Spiraled (Callahan & McLane Book 3) by Kendra Elliot Read Free Book Online Page B

already made multiple trips to Target to buy supplies she knew she had. How many more trips would there be?
    How about just finish the damned kitchen?
    Last remodeling project ever. The dated master bath popped into her head. It was next on their list to tackle. Surely a bathroom wouldn’t be as disruptive as a kitchen?
    Her cell rang, and the sight of the number made her heart speed up. No matter how well her sister might be doing, Ava sweated when she saw Jayne’s number on her phone.
    “Hi, Jayne,” she answered, setting down her coffee. She situated herself in an easy chair and propped up her legs. Calls with Jayne often required a comfortable place to sit. Jayne liked to talk.
    She was par for the course that morning. Ava heard about Jayne’s previous day at work, and her roommate’s odd clothing choices. Ava smiled, enjoying her sister’s talkativeness. Jayne was currently in a stable position both mentally and emotionally. Her twin had completed an extensive drug rehab program and had spent the last twelve weeks in a good halfway house. She enjoyed her job at a coffee shop, and the customers found her to be amusing. She claimed she was avoiding men and “trying to get myself fixed before taking on someone else’s baggage.”
    Ava prayed it would last.
    But part of her knew it couldn’t. It never lasted. Maybe this time it will? She never completely gave up hope. Several times she’d washed her hands of her sister, but she’d recently watched Jayne make several good decisions in a row, so Ava had her fingers crossed. Right now Jayne was on a solid streak. Please don’t let her fall.
    Even Jayne’s voice sounded in control. Her previously high-pitched, speedy, pointless chatter had been modulated into normal conversation—pleasant and polite. And right now the best Ava could do for Jayne was offer a listening ear. She’d kept her distance as Jayne struggled through therapy and searched for a job. Her twin needed to dig her own way out of her giant hole.
    “ . . .  shooting yesterday.”
    Ava blinked as she realized she’d let her mind wander. “I’m sorry. What’d you say about the shooting?”
    “It’s just horrible. How can anyone feel safe in public?” Jayne asked with an appropriate amount of concern, in contrast to her out-of-control emotions from six months earlier. “That’s the second shooting this summer.”
    Ava didn’t mention she’d been at the mall. There were a lot of things she didn’t tell her twin—like her new address. Jayne and her drugged-up ex-boyfriend had broken into Mason’s old home and stolen personal property.
    Once burned.
    Ava no longer revealed anything personal in conversations with Jayne. She’d mastered the art of being “specifically vague.” Jayne didn’t know Ava was on vacation, she didn’t know she’d bought a new house, and she didn’t know Ava had dreams of marrying Mason on a beach someday.
    Theirs wasn’t the typical twin relationship; Jayne had crushed Ava’s trust over and over. Now Ava operated under a new rule: Share as little information as possible.
    But she’d discovered she still loved to idly chat with her twin. Lately the conversations had been blessedly calm and rational, and they only seemed to improve. Ava’s brain took a rest as her twin carried 90 percent of the conversation.
    Has Jayne finally harnessed her demons?
    Wait and see. Don’t trust her . Hard lessons learned from her wombmate, Jayne McLane.
    “You can’t let the fear of the unknown keep you from your regular life,” Ava advised. “Yes, the shootings are horrible and they severely traumatize our population. But we can’t let them win.”
    “Our shop has a plan of what to do if someone is shooting.”
    “Every business should.”
    Jayne was silent for a moment and then changed the topic to describe a watercolor painting she’d recently admired. Ava relaxed and pretended she was a normal woman with a mentally healthy twin.
    Much better than watching an