Sudden Recall
Lisa Phillips
DEADLY MEMORIESUnited States Marshal Jackson Parker never forgot Sienna Cartwright—but she’s forgotten him. Just like she’s forgotten everything she knew before she emerged from a coma a year ago. She has no memories of her career as a spy or any idea of what the CIA wants from her. And she certainly doesn’t know why she’s being hunted by men with military-grade weapons. As Sienna struggles to remember who she is and who she can trust, Jackson is determined to reconnect with the woman who broke his heart while protecting the woman she’s capable of becoming.
DEADLY MEMORIES
United States Marshal Jackson Parker never forgot Sienna Cartwright—but she’s forgotten him. Just like she’s forgotten everything she knew before she emerged from a coma a year ago. She has no memories of her career as a spy or any idea of what the CIA wants from her. And she certainly doesn’t know why she’s being hunted by men with military-grade weapons. As Sienna struggles to remember who she is and who she can trust, Jackson is determined to reconnect with the woman who broke his heart while protecting the woman she’s capable of becoming.
“Send the woman out, and no one dies.”
Parker turned to her. Sienna’s blue eyes had widened. Had she remembered her CIA training it would not have taken away her fear, but she would at least know what to do with it. “That’s not going to happen.” He gripped her shoulder. “I won’t give you up to them.”
“Maybe you should. They’ll kill you otherwise.”
“We don’t know that.”
He knew she wasn’t questioning his skills, she was simply concerned for his safety. The warmth of her care over whether he lived or died rushed through him, but there was no time to dwell on it.
“We’ll figure a way out.”
There was no team within range to help them, but he could call local law enforcement. But would that country sheriff, sixty years old and past ready to retire, live through this? Parker wouldn’t be able to stand it if he was responsible for the man being killed or even injured, so he didn’t make the call.
He had to find a way to get them out of this all by himself.
LISA PHILLIPS is a British-born, tea-drinking, guitar-playing wife and mom of two. She and her husband lead worship together at their local church. Lisa pens high-stakes stories of mayhem and disaster where you can find made-for-each-other love that always ends in happily-ever-after. She understands that faith is a work in progress more exciting than any story she can dream up. Lisa blogs monthly at teamloveontherun.com (http://www.teamloveontherun.com), and you can find out more about her books at authorlisaphillips.com (http://www.authorlisaphillips.com).
Sudden Recall
Lisa Phillips
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Remember His marvelous works which He has done,
His wonders, and the judgments of His mouth.
—1 Chronicles 16:12
To my readers, thanks for loving all my books so far.
You guys are awesome!
Contents
Cover (#u6685a154-d5c8-5b37-891b-66155dc26f82)
Back Cover Text (#u4f9353c5-8d7f-53c6-8a57-cb18e7cf94a1)
Introduction (#u1a6a0a6c-7b43-51f8-ade1-152681bce3c4)
About the Author (#ued000252-3bda-5b79-ab36-837ddb4ddb8e)
Title Page (#ub7104d28-46a6-59d8-a433-c0439589066a)
Bible Verse (#uafc45c77-5bf0-59c0-ad2a-256b97a68a5d)
Dedication (#u2fd393d9-ce91-5d52-ab20-42f522493203)
ONE (#ulink_bac6b70c-2977-5376-ab54-987dcabf7d11)
TWO (#ulink_5d552dad-06b4-5878-b803-9e90b69e3872)
THREE (#ulink_465af4f0-dafd-59f1-9c16-bcfbebe5237b)
FOUR (#ulink_466b09cd-fe9d-5dd9-b63b-4fc0a7ec24ad)
FIVE (#ulink_c0f3cfea-72cc-52d3-943c-31974572625c)
SIX (#litres_trial_promo)
SEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
EIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)
NINE (#litres_trial_promo)
TEN (#litres_trial_promo)
ELEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
TWELVE (#litres_trial_promo)
THIRTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
FOURTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
FIFTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
SIXTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
SEVENTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
EIGHTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
NINETEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
TWENTY (#litres_trial_promo)
Dear Reader (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
ONE (#ulink_ccee8a60-0480-5193-97ef-4d5704d9bb22)
The beat-up, rusty truck was parked askew on the side of the highway. In the beam of his vehicle’s headlights, US Marshal Jackson Parker saw the lone blonde woman kick the flat tire with her black cowgirl boot. He chuckled to himself in the dark of his cab. Sienna did not deal well with feeling incapable, and those lug nuts had probably been tightened by machine.
What was she doing on this lone stretch of highway so late at night, anyway? Her hands were fisted by her sides, halfway covered by the sleeves of a chambray shirt that made her look ordinary when she was anything but. Like she didn’t want to be seen. But then why come to his small Oregon town? As far as Parker was concerned, there were limited reasons a CIA agent, or former CIA agent—whichever she was—would want to hide in plain view.
Sienna was either working a job or running away from some kind of trouble.
Parker debated for a second, then pulled over behind her. He left his lights on, since there weren’t any streetlamps this far out of town. He was at the tail end of a long night that capped a long day, still in his sweaty clothes and bulletproof vest. The scratch he’d gotten on his face from the fugitive they’d taken down today hurt, but it wasn’t bleeding.
Being a marshal was better than climbing through hot jungles and eating sand with every bite, or parachuting into hot zones and barely getting back out alive. Life wasn’t exactly boring now that he wasn’t a navy SEAL, but at least the job was faster, safer and he could stop for a cheeseburger and large fries on his twenty-minute drive home.
He pulled his tired body from the front seat before he trudged over to her.
“You look like you could use some help.” He doubted a person with CIA training was accustomed to needing anything. And yet she’d been bested by a flat tire. He gave her a wry grin.
Her brown eyes were wary. Her blond hair was pulled back in a ponytail, which only served to give him full view of her features.
How was she going to play things this time? Would she continue with the ruse that they didn’t know each other, or was she finally going to admit she’d seriously wronged him? Why persist in giving him no information whatsoever after what they’d shared?
Parker scrubbed his hands down his face. Did he even want to know the answer? He winced when he caught the scratch on his left cheek. “Ma’am?”
“Um...yes. I need help.”
“You have a spare?”
She shook her head, a jerky motion. Seriously, now she was scared of him?
Parker folded his arms. “There’s no one out here. We’re all alone.” Her eyes flashed, and she took a step back. Parker gave her a second, but her facial expression didn’t change. “Sienna. You can give it up.”
“How do you know my name?”
Parker sighed. “You’re really going to do this. You don’t show up, you don’t call, I don’t hear from you. Nothing. Then you move to my town and for a year I have to deal with you pretending like we don’t even know each other. I want to know what’s going on, Sienna. None of this makes any sense to me.”
“That makes two of us.”
He stepped closer. Her eyes widened, and she took a half step back. She was going to have to get over this being-afraid-of-him thing pretty quick. He wasn’t the bad guy. Parker leaned down a little and softened his voice. “What’s going on? You can tell me.”
Maybe this whole thing—being here—was a cover, and he had to go along with it. But it didn’t completely ring true. There was definitely something going on. This woman was not your average country girl who lived on a ranch. Not by any stretch.
The last time they’d met, it had been as a CIA agent and a navy SEAL. They’d spent days with each other at one of the forward operating bases in the Middle East, where she’d laid out all the details of his team’s mission so they could plan their attack. She’d still been there after it was completed successfully, and they’d been able to tell her that everything she’d informed them about had been spot-on.
It hadn’t been a typical set of circumstances. CIA agents generally filed reports, and the intelligence would come down the wires to their SEAL team. But she’d been there herself, recovering from an injury and itching for payback. Parker and his team had been enamored with the lady spy, so tiny but so tough. No one had ever beaten them so badly at pool before, and they’d have let her do it. But she’d whipped them, anyway.
Those few days, before and after, had felt like a vacation to his men. A chance to ease off the stress of consecutive wartime missions. The single guys had tripped over themselves trying to impress Sienna Cartwright, but she’d made it clear Parker was the one who had her attention.
They’d taken things slow. Talked for hours, shared stories of their lives. He’d never told anyone the whole story about his father’s illness and what his life had been like. But he’d shared it with her.
And now she acted like she didn’t even remember.
Trees drifted in the night breeze. They whooshed against one another like ocean waves. “Someone’s coming,” she whispered.
They were alone as far as he could tell. If she was in danger or there was some kind of threat, then she of all people knew he was capable of taking care of her.
She hadn’t seemed to mind that fact before. She’d actually told him it was one of the things she liked best about him. Despite the fact she was a clearly capable woman, CIA agents had active threats against them. She’d appreciated his ability to defend both of them if need be.
