Chapter Nine

“Why?” Jake asked in a hoarse whisper. “Why didn’t you come back to me?”

She looked into his handsome face, the taste of him still on her lips, the memory of his strong arms around her still making her tremble. His eyes reflected the same hurt and confusion as she felt.

“Abby?” He touched her arm and she shuddered. “Abby, you know me. You know I would never hurt you. Why are you afraid of me?”

“Because I don’t know you,” she cried.

He stared at her, uncomprehending. “You believe that stuff in the envelope about me? Even after that kiss?”

She believed she was Abby Diaz. That she’d been crazy in love with this man. That they shared an incredible passion. But did she really believe he’d tried to kill her six years ago? No. But that was her body talking, and she knew she couldn’t trust it right now.

“Are you telling me that kiss meant nothing to you?” he asked, his voice rough with pain.

She shook her head, tears welling in her eyes. “No. Jake, I don’t remember anything before waking up in a hospital six years ago.”

His jaw dropped. He stared at her openmouthed.

“I woke up to find Julio Montenegro beside my bed. He said he was my husband. All I had of my past was what he told me and some faint memories that made no sense.”

Jake shook his head, disbelieving. “You don’t still think you’re Isabella Montenegro?”

“How can I after everything that’s happened? After—” The kiss. She unconsciously ran her tongue over her upper lip, the memory still fresh, the feeling still intoxicating.

“But you’re afraid of me because of what you found in the envelope.”

She was afraid of him because of the power she knew he had over her, because of the obvious passion they shared. And because she couldn’t remember what had happened between them six years ago. But something had. She felt it.

“I don’t know who or what to believe at this point,” she said, looking away.

From outside, the conductor called “All aboard!”

“If you could remember what you and I had, you’d know the truth,” he said softly. “I loved Abby Diaz. I would never have hurt her. We were going to get married. We were going to have a child.”

“We did have a child,” she said.

“Yes.” The bathroom door opened and Elena stepped out between them, her doll locked in the crook of her arm.

He seemed to hesitate only a moment before lifting their daughter up into his arms, his face twisted in pain, and hugged her tightly to him. His eyes closed as he buried his face in her hair and breathed in deeply, as if inhaling her essence.

“Daddy,” Elena sighed and hugged him around the neck.

Tears burned her eyes, her throat choked closed with emotion, as she watched Jake with his daughter. All those years lost. She felt a surge of anger. Why? Elena had desperately needed a father. Where had Jake been?

“All aboard!” the conductor called again. She could hear the sounds of the train getting ready to move again. Passengers were settling into their seats, voices and laughter drifting down to them.

“We have to get off the train,” Jake said and looked up at her as if he expected an argument.

How could she argue? Staying on the train would be foolhardy since someone, whoever he’d been, knew where she was. But was going with Jake any less foolhardy?

She met his gaze, wondering where he planned to take them. What he planned to do with them. Turn them over to the FBI? She looked at her daughter’s face. Elena’s green eyes glowed as if filled with inner sunshine. After everything that had happened in her young life, all was now right in her world. She’d found her father.

Abby nodded to Jake as her gaze flicked back to him. He wasn’t the only one who wanted answers. And while she wasn’t ready to trust him with her heart or even her life, she knew she could trust him with Elena’s. For now, that was enough. She picked up her bag and started toward the exit.

 

WITH ELENA still in his arms, he followed Abby through the car, the full weight of responsibility making him tense. Anxious. He didn’t know who was after Abby and Elena. Nor what they wanted with the pair. All he knew was that he had to find a safe place to hide them until he could figure it out.

The glaring noonday sun spilled in the windows, blinding and hot. Any moment the train would start moving and they wouldn’t be able to get off.

He was right behind her as she scrambled to the platform just seconds before the train started out of the station.

