from her by now.”

  There were so many questions mounting. This one popped first. “I need to rewind for just a second. Your name is Summer, and I was married to your identical twin sister. You’re here to find out what happened to your sister, who you believe is gone?”

  She nodded. “I’m sorry to say this to you, because I know you lov—”

  “Thing of the past.” He cut her off right there. There was no use going down that road again.

  “She is gone.” Her chin quivered and she ducked her head to one side.

  Summer’s answer caused his chest to squeeze. He didn’t have to have the same feelings for Autumn as he once did.

  “How do you know?” Disbelief washed over him as he studied her for any signs she was lying. His brain couldn’t process the news. More questions flooded him as his past unraveled. He narrowed his gaze and studied the woman in his kitchen. He’d noticed something different the second he saw her at county lockup.

  “Hear me out. I’ve been living in Washington State where I work as a waitress. My sister and I always stay in touch.”

  “And yet I had no idea you existed,” he said low and under his breath. Had she planned to leave all along?

  “I’m sorry about that. I’m puzzled about that part as well because she told me about you. Granted, it was after you were married. We may go a while in between connecting but we always circle back. She’d been leaving cryptic messages lately about her past.”

  “A past you knew very little details about if I had to guess.” A picture was emerging. Autumn would classify herself as a free spirit, forgetting all about the hurt and questions she left behind.

  His comment seemed to offend Summer based on her deep frown lines. Hell, he hadn’t meant to add to her hurt. It was obvious she cared about her sister or she wouldn’t be here trying to find out the truth.

  “My sister was far from perfect. No one knows that better than I do.” She folded her arms across her chest and leaned back on her heels.

  He was taking all this new information personally. How could he not? He’d met someone, had been told he was going to be a parent long before he was ready and with someone who he’d only known a handful of months.

  Autumn had been good, though. When he’d popped the question, she said she had to think about it. Over the days that followed, she’d seemed genuinely anguished about the decision to rush their relationship and that had only made him want to protect her more.

  How stupid was he?

  Normally, liars gave themselves up. There were signs. The direction of their gaze when they responded to a question would tell him how truthful they were being. Or how fast a verbal response came. A liar paused in the wrong places. They were also good at hiding their eyes or mouth during questioning. There were other telltale signs like coughing or clearing their throat before answering.

  A practiced liar could get around most of the signs. A pathological liar—someone who believed the lies—was the most difficult to detect.

  Summer was a valuable witness and now that Pandora’s box had been opened to his past, he needed answers. She was the fastest route and they both had the same goal.

  “It’ll take me a minute to get my head around this...situation. I don’t take vows lightly and I’m currently in a tailspin, which doesn’t mean I don’t want to help. Please, continue.”

  Summer eyed him warily and his heart squeezed. Her pain was obvious. He wasn’t the only one Autumn had hurt.

  She took in a breath before her next words. “The last time I heard from her she said that she was going through something with an ex but not to worry. Everything was fine and she was happy with you.”

  He shot her a look but quickly apologized for it.

  It was impossible to believe she ever cared about him, considering the fact she’d walked away without a backward glance. If she’d been in trouble, he couldn’t think of a better person to help than a member of law enforcement. If she’d needed to hide, who better to ask than a US marshal? Relocating witnesses was one of his specialties.

  “For what it’s worth, I do think she loved you,” Summer clarified.

  Now he really shot her a look.

  “What? You don’t believe me?” she asked.

  “No, I don’t. How could anyone be happy who is living a lie? The woman I married told me she was an only child and that her parents were killed in a car crash on the interstate a few years after she went to college.” He stopped right there because the woman’s jaw looked like it was about to smack the floor. “Explain that.”

  “She doesn’t like to talk about the past. It was hard for both of us. I think there was a year in California where we got passed around to four different foster homes and there was this point where I saw it break my sister. I think she shut down some critical emotions and never could get them back. She wasn’t a bad person. She was just...” Her gaze shifted up and to the right like she was searching for the right word.

  “Lost?” The way Summer, if he could believe that was her name, spoke about Autumn made him realize she did know her sister. As identical twins, it stood to reason the two would have known each other intimately. “Why would she suddenly move to Texas if she grew up in California?”

  “You want my best guess?”

  He nodded.

  “We’re originally from here. Our parents were together when we were really young, and we lived in Austin as a family. Our dad took off when we were still little. My mom had a cousin in California. She thought she could make a better life for us there. She was a very beautiful woman and she felt like maybe there was easy money out there in Los Angeles as a model.”

  “But there wasn’t?”