They hadn’t said the word love, not when it’d been only a matter of days before they were separated. But they’d had plans to meet up later. He’d foolishly thought she meant everything she’d said about caring for him. About wanting to see what the future might hold for them. He’d also unwisely thought she might be different.
But apparently not.
Time had taught him the hard way that women couldn’t be trusted. Now his heart wanted an explanation—a seriously good one if she thought she was going to make amends—but that didn’t appear to be her plan.
And a woman like Sienna always had a plan.
“Are you in some kind of trouble?”
She peered up at him from beneath her lashes. Her full lips moved like she desperately wanted to say something. Parker’s heart was tied in knots, an uncomfortable feeling that resembled the state he’d been in after his wife of four years ran off with his SEAL teammate while the guy was home on leave recovering from an injury. But that was years ago.
Sienna was different than his ex. And not just because she was a spy. So why was she proving, yet again, that he couldn’t trust his heart? Maybe all women were like that. But when he looked at her, despite the overwhelming evidence, he just didn’t want to believe it.
“Someone is coming,” she said again.
Parker glanced around. A vehicle had crested the hill behind him, headed toward them. “It’s just another truck.”
Sienna flinched. “They’re coming.”
“Who?” Parker touched her elbow. “Is someone after you?”
* * *
The year of memories Sienna had made since she’d woken up with no knowledge of who she was didn’t help her current situation. She had no idea what to do about the giant sweaty guy in front of her who looked like the epitome of the all-American hero. It also didn’t help her understand why she was so anxious just because a vehicle was coming down the street toward them.
It was like being inside a tornado while the world swirled around her.
She glanced around and tried to assess the threat. It was something she did instinctually, although what it meant for whom she’d been before she lost her memories she had no idea. Her aunt wouldn’t tell her anything, claiming the doctor had instructed her not to for fear she’d cause Sienna to make up memories instead of recalling real things. So instead Sienna had to live with a blank.
And she hated it.
The big guy with the bulletproof vest and the silver-star badge on his belt looked over his shoulder. The van wasn’t slowing down. If anything, it’d sped up. When he looked back at her, his features were shadowed.
Was he going to tell her his name?
He knew hers, though how he could’ve learned it was anyone’s guess. Small town, maybe? The handful of times they’d come across each other at the grocery store or the movies—but not at her church, interestingly enough—he only stared at her. Did he think she was some kind of criminal?
The tires on the van squealed and the air filled with the scent of hot rubber. The man with her moved his body between Sienna and the oncoming vehicle, a protective stance she understood but didn’t appreciate. Did he think she was helpless? Sienna leaned around him in time to see the side door slide open. Men with guns and black masks jumped out while it was still moving.
Immediately, the man in front of her yanked her arm almost out of its socket as he took off at a run, forcing her to match his punishing pace toward his truck. He pulled her down on the passenger’s side and drew his weapon. The fast rat-a-tat of automatic gunfire slammed the metal of his truck, across the hood. He lifted up and returned fire.
More machine-gun fire replied. Air hissed out of the tire on the far side from where Sienna was hunkered down. Glass shattered in a spray across the pavement.
He pulled her up and shoved her toward the trees. “Plan B. Run!”
Sienna tucked her elbows in and ran into the forest. On her weekend runs, to mix up her workout some, she often ran at this pace for thirty-second spurts just to see if she could. After two minutes now her lungs started to burn. Branches slapped her arms and legs as she sped between trees, and the sound of booted feet pounded the dirt behind her. She glanced back for a second to make sure it was him and not one of those masked men.
Her foot hit something and she stumbled. The man grabbed her arm while she righted herself. “Faster.”
Faster? She was almost ready to drop right there and then. Her lungs were about to explode, and he didn’t sound much better. Either he had asthma, or...
Sienna looked up at the darkened sky. “Is that a helicopter?” The words came out with each pant of her breath.
He didn’t slow down. He glanced behind them, not even losing his stride. “Left.” His voice was barely above a whisper.
They angled in that direction toward a tight collection of bushes. When they reached the copse, he pulled her down. Sienna slammed onto her hands and knees hard enough to leave bruises. Did he have to act like this? Sure, those guys in black were trying to kill them...or him...or just her.
She frowned and whispered, “Why do I feel like I shouldn’t be trying to run away from this but should be facing this head-on instead?”
He shook his head and put his finger to his lips.
Was she the kind of person who fought back? She wouldn’t have thought so, given how her stomach was roiling. Sienna peeked out of the bushes. Moonlight gave her enough visibility that she could see two figures in the distance make their way toward them. Careful to keep her voice low, she said, “Did you kill one of them?”
“I aimed high, probably just winged him,” he whispered. “They were trying to kill us, you know. Instead, they killed my truck.” The figures moved closer. “We’re going to have to outrun them. One has a camera that is likely thermal imaging. They’ll be able to see us hiding.”
Thermal imaging? The cover of bushes wouldn’t mean anything to someone able to see heat signatures. Sienna and...whatever his name was would be lit up like two beacons.
“Let’s go.”
She nodded and took his outstretched hand. Going with him was simply the better of the two options. One being death, the other being rescued by a handsome hero. No contest, really. Still, she needed to be careful. She’d been duped by better-looking men than him.
Or at least she thought she might have.
Sienna crept along behind him. How did he make no noise when she seemed to step on every snapping twig in this forest? She should be as good, if not better, than him. Why, she didn’t know, but it seemed like that should be a thing. Like she’d learned this, or done this.
But what kind of person knew the best way to run for their life?
* * *
Parker glanced up through the trees as the helicopter shone a searchlight over the forest. He angled them to avoid the beam as it swept north to south. His battered body was heavy with fatigue. Old injuries stretched and woke up to let him know they didn’t approve of how fast he was moving.
What Parker wanted to know was whether the masked men and the helicopter were here for Sienna or for both of them. It was the first time they’d been alone together. Was that the trigger which had brought this attack down on them? It seemed a long time to wait, a whole year of her living in this town, when these guys could have taken Parker and Sienna out separately. The timing had to mean something.
Maybe she knew the answer. But would she tell him?
He signaled her to split up, circle around and meet back at the road. Halfway through his series of hurried hand motions, she shook her head and whispered, “I don’t know what that means.”
He wasn’t going to explain it. “What’s wrong with you?”
The helicopter turned in their direction again. Parker ducked behind a tree and checked the position of the two guys in pursuit. They had dropped back. Were he and Sienna in the clear, or was their retreat a signal things were about to get worse?
She huddled beside him like he was home base. Only this wasn’t a game.
Parker said, “Sienna, enough with the act. It’s going to get us both killed, so quit pretending you don’t know what to do. You’re not some untrained civilian, and you need to be all-in or we won’t get clear of these guys.”
“And I’m supposed to, what, fight them by myself?”
Why was she being so cautious? He wouldn’t have signed to her that they should separate if he hadn’t known she could handle it.
“I’m not about to help when you’re endangering both of our lives by pretending to be helpless.” They were almost nose to nose, his voice a hard whisper that sounded scary even to his own ears. But maybe she would listen. Instead, the moonlight glinted off the tears in her eyes. Seriously, now she was going to act like the terrified victim? “Give it up, Sienna.”
“Tell me why you know my name. Tell me yours. Tell me anything but that you’re going to leave me here to die.”
“You know my name.”
She shook her head. “I don’t know anything. I didn’t even know my name until Aunt Karen told me.”
“You don’t have an aunt Karen. You said you had an uncle Bill, but that was it. Or did you lie about that, too, along with everything else?”
Her lip trembled. “Please just tell me your name.”
Parker couldn’t believe he was actually going to placate her. “Jackson Parker. Most everyone calls me Parker.”
Which she already knew. Only his dad had ever called him Jackson, and he remembered his mom calling him Jack. That was why he only ever told people his name was Parker. He wanted as much separation as possible between who he was now and that scared kid who never thought he’d get away from his lazy, drunk father still pining for a woman who hadn’t wanted either of them.
She looked down at the badge on his belt. “A...US marshal?”
He nodded. “Fugitive apprehension task force.”
“Am I a criminal?”
“No. Why would you think that?”
“Because I don’t know who I am. I have amnesia. I don’t remember anything before a year ago, Parker. And the year before that I was in a coma.”
Amnesia? Parker stared at her, dumbfounded.
She was looking at him like maybe he could help her sort this out.