As soon as his feet touched the ground, he was scanning the platform and the cool darkness behind the sun-glazed windows of the station, wary, worried. By now the man who’d jumped from the train could be waiting for them. Or Ramon and his men. Or the Feds. He felt scared. Abby and this child in his arms were everything he’d ever wanted. And now someone was trying to take them away from him—again.

“Here, give me, Elena,” Abby said quickly.

The last thing he wanted to do was let go of his daughter. But he was smart enough to know he wouldn’t be able to get to his weapon fast enough with the child in his arms. Still, it was all he could do to relinquish her.

The sun hovered overhead. No breeze moved along the tracks. Only the sound of the train leaving the station filled the late morning air.

“On your right,” Abby whispered as she took Elena and, smiling, started walking in the other direction.

He glanced out of the corner of his eye and saw the security guards. They were looking at him and talking quickly. One had his hand on the butt end of his gun.

Jake quickly caught up to Abby, slipping his arm around her and leaning closer, as if to share a private thought with her. “Keep moving. They aren’t sure yet.”

Just before they rounded the corner of the station, Jake called out, “Mom! We almost missed our stop! I hope you haven’t been waiting long.” Then they were around the blind corner where the guards couldn’t see them, couldn’t see that no one was waiting to pick them up. “Run!”

 

ABBY DIDN’T RELAX until Alpine, Texas disappeared behind them, distant as the rugged volcanic-born mountains that cradled it. The day was hot and dry. They were headed south on Farm Road 118 in the four-wheel drive Explorer Jake had rented, leaving behind grassland and commercial orchards for the rough, seemingly endless mountain country ahead, the road behind them almost empty.

“Stealing a car is too risky and it won’t buy us any more time than renting one,” he’d said a few blocks from the train station after they were sure the security guards hadn’t followed. “Not with Calderone and the FBI after us now. They’ll be on top of anything we do.”

She thought of the guards at the train station and wondered who had alerted them. They’d seemed more interested in Jake than her and Elena. Unlike the man on the train. He seemed to know exactly who he was after. The question was why? What had he wanted? By now she wasn’t sure who was actually after them. Everyone, it seemed.

She glanced back at Elena, strapped into her seat, her gaze focused on the country outside the window. The child seemed to have gotten over her earlier fear of the sudden change in her mother. Now she watched the rugged terrain flash by, her eyes large, her expression excited. Elena had never been outside the small town in Mexico where she’d been born. Nor had she ever seen mountains before. Elena always made the best of any situation. But this situation continued to get worse.

Abby felt sick to her stomach with fear for her daughter. The people after them were trained killers. They wanted the money Julio had stolen. But did they also want Abby Diaz for some reason? And her child?

Jake turned on the radio and adjusted it so most of the sound came out of the back speakers. “There isn’t anywhere we can leave Elena that would be safe,” he said quietly as if reading her mind.

She nodded, the lump in her throat making it impossible to speak for a moment. “I’m just worried.”

“So am I.” He gave her a reassuring smile. “But she should be safe with two former FBI agents taking care of her, don’t you think?” His smiled faded in an instant and his eyes darkened to deep jade. “You really don’t remember anything?” he asked quietly.

She shook her head.

He stared at her for a moment, then the road ahead. “I’ve heard of cases where there’s partial or total memory loss due to a brain injury.”

“Mine’s not due to an injury.”

His gaze ricocheted back to her face. “Then—”

“The doctors said there was nothing physically wrong with me. They think my memory loss was due to shock or repression,” she said, watching his face. “Now that I know who I am, I think it was from discovering someone close to me had tried to kill me.” She met his gaze and held it.

Jake stared at her for a moment, then looked back to the road ahead. “I didn’t try to kill you, Abby. And I’ll prove it to you. I’ll find out who did.”

We’ll find out.”

He drove in silence for a moment. “You can’t remember what happened six years ago?”

“No,” she said, hoping she wasn’t making a mistake telling him this.

“Or remember…us?”

