Broken

by Cynthia Eden

  What was happening?

  His eyes glittered down at her. She could easily read the frustrated desire on his face.

  And he pulled away. He jumped from the bed and stalked toward that pounding.

  Eve rose from the bed, too, only she was moving far more slowly than he was. She ran a shaking hand through her hair and looked around the room. Her clothes. She’d need her clothes. She’d need—

  “Wade, what the hell are you doing here?” Gabe snarled.

  She yanked on her dress. Didn’t bother with a bra but she tried to fix her panties.

  “Sorry, Gabe.” She could hear Wade’s voice clearly. “He insisted.”

  “Because I had to see her!”

  She froze because that wasn’t Wade’s voice. It was the voice of the man she’d met earlier, at LOST. The man who could be her brother.

  Pierce Montgomery.

  Eve found herself hurrying toward the bedroom door.

  “I heard about what happened,” Pierce continued, voice cracking a bit. “Eve was attacked. Nearly killed.”

  She pulled open the bedroom door. The squeak of its hinges seemed incredibly loud to her as she peeked out.

  That squeak must have been loud to the men, too, because their heads turned at the sound. Gabe. Wade. Pierce. They were all staring at the darkened bedroom. Swallowing, Eve opened that door wider. She was decent, but she knew her hair was tousled, her cheeks were no doubt flushed, and her dress wasn’t exactly pristine anymore. Not that it ever had been.

  The others will know what we were doing.

  Gabe took a quick step, placing himself in front of Pierce. “She’s been through hell tonight. She was resting, and Eve needs to go back to sleep—”

  “Jessica?” Pierce’s voice sounded so hesitant then. Weak. Scared.

  He eased around Gabe and stared at her. She was in the bedroom doorway, nervously shifting from one foot to the other.

  The first time she’d seen Pierce in LOST, she thought he seemed perfect. Hair exactly in place. Suit pressed. Everything about him had screamed poise and confidence.

  This time he was different. His hair looked as if he’d yanked his hands through it a dozen different times. His shirt was haphazardly buttoned—two buttons were in the wrong holes, and as he hurried toward her, there was no missing the fear on his face.

  He pulled her into his arms. “I could have lost you again.”

  The words were whispered into her ears.

  Eve shook her head. “You said . . . you don’t even know I’m Jessica.” She should feel something for him. A connection. If she’d known this man her whole life, he should make her feel safe. Or happy. Or loved. Something.

  But she didn’t feel anything when he held her.

  She looked over his shoulder and saw Gabe staring at them with narrowed eyes.

  We were making love. Gabe made me feel . . . he makes me feel everything.

  “I’m afraid for you to be her.” Pierce pulled back. Stared down at her with a green gaze gone stark with emotion. “And I’m afraid for you not to be her.” His breath heaved out. “I mourned her. When Jessica vanished, I—I knew something terrible had happened, right from the start. We always talk. I know every secret she has. She knows mine. No one has ever been closer to me.” His arms were so tight around her that they almost bruised her. “And it never hurt more to know that I’d lost her.” His jaw locked. “It felt like that bastard who took her had cut out my own heart.”

  And, finally, finally, she did feel something for him. Pity. “I’m sorry,” Eve whispered. The last thing she wanted to do was hurt this man in front of her. She didn’t want to hurt anyone. All she wanted was to learn the secrets of her past.

  But what if my past winds up hurting too many people?

  Gabe edged closer to them.

  Wade stood a few feet away, his gaze not missing a thing, but the ex-detective wasn’t saying a word.

  “Wade told me about the attack on you, and I had to see for myself that you were all right.” Pierce swallowed quickly. Then he seemed to grow even more uncertain as he stared at her. “The hair is a little darker, just a shade or so . . . but Jessica always stayed in the sun so much, it made her hair appear even blonder.”

  She’d barely spent any time outside. She’d worked her jobs at the shelter, gone to all of her doctor visits—

  “The voice . . . it’s huskier. Not hers.”

  Gabe rolled his shoulders. “I already told you—” he began.

  “But your eyes . . . your eyes are hers.” Then Pierce jerked away from her. He ran a hand through his already tousled hair. “I just . . . I don’t want to lose Jessica again. I’m not sure I could survive that.” His hand fell to his side. Fisted. “I want my sister back.”

  Her lips pressed together because she didn’t know what to say to him. I want my life back.

  Pierce turned to face Gabe. “What can I do? Every resource I have . . . I’ll put it at your disposal. I want the truth. I need it.” His hand was still fisted. “And that twisted freak who did this? The Lady Killer? I want him dead.”

  Now Wade did advance, stepping away from the wall with a quick shake of his head. “Murder isn’t the answer, Montgomery.” His gaze cut quickly to Gabe. “No matter what you might think.” Then his stare returned to Pierce.

  Pierce’s laugh held no humor, only bitter pain. “Tell that to the other families. You think they don’t feel the exact same way I do? The FBI told us that the Lady Killer tortures his victims. For days.”

  Eve’s breath came harder. Faster.

  The scent of the ocean stung her nose. An ocean that wasn’t there.

  “He gets off on their pain,” Pierce said, the words sharp with anger. “And he’s not going to stop. Some fancy-ass FBI profiler told me it was doubtful that the guy could ever stop. Some compulsion bullshit.” His southern accent was growing more pronounced with each word. “So what do you think should really happen to him? Life in a cage? Or a swift trip to hell?”

  “It’s not your call to make,” Wade gritted out.

  “Isn’t it?”

