Stolen Memories. Liz Johnson

guy who was in here before.”

      “You know what I mean. I promised I’d take care of you. And instead I inadvertently led that guy right to you.”

      She shook her head, shifting her arm out from under his hold, and his fingers immediately missed the absence of her warmth. Until she slipped her hand into his and squeezed. A breathy sigh escaped, her shoulders relaxing into the pillow. “It wasn’t in the paper. Tabby didn’t say where I was.” With the lift of her sprained wrist and the wave of a single finger, she halted his intended interruption. “If he was watching the paper, he would’ve noticed there wasn’t a story about me. About my body being found. He knew I was alive. And he would have found me eventually.”

      His heart thudded twice and then returned to a normal rhythm. She was absolutely right. But the guilt still poked and prodded his insides, leaving him sore, as if he’d taken a hockey puck to the gut.

      “And he’ll come looking for me again.”

      She was so matter-of-fact about it that he choked on his own breath, coughing and sputtering while she stared at him out of one eye. Of course, she was right. Someone certainly wanted her dead, so why didn’t she look more scared?

      The fingers in his grip began a slow tremor, quaking even more with every rise and fall of her chest. This was her fear in physical form. Her face showed no sign, but her hand trembled. While wearing a facade of confidence, she revealed the truth only to him. She was terrified.

      And he had to scare her even more.

      Whoever they were dealing with had disappeared. Right along with a baby she’d been carrying.

      “You’re not in this alone.” The words were out before they were even fully formed in his mind, and he backed them up with a gentle smile.

      She turned her head away to face the closed blinds over a window that looked out on the parking lot. Her eyes were closed, and for a moment, he wondered if she’d fallen asleep. But then she whispered so softly that he had to bend all the way over to hear her words.

      “What if I’m not who you think I am? What if I deserved this?”

      What was going on inside that barren mind of hers? Her forgotten memories provided a breeding ground for fear to fester. With no truth to combat the lies, they easily stole her peace. She needed someone to remind her that she was a good woman with a kind heart.

      He could do that. He wanted to do that.

      Letting go of her hand, he walked around the end of the bed until he could squat so his face was right in her line of vision.

      “Look at me, Julie.”

      One lid slowly lifted, her pupil dilating until it seemed to blend with the darker circles in the outer rings of her eye.

      “First of all, no one deserves something like this. No one. Do you understand me?”

      She nodded.

      “Second, you’re not a criminal. No matter what you can’t remember, the core of your heart, the person you are deep down, is still there.”

      She nibbled on the corner of her bottom lip, her eyebrows pulling together to make three little lines above her nose. “How can you be so sure?”

      “I see it in the way you treat people and the way you reach for my hand when you need something stable.” She let out a little laugh, half embarrassment and half uncertainty. “You trust me, and I trust you. Criminals don’t trust cops.” Then he added a little wink. “Plus, I ran your fingerprints. If you’d committed a crime anywhere in the state of Minnesota, I’d know about it.”

      Her laugh this time was hearty if a bit hoarse. “Thank you.”

      “I’m just sorry that he found you. But I swear, I won’t let it happen again. We’ll find him and you’ll be safe.”

      He liked being right at her level as emotions flickered in her eye, first relief, then uncertainty and finally resignation. She didn’t have a choice but to see this through. But maybe knowing she wasn’t facing it alone helped her to find some strength.

      He stood, and her eye grew wide. “You’re not leaving, are you?” The pitch of her voice rose, her hand clenched into a fist around the brace and bandage between her thumb and forefinger.

      “I was just going to grab a chair. My legs will fall asleep if I stay in that position too long. All right?”

      A chagrined smile fell into place as she nodded. But her grin was immediately broken by a yawn that cracked her jaw.

      As he carried the chair from the corner, the urge to ask her about the baby he’d seen in the security video battled with the voice telling him that she needed rest. If she heard about a missing baby, she wasn’t going to get a minute of sleep. He needed her mind fresh and prepared to remember anything that might surface when the U.S. Marshals arrived.

      Still the voice that demanded to know the whereabouts of the missing child poked at the back of his mind.

      He didn’t have to cannonball into the question. He could dip a toe in. He could just check the temperature.

      Sitting down, he was almost directly on her level again. Her eyelid had drooped, the lines of tension on her face vanished in the peace near sleep.

      “Julie?”

      “Hmm?” The sound was little more than a hum in the back of her throat, her eyelashes barely fluttering against pale cheeks. For the first time, he noticed a path of freckles running across her nose. They were close together on her nose but turned sparse as they reached her cheeks. She embodied both the innocence of youth and the fear that was very adult. And it twisted into his stomach.

      “I got a call today from a marshal, who is interested in your case. She wants to talk with you tomorrow.”

      Her brows furrowed, eyes still closed. “About what?” Her tongue sounded thick, like every word was a fight to get out.

      He pressed his finger and thumb around his mouth, scraping at the dark shadow growing there. “I’m not sure exactly. She wonders if you might be able to recognize someone that she’s been investigating. I suppose she wants to know everything you know.”

      “Ha.” There was genuine humor in her shallow laugh. “That’s not much these days.”

      A smile that matched hers fell into place for just a moment. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to just laugh with her? But it would do neither of them any good so long as someone was after her and a baby was missing. “Julie, do you remember anything else about that night?”

      “Like what?”

      He let out a slow breath, praying for the words that would neither frighten nor mislead. “Were you alone that night? Was there anyone else with you?”

      The shallow rise and fall of her chest stopped for a long heartbeat. “I can’t remember anything.” And then just before her breaths turned deep with sleep, she sighed. “Yet.”

      FOUR

      Zach slammed his car door behind him, hustling between parked vehicles toward the hospital doors. Checking his watch, he pulled on his jacket as he reached the main entrance. The deserted main entrance. He was supposed to meet the marshals there at ten-thirty. He’d been running a little late, but maybe they had been, too.

      Maybe they wouldn’t show at all.

      Was it wrong that he’d been hoping for that all morning? He just couldn’t shake the suspicion that this interview wasn’t best for Julie. He was almost certain it would be useless for Serena Summers and her partner.

      Just as he straightened his tie and ducked his head inside to make sure they weren’t waiting for him there, a nondescript navy blue sedan pulled into the parking lot. It angled into the nearest parallel lines before both the driver’s-side and passenger doors popped open.

      A