That was the hardest to admit. “I woke up in a Mexican hospital, burned and in terrible pain, with no memory at all. It’s as if my life began six years ago. Julio told me things, but none of the pieces ever fit. I sensed—” A lost passion? “That there was more. Something I’d lost. Something…important.”

His gaze softened, and his glance at her was almost a caress. He let out a sigh. “Abby, I can’t tell you how much I’ve missed you. After what happened, I—” He waved a hand through the air. “I didn’t want to go on. Not without you.”

“But you did.” She hadn’t meant it to sound like an accusation.

“Yeah, I guess I did.” He glanced over at her. “And I guess you still aren’t sure about me, are you?”

She wasn’t sure about anything. Except that she was Abby Diaz. That Elena was Jake’s father. That she and Jake had shared a passion that made her body come alive. Her past played at her memory, bits and pieces that left her worried and afraid of what she’d find when her memory returned. If it returned.

“Didn’t you ever wonder if I might be alive? Question the idea I was dead?” she asked, hearing the hurt in her words.

“Good Lord, no,” he said, reaching over to cup her cheek in his large hand. The hand of a man who worked at hard labor. There was something comforting about that. Strong and solid.

“I saw the end of the building where you’d been just moments before go up in a ball of flame,” he said quietly as he turned back to his driving. “I knew you couldn’t have survived that.”

“But when my body wasn’t found—”

“But it was. A body of a woman was found the next day. We just assumed it was yours.”

She nodded and hugging herself against the sudden chill, looked away. “I wonder who she was.”

“We’ll know soon enough,” he told her. “Frank is having the body exhumed. But Julio said it was some woman who worked with him.”

“How do you explain the evidence I found in the envelope?” she asked, wondering why Julio had planned to burn it. Could he have been trying to protect her? Or someone else?

“I can’t,” he said simply. “All I can tell you is none of it is true.”

They drove along for a few miles to only the sound of Elena singing softly along with the radio.

“Tell me about Abby, the one you knew,” she implored. “Tell me what I was like. Who I was. But first, Jake, tell me—was I raised by my grandmother?” She held her breath, terrified of the answer. If that memory hadn’t been real, then—

“Ana,” he said.

She looked startled.

He nodded. “Yes, the same name you gave Elena’s doll.”

She frowned. “Julio told me my grandmother was named Carmela. The name sounded wrong. When Elena wanted help naming her doll, I suggested Ana. I liked the name.” She looked over at Jake. “The grandmother I remember was a very kind, generous, loving woman.”

“She was,” he agreed. “You adored her.”

Tears filled her eyes. “Is she still alive?”

He shook his head. “Ana Fuentes passed away a year before you were—lost,” he finished.

She sighed, relieved to hear that her grandmother hadn’t died while she’d been held captive in Mexico. That would have been too painful to bear. “And my parents?”

He shook his head again. “Your father died before you were born. Your mother when you were just a baby.”

How odd to lose both parents at such a young age. “From accidents?”

Jake nodded, but kept his eyes on the road. Was there more to it?

She stared out at the rugged scenery. “Then I had no one.”

“Just me,” Jake said.

She realized they were nearing some sort of town. She could see a handful of adobe and rock dwellings, but they seemed deserted.

“Study Butte?” Elena said, leaning over the front seat, to read the sign.

“Stew-dy Butte,” he corrected.

As they drew closer, Abby saw that the town was abandoned, the buildings mostly in ruin. “A ghost town,” she whispered and looked over at Jake, wondering why he’d brought them here, of all places.

He didn’t say anything as he drove through the deserted town, then took a narrow dirt road that led up into the hills.

He glanced over at her. “Remember any of this?”

She shook her head. Nothing in the harsh landscape looked familiar. Just isolated and hostile.

“This is where I was raised,” he said after they’d driven up the windy road for a few minutes. “Study Butte was a mining town. My grandfather got in on the last of the quicksilver just before it died out.” He glanced over at her. “Like you, I was raised by a grandparent.”

She heard something in his voice she recognized. Regret. Pain. Loss. “What happened to your parents?”