The reality was, he probably could. He had to get them out of this first before he unraveled the loose threads in her stories. If she was lying—again—he’d find out sooner or later, and he’d know never to trust her or any other woman. Ever.
If she wasn’t lying, Parker wouldn’t stop until he got to the bottom of what had happened to her. Something had turned the strong, capable woman he’d known into the scared and shaking one in front of him. And he was going to find out what.
He took her hand again and started walking. The helicopter was overhead still. Parker cut right, then left, then right again, working his way back to the road. Why had he left his cell phone in the cup holder in his truck?
He needed to call this in, get his whole team here to battle these guys. Making arrests, interrogating suspects and seeing justice done was his life now.
As for Sienna, he didn’t know what her life entailed. None of this made any sense, except her not being able to remember who she was. Amnesia actually fit everything he’d seen so far, but how could that have happened? A year in a coma? Where was the CIA now? Even harmless and unable to go on missions, surely they kept tabs on an asset like her.
Parker had a lot of questions. The first of which was where those two men had gone.
He slowed his pace and listened as Sienna quieted her breaths. Some things were still there. The way she reacted, the way she scanned the vicinity around her. Training had been ingrained in her until it was muscle memory, even as freaked out as she was and with no past.
His Sienna was still in there, and maybe she’d be able to tell him why she had left him standing by himself at the airport in Atlanta. Why she’d promised to be there and then hadn’t shown. He’d been fresh off that last mission and anxious to see her—to see where their relationship might go when they were both stateside with some time off.
The timing of her no-show at the airport didn’t fit the “coma” she’d been in. If it’d lasted a year, it would have begun weeks, or even a month, after she stood him up. There had to be another reason she had never showed. Once Parker knew what it was, he’d be able to walk away without this twisting thing in his chest that wouldn’t let him rest. She’d torn him up inside, but he’d given her the power to do that first. No more. He wasn’t going to give his heart to another woman, ever. He was done with that.
Sienna gasped, and the hot barrel end of a rifle touched Parker’s neck. He had to think quickly. In one maneuver he twisted and went for the rifle.
The shot slammed into his chest.
TWO (#ulink_f8d92740-63a9-591a-a2d1-378b418f7e4e)
Sienna looked back at Parker, lying on the ground. Was he dead? She couldn’t see any blood, but it was dark. The air had chilled until her breath puffed out around her in white clouds. She was dragged by her arm back through the forest the way they came by a masked gunman.
The helicopter had quit circling with that blinding light and landed, probably on the road. Were they going to chopper her out? They could certainly try. Sienna might be an amnesia patient who’d been in a coma for a year, but she wasn’t going to go down without a fight.
Where was all this bravado coming from? She hadn’t been completely idle this past year. She had a working knowledge of self-defense, more for the sake of meeting people and getting out of the house to attend classes. But otherwise, her life had been quiet. Pleasant.
Yet now, fear seemed to have distilled inside her like some weird Frankenstein-type science experiment. In its purest element she was left with something rock hard and unwavering. Like the all-American hero’s forearms.
Sienna glanced at the man on the other side of her, covering her with his Eastern European ex-military rifle and those Russian surplus thermal goggles hanging loose around his neck. Most of that was available to buy on the internet, which meant these guys could be anyone and not necessarily just hired guns of the nasty variety...and how did she know that? She grew vegetables and raised goats for milk. How did she know where those items had come from?
The rifle was lifted for a second, just long enough for her to get the message. Apparently, trying to run was out of the question. So what was the new plan? And was Parker dead?
“We figured sooner or later you’d go to him for help. Little obvious, don’t you think? Crying to the big bad SEAL in his cushy new job driving prisoners around. Too bad he can’t help you no more. Too, too bad.”
Sienna swallowed. Tears filled her eyes, and that painful ache in her chest was back. It usually only surfaced after a bad dream—like the one she had of that little boy crying. She didn’t even know Parker, despite his apparently thinking they were best friends or something. Why would she shed a tear over the death of someone she barely knew?
Still, it slipped down her face, and she didn’t wipe it away in case the gunmen were watching. They’d let down their guard if they thought she was as helpless as she looked.
She kept up her act when the gunman’s grip on her arm tightened just enough that she could reasonably let off a whimper. They’d soon think she was surrendering, but her first order of business was getting out of his hold. Then she’d either have to steal their van or run down the street until she found someone willing to give her a ride into town.
They stepped out of the trees and the helicopter’s rotors whipped her hair around her face, obstructing her view of the three vehicles and the man holding his arm. Parker had been right; he’d winged one of the gunmen.
“I can’t believe you let him hit you.” The rifleman to her right lifted his weapon, his voice disappointed but in a hard way. There was no sympathy for his friend.
“It was a mistake. I won’t let it happen again.” The injured man spoke in broken English.
“You’re right, you won’t.” The rifle popped off one shot, and the injured man fell to the ground.
Sienna looked away from the carnage while the rifleman chuckled.
“Let’s go.” The man holding her stepped over the dead guy, which forced her to do the same. “You have an appointment with the boss.”
“I think you have the wrong person. This must be some mistake. I run a tiny ranch and I take care of my sick aunt. What could you possibly want with me?”
“Not us, just the boss.” He chuckled. “Nice try, though. This whole ‘I don’t remember’ act is cute and all. I nearly busted a gut when I heard about that. But it’s not going to fly. The boss has ways of making people remember things.”
Dread crested over her like an ice cold wave. She wasn’t going to suddenly get her memories back, not even with whatever horrifying method their “boss” came up with. The doctors couldn’t do anything about her amnesia, which was why she’d checked out of the hospital.
A year later and she still didn’t recall one iota of her past. Aunt Karen asked her about it every few weeks, but other than that she just let Sienna go about her business.
The whole thing was bizarre. And not just the situation she was in now.
Aunt Karen was like an acquaintance living in her house. Sienna had figured she’d develop familial affection for the older woman at some point, but it hadn’t happened yet. What kind of niece didn’t even love her own aunt? And what had Parker said, about her not even having an aunt, just an uncle? How strange was that?
It was like everyone knew more about her life than she did. Sienna wanted to grab her hair at the roots. All the tiptoeing around, all the side glances and making sure she hadn’t snapped. It was infuriating. She wanted to just get in her truck—if it actually worked—and drive off into the sunset. But every time she got ready to leave, it was like her aunt got needier.
Now she was about to get a ride out of town when she really didn’t want to go.
The gunman shook her arm. “Move. Now.”
* * *
Parker was pretty sure his rib was broken. He lay on the ground listening to the men walking Sienna to the van, then rolled over and did a push-up, getting his legs under him. Oh, that hurt. He jogged after them in time to see her struggle against the man holding her, desperate not to be put on the waiting chopper. Good girl.
She was giving the fight a valiant effort, further proof that what she’d said was true. In fight-or-flight mode no one was good enough to keep up the pretense. She’d have done even better in this situation had she retained all of her previous skills, which meant they likely truly had been forgotten.
At least these men didn’t seem to want her dead, or she’d have been killed already. No, they only wanted him dead—which was pretty much the story of his life.
Since the single gunman had his back to him, Parker cracked the door on his truck and grabbed his phone, hoping they wouldn’t see the dome light. He sent a text to the duty phone at the marshal’s office that was manned 24/7, a code that meant, “Get everyone here. I’m in serious trouble,” along with his location. The team wouldn’t thank him given they’d also had a rough day, and were probably all home in bed by now. But they would understand.
Parker clicked the door as quietly as he could while Sienna kicked and struggled against her captor.
The helicopter pilot yelled through the open door. “Let’s go!”
Parker took cover behind the truck, his gun aimed at the man. “US Marshals—let her go!”
The gunman pointed his weapon and fired. Parker ducked for a second, then lifted up to shoot again—aiming for the far side of the man so there was less chance a miss would hit Sienna.
She kicked out at the gunman so that the man’s shots went wide and missed Parker. Sienna grabbed the man’s head and ripped the wool balaclava from his face.
Brown hair fell down across his forehead and surprise flashed on his face, distracting him enough that Sienna was able to slam his head back against the side of the helicopter. He dropped to the concrete, unconscious. Maybe she hasn’t forgotten everything.
A boot crunched gravel at his back and Parker spun. He sideswiped the rifle with his forearm and punched the man. The fight was nasty, but Parker got him on the ground, arms behind his back. “Who sent you here?”
The man didn’t answer.
Sienna sprinted over and took cover behind Parker.
Parker asked again, “Who sent you?”
