Her Forgotten Betrayal(33)

“You wanted to know earlier how I thought I could help you,” he said, anchoring things back to the present. “Since you understand a little more about why I might want to, are you still comfortable having me here?”

“You’re not going to tell me about what I remembered or what happened between us?”

“Beyond that I once cared deeply for you, and that I remain concerned for your welfare? Would it make a difference? Has anything anyone else told you about your life jarred the rest of your memories free?”

“No.” She closed her eyes and rubbed her scar.

“Then we’ll circle back to whatever you want to talk about later, when you’re feeling better. What matters at the moment is whether you’ll still let me help you determine what or who is threatening you in the present, and how he might get to you.”





Chapter Nine


Shaw couldn’t look at Cole sitting on the couch without thinking of them there, their bodies wrapped around each other, fighting to get closer, deeper, all the way into each other, to that place where they were one and never wanted to be apart.

They’d been lovers once, she and the closed-down man Cole was turning back into. The same man who’d returned her kisses in the hallway as if he’d been craving them for years. Now, like him, she was supposed to switch off their history and forget the fact that once he’d been what she’d desired most?

“How can you be so certain we can figure out what’s going on around here?” She managed a bland smile. Inside she was shaking.

“I’ve had some basic training in investigation.” He leaned forward and braced his elbows on his knees. “I once knew this house as well as I do my own. I might remember something that would make a difference. That is, if whoever stashed you here doesn’t object to my interference.”

Whoever stashed… “What makes you think I have to answer to anyone about what I do in my own home?” A surge of rebelliousness tightened her words at the thought of ever again asking Dawson permission to do anything.

“Because I think when I came to the front door,” Cole said, “I interrupted a call between you and someone who wasn’t the electric company. But you haven’t decided yet whom to trust more—him or me. Am I right?”

Her mouth parted, but no words came out. How had he known?

He sat back again, making himself comfortable on the sagging couch. A dominant man in control of his environment. “As I said, I’ve been trained to notice clues and to string bits of information together into observations others dismiss as coincidence.”

“In the military?” she asked, since he’d already said he wasn’t with the police.

“Something like that.” He returned her stare.

“So what does your training tell you about my nightmares? About someone possibly trying to hurt me, when the authorities think my attack was random? Everyone says I’m paranoid about the man with no face in my dream.” She rubbed her bandaged thumb across her thigh. “No one’s going to want to hear that now I think someone’s playing pranks on me or trying to gaslight me. What does your training tell you about that?”

“Like I said before, you should trust your instincts.”

He was looking at her as if he sensed precisely what her instincts were focused on, and how her body couldn’t stop feeling what wanting and having him had once been like.

“What’s your gut telling you?” he asked while she took slow, even breaths, her entire body humming with awareness. “That’s where we’ll start looking for clues.”

“It’s telling me no one’s giving me the whole truth about any of this, including you. That my memory’s holding out on me for reasons I don’t understand, even though it seems to have a soft spot where you’re concerned.” It was rewarding to see the answering awareness flash across his features before his expression smoothed out again. “My gut’s telling me not to trust anyone.”

“I’ve given you no reason to be afraid of me.”

She let out a breath. “No. But you’re hiding something.”

“Why did you invite me back inside, then?” His eyes narrowed. “Why bring me to your father’s office, when we could have gone anywhere in the house to talk?”

“I…I hate this room. But…”

“Is there something here you wanted me to see?”

The question stunned her, then just as quickly, it felt right. Just as Cole himself felt right, even though he was once again deflecting her questions right back at her.

“Yeah, I think so,” she agreed reluctantly, allowing herself to be led into yet another conversation she hadn’t anticipated. “But what could it be?”