Free Dangerous Beauty: Part Three: This is War by Michelle Hardin

strikingly similar to the pictures of Alexis and Adrien Stone. His hair was thick, silky, and long. His skin was brown, the same color as her mother’s and her own, and his eyes were hazel with specks of a dark green … just like hers.
    “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” She muttered the words mostly to herself, but the man gave her a look of genuine confusion.
    He cocked his head to the side, and seemed to be studying Carter’s features. Slowly he brought a shaky hand to her face and poked her cheek with his finger. Carter frowned, but couldn’t stop the smile from pulling at her lips. He timidly ran his fingers over her face while staring at her in awe.
    “You’re real …” he whispered, but quickly frowned. “What is your name?”
    “Carterina, but I prefer to be called Carter.”
    “Carter,” he whispered. “That’s a perfect name for you. You look like a Carter.”
    “What’s your name?” she asked. Reaching forward, she touched his hair … just because she needed to. Yep, she knew it. His hair felt just like Anastacia’s. Motherfucker .
    “Gabriel. My name is Gabriel.”
    “Gabriel?” When he nodded, but remained silent, Carter shrugged. “Gabe it is.”
    “Gabe?”
    She allowed a large smile to grace her face. “Yes, I like Gabe. It suits you.”
    Frowning, he shook his head. “This can’t be real. I could just be dreaming again. So many times I dreamt of escaping that basement—escaping Silas—only to achieve freedom and wake up from a deep slumber. This isn’t real, you’re not real.”
    “I’m real,” Carter assured him.
    She reached forward and pinched his arm hard, and he quickly yanked back. “Ow!” he whispered. “Why did you do that?”
    Carter chuckled softly. “To show you that you’re not dreaming. I’m real, and so are you, which means our mother has a lot of explaining to do.”
    His face sort of … twitched as a fiery anger flashed through his eyes. “Anastacia Stone? Silas told me her name when I was a boy. She is … our mother? We are—”
    “Siblings,” Carter stated, filling in the blanks for him. “I’m guessing twins.” Carter lowered her eyes in thought. “At least I think we are. Say your birthday on three …”
    Gabe rolled his eyes. “Don’t be ridiculous. We are obviously twins. I just turned twenty three this year on February 21 st .”
    “So did I! And screw you, I’m not ridiculous.”
    He pursed his lips “Seriously, you want to be defensive right now? Are you going to stop being confrontational long enough to be shocked by this?”
    “I am shocked,” she whispered angrily. “Anastacia never mentioned I had a brother. I asked her if I was her only child and she said yes.”
    “She probably didn’t want to speak of the son she abandoned and left with a lunatic,” he said in bitter anger.
    Carter frowned. “Abandoned you?”
    “Yes! But you probably wouldn’t know anything about that since she deemed you worthy to be in her presence, to call her mother. Meanwhile, I was here getting my ass nearly beat to death just because I tried to get away from that psychotic motherfucker! I’ve been locked in that damn basement for eight years of my life!”
    Carter placed a calming hand on his shoulder. “I’m sure she didn’t know, Gabe. I haven’t known her long, but I know she hates Silas. She will have a good explanation for this, I promise. We just have to get to her.”
    “Wait, did you say you haven’t known her long? She left you—”
    She cut him off by placing her finger to his lips. “Gabe, we have no time. It’s obvious that there’s a lot we need to talk about, but not here.” When she reached for his hand, he suddenly pulled back with a look of distrust in his eyes. Carter’s brows furrowed in confusion. “What are you doing?”
    “I don’t know about this,” he said, shaking his head. “This seems too good to be true. I’ve spent too many years being punished by Silas. I could never please him