The man on the ground chuckled. The words he spoke were Italian, but Parker understood them nonetheless. He was going to kill himself. Before Parker could flip the man to his back and prevent the suicide, he’d already bitten down on what was likely a cyanide capsule in a fake tooth.
Parker pulled Sienna away so she didn’t have to see or hear the man’s unpleasant death. The helicopter rotors spun faster and it lifted off the ground, those inside apparently fully prepared to cut their losses and bail on this whole endeavor.
Parker held his arm around their faces while wind flicked his shirttails up and down. A convoy of cars pulled up and parked in the spot where the helicopter had been, surrounding the remaining living man. His team piled out, guns drawn, looking as perturbed as he felt.
Parker turned Sienna so she could focus on him. “Are you okay?”
She nodded. “Thank you.”
He wanted to say, “Always,” but that would imply there was some kind of link between them, some emotional connection deeper than two strangers standing by a truck on a highway. He wasn’t going there again; he had to keep a distance.
“You want to tell us what on earth is going on, Parker?” His boss, Jonah Rivers, was newly married and probably mad he’d been pulled away from precious time with his bride. Behind Jonah was US Marshal Wyatt Ames, a former police detective, and behind him the team’s married couple—Hailey and Eric Hanning. Jonah’s gaze was riveted on the front of Parker’s vest.
Parker glanced down and saw the bullet lodged there. Jonah’s eyebrow rose.
“Everyone, this is Sienna.”
Ames grinned, but then he always was cocky. “Explains a few things.”
Parker ignored him and pointed out everyone so she knew their names. “I was with Sienna when she was almost abducted by this guy.” He pointed at the man who’d killed himself with the capsule in his tooth. “And this guy.” He pointed at the man who’d been shot, though Parker was only responsible for the graze on his arm. “The one over there is only unconscious.”
Eric and Hailey broke off to handcuff the last man alive.
Parker blew out a breath while Jonah strode over and held out his hand. “It’s good to see you, Sienna.”
Parker whipped his head around. “You know her?”
Sienna said, “I watched some of the zoo animals at my ranch after the flood, up until Jonah’s wife, Elise, reopened it a month ago.”
“That was you?”
“Yes.” There was a question in her eyes. “My aunt didn’t like it, either, but I told her it wasn’t like the animals were going to come in the house, so why should she be bothered by them?”
“That’s how I met Sienna.”
Parker didn’t like the smug look on Jonah’s face. He wanted to tell his boss everything he knew about Sienna’s past—her real past and not whatever story she’d concocted instead of telling people the truth about her bizarre medical case. Then he’d watch Jonah’s facial expression change.
Instead, Parker said, “How nice.”
Jonah chuckled, apparently not fazed by Parker’s belligerence. He never was, and Parker hadn’t been hired on to a fugitive apprehension task force because of his people skills.
“I’m assuming the helicopter reported in this area was on account of you?”
* * *
While Parker told Jonah all about what had happened, Sienna left him and strode to her truck. Her purse was still on the front seat, her phone inside. Nothing had been taken, which made sense since the gunmen hadn’t been there for that. They’d been there for her, and when they’d failed, the one in charge had...killed himself. Who did that? Her mind spun so fast she was dizzy from it.
Sienna had twenty-three texts and three voice mails from her aunt. She sent a text back that said, I’m fine.
Two seconds after it sent, her phone rang. She turned to sit sideways on the front passenger seat and answered.
“Yes.”
“Where are you? I’ve been calling you for an hour!”
Sienna gritted her teeth. “I got a flat tire, then three men with guns and a helicopter chased me through the forest and I barely got free before they could put me in the chopper and take me to who knows where.”
Silence. “Did you kill them?”
Sienna choked. She’d said the whole thing in her most sarcastic voice, like what happened was just another day at the office, and Aunt Karen only wanted to know if Sienna had killed them? “Two of them are dead, but it wasn’t me who did it.”
Why was her aunt worried about that, and not whether or not Sienna was okay? Because while she was fine physically, mentally was a whole other question. “Listen, Aunt Karen, I’ll be home soon to heat up dinner...”
“I already ate. Is someone there with you?”
“A marshal stopped to help me with the flat.”
“Jackson Parker?”
Sienna frowned. “How did you know that?”
“Have him drive you home. Tell him to come inside so I can meet the man who saved my darling niece’s life.”
It just didn’t ring true. Nothing about her life did except the feel of Parker’s hand wrapped around hers. Remembering it was keeping her sane when she wanted to drop to the ground and cry. Not just from fear. When she looked at Parker it was like all those feelings of loss surrounding what she couldn’t remember intensified.
Maybe he was right and they had been friends. She wasn’t big on trusting people on face value, but Parker made her want to believe it. It felt right. He felt right.
But there was nothing she could do about it when she didn’t recall a thing. She couldn’t make any kind of move when she didn’t know their history. What if there was something huge she was missing because she’d lost her past? If she jumped in now, she’d look naive. That was why she had to back off and not rely on Parker too much, even if it was the easy route.
Sienna hung up and rubbed her gritty eyes. When she looked up, one of the marshals was in front of her. He shot her a cocky grin and stuck his hand out. “Wyatt Ames.”
She shook it. “Sienna Cartwright.” As always, it sounded foreign. Like she was living someone else’s life.
“So you’re the one who has him all tied up in knots.”
“Excuse me?”
“Parker.” Wyatt glanced once in his direction and then back at her. “A man doesn’t look at a woman like that if it doesn’t mean something.”
“Am I supposed to know what you’re talking about?”
He grinned. “I guess not. Parker told us about the amnesia thing. That really happens?”
Sienna kept a straight face. “I wouldn’t know. I can’t remember.”
Wyatt laughed, which made Parker pause in his conversation and look over at her. “That’s exactly the look I’m talking about.”
Parker went back to his conversation, and Sienna shook her head. “It’s not like that. We barely know each other.”
Well, she barely knew him. The reverse might not be true.
“Listen, I really need to...”
She was interrupted when the gunman she’d knocked out started yelling as he regained consciousness. Parker raced over while the marshals struggled to restrain him. Sienna watched, wide-eyed, as he stuck two fingers in the gunman’s mouth. The man bit down. Parker winced but didn’t back off. He pulled out a capsule and lifted the man up. “Put this one on suicide watch.”
The female marshal nodded, and they hauled the guy to their car.
Parker walked to her then, giving Wyatt a side nod that made him stride away. But not before he glanced back at Sienna and mouthed, See.
She wasn’t interested in getting mixed up in the interplay between the marshals. That wasn’t her world. All she wanted was to get back to the ranch and hide under her covers until the sun came up.
“Are you okay?” The hardness of Parker’s features had softened. She steeled herself against it and glanced at the trees. That persistent feeling of being watched just wouldn’t go, even now that the immediate threat had passed.
“I’m not sure how I’m going to get home.”
“At last, a problem of yours I can actually solve.” The smile curled the corners of his mouth. “I’ll give you a ride. Okay?” Sienna nodded, and Parker strode past Wyatt, who handed him a set of keys. She glanced again at the dark forest around them as she followed.
There was definitely someone out there.
THREE (#ulink_7e6d39cb-a9fb-5020-9937-3c8539eb25e5)
With the exception of telling him where she lived, Sienna had been quiet on the drive to her house. He’d tried to fill the silence with music and found out the painful way that Wyatt had changed all the radio stations to what he called “classics.” Parker wanted to reach over and hold her hand, but to her they were practically strangers.
Instead, he squeezed the steering wheel until he worried it would snap.
“Is there something wrong?”
He glanced over but couldn’t see her expression in the dark of the SUV Wyatt had loaned him. “It’s been a long day.”
“Oh, sorry I kept you out.”
“Not your fault.” He snapped on his blinker and turned onto her street. “You didn’t ask those men to try and kidnap you.”
She turned away and looked out the window.
The clock on the dash read 11:37 when he pulled into her drive next to a van. “Is that your aunt’s car?”
“It’s supposed to give her the feeling of mobility by allowing her to get out on her own, but she doesn’t like to drive so I still have to take her everywhere.”
He didn’t hear any resentment in her voice, just fatigue. Which after the night she’d had, running through the forest and fighting for her life, didn’t surprise him. “Was she in an accident?”
Sienna nodded. “It was before I woke up with no memory. She doesn’t really talk about it, but I found a newspaper article online. A drunk driver hit her car late at night, and now she’s paralyzed from the waist down. She has a nurse come in every morning to help her shower and dress, but I help her the rest of the time.”
