Excerpt: MIDNIGHT DECEPTIONS

Shanna sat back in the chair and observed all of the mind-boggling things that were going on around her. She’d have to bring her notepad with her the next time that they left the motor home so she could take notes. As she sipped on her bottle of water, she noticed a guy riding a bicycle. He was wearing a bright blue furry hat on his head; fur leggings like Vikings wore centuries ago, and a blue fur skirt around his waist. She gasped and then coughed as the water almost went down her windpipe instead of her throat.
She hadn’t paid any attention to the man who had walked beneath the awning until he lightly patted her on the back. He asked, “Hey, are you okay?”
Shanna looked up into sapphire blue eyes and she thought she was looking at her husband so she jumped up and wrapped her arms around his neck. It didn’t feel a bit strange to her as his arms slid around her waist and he held her tightly against him.
He murmured, “Umm, you smell delicious enough to eat.”
Shanna giggled, and cupped his face in her hands. She pulled his head down and planted a long sweet kiss firmly on his lips.
Adam Durant had been startled to say the least when this gorgeous female had wrapped her arms around his neck but when she began to kiss him, he didn’t think of protesting that he didn’t even know who the hell she was. What the hell, she was gorgeous and, umm, she sure knew how to kiss a man so why not enjoy every second of it? He had plenty of time to find out her name and to pursue things a lot further.
Shanna melted against his hard muscular body and entwined her fingers in his thick ebony black hair. Being out in the desert alone with Zane sure had kicked things up a lot hotter between them but she wasn’t complaining. She couldn’t ever get enough of her drop-dead gorgeous, sexy rock star husband. As a matter of fact, she was hungry for another taste of his sweet hot body and she wanted him, now!
Zane was impatient to get Shanna back to their motor home so she could be in the cooler air-conditioned air. He stepped beneath the awning and was stunned beyond belief as he saw his wife with her arms wrapped around some dude like they were freakin’ pretzels! He was so stunned that he was literally frozen to the ground and then suddenly it felt as if a streak of lightning zapped him back to reality. He stomped over to Shanna and snatched her out of the guy’s arms.
He shouted, “Shanna, what the hell are you doin’?”
Shanna stared at her husband and asked in a daze, “Zane?”
“Well who the hell else were you expectin’?” Before he let her answer his question, he raised his fist and spun around to knock the jerk to the ground. As his fist rushed toward the guy’s face, Zane froze. He was staring at another version of himself; completely identical from head to toe.
Both of them exclaimed at the same moment, “Holy shit! Who are you?”
Shanna stared from one to the other; she shook her head as if she was in a daze. She whispered, “Omigod….you’re identical to one another.”
Zane quickly stepped in front of Shanna as if to protect her from whoever this dude was and then he quietly asked, “Just who the hell are you?”
Adam was still stunned beyond belief and he barely managed to reply, “Uh, Adam…..Adam Durant. Who are you?”
Zane licked his lips and answered, “Zane Cameron. Why the hell were you kissin’ my wife?”
Adam exclaimed, “Dude, I didn’t know that she was your wife or for that fact anyone’s wife! She was chokin’ on some water and I just asked her if she was okay. Next thing that I knew, she was wrappin’ herself around me tighter than a rubber band! Then, holy hell, she was kissin’ me!”
Zane’s temper flared up as he retorted, “You make it a habit to kiss strange females that you don’t know?”
Adam shrugged, “Depends on how hot they are and well, she’s pretty smokin’ hot!”
Zane jumped toward him, intent on decking him with his fist until Shanna shrieked like a banshee and almost deafened him.
“Zane, no; it’s not his fault! I thought he was you!”
Zane turned his attention back toward his wife and he angrily shouted, “You can’t tell some damned strange dude from your own husband?”
Shanna was flustered as she stared from Zane to Adam and back to Zane. “Just look at him! He’s like your identical twin!”
“That would be excusable but I don’t have a brother; much less a freakin’ identical twin!” Zane was aching to plant his fist in this guy’s face but for some strange reason it felt like he would be hitting himself. He narrowed his eyes as he studied the dude more intently. Damnation, Shanna was right! It was like looking in the mirror and seeing his own reflection gazing back at him.
Seth, Jake and Kevin chose that moment to walk over to see what was going on. Seth skidded to a halt as he stared in astonishment at two completely identical guys standing in front of him. He exclaimed, “Oh hell; which one is Zane?”
Jake responded, “Well, if you don’t know, how do you think that we’re supposed to know! He’s your cousin!”
Kevin was too dumbfounded to utter a word. He just stood quietly by and looked from one guy to the other. He couldn’t believe how much that they looked alike!
Seth demanded, “What the hell is goin’ on?”
Zane quietly replied, “That’s what I’m tryin’ to find out, Sethie.” He hadn’t taken his eyes off of this stranger in front of him who suddenly seemed like a missing part of him. He softly asked, “So, Adam, when were you born?”
Adam stared at him like he was crazy. “What’s that got to do with anything?”
Zane demanded, “Just ask the question!”
Adam rolled his eyes in exactly the same way that Zane would do. “Well since it seems to be important to ya, I was born October 27, 1982.”
Zane felt an icy feeling flow through him and he shook his head as he backed away from Adam. He whispered, “No freakin’ way….I’ve gotta be in the Twilight Zone or some crazy drug was in that bottle of water.”
Shanna felt her legs tremble as she heard her husband’s birth date come out of Adam Durant’s mouth. How was this possible? He didn’t have a twin brother!
Adam looked around at everyone who was staring at him like he was an alien from another planet. “What the hell is wrong with you people? What did I say? I just answered the dude’s question!”
Seth answered for Zane since it appeared that his cousin was beyond words. “Dude, the two of you were born on the same day, the same year. You look identical to one another so you tell us what the hell is goin’ on.”
Adam laughed, “Uh, we’re twins who didn’t know about one another?” He threw his hands up in the air. “I don’t what’s goin’ on any more than you do.”
Zane pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. “I’m gonna settle this shit once and for all.” He quickly punched the number on the menu that connected him straight to his mama. He waited impatiently for her to answer but she didn’t keep him waiting long.
Carolyn Thomas answered, “Zane honey, how are things going?”
He quickly replied, “Fine or at least they were until ten minutes ago.”
Carolyn heard the distress in her son’s voice which alarmed her. “Zane, what’s happened?”
Zane licked his lips and hesitated for a second before he asked a one-hundred-and fifty-thousand dollar question, “Mama, do I have a twin brother?”
The silence on the other end of the phone answered his question and then suddenly it slammed into his brain how on each of his birthdays; Carolyn Thomas always tried to hide a shadow of pain that seemed to fill her eyes.
Zane whispered, “Oh my God, Mama, what the hell have you been hidin’ from me for the past twenty-six years?”