“You already know that, don’t you?”
She shrugged, refusing to give him any more information than necessary. “I haven’t been able to get hold of her, but that’s not unusual for my mother. She’s often out of touch.”
“I know. But this time is different. You can call her phone and leave a message and she’ll always get around to calling you back. She hasn’t, has she?”
Elena didn’t answer.
“And as flaky as she is, if you need her, she’ll be there for you. Isn’t that right?”
She narrowed her gaze. “You know my mother?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know where she is?”
“No. But I’ve been trying to find her for the past month. She’s never out of touch this long.”
“What is your relationship with my mother, Grange?”
He looked at her for the longest time.
“She’s my sister.”
TEN
Elena didn’t believe it. Not for one second.
“My mother is an only child.”
“No, she’s not. I’m her brother.”
“Bullshit.” She pushed off and stood, then started toward the house. Grange stopped her by stepping in front of her.
“Elena, your mother is my sister. She was born Carla Suzanne Lee on January twenty-fifth, 1957.”
“Easy enough information to obtain.”
“Ask me anything about your mother.”
“Who was her best friend in high school?”
“Trick question. It was Bobby Ross. She befriended him in study hall freshman year. They never dated, became best friends and were inseparable throughout high school. Bobby was a war-protesting, antiestablishment, pot-smoking hippie, just like your mother right up until he got accepted to Harvard. Then he had a complete turnaround and decided he wanted to be a lawyer. And not a people’s lawyer, either, but a corporate one. Your mother was devastated because she lost her best friend.”
Elena eyed him suspiciously, still not convinced.
“Keep talking.”
?
??Despite her big talk about communing with nature, she loves meat, especially hamburgers. Her favorite is smothered in steak sauce with cheddar cheese on top. She hates tomatoes and is allergic to peanuts. She has a purple birthmark on the back of her neck and a scar on her scalp where her hairline meets her forehead, on the left side. It happened when we were kids. She was eight, I was twelve. We were playing on some equipment at the gym and your mom was a tomboy when she was a kid, so she always played with the boys. I pushed her, she fell and hit her head on the edge of the cement. She got sixteen stitches and a concussion, and I got grounded for two weeks.”
“She told me about the scar. Said one of the boys in the neighborhood pushed her. And she never told me she had a brother.”
“Because it wasn’t safe for her.”
Elena frowned. “Who the hell are you?”
“I’m a retired U.S. Marine general. I work for the government running an undercover operation. Jed works for me.”