“No one could tell them apart. Not even their mother, they said. And they were efficient. Smart. Shamrock was good at playing the fun-loving friend. He went in first, getting people to trust him. Hemlock was the muscle. He was hard, deadly when he had to be.”
“Was?” she asked.
“None of us saw it coming. Hemlock had a flaw that Shamrock didn’t. He was easy to turn. Shamrock is loyal to a fault. But Hemlock wasn’t loyal to anyone. Not even his twin brother.”
“I don’t understand,” she said.
“Hemlock was killed by Reaper. He had been passing information between the police chief and Reaper’s mother. Caroline Doherty was working for theSociety. When Reaper found out, he killed Hemlock. Only, he thought he was killing Shamrock.
“Shamrock had been burned at that point. He could no longer be out in the open. So his job was to get intel to other sleepers. That’s what I was doing there that day. I was trying to bring King in. Only somehow, Steele found out. Shamrock had gotten a tip and barely got me out alive.”
“So the man who was here last week?”
“Was Shamrock,” I confirmed.
Chapter Forty-Two
Morgan
“Does King know any of this?” I asked. Jude shook his head, and if I had to guess by the look in his eye, he didn’t plan on telling him. “What does that have to do with me?”
“While I was in the hospital, Justin got word that theSocietyhad found out about you. They knew we were married, and that you were pregnant. And my father found out. When you lost the baby, they no longer had any use for you. They wanted our child because they were a Peterson. With me dead, and our child gone, you wouldn’t have been able to give them what they wanted. So I let you go and I stayed dead.”
“To protect me,” I whispered.
“You are the most important person in my life, Morgan. Even more than my brother. I can’t let you get hurt. I’d never planned to make contact in Rosewood, but then I saw you dancing with your friends. All I wanted was to feel your body against mine again. And the moment that fucker touched you…”
“You got jealous.”
“I got jealous, and I had to see you. When I found out who your father was, who your brother was... I knew they would protect you, so I let you go again.”
“You’re such an asshole, Jude.”
“I know,” he agreed. “When you showed up here and told me you were pregnant, I almost lost my mind thinking someone else had touched you again.”
I rolled my eyes at his passive aggressive way of bringing up my brief fling with Gunner.
“I guess you know how I felt seeing Jenna come out of your room.”
“I do. And Jenna won’t be a problem again.”
“Did you kick her out?”
His hand went to the back of his neck. “No, but she is confined to her room and only allowed out with one of the birds.”
“The birds?” I asked, confused by what that meant.
“Eagle, Falcon, and Hawk.”
I barked out a laugh, and Jude smiled. “I like hearing you laugh.” He took a step closer. “I hate seeing you cry. I saw you at the lake.”
“The lake?”
“In Rosewood, on the anniversary. It took everything in me not to pull you out of your car and hold you in my arms.”
“I named him,” I said quietly. “He was barely a person, but I gave him a name.”
“Tell me,” he ordered gently as his hands held my hips and he pulled me closer.