“No one is going to take me away from you.” I swore, staring at her intently until her eyes, which had turned worried, finally rose to meet mine.
With her stare still on me, she whispered, “They’ll take me.”
My stomach plummeted, the “afterglow” from making love to her dimming.
“And we’ll be apart. Again.” She finished.
The fear in her eyes was unmistakable. It made me sick and angry at the same time at how fast she crashed from bliss to anxiety.
“I won’t let that happen,” I told her, gut tight. “Not again.”
I went from believing Amnesia was Sadie to being convinced she wasn’t, and now… now I was stuck somewhere in the middle. There were too many things that pointed to her being my long-lost best friend, but also things that pointed to her not being the girl I lost.
Amnesia smiled softly, almost sadly, and raked her fingers through my hair. “I love you.”
Breathing became impossible for long moments. Everything in the universe stopped, maybe—probably even my heart. I hadn’t wanted her to say those three words. I’d been afraid they would be too easy for her to take back.
She couldn’t have them back. Not ever.
I had to remind myself how to breathe, and the first breath I took after those words sounded more like a gasp.
“It’s so easy to love you.” She confided, still pulling her hands through my hair. “I never thought it could be so simple for someone to get in here.” She pointed to her chest.
I kissed her. Just like that, we slipped back into the cocoon we’d been in before. My chest felt tight, so unbelievably full. I pulled away, dropping my forehead so it rested against hers. “Cross my heart,”
“Hope to die,” she added.
“You will be forever mine.”
She spoke softly. “Did you used to say that to Sadie?”
I nodded. “All the time. Except the forever mine part. That part is yours.”
“Forever is a long time,” she said.
“Not long enough.”
“Maybe I was wrong,” Amnesia said, wiggling a little beneath me. I sat up, so she could lean against the headboard. “Maybe the happiness and the memories I asked for will only make it harder when the truth comes back, when the memories resurface. Maybe it will make me realize what I lost.”
“You aren’t lost,” I told her, firm. “You’re found.”
“They’re coming back for me. You know it. Everywhere I go, the killer shows up.”
I shook my head adamantly. My inner lion paced inside me. The need to protect what was mine was stronger than I ever felt before. It was almost blinding, and I reminded myself I couldn’t allow this urge to make me stupid. Now more than ever I had to be smart. “I swear to God, Am, I will murder them before anyone gets the chance to harm you.”
Her head tilted to the side, a thoughtful glint coming into her chocolatey eyes. “There’s something else,”
“Tell me,” I demanded. I needed to know exactly what I was working against.
“I’d been so sure the person stalking me wanted me dead, but this last time, the other night in the hospital, it was different.”
“Different how?”
“They pulled this rag out of their cape thingy. It smelled so strongly of chloroform it nearly made me gag.”
“Yeah, I remember the odd scent in the room.” I realized. “They hadn’t done that before?”
She shook her head. “No. Up until then, it was more violent, almost urgent. The strangling, luring me into the woods, even in my nightmare from the night I nearly drowned. It felt like physical harm was imminent. But the other night…”
My brow furrowed. Trying to come up with an insane person’s motive wasn’t easy. “Maybe they planned to knock you out then kill you. Make less noise?”
She shook her head. “I don’t think so. I think they wanted to take me.”
My eyes widened, and alarm coursed through me. “Kidnap you?”
She nodded. “But why?”
I grabbed her wrist, giving it a gentle tug. “Am, did you tell the police that night when they came to the hospital?”
“Of course.”
“And?” I demanded.
“And they said usually, chloroform is used for kidnapping.”
“Why didn’t you say anything, baby?” I murmured, brushing the hair from her face. I couldn’t be mad at her, not when she looked so vulnerable.
“I’ve been so confused, Eddie. I’d been so sure they were trying to kill me. And now I’m not. No one is still convinced that first attack wasn’t a dream. I can’t even identify them. I don’t even know if it was a man or woman!”
“Okay.” I soothed her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders, drawing her into the circle of my body. She was shaking. “It’s all right.”
“I didn’t want to think about it. I still don’t. But I can’t stop now. The more days that pass, the more hunted I feel… I have so much more to lose now.” She lifted her head, looking into my eyes. “So much more to protect.”
“You leave the protecting to me,” I said, tenacious.
“I can’t shake the feeling that maybe they don’t just want to kill me. Maybe they want something more.”
The sick thoughts parading around in my mind made me nauseous. Amnesia might not have a memory, but she had natural instinct, and there was no doubt at least partially that instinct had kept her alive. If she felt the person had been there to kidnap her the other night, I believed her.
It also opened up a whole new frightening realm of possibility.
What if this was Sadie right here in my arms? That meant she had to have spent the last eleven years somewhere, with someone.
What if that someone wanted her back?