Doublecrossed Read Free

times, but she’s not very friendly and she’s not…oh, shit. Ignore me.”
    “I don’t want to ignore you. I just don’t think I can make you understand why I like her. I know she doesn’t show her best side all of the time, but she’s private and kinda guarded with people she doesn’t know well. Around her friends she’s very outgoing.”
    “Are you outgoing around her friends? Or do you act bored by them like Marina does?”
    “We’re in a relationship, Terri. I try to make her happy, and getting along with her friends is part of the deal.”
    Terri was silent for a moment and Callie heard her unasked question. Why doesn’t Marina do that for you?
    “I’ve gotta go. Think of me when Marina’s doing you like mad.”
    Callie laughed. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but when Marina’s doing me, I wouldn’t notice if the apartment was on fire.”

Chapter Two

    Two weeks later, Marina was rushing to get ready for an evening flight to Boston. She’d just gotten in the shower when Callie heard a phone ring and recognized it as her own. Puzzled, sure she’d left it in her office, she followed the distinctive sound of a xylophone to the foyer. Her head tilted in confusion. Why was her phone in Marina’s coat pocket?
    She reached inside and pulled out the device just in time for it to stop. Staring at it perplexed, she started towards the bathroom to ask Marina why she’d taken it. After just a few steps, a text message showed in the window. “I can’t wait to see you. I’ve been counting the days.”
    Now even more confused, she stared at the message for a moment. Why was the name Angela Kirkland so familiar? Then it hit her—Angela worked for Marina’s company in the Boston office, the office Marina was traveling to.
    She turned the phone over in her hand, checking to verify it was her own. It was the default screen saver, not the photo she’d loaded. But Marina didn’t have this brand of phone. In fact, she made fun of the phone and the company, called her a fan-girl who bought everything that fell from the corporate tree. Callie clicked on the contacts button and saw just a few—all friends of Marina.
    So this had to be a phone Marina bought. That didn’t make sense, but nothing else added up. Suddenly, a cold, dark tendril of suspicion coursed through her body. Something—a force outside herself—compelled her to act. She wouldn’t have believed anyone who claimed she’d have the nerve or the desire to do what she did next. Fingers shaking, stomach turning, she texted back. “Me too.”
    Her pulse was hammering so loudly it seemed to envelop her. It took just seconds for the response, but they were dramatically long seconds.
    “I’ve been dreaming of all of the things I’m going to do to you.”
    Automatically, Callie wrote back. “Me too. Gotta go.” There was no need to look when the last message came in. It didn’t matter what it said. There was nothing Angela Kirkland could say that would stop the shaking, the rage, or the sorrow. She wasn’t aware of her body, didn’t notice when it slid down the wall and left her slumped against it like a discarded doll.
    It could have been seconds or minutes, but Marina started to roll her suitcase down the hall, calling, “Callie? I’m taking off.”
    When she reached the foyer, she gasped and let her suitcase fall to the floor as she lunged for Callie. “What’s wrong?” She was clearly panicked, and her hands slid along Callie’s arms and legs, trying to ascertain how she’d hurt herself. “Can you hear me?” she asked, her voice tight with fear.
    Unable to speak or even to focus, Callie extended the phone in Marina’s direction. Nonplussed, Marina took it and started to toss it aside. But Callie’s thin voice said, “Look at it.”
    Confusedly, Marina did, switching her attention between the phone and her lover. But as soon as she read the messages all neatly lined up in one window, she shifted her weight and plopped onto