Parker didn’t know what to say, so he cracked the door and climbed out. A light over the porch flooded the front of the house with its fluorescent glare. Not a motion sensor. That would have been triggered by the vehicle pulling in. A heat sensor, then? Not many small-town residents had security like that. Parker wanted to meet this aunt of hers.
He waited for Sienna to circle the SUV and then took her hand. Because he wanted to. Because they were both tired, and they could have died tonight. It wasn’t about what he wished could have been, or what they might have had between them had she shown up in Atlanta. It was only about providing the comfort of friendship when they’d both had a bad day.
The front steps had been overlaid with a wood ramp. When Parker stepped his foot on it, a buzzer inside dinged—like a doorbell. They reached the front door just as it swung open to reveal a stout woman in a wheelchair.
With dark hair plastered on her head, she looked like a stern schoolmarm. A fact that was confirmed when she stuck her fingers on her hips and barked, “Took you long enough to get home. Did you get lost?”
Sienna grabbed a gray cardigan from a hook inside the door and pulled it on over the shirt she wore, like armor. “Sorry, Aunt Karen. We got here as soon as we could. Why don’t you head to bed? We’ve all had a long day.” She rubbed her hands up and down her arms.
The woman chuckled, an awkward, rusty sound. “You look more than worse for wear. Are you going to introduce me to your friend?”
Like she didn’t know exactly who he was? Because he’d met her before under entirely different circumstances. And he knew she was CIA. Why was she acting like this was a cover story for a mission?
Karen glanced at Parker, and he lifted an eyebrow in question. Then “Aunt Karen” pinned him with a stare Sienna didn’t catch and shook her head. Did she think she was fooling anyone? Parker wasn’t sure why he was willing to go along with it, but if there was a chance it was for Sienna’s benefit, he would.
At least until he got an explanation as to why Sienna’s CIA handler was here, pretending to be her relative.
Karen glanced between them. “How about I make us some tea? Why don’t you take a hot shower, get warmed up? Your young man and I can get acquainted.”
Sienna glanced at him.
Parker wasn’t going anywhere right then.
She sighed. “Okay, that actually sounds good. I’ll be back down in a minute.”
“You take your time.” Karen wheeled herself into the kitchen.
The corner of Sienna’s mouth curled up. “She’s a little...abrasive, but her bark is worse than her bite.”
“That’s good to know.” Parker squeezed her shoulder. “I’ll be fine. I’m a big tough guy who fights off kidnappers, remember?”
It was supposed to be a joke, but he knew she didn’t take it that way when her eyes darkened. “I remember.”
“Sorry.” He took a step of retreat toward the kitchen. “I’ll make small talk while you clean up.”
She cocked her head to the side. “Why are you staying? It’s late, and you’re more tired than I am.”
He couldn’t tell her that “Aunt Karen” had some explaining to do. So he said, “I don’t want to leave right away if there’s a chance they might come back. I’ll stick around for a little while and then head out. If that’s okay with you.”
She nodded. Honestly, she looked relieved. But Parker didn’t let that sink too far down. His heart didn’t need any more encouragement. Sienna turned to the hall and left him alone in the foyer.
Karen rolled to the doorway. “Kitchen. Now.”
Parker followed because it was the only way he was going to get answers.
The phone on the counter rang.
Karen grabbed the wheels of her chair.
“I’ll get it!” Sienna’s yell came from down the hall.
Karen shook her head and turned back to Parker.
“Seriously?” was all he said as he folded his arms and leaned his hips against the kitchen counter while he waited for Karen to give him some kind of answer for all of this. Sienna was out of earshot at least, on the phone by the sound of it. That meant he could talk freely with her “aunt.”
The older woman pinned him with a stare. It was no less effective, though he and Karen were no longer on the same eye level as when he’d last seen her two years ago. “I’m not going to tell Sienna who she really is. And you can’t, either.”
“What happened to you?”
“I was hit by a drunk driver. Sienna didn’t tell you? It happened while she was in a coma, so when she woke up, it was decided that I would stay with her.”
Parker said, “You’re lying about being her aunt so you can be here when she remembers whatever it is the CIA wants her to recall?”
“Yes.” There was no guilt in Karen’s expression, but then there never had been. Nor any pity when she’d found him in a sorry state just days after Sienna’s no-show. The day she’d stiffly told him to drop it, to let Sienna be and to go on with his life. To forget about her, like he could do that. Like there was no hope a CIA agent and a SEAL could find happiness together.
“What did Sienna forget that is so important?”
* * *
Sienna grabbed the phone off the desk. “Hello?”
The landline was down the hall in the office, where Aunt Karen holed up most of the day working on what she called her “correspondence.” Sienna figured she just read romance novels, given how many paperback books regularly showed up in the mail.
A sigh of relief was the first thing she heard. “Are you okay?”
“Uh...yes.” Sienna didn’t question the need; she simply strode to the door and clicked it shut without any sound.
“I can’t believe you’re actually okay.”
Who was this woman?
Sienna let the towel drop to the desk. “Why do I want to cry right now?”
“Because I’m the person who you love more than anything in the world, and we haven’t talked to each other in nearly two years.”
Sienna was sort of over other people knowing who she was. “Why would I love you? What’s so special about you?”
The woman on the phone laughed, took a long inhale and then laughed some more.
Sienna set her hand on her hip. “Seriously, I want to know.”
She chuckled, wheezing for breath. “That’s my girl. Don’t believe anything they tell you. At best, it’s nothing but a bunch of half-truths.”
“And at worst?”
“You’re not ready for that.”
“Is Sienna Cartwright even my real name?”
The woman was silent for a minute. “It was your birth name, but you’ve had so many aliases I can imagine it sounds weird.”
“And what did I call you?”
“Oh, right. Amnesia.” She chuckled again. Did people really laugh that much? “I’m Nina. Nina Holmes, your best friend since third grade.”
It couldn’t be a coincidence. Sienna had been living here months, and tonight she’d almost been kidnapped. Now this woman was on the phone, claiming to be her friend? Did this “Nina” think that she would buy it?
“Prove it. Because if you were my best friend, you wouldn’t have waited two years to contact me,” Sienna said.
“I was instructed not to. And there isn’t much I’m allowed to tell you—even if I seriously disagree with the reason. But...you take honey in your coffee.”
“What else?”
Nina was quiet for a second. “Oh, I have a good one. Your favorite dessert.”
It had taken Sienna two months of experimenting with different varieties to figure out the answer to that one for herself. For some reason it had been important to get it right. “If you think you can answer.”
“A scoop of strawberry ice cream and a scoop of chocolate—which is gross when you stir them together, by the way—with broken-up pieces of peanut-butter cups you hide in the freezer.”
Okay, so that was pretty specific. “And on top...?”
“A cherry. Obviously. No whipped cream. Which is also bizarre.”
Sienna smiled. More than anyone she’d met since she woke up from the coma, Sienna believed this woman actually knew her. Not that she thought Karen or Parker were lying, but deep affection welled up in her at hearing this woman’s voice. She knew she could reach out to Nina, but she still had to be cautious.
“Will they try to kidnap me again?”
It was a test, but she had to know what Nina knew.
“My guess, yes. They were hired, and since the first team failed, he’s likely going to hire another team to try again.”
So many questions popped into Sienna’s head, but she focused on the most pressing. “He?”
“I don’t know his name,” Nina said. “You’re the only one who did.”
“What does this man want with me?”
Nina was quiet for a moment. “He wants you to remember.”
“Does he think I don’t want the same thing? It’s all I’ve wanted for a year now. It’s all anyone wants.” Sienna squeezed her eyes shut. “Why is this such a big deal?”
“You’re not ready for that, either.”
“Well, you have to give me something, because I feel like I’m going crazy!”
Sienna took a breath to pray Aunt Karen and Jackson Parker hadn’t heard her. The last thing she needed was for them to look at her like she was something to be pitied. That wasn’t who she was. She was a fighter. How else would she have lasted living this long in a cloud of confusion with no way out and not go crazy?
“I can give you a way out of that house, but that’s all I can do. Karen was right about one thing, you do have to remember on your own.”
“How do you know she told me that?”
“It was the plan.” Nina paused. “Do you want an out or not? Because I’m in your neighborhood, so if you want space to figure this out I can help you. I’ll pick you up.”
Sienna wanted to say yes. She wanted to jump at the chance to see this woman she was clearly deeply connected to, if the way her chest was twisting was any indication. Did people really feel like that about those they were closest to? She might have that with Parker, if she allowed herself to find out how deep the well of her feelings for him went. And if they really did know each other like he claimed.