  “LA was harder than she expected, and she got depressed. Four of us lived in a one-bedroom apartment and her cousin wasn’t happy Mom wasn’t pulling her weight. There were some parties in our apartment complex, and I remember coming home from school to find her passed out on the couch. Her drinking got out of control and she couldn’t keep it together.”

  Again, this was something Dawson came across in his line of work more than he cared to. Despite his frustration at the situation, he had sympathy for Summer and Autumn. No kid deserved a father who turned his back on the family or a mother who couldn’t cope with the demands of bringing up children. There were resources out there for those who would use them but it was always the kids who suffered and they were the innocent ones in the equation.

  “Someone called child protective services when my sister and I were locked out of our house. Our mom got in a really bad fight with her boyfriend, so he pushed us outside and locked the door while he broke her nose and her jaw. I think our neighbors were afraid of what might happen to us next, so they called the authorities.”

  His heart broke for their lost childhood. It was obvious that Summer was Autumn’s identical sister. Put the two of them facing each other and it would be like one of them looking into a mirror. But they seemed like exact opposites in terms of personalit
y despite growing up under the same conditions.

  What he couldn’t figure out was why his wife would lie to him. In fact, their entire life was built on lies. More of that anger and frustration built up inside of him.

  “Autumn was in trouble based on the texts. What makes you think she’s gone?” He couldn’t imagine a scenario where this would be Autumn standing in front of him.

  “She stopped all communication. She never would have done that.” Summer seemed convinced on that point. Dawson couldn’t say one way or the other. He should’ve known his wife better than that. Autumn had shown up in his life and tore through town, his heart, like a tornado.

  “With all due respect, she married a man who never knew you existed,” he countered.

  “I see your point.” She was rocking her head. “But I have known my sister for the past twenty-nine years. Even when she spirals, she answers my texts. And especially our emergency signal.”

  Well she obviously knew her sister a hell of a lot better than he’d known his wife. Had she been in real trouble? Was that the reason she’d taken off?

  Dawson’s mind was still spinning. He couldn’t help but think he’d been taken for a fool. The unproductive thought wouldn’t help matters.

  He wasn’t in love with her anymore. That ship had sailed. Lick his wounds? He’d done that. Being burned had a way of bruising the ego.

  As weeks had turned into months with no word from Autumn after divorce papers had been signed, he realized his mistake had been marrying someone he barely knew.

  There were other things that she told him and he now wondered if there was any truth to her words.

  “Can I ask you a question?” Dawson wasn’t exactly sure he wanted to know the answer.

  She shrugged. “Why not?”

  “Did she talk to you about me before the wedding?” He studied her, trying to decide if he could trust her.

  “I didn’t even know about you until after you were already married. She did send me a picture. Two actually.”

  “But did you communicate? Did you talk on the phone or whatever it is you guys did?” The question burning through him shouldn’t matter. He wanted to know if she’d cared about him at all. Would he have been trying to build a life with someone who was callous? Or had there been something real between them? It might not have been that all-consuming something he thought he’d have with the woman he loved. He’d convinced himself that he could build a future with Autumn and their child.

  “Nope, just the wedding pictures. I asked her if I could meet you and I never got a response. Whatever was going on with her back then was obviously big. It wasn’t like her to go dark for too long. Although, to be perfectly honest, my sister could be unpredictable.”

  A shocked cough came out before he could stop it.

  “Did she mention the baby?”

  Now it was Summer’s turn to be floored. Her violet eyes were huge and again her jaw seemed like it was about to hit the floor. “Are you saying what I think you are?”

  “That your sister was pregnant? Yes. At least that’s what she told me.” Everything she’d told him was suspect now. Their entire relationship was tarnished with the latest information he was receiving.

  “I’m so sorry.” There was so much compassion in those eyes. “Did you ask for verification, like from a doctor?”

  “She showed me a positive result on one of those stick tests. I didn’t question much after that,” he admitted.

  “I’m sorry to tell you this.” She glanced around like she was searching for the right words. The knot tightening in his gut that told him this was about to get a whole lot worse. “That would have been impossible. We were in a car crash with one of our fosters and my sister took an impact to her midsection. We were in the hospital for weeks. I got these scars.” She rolled up her sleeve and showed him a four-inch scar running up her left arm. “My sister injured her abdomen. She had emergency surgery and the doctors had to remove most of her female parts including her fallopian tubes. There’s no way my sister was pregnant.”

  The baby bombshell had been the reason Dawson had asked her to marry him. Looking back, he’d been a fool and he sure as hell felt like it right now. He’d been played in one of the worst possible ways. He muttered a few choice words under his breath, unable to suppress his frustration.

