Chapter One
Harley
“Harley? What are you doing with that?”
I hesitated and looked over my shoulder when I heard the name I’d been given in a voice that was slowly becoming familiar. My guardian, Zade, was standing in the open doorway.
Looking back to the mirror, I studied the unfamiliar face staring back at me. Releasing my grip on a length of thick curls, I slowly lowered the rusty hacksaw blade that I was gripping in my other hand. I stared in horrified fascination at the nearly scalped man gazing back at me from the mirror.
“I don’t know, sir.”
“Okay,” Zade’s voice was calm and soothing. “Why don’t you come with me?”
“Yes, sir.” I placed the saw blade in his outstretched hand and obediently followed him from the bathroom, sitting on the sofa that he motioned me to.
“I’ll be right back. Wait here, please.”
I nodded, biting the inside of my cheek as I tried to remember how I’d ended up in the bathroom lopping off my hair.
Whispered voices flew back and forth in a room to the right of where I’d been left, but they were low enough that I couldn’t make out the words. After several moments, the voices stopped and Zade came to sit in the chair across from me.
“Harley, where did you get the saw blade?”
I could feel my brows knitting into a frown and all I could do was shrug. “I don’t remember, sir.”
“Okay.” Zade studied me, his face etched with concern. Then he sighed. “Levi is calling the doctor.”
I nodded again and went back to chewing my lip. A visit from the doctor was par for the course when my memory lapses got worse, but there was something about the man that made me very uncomfortable. The last time Dr. Miango had strongly advised medicating me, but Zade had agreed not to when I asked. Something told me that I wasn't going to get that lucky again.
“It’s going to be okay, Harley,” Zade said gently. “We’ll figure it out. In the meantime, you need to stay in the house with Levi."
"Yes, sir." I had to swallow a sigh. After all, I didn't remember anything leading up to butchering my hair, so I didn't even know if we'd already had this conversation.
"Good."
A choked gasp caught my attention, telling me that Zade and I were no longer alone. Zade's husband, Levi, stood in the doorway, his blue eyes sad. He inhaled deeply and then forced a smile.
"Hey, Harley." He held a hand out to me. "Why don't you come with me and we'll see what I can do to help finish your haircut?"
"Yes, sir." I rose and walked over to take his hand, my eyes trained on the floor.
"Oh, Harley," Levi said softly, leading me into the kitchen and seating me like I was a child. "You don't need to call me sir. I'm Levi, remember?" He ran gentle fingers through the length of hair that I had been holding when Zade interrupted me. "Um, we're going to have to cut this pretty short," he said slowly, "unless you want to try something a little edgier?"
"Whatever you think is best, sir. I mean, Levi." After all, I didn't even recognize the person in the mirror, what difference would it make to me what he looked like?
Levi moved around me in a circle, his head tilting as he studied me. Finally, he stepped back and nodded his head, raising the hand holding the scissors. "Okay. I think I have an idea."
I sat perfectly still as Levi snipped and clipped, catching the occasional curl from the corner of my eye as it dropped to the kitchen floor.
"You have such pretty hair," he mused, still snipping away. "It's a shame most of it will be gone."
"It'll grow back," I reminded him, catching a lock in my fingers as it fell toward my toes. It was a pretty color, I agreed silently. A red so dark that it looked black until the light reflected off it. Still, I thought with an inward shrug, I wouldn't miss it.
"Of course it will," Levi agreed quickly. He made one final circuit around my chair with a snip here and there before laying the scissors on the counter and pronouncing the job done. "Why don't you come into the bathroom and see what you think?"
While we'd been in the kitchen, the bathroom had been cleaned up. The hair I had hacked off earlier was nowhere to be seen when Levi gently pushed me in front of the mirror and turned on the light.
The curls that had bobbed down past my shoulders were gone. On the right side of my head – the side I had started with – there had been nothing Levi could do except even-out the hair I had cropped close to my head. On the top he had layered it so that it started out short at my right temple and then gradually increased in length over the top of my head and down to just below my left ear.
It was edgy.
Unique.
But it didn't matter because I still didn't recognize the man in the mirror.
Chapter Two
Harley
"Are you okay back there, Harley?"
I was staring out the window at the moonlit countryside zipping past when Zade's voice from the front of the truck pulled me back from my woolgathering.
"Yes, sir."
We were on our way to a town I'd never heard of to meet with a doctor. Zade had told me was a specialist, but he hadn't specified in what. Truthfully, though, the only thing that mattered to me was that Zade had again stood behind me when I told Dr. Miango that I didn't want to take the anti-psychosis medication he tried to push on me.
Anyway, the town was called Wolfsrudel and Levi had told me that it was a few hours away from the small village with the quaint wood-carved sign that read Blue Ridge. After we left, Zade had mentioned that we would also be meeting with the investigators who were trying to figure out what had happened to me. That made me sigh. They had visited me at Zade and Levi's house several times already and they always asked the same questions, questions that I still didn't have answers to.
The doctor that Zade and Levi took me to when we arrived in Wolfsrudel could have easily been a country doctor from an old-time story. He had gray hair, kind, pale blue eyes, a gentle smile, and, best of all, a calm, non-threatening demeanor.
"How are you, Harley?" he greeted me with a soft smile. "It's good to see you up and about."
My confusion must have shown on my face, because he continued. "You likely don't remember me. I was the doctor in charge of your case when you woke up."
Oh.
"No," I said hesitantly, "I'm sorry, sir, but I don't have any memories of that day."
"No problem," the doctor breezed with another soft smile. "And call me Doc. Everyone does." He waited for me to nod and then continued. "Zade tells me that you're still having some problems with your short-term memory."
"Yes, Doc," I confirmed. "I..he found me cutting off my hair this morning, but I don't remember doing it." I paused and felt my lip begin to tremble. "I really don't want to have to take any drugs. Please."
Doc's bushy brow rose and he nodded slowly. "That would never be my starting point, son. Let's start with a few cognitive tests and move on from there, okay?"
My entire body sagged in relief and I nodded, feeling my head bobble like a broken doll's. "Thank you!"
Doc smiled, but his eyes were thoughtful as he turned to Zade. "This isn't going to be a one-day fix, you know."
Zade blew out a breath and nodded. "I know. We're bunking out at Blood Valley while we look for short-term rental options."
"Smart man." Doc turned back to me. "Now, let's go have a seat and try our hand at a word association exercise," he suggested, taking my elbow and leading me to a small table by the window. "After all, no time like the present!"
Before my appointment ended, Doc took my vital signs and made a few notes in the chart. Then he told Zade to be sure I got a good amount of sleep and he'd see me the next night.
"Why do you work nights?" I asked when the thought suddenly popped into my head. "I mean, doctors don't usually, do they?"
My guardian, his husband, and Doc all exchanged a look that spoke volumes, but I didn't understand it. Doc turned back to me with another of his gentle smiles. "This is a very large hospital and we staff it twenty-four hours a day." He patted my shoulder gently. "This was the only appointment available around the same time as your meeting with the Council."
With that, Zade and Levi ushered me out the door and into the waiting truck for the short ride to the brick one-story building where I knew the detectives would be waiting for me.
Zade stopped to exchange words with a man in the lobby while Levi ushered me into the large room and nudged me toward the three chairs that had obviously been left vacant for us. The rest of the chairs at the oval table were all filled.
The lead detective, a large man named Rafael Borrero, was whispering to the man next to him, their body language all but screaming that they were involved. It wasn't until Zade walked to his seat – frowning as the man from the lobby followed him and leaned against the wall behind us – that Detective Borrero began to speak to the group.