But something about Nina told her their bond had been forged through weathering hard times together. The kind of connection lifelong friends have. A bond that surpassed a blank memory. Her heart knew this woman, just like her heart knew Parker. But which one did she choose?
“This offer has a time limit. I’m not supposed to be here, but I received word from a contact that something was going down tonight. By the time I got to the scene, I heard the suspects were either dead or had already been arrested and you’d escaped. So I came to see if you needed anything.”
“I appreciate that.”
“But you don’t want to come?”
“I need answers. Coming with you isn’t going to give them to me any more than staying here will.”
Nina said, “Then I suggest you take another look at that shoebox you have under your bed.”
* * *
Karen calmly took a sip of her coffee. “Sienna hid something.”
Parker ignored his. “What happened to her?”
“You mean why did my best asset wind up in a coma for a year before she woke up with no memory of who and what she is?” Karen tutted. “She was supposed to retrieve some merchandise and switch it out with a fake so that the seller didn’t pass on anything sensitive when he made the sale. We think she made the switch, realized she was in danger and hid the original. Somehow the seller found out he had a fake and gave Sienna to the buyer so he could get the location out of her.”
A second of silence was the only indication Karen felt anything for Sienna’s well-being. “The extraction team found her unconscious in a bathtub of water. She told you the rest.”
Parker’s mouth went dry. He tried to swallow. “Is this the reason she didn’t meet me?”
Karen shook her head like it was a dumb question, but Parker didn’t regret asking. She said, “It was weeks between you and this mission. The two are unrelated.”
“And yet Sienna, and you, are here. In my town. Why is that?”
“It’s because of her.”
Parker didn’t say anything. How had she known to come here?
“She was convinced this was where she lived. For whatever reason—” Karen eyed him, like it was his fault “—she had some kind of tie to this place. I found her staring at a map online, trying to see if anything looked familiar. This is where she picked.” Karen paused. “Out of the entirety of the continental United States, Sienna picked the tiny town where you live. I could hardly tell her she was wrong when she was so convinced she should come here.”
Parker didn’t want to gloat, but it was hard to hold it back. He’d told her at length about his hometown. As a woman with little to no geographical ties, she’d soaked it up.
“I see.”
Karen glared.
“I’m sorry about your injuries.”
She sniffed. “It’s not as bad as it looks, but it did serve a purpose. Sienna has had plenty of time to remember who she was.”
“But she hasn’t, and now someone tried to kidnap her. You think it’s the buyer or the seller?”
Karen shrugged.
“Who are they?”
“We’re not sure. Sienna knew. We’re blind on this one until they make enough of a move that we can find out who they are. We’re tracking the chopper, but the two dead and the one in your custody had no IDs and no cell phones on them. One had a British military insignia tattoo, but aside from that we have no clue as to their identities.”
Parker wasn’t even going to ask how the CIA knew anything about the men from the scene. Whatever his team learned from the man in custody, the CIA had discovered minutes later. But if it protected Sienna, who was he to complain?
“So what did Sienna intercept? What was this ‘seller’ trying to pass off?”
“That’s classified information, and until I get a reply as to your security clearance, I can’t tell you much more than I have. Suffice it to say, what she hid was highly sensitive. It cannot fall into the wrong hands.”
“You realize I won’t leave this alone.”
Karen sighed. “I was afraid of that.”
“I was there. I saw the danger she was in, and they knew me. I’m convinced they did. Likely now they’ll think Sienna and I are working together. It may even be why they moved in.”
“They moved in because they found her.”
“Then she needs to be relocated. Immediately.” Parker would book vacation days and sign up for that detail first thing tomorrow...from a highway two states away, if that’s what it took to keep Sienna safe.
His heart was tied up in this. It was impossible to deny that fact. When Sienna remembered who she was and who they were to each other, then he’d know where he stood. Until then, there was nothing he could do about that. But he could keep her safe.
Karen sent him her stern schoolmarm look again. “The CIA are the ones calling the shots in this, Jackson Parker. Not you.”
The gasp was audible. Parker turned and saw Sienna in the hallway, her eyes wide.
“The CIA?”
FOUR (#ulink_70491d92-a8fb-5044-a561-8b2d333296dd)
Sienna stood frozen in the kitchen doorway. Why hadn’t she just gone to her bedroom—to the shoebox under her bed that Nina had told her about? She should be in the shower. Anywhere, doing anything other than being slammed with information.
Something in that shoebox was important enough that Nina thought it would help Sienna figure this out or at least provide answers on something. But she wasn’t in her room, looking through it. No, Sienna had given in to the curiosity of knowing whether Parker was still here.
“The CIA?”
Karen didn’t move.
“Am I really supposed to believe the CIA has something to do with me?”
Karen’s face was flat. Like always. “You are supposed to remember on your own. The doctor said...”
“That you can’t just tell me. I know.” Sienna bit down hard. “I guess now I know why.” She turned to leave the room while her thoughts spun like some amusement park ride. But there was nothing fun about this.
“Sienna, don’t walk away!”
She turned back to her aunt, who was now red faced. She probably shouldn’t be getting worked up. Sienna doubted that was good for her health. But she didn’t know, because Karen never talked about it.
She lifted her hands and let them fall to her sides. “Am I supposed to be, what...freaked out? Because I am. Seriously? The CIA? I’m very curious why you think the Central Intelligence Agency is relevant here. Because as far as I can see, I have nothing to do with spies or any of that.”
Karen didn’t say anything.
“That’s it? You drop a bomb and you have nothing to say?” Sienna waited, but her aunt still didn’t offer up anything. “Not even to confirm or deny?”
Even Parker said nothing, intently watching the interplay between Sienna and her aunt.
This whole night had been like the bad dreams she had. Dreams where she fought against an unknown attacker who was bigger and stronger. She always woke drenched in sweat and out of breath—like she’d been fighting for her life. But the question lingered. Had it been real, a memory or simply a dream?
The CIA and a fight to the death?
“Now I know why you didn’t want to tell me.”
Karen flinched. “I wasn’t allowed.”
“Someone tried to kidnap me tonight. If the CIA is part of it I’m obviously in danger. And you thought the best course of action was to keep this information from me? When knowing would have kept me safe, instead of putting me in danger.”
“Deputy Marshal Parker was there.”
“He was shot.” Sienna felt hot tears gather in her eyes. “If he hadn’t been wearing his vest, he would be dead right now.”
Sienna took a step back. Not a retreat, more of a calculated move to give her time to reformulate her plan. Everything had changed tonight. Her. Nina. Parker. Karen. The foundation of her life had shifted, leaving her adrift and trying to grasp something steady to hold on to.
She slipped her fingers in her front pocket to grasp the folded paper that she’d kept there every day since she left the hospital. She’d never told anyone about the verse she had found in her own handwriting on a tiny folded strip of paper tucked in her wallet.
The only real connection to her past.
“I’m going to take that shower. Too much has happened tonight. I need time to process before I can decide what I’m going to do next.”
Karen’s eyebrows rose. “Next? You aren’t going to do anything but stay here. Until you start to remember, you can’t leave.”
Parker’s voice was low and lethal. “And exactly what will happen if she does leave?”
Sienna had thought Karen’s words a veiled threat, also. Was her aunt going to give a straight answer this time?
“I only meant I need her here.”
Did she really? There was a whole lot below the surface to Aunt Karen that she wasn’t sharing. Meanwhile, Sienna was expected to give regular updates as to what she might be remembering and what was only her imagination while she slept. Like Karen was some kind of licensed psychotherapist.
The CIA?
Sienna’s life had taken a bizarre turn. She didn’t want to even think about whether or not that might be true. She wanted her quiet life. She liked her quiet life. Aunt Karen’s declaration was a disturbance. Jackson Parker’s presence was a gigantic disruption she wasn’t comfortable with at all. She didn’t need him, and he could take care of himself. But when those warm blue eyes stared at her, she couldn’t help feeling there was something more between them she was supposed to remember.
Friends, he’d said. But she wanted to rush to him, to bury her face in his chest and let him hold her. Was that the type of friends he was talking about? She couldn’t help but wonder if he hadn’t been more than that to her.
That was why he was so dangerous to her peace of mind.
She needed to remember the truth about her past, not be distracted by the possibility of a romance that may or may not have been. What if he’d wanted to be friends and she’d wanted more? That would be humiliating to remember.
She shot him a look. “You should probably be going. It’s late.”
* * *
She was dismissing him. Parker had hoped that when the truth came out, she would seek his help. Trust him to keep her safe through whatever this was. He didn’t want the man who’d sent that team to kidnap her to try again, but he had to consider the possibility they wouldn’t stop.