  In his line of work, he spent the bulk of his time locking up people who lied, cheated and manipulated. How could he not have realized he was living with one of them?

  The answer came quick. She’d been the best. He hadn’t seen her deceptions coming. Most criminals were locked up because they weren’t smart enough to pull off their crimes. Autumn had been intelligent and, if he was being honest, wounded. She’d brought out all his protective instincts by making him feel like she was alone in the world. He’d let his primal instincts take over, pushing logic out of the way in the process.

  When he really thought about it, he deserved everything he was getting.

  But, damn, he had to be suspicious of everyone he came across in his line of work. One of his favorite things about living in Katy Gulch and still being connected to his family’s ranch was that he could leave work behind him and live a normal life.

  In Katy Gulch, he let his guard down. He could let his guard down. Almost everyone in town knew each other. There were a few outliers who lived outside town and were very private about their business. They’d learned recently that a woman thought to be a little old lady turned out to be connected to an illegal baby adoption ring. Mrs. Hubert’s case had brought up all kinds of questions about his sister’s kidnapping decades ago.

  Now he felt like he’d been duped in the place where he felt the most relaxed and himself.

  “How long did you know my sister before the two of you got married?”

  “Clearly not long enough.”

  Chapter Five

  “I’m so sorry,” Summer started but was stopped with a warning look from Dawson.

  “You already apologized,” he pointed out.

  “Yes, but I—”

  “Feel responsible?” he asked.

  She nodded.

  “Why? Did you know your sister lied about a pregnancy to get me to marry her?” His question came out more like he’d issued a challenge.

  “No.” Summer’s heart sank. She shouldn’t feel responsible for her sister’s actions. “It doesn’t make me hurt any less for what she put you through.”

  It was hard to look into his eyes with the admission, but she did anyway. He needed to know how badly she felt.

  “I hate to break this news to you, but your sister is a grown woman capable of manipulating grown men. I’m not trying to brag but I’m good at my job. The fact that I lived with a con artist shows how good she was.” He didn’t add the fact she’d lied to a member of law enforcement and gotten away with it. Or that he must feel so burned right now even though the fact was written all over his face. “If you didn’t know or weren’t involved, it’s not your fault.”

  Summer issued a sharp sigh. “How could I have not known how much trouble my sister was in?”

  “I lived with her and didn’t know. If what you’re saying is true, and I believe it is, then she disappeared—” He put his hand up to stop her protest. “She tricked me into believing we were going to have a baby and a real marriage. Although, I was fool enough to volunteer for that last part to the point she had me thinking getting married because of a child was my idea.”

  No matter how hard or frustrating this had to be for Dawson, to his credit, he didn’t raise his voice. Summer still flinched if there was conflict and especially the sound of a man yelling. Chin out, she could handle whatever came her way but those were hard-won skills.

  Whatever had happened to the marriage was one thing, at least he’d cared about her sister.

  “I have a lifelong habit of feeling respon
sible for my sister’s actions. I can promise to try to do better and that’s as far as I can go right now.”

  “That’s all anyone can ask.” He stopped as her stomach reminded both of them she hadn’t eaten in a while. His gaze dropped to her midsection. “How about we grab some food and start searching for answers?”

  “You’d still help me?” She couldn’t hide her shock.

  “I have a few days owed to me at work and no big cases pending. It won’t hurt to request time off. Besides, there’s a private family matter that has been needing my attention. Maybe we can kill two birds with one stone.” He seemed to regret his word choice when he shot a look of apology.

  She shook her head. He didn’t mean to dredge up bad feelings and he didn’t seem convinced that Autumn was gone anyway. With his help, she could get to the bottom of things quicker. If it was any other person besides Dawson O’Connor, she would have doubts about taking his help. The man was a US marshal. He knew how to protect himself. Heck, the ranch had its own security if it wasn’t enough that he worked in law enforcement.

  “I probably have some leftovers in the fridge if you’re not opposed—”

  “Anything sounds fine as long as it’s not too spicy. I don’t do hot.” She looked at him and her face flushed.

  A ghost of a smile crossed his lips. “How does meatloaf sound?”

  “I haven’t had meatloaf in... I can’t remember how long.” Getting help breaking down the details of her sister’s case gave Summer the first burst of hope in weeks.

  “Meatloaf it is.” He pulled out a container and dished food onto two plates. After pushing a couple of buttons on the microwave, the smell filled the kitchen.

  “Can I help with anything?” she asked, not used to letting someone else wait on her.

  “I’m almost done.” He moved to the cabinet and located two glasses. The cotton of his shirt stretched and released over a strong back. Summer diverted her eyes. She had no business ogling Dawson O’Connor’s backside.