“They weren’t into parenting,” he said tightly. He brought the car to a stop in front of a small adobe building. “My grandfather came to the house one night and brought me here.”

She swallowed, her eyes burning, and reached across to squeeze his hand on the seat between them.

“It wasn’t that bad,” he said, and withdrew his hand, pushing away her sympathy. “I learned to love it here. My grandfather was a lot like your grandmother. He saved me.”

“So we were both orphans,” she said.

“Yeah.” He glanced over the seat at Elena, the lines in his face softening. “Come on,” he said to the child as he shut off the engine. “There’s something I want to show you.”

Elena scrambled from the car to be hoisted up into his strong arms. He looked over at Abby as she got out of the car and tilted his head toward the steep hillside behind the house. The trail up the mountain was faint from lack of use. She glanced back the way they’d come, at the ghost town, now miniature in the distance. Then she followed Jake and Elena up the path through the rocks and cactus.

She could hear Jake pointing out mountains and flowers to Elena.

“What is that smell?” Elena asked, wrinkling up her nose.

He laughed. “Creosote bush,” he said pointing to the short evergreen with tiny yellow flowers on it. “That is the smell of the desert.”

They topped the ridge, stopping in the hollow of a rock outcropping. Jake moved to the edge where the rocks opened. She joined him and caught her breath at the sight before her. The landscape was honeycombed with canyons and caves against a backdrop of jagged mountains, some reddish with the cinnabar that had contained the mercury, the substance that had given the town life—and killed it. Beyond Study Butte, she could see the river that marked the boundary between Texas and Mexico.

“The Rio Grande,” he said proudly as if it was his.

In some way, she realized it was. This was Jake’s home. That place he could always come to that resonated with another time. Did she have such a place?

“The Rio Grande is one of the longest rivers in North America,” he was telling Elena.

She felt his gaze on her.

“You should see the sunsets up here,” he said quietly.

She met his eyes and felt a heat hotter than even the fiery sun hanging in the endless blue overhead. And she knew they’d seen a few sunsets up here, that they’d made love in the hollow of these rocks.

He seemed lost in her eyes as if he could see things she couldn’t, feel things she could only imagine.

“I’m hungry,” Elena said. “Is this where we’re going to eat the food we bought?”

He dragged his gaze away and laughed. “This is the place.”

He started back down the mountainside, but Abby stayed behind for a few moments, trying to see Jake Cantrell as a boy here, wanting to feel the strong roots that had helped form the man.

Something caught her eye. She leaned closer and saw the small hollow in the rocks where the sun glistened off one side. Initials had been laboriously dug into the stone. J.C.

 

JAKE TOOK the trail down to the house, surveying the dirt road and the familiar hills around it. Elena was at his side. He knew he hadn’t been followed from Alpine. Traffic had been light, and once he’d turned at Study Butte, he’d had the road to himself.

Nor did anyone know about this place. Not even Mitchell. Or the FBI. The only person he’d ever shared it with was Abby. And now his daughter.

As he pointed out the different mountains in the distance to Elena, he felt himself beginning to relax. He hadn’t been back here in years. But he had kept the place after his grandfather died. A couple from town took care of the upkeep and he kept his name off the title, burying it under a variety of company names and addresses.

He hadn’t done it out of paranoia, but the simple desire for privacy. Study Butte was too much of himself. He hadn’t wanted to share that part of him with anyone. Except Abby.

He turned to look back at her. Her dark hair shone in the sunlight. It swung around her shoulders as she moved toward him, her hips swaying, thighs strong and muscular against the denim of her jeans, the soft hint of her breasts beneath the embroidered top.

“Did you see the mountains?” Elena asked excitedly. “Daddy says they named a canyon in Big Bend just for me. Santa Elena Canyon. He says the walls of the canyon are so high and narrow that the river roars through it. The Apaches used to believe that anyone who went into the canyon would never be seen again.”