Parker didn’t want to stop, either, and he didn’t want to leave.
She’d ditched him for her job and then gone and gotten herself hurt. But his heart couldn’t get past waiting at that airport for her—and coming to terms with the fact that she wasn’t going to show up. She might need him, but she didn’t want him.
He pushed off the counter. “I’ll go, if that’s what you want me to do.”
Karen’s eyes widened, but Parker didn’t care if she was surprised by him. He was only doing what Sienna wanted.
He crossed the space between where he stood and Sienna. The phone on the counter rang. Parker swiped it up in frustration as he passed and barked out a “Hello?”
Sienna’s jaw dropped. In a cartoon, this would have been where smoke poured from her ears along with a whistling sound.
“Oh, great,” the woman said. “It’s you.”
“Excuse me?”
The female voice on the phone laughed. “The boy-wonder navy SEAL now a deputy-marshal-famous-fugitive-catcher. I did my homework. Don’t think I don’t know everything about you. And don’t underestimate me.”
Parker fought the urge to smile. “Is that supposed to be intimidating?”
“Just promise me you’re going to keep her safe.” The woman sighed. “If she won’t leave with me, then I need you to make sure she’s okay.”
Sienna was supposed to have left, to be protected by this woman? If Parker had to guess, he figured this must be Sienna’s best friend. He looked at Sienna then. She motioned frantically for him to give her the phone. She did look sort of guilty—about the fact that she’d considered ditching him and meeting up with her friend, maybe?
Parker didn’t give up the phone. “Tell me, why does Sienna need your help?”
If this woman had more information than what Karen had told him, then he wasn’t going to overlook her as a source. Or an ally. Too bad he couldn’t remember what her name was. Natalie... Nellie. Something like that.
The woman said, “They want whatever she hid from them. Karen wouldn’t tell me what it was, just that Sienna doesn’t remember anything, least of all where she hid it. They will try and abduct her again, and then they’ll torture her for its location before they kill her. But if she doesn’t even remember who she is, or what it is, then how can she tell them? I don’t even want to think what they’ll try in order to jog her memory. Last time, when the CIA found her, she was barely alive.”
“Understood.”
Sienna stepped closer. “Give me the phone, Parker.”
He shook his head and then turned away. “Can we trust you?”
“Are you willing to risk her life if I’m not telling the truth?”
“No.”
“Then yes, you can.”
Karen’s eyes narrowed. “Who are you talking to?”
Parker tucked the receiver under his chin. “I don’t know her, but she knows who I am.”
“Nina.” Karen didn’t seem to think much of this mystery caller.
He turned his attention back to the call. “Anything else I should know?” He wanted to ask this “Nina” about Karen, but not when she was in the room.
“Just don’t let anything happen to Sienna. I’ll help when I can.” She paused. “Give me your number.”
Parker rattled it off, happy to accept an ally in this. Even if he didn’t know her. Sienna had told him enough the first time they met.
“Got it.” Nina hung up.
“Stay in touch.” Parker set the phone back on its stand. Karen didn’t look happy, but then she likely wanted to reprimand Nina and couldn’t. Right now, Sienna thought Karen was only her aunt. She didn’t know Karen had been her CIA handler.
“What was that?”
Parker shifted to Sienna. “You should know. After all, you were planning to leave with her so she could protect you. She was making sure you’ll be all right.”
Karen gasped. “You absolutely cannot leave.”
Sienna set her hands on her hips. “I’m not a prisoner. So far as I know. That means I can leave if I want to, which I hadn’t actually decided on yet.”
Karen shot her a look. “You’ve stayed alive all the time you’ve been here, haven’t you? Why leave now?”
“Things have changed.”
Sienna strode out of the kitchen. Parker waved off Karen and followed her out. He caught her at the bottom of the stairs, stalling her with his hand around her wrist. He could snap her bones if he gripped too tight. Sienna was delicate, but she was also strong.
She looked at his hand, then up at his face. “Aren’t you leaving?”
“I do have to get back to work. There’s paperwork that needs to be done on the guy we arrested.”
She didn’t say anything. Her eyes surveyed his face, but aside from that she was completely still.
“Will you at least call me if you decide to leave?” She had to know he cared about her.
“I’ll put your number in my phone. Call me, Sienna, so I have yours.” Hopefully he didn’t sound desperate, but Parker wanted to be able to contact her.
Her lips curled up in a small smile. “You have to let me go now, Parker.”
His fingers loosened, but he shook his head. She had to know he wasn’t going to just walk away when she was in danger. There may not be anything between them, given her memory loss and the unanswered question of why she’d never met him at the airport. But that didn’t mean he was willing to risk not being around if she needed him.
* * *
Sienna knelt and pulled the shoebox from under the bed. Outside, she heard Parker’s truck start and the engine rev as he drove away.
A cold settled in her stomach as she realized she was here without him. Some part of her seemed to recognize him, as much as she didn’t want that to be the case. The last thing she needed was a man she had no memory of expecting her to say a particular thing or act a particular way.
That kind of pressure—wondering if she was still the woman he’d known and who that was—would drive her crazy. Sienna felt crazed enough already. The CIA? It was enough to send her running out the door. With no memory, she was more than in over her head; she was drowning. Those men had tried to kidnap her, and she’d had no way to fight them off beyond the basic self-defense techniques she’d learned at the gym.
Sienna removed the rubber bands that secured the box and sat back on her heels. She flipped the lid onto the floor to reveal the contents.
A collection of photos with curled edges had been fastened with a rusty paper clip. The one on top was a country house and barn. Underneath the stack was an old movie ticket stub, two postcards from European cities that were blank on the back and enough space for the Bible Sienna had removed when she’d woken from her coma.
Nothing new. Nothing that made her remember what she was supposed to be doing. Or anything about who she was.
Did Nina really think Sienna hadn’t looked in the shoebox before? And what in here made Nina believe Sienna would leave her aunt?
The Bible had been a solace to her in the months she’d tried to get her memory back. Sienna had scoured its pages, reading and rereading passages she had highlighted in her forgotten past. Notes she had made in the margins where it had spoken to her in one way or another. But none of that meant anything to her now—she had no frame of reference for it. She had read it as though for the very first time, soaked up the hope and peace found in those pages when so much of her life was upside down.
Sienna flicked through the photos, but there wasn’t anything tucked between them. She only saw images of people she didn’t recognize in places she’d never been.
With a cry of frustration she dumped the shoebox over. She wanted to smash the thing, but then she’d have nowhere to store the secret treasures of a woman who didn’t exist anymore. Maybe she never would.
On an exhale, Sienna righted the box and restowed the items. When it was secure, with the rubber bands replaced, she went to the closet and tucked it in her duffel. Who knew what the night would bring? If she had to run, she wanted the hidden things with her.
Sienna glanced at her closed bedroom door. Did she want to face her aunt? Karen was keeping secrets from her. Why else would she have asked Sienna if she had killed her attackers? Now Sienna knew why her aunt had thought that. But was it real? Was she a killer?
She got ready for bed. She was done with this awful day where her life had upended. With a sigh, she closed the bathroom door and went to the window. The night outside was dark, but the only light came from the living room to her right. Sienna had turned off her lamp so she could better see the stars, but it was cloudy. Not a night to dwell on the magnitude of things around her.
The backyard was an expanse of damp grass from the rains they’d had the past week, but was now twice as green. Bad with the good, just like everything in her life.
The trees swayed in the breeze, though her barn was silent. The animals were fine.
The quiet just reminded her that no one needed her. At least, not until she recalled whatever it was she’d forgotten. Then maybe everyone would stop giving her indecipherable looks or walking on eggshells as they bypassed her to get on with their important lives.
A flash of motion by the barn.
She’d painted it herself, because every barn should be red. Plain wood was a travesty. Probably just a small animal foraging.
It moved again. Bigger than a critter. The size of a grown man.
FIVE (#ulink_da1a7b42-f370-5dae-ad5a-478b4965032b)
Parker swiped his card in the reader. The buzzer went off. He pushed open the heavy door and strode into the office. Despite it being way past midnight, at least half of those who worked there milled around. Their team and two others shared the floor, one of whom was in and prepping for an early-morning raid.
Wyatt sat behind his desk, peering intently at the screen on his computer.
Parker hung his coat on the back of his chair. “Did you lose your reading glasses again?”
Wyatt shot Parker a disgusted look that only made him laugh. They were all late thirties, and Wyatt bemoaned—constantly—the fact he’d been prescribed glasses for his headaches instead of less paperwork and more fieldwork.
