Reborn(25)

“No,” I said too quickly, and licked my lips. “You should go back in. I’ll be fine.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure.”

Evan looked at Gabriel, as if unsatisfied with my assurances. I wasn’t even sure if I was sure. Was I safe, alone with Gabriel? Was I even safe in Trademarr?

I’d always wondered, after I escaped, if staying in the same town where I’d been held captive was a risk. If they’d wanted to find me again, it wouldn’t have been hard. But I’d never had the resources to leave. I didn’t have any family left, and child protective services wasn’t in the position to move me out of town.

I was as trapped here as I’d been in that lab. And now my greatest fear might have been coming true: They’d returned to finish the job, and I’d made it so easy.

“I’m fine, Evan,” I said again, and he finally went back inside, leaving me alone in the parking lot with Gabriel still staring at me and me staring at him and the silence between us growing taut like a rubber band.

I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know who’d make the first move.

Turned out, it was Gabriel.

He took another step toward me, and I startled. He held up his hands.

“I’m not here to hurt you.”

My breath was coming too quickly, so my response came out shaky. “I’m not sure if I believe you.”

I glanced at my smashed cell phone on the pavement. I’d dropped it when I saw Gabriel. He scooped it up and handed it to me slowly, as if I were a skittish rabbit he didn’t want to run away.

I took it from him and tried turning it on, but the screen stayed dark.

I backed up along the side of the building until I stood in front of the large windows that looked in on Merv’s. So there were witnesses.

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

His eyes flicked away from me, to the intersection, to the cars passing through. So many cars and so many people with normal lives, doing their normal things. I wanted desperately to be one of those people.

“I have memories of you,” he finally answered. “And I’m trying to figure out what they mean.”

I frowned. “You say that like you don’t know. Like you don’t know what happened.”

“I don’t.”

“How is that possible?”

As soon as the question was out, I immediately wanted to retract it and swallow it back down my throat. What a stupid question to ask when there was a very clear answer.

“Amnesia,” he said.

“Sorry, I…” I looked at the ground, heat racing to my cheeks. “That should have been obvious.”

He didn’t say anything.

“How did it happen? The amnesia.”

His jaw tensed. “Long story.”

“So you’re not here to”—a lump settled in my throat—“kill me?”

The sharp planes of his face softened, and he took another step. “I saved you back then, didn’t I?”

I nodded.

“Then why would I come back six years later to kill you?”

“I don’t know… I don’t—”

“I’m not that person anymore.”

A breath rushed out of me, and I turned, pressing my back against the building. Were we really having this conversation? No one should have to have such conversations on the sidewalk outside of an Irish family restaurant.

I scrubbed at my face, trying to realign my life into an order that made sense. But then again, nothing had made sense for a very long time.

“Can we talk somewhere?” he asked. He gestured to the coffee shop across the street, and I nodded. That’s what I needed. Caffeine. A familiar place. A chair beneath me to keep me upright.

The stoplight at the intersection was green, so we had to wait together at the curb as traffic passed.

I was immediately aware of how tall Gabriel was next to me, how solid and real he was. How broad his shoulders were in the black T-shirt he wore, how the cut of his biceps could be seen even through his sleeves. How the veins stood up on his hands, how rough his knuckles were. Scars covered his right hand more than his left.

He smelled different.

Not exactly like the memory I’d chronicled in the glass bottle sitting on my shelf. The balance of scents had changed.

There was a very faint undertone of pine trees clinging to him, and musk and maybe a touch of lavender. Something floral. Maybe that was laundry detergent.

When the light switched, allowing us to cross, Gabriel kept in step with me. We didn’t talk.

At Declater’s, he held the door open for me. I went inside. The rich scent of roasted coffee beans made me relax. Just a little. It was a normal smell. A normal thing for me to do, buy coffee. But who I was with wasn’t normal, none of this was normal.