Abby laughed, the sound heartrending.

Jake wished there was a place that the three of them could go and never be seen again.

“Can we go there someday? Can we see it?” Elena pleaded.

Abby ran a hand over her daughter’s dark hair and smiled. “Yes,” she said after a moment. “I suppose we could someday.” She looked up at him for confirmation.

“Definitely. The three of us.”

Elena squealed in delight and ran to the car to help with the groceries.

He could see the doubt on Abby’s face. “No one knows about this place but you and me. It’s going to be all right.”

She nodded.

“Or is it me who has you worried?”

She seemed to study him for a moment, then shook her head.

He stepped closer to her, his fingers caressing her smooth cheek as he brushed back her dark hair. Her body came to him as if drawn by magnetism. Or something much more powerful.

He turned her, spooning her body to his as he wrapped her in his arms so they were both facing east. “That’s Big Bend,” he whispered. “And someday we’ll take our daughter there to see her canyon.”

Abby leaned back against him. Her scent mingled with the desert’s. He closed his eyes, breathing it in, letting himself believe for that moment that she was finally starting to trust him and that they were safe.

 

THE ADOBE DWELLING was small but cozy—and almost familiar, Abby thought, with its tiled floors and wood and wicker furniture.

Jake motioned to the huge claw-foot tub in the bathroom. “If you ladies would like to get a hot bath, I’ll get dinner started.”

A bath. At that moment, Abby couldn’t imagine anything she wanted more.

“Can we have bubbles?” Elena asked excitedly.

Jake produced a bottle of purple bubble bath from the bag of groceries. “Just for you,” he said handing it to Elena. “I thought a girl like you would appreciate a bubble bath.”

Elena giggled as she took the plastic bottle and ran into the bathroom. Jake handed Abby the other supplies he’d bought while she was purchasing clothing for her and Elena. Their fingers brushed and she felt a rush both chemical and electrical. Her breath caught in her throat as a memory flashed bright as Texas sunlight.

“What is it?” Jake asked, suddenly wary.

She stared at him. “I…I think it’s a memory. You and me on a…train? Just the two of us.”

He smiled, relief softening his strong, masculine face. “What do you remember?” he asked gently, seductively.

She felt her face flush with heat, the images so provocative, so sensual, so…sexy. She swallowed. “Just that we were on a train together before today.”

He nodded, studying her as if he didn’t quite believe that was all she’d seen.

“Mommy! Come on!” Elena called from the bathroom.

Face burning, she hurried in to join her daughter, closing the bathroom door behind her. In the mirror over the sink, she saw her high color and knew he’d seen it as well. The images of their lovemaking had burned into her brain like a brand. Her skin tingled with the memory, her breasts heavy and aching, need making her weak. How odd to remember such intimacies with a man who was still a stranger to her! Worse yet, to want him so desperately.

She filled the tub, bathing Elena first, then shooing her daughter out to help Jake with dinner so she could be alone. She poured in the purple bubble bath. It smelled of lilac. She stepped into the warm water and cool lilac bubbles and slid down with a satisfied “Ahhhhhh.”

Closing her eyes, she reclined in the tub, bubbles up to her chin, and tried not to think about the man in the next room. Impossible! She opened her eyes, remembering the two of them on that other train, remembering enough to make her ache with unbearable longing.

Over dinner, Jake talked about his childhood while they ate fried catfish, hush puppies and coleslaw. Then he told Elena about her great-grandmother Ana. Abby listened, her eyes tearing. She wished Ana could have lived to see Elena, but more than anything, she wished Elena could have known her great-grandmother.

Elena listened, eyes wide, to Jake’s stories, giggling one minute, bashful the next when he turned the full power of his smile on her. Abby’s heart ached watching the two of them.

After dinner, Jake carried a tuckered-out Elena up to one of the two bedrooms. Abby stood in the doorway, listening to the two of them talking quietly, their voices blending in a sweet lullaby.