Wyatt clicked his mouse. “Paperwork on the detainee is done. I put in a request for some background on him, but we likely won’t know who he is until we run his prints. Even then, given his accent, we may be looking at Homeland Security or Interpol. Who knows where this guy surfaced from?”
Parker slumped into his chair. “My guess, they’re going to show up as ex-military. Foreign, but the country won’t matter much. One was Italian. The others weren’t.”
“So why is a team of foreign mercenaries trying to kidnap your girl-with-amnesia?” Wyatt grinned. “Is she some kind of spy?”
Parker stayed quiet.
“She is?” Wyatt busted up laughing. “Seriously? Little Sienna Cartwright is CIA?”
Parker was too tired; otherwise, he’d have thrown a paperweight at his partner. “I fail to see why this is funny. My guess, whatever her last mission was, it went unresolved and that’s why she was almost abducted by foreign mercenaries.”
Wyatt’s smile dropped. “Whoa.”
It had happened a few times. Those moments where it became clear there was a world between Parker’s experience as a SEAL, traveling the world, meeting a CIA agent, and Wyatt’s experience being a city police detective. Sure, they were both small-town US marshals, but the roads they had traveled to get there were vastly different.
Wyatt swallowed. “Jonah’s on the phone with the judge. Mr. Italiano can sit in holding tonight. In the morning we’ll figure out who he is, and what’s next for him.”
Parker nodded. “Okay. Guess it’s time to go get some sleep.”
Wyatt waved off Parker’s comment. “Sleep is for sissies.”
Parker pulled his jacket back on and strode down the hall to find out from the duty marshal if their detainee had said anything. Any comment he made was a potential lead on whoever had targeted Sienna tonight. If they got something good, he’d be one step closer to walking away.
When he was sure she was protected, when she lost that shadow of fear in her eyes, then Parker’s heart would finally be able to let her go.
He’d seen it in his dad, the desperation that wouldn’t let him find peace after Parker’s mom had run off with another man. He’d been eight at the time, and for the next ten years he’d watched his father drink away the pain of her betrayal.
History had repeated itself with his own ex-wife. Parker had prided himself on being stronger than the lure of the oblivion drinking would have given him. Instead, he’d thrown himself more and more into work—until he’d earned the nickname “Charger” because he wouldn’t ever stop, no matter what was in front of him.
Most days he’d almost envied his dad the outlet of alcohol, the sting of betrayal had been that great. He’d thought he finally found what he’d wanted in Sienna. Then she’d betrayed him, as well.
Clearly, her work had been more important to her. Karen had told him as much, and he believed it. Despite the vulnerability in Sienna’s eyes, and the sorrow when she’d told him she couldn’t remember anything, it was clear she was just like every other woman—willing to do whatever it took to get what she wanted.
And it hadn’t been him.
The duty marshal wasn’t at his desk, and the door to the hall was open. Parker stepped through it, one hand on his weapon, into the commotion.
“...don’t know! He asked for water...”
The open cell door was number four. A marshal stood over a man lying prone on the floor. The one from whose teeth Parker had pulled a capsule—a suicide pill. The duty marshal was on his knees by the man, arms stretched out, one palm over the other on the man’s chest as he performed CPR.
The other marshal spoke into his phone. “Yes, I need an ambulance.” He rattled off their information so the EMTs and dispatched police officers would know what the situation was.
Parker knelt by the man and pressed two fingers to his neck. The duty marshal blew air into him and then listened to his chest.
“He’s dead.”
* * *
In the dark, tucked under her blankets, Sienna listened to the clock in her bathroom tick the minutes away. There hadn’t been anyone outside. At least, not that she’d seen, and she’d waited a while to catch a glimpse of the person again.
Until she gave up believing she’d ever seen anyone.
But the nervous feeling remained, so much so that she just couldn’t relax. If this went on much longer, she’d have to shut the bathroom door, instead of allowing that beam of light from the night-light in there to extinguish at least some of the pitch-black in her room. Just once in her life, Sienna would like to fall asleep without it taking hours.
Sienna shifted positions. She should be exhausted. Instead, her body—and her brain—were abuzz with everything that had happened.
The CIA.
Maybe she should get Nina’s number from their caller ID and ask her what...
The window exploded. Glass shattered into the room as the rapid pop of gunfire sprayed across her bed and hit the wall to her right. Sienna rolled away from the window, taking the comforter with her, and slammed onto the floor. The noise was as loud as fireworks and shut out all other sound. Sienna clapped her hands on her ears and looked at her bedroom door. Bullets had splintered the wood, leaving dark holes all in a row across the door and the walls on either side. If there hadn’t been a brick facade below the window outside, she would probably be dead.
Was it safe to try and get into the hall? Should she crawl under the bed?
More gunfire sprayed dust down around her as she huddled on the floor. Who was firing at her? What were they aiming at? This seemed more like spraying bullets, hoping they hit something. They weren’t coming low enough to hit her, but her bed and the wall beyond had been obliterated.
Or maybe they didn’t want to hit her. Just force her into a corner.
The gunfire stopped.
Sienna lifted her head. She didn’t dare look over the bed. Completely still, she breathed in the dark and quiet, waiting to see if she would get shot the minute she tried to get out of her room.
Her cell phone was on the bedside table. Should she reach for it?
She shoved her limbs out of the tangle of her comforter, did a sit-up and reached for her phone.
Crack. Crack. Crack.
She fell back to the floor, phone in hand. Thank You, Lord. She really did not want to die. Where was Karen? Was she safe? Sienna breathed a prayer for her aunt. They may not be particularly close family, despite living together, but Sienna still cared if she was hurt. As she yelled, “Amen,” against the deafening noise, she dialed Parker’s number.
She hadn’t figured she’d be using his number so soon. She hadn’t even thought she would need it at all, if she was honest with herself. Why would she? He was useful in a pinch, but it wasn’t like he could actually help get her memories back.
“Parker.”
She barely heard him over the deafening noise. “It’s Sienna.” She had to yell. “Someone’s shooting at me.”
“I’ll be there in five minutes. Stay wherever you are and do not move.” His voice held a strand of authority that made her want to curl into herself and await his help. For now, she was willing to concede.
“I’ll get police there, as well. Just sit tight.”
“I am.”
“That’s good,” he said. Like he cared, like it was important to him that she was okay.
The gunfire stopped.
“It’s done. Again.” Her voice sounded loud to her own ears.
“I still don’t want you moving.”
Sienna told him where she was. She hadn’t had much in the way of support since she’d woken up from the coma. Aunt Karen wasn’t the warm and caring type, and Sienna hadn’t wanted to reach out not knowing how she truly felt about the woman.
Parker was like a beacon on a dark night.
Too bad she couldn’t navigate in that direction. No matter how his voice, and his presence, tugged on her heart. No matter how capable he was. Because Sienna didn’t know how she felt about him, either.
She started to army crawl toward the closet. What if she and Parker had argued? What if he’d wronged her and he didn’t want to tell her now because it would cloud her judgment of him? What if she had wronged him?
As much as she wanted to believe she’d always been a good person, what did she really know? She might be a bad guy, one the CIA was keeping tabs on because she was some kind of enemy. They liked to keep those close, right?
She reached the walk-in closet and kicked the door shut. The flashlight on her phone was blinding. Sienna got dressed, then packed a couple of extra things in her already-full duffel. There was no way she was going to stay here, not when whoever had tried to abduct her had come to her home to try and kill her.
She pulled on her shoes.
A bang brought her head up. Then she heard his voice. “Sienna!” The light in her room flipped on.
“In the closet.” She zipped up her jacket, still sitting on the floor. When Parker flung the door open, he had his gun in one hand. He held out the other and hauled her to her feet.
“You okay?”
She nodded and reached for her bag.
“You’re dressed.” His brow crinkled. “You weren’t in bed? Are you going somewhere?”
“I was in bed. Now I’m leaving.” She picked up her duffel and strode past him out of the closet. “They’re closing in, first trying to kidnap me and now trying to kill me. I’m not waiting around for them to get the jump on me again like they did in the woods. No way. Not happening.”
She really was not interested in dying before she got the answers to the puzzle in her head. Otherwise, she would never know what she’d forgotten—good or bad.
“You need to give the police your statement.”
Sienna stopped at her bedroom door. There were so many bullets in it, it was a wonder the thing was still standing. She turned back to Parker, trying not to betray the way her insides shook. If she’d been right here minutes ago, she would be dead now. “Fine.”
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