She watched him lean down to kiss the child on the cheek. Elena grasped him around the neck with both of her small arms and pulled him close.

“Good night, Daddy.” She kissed his cheek.

Jake straightened. Abby could see the effect the words had on him. The effect his daughter had on him. He cleared his throat. “Good night, chica suena.

Elena giggled. “That’s what Mommy calls me.”

“I know. It’s what her grandmother called her.”

“Good night, Mommy,” she called out as she circled an arm around Sweet Ana, snuggled down under the comforter he pulled over her, and smiled up at him.

Abby had to turn away. She walked out onto the portico and stared up at the magnificent sky. Earlier, the purple tint of twilight had softened the rough edges of the mountains. Now they were etched black against the vast Texas horizon. Stars shimmered in the deep dark blue overhead, dusting the quiet evening in silver starlight. The breeze was warm and dry, perfumed with a mixture of desert scents that pulled at her memory.

She hugged herself and looked up at the heavens, asking the one question that had haunted her since she’d learned of Jake Cantrell’s existence.

“Wishing on a star?” he asked from behind her.

Startled, she swung around. His broad shoulders filled the doorway, blocking out the faint glow of the light he’d left on inside. Slowly he stepped into the starlight.

“Abby.” His fingertips found her face, warm and gentle.

She lost herself in his look, in his touch, stepping into his powerful embrace as if opening a familiar door.

His kiss was both soft and seductive, passionate and potent. He traced her lips with the tip of his tongue. She opened to him, breathless, heart pounding, body aching.

“Jake,” she whispered against his lips. A plea.

He pulled back just enough to look down into her face. Then he swept her up in his arms and, opening the screen door with the toe of his boot, carried her into the bedroom and laid her carefully on the bed.

“It’s been a long time,” she whispered as he joined her. Starlight filtered in through the curtains along with the sweet warm scent of the night breeze.

His gaze touched her face gently. “How long?”

“Six years.”

He frowned. “You don’t mean—”

“Julio was never a husband to me.”

He drew her to him. “I wish I could say I was sorry,” he said huskily. Then his lips dropped to hers and he took her mouth with a hunger that could only match her own.

Frantically they made love, stripping away clothing to get to bare skin, kissing and caressing, wrapped up, locked together, unwilling to relinquish even a naked inch of the other’s body until the moment when they lay spent, hearts pounding in unison.

Abby sighed and looked up into his handsome face. “Jake.” Her one question had been answered. She remembered him…them. Their shared passion. This had been the one feeling she’d recalled, the feeling she hadn’t trusted. She’d been afraid to trust it, for fear it had never existed.

They made love again, this time, slowly, seductively. She explored his body, he explored hers. The night waned outside the window, they reveled in rediscovering what they’d thought they’d lost forever.

How could she question any longer who she was? Or that Jake had been the man she’d shared such passion with? How could she still wonder if he’d been the one who’d tried to kill her?

She lay curled in his arms, sated and satisfied, feeling blessed. Feeling lucky. Both feelings scared her. She’d learned with Julio never to feel safe. Never to let her guard down. With Jake, could she and Elena learn to feel safe again?

She left the warmth of his arms to check on Elena. The child slept, Sweet Ana beside her. Abby covered her with the thin blanket and padded back across the hall to Jake.

He must have seen the worried look on her face.

“You and I are the only ones who ever knew about this place,” he said. “If we aren’t safe here, Abby, we aren’t safe anywhere.”

She nodded, fearing the latter was true as she got back into the bed, back into his arms. But she couldn’t shake the worried feeling that this wouldn’t last. Couldn’t last.

“Tell me about the last six years,” he whispered against her hair. “Please.”

She stared up at the fan turning hypnotically above them, the air cool on her naked skin. “Elena and I were virtually prisoners. I tried to leave once.” She hesitated. “Julio caught me and Elena. I knew then that he’d kill us both if I tried again. I also knew he was involved with Calderone. I hoped pretending would keep Elena safe.”

He didn’t say anything for a long time, just held her. “I’m sorry. Why do you think he pretended to be your husband for all those years?”

She shook her head. “I guess he planned to use me and Elena to get him out of Mexico with Calderone’s money.” Why did she feel it was much more than that? “I suppose once he realized I had amnesia and was pregnant, it was an easy way to keep an eye on me. Plus he had his own built-in housekeeper and cook.”

She saw Jake’s jaw clenched with anger and changed the subject.

“Tell me about my life. The key has to be in my past and you’re the only one who can help me.”

He told her about a strong, capable, sexy, interesting, unique woman named Abby Diaz and she had to laugh, knowing that no such woman had ever existed, except in Jake’s mind. Or maybe his heart.

She tried to imagine even a scaled-down version of that woman, that life, but still couldn’t.

“Has any of your memory come back?” he asked.

“Just feelings more than actual memories. Images.” She frowned. “I keep seeing an older, blond woman, a striking woman.”

“Crystal Jordan. Frank’s wife. We spent quite a lot of time at their place. The four of us and some of the other agents.”

She frowned, trying to pull up something that seemed just on the edge of her memory. But gave up after a moment and closed her eyes, her head aching.

“Give it time, Abby.”

“I might not have time,” she whispered. “Jake, there is someone in my past who I can’t trust, who might still want me dead—and I won’t even recognize him when he comes for me.”

“What about the man on the train? You still can’t place him?”

She shook her head. “I just know that he was shocked to see me. He definitely recognized me, and it surprised him.”

He told her about the six-agent team that had gone into the building the night she disappeared, then described the agents.

“Buster McNorton was older, a veteran, experienced and levelheaded,” he said summing it up.

“He’s one of those who died?”

Jake nodded. “The other agent who died was Dell Harper.”

She felt a small stir of memory. “Dell?”

Jake seemed to be watching her closely. “Dell Harper was the quiet type. Average Joe. You were closer to him than anyone else on the team.”

That surprised her. “Really?”

He looked away. “You were on his baseball team. You always said he was like the little brother you never had.”

She studied Jake, sensing something she couldn’t put her finger on as she tried to picture Average Joe Dell Harper. “Was Dell married?”

He shook his head. “I think I heard something about a fiancée once. But I guess she was killed in an accident.” He seemed to hesitate. “You were always real protective of him. He might have told you about it.”

She said nothing, wondering if she’d heard something in Jake’s voice. Jealousy?

“Frank and Reese Ramsey stayed with the Bureau,” Jake continued. “Both have moved up. You remember Reese?”

She shook her head. She didn’t remember any of this. It seemed as foreign as the stories Julio had told her. She wondered if she and Jake would have still been with the Bureau if that night hadn’t gone so badly.

“Reese is a nice guy. Smart, easygoing, dedicated, but not like Frank.”

“You don’t like Frank?” she asked, surprised considering that he’d just told her they’d spent a lot of time with Frank and his wife, Crystal.

“I used to, but everything changed when you—”

“Were lost,” she suggested, using his words.

“Yeah.”

“Frank was with us that night?” she asked.

He let out a sigh. “Frank had gone around to the side of the building with Reese. You and I were taking the front.” He looked up, his gaze meeting hers for an instant. “I’m not sure what happened. One minute you were behind me. The next you’d gone around to the back after Buster and Dell.”

A chill raced over her skin like a long-legged spider. She shivered. Why had she gone with Buster and Dell instead of staying with Jake? She wouldn’t have disobeyed orders, would she? She snuggled into him, suddenly terrified.

“You think Frank ordered me to go with Buster and Dell?”

He said nothing, just pulled her close and kissed the top of her head.

“If that’s true, then what are we going to do? That would mean that Frank—”

His cell phone rang, startling them both. He looked at her for a long moment, then he reached for the phone where he’d left it beside the bed. He acted as if he knew who was calling. A man they both suspected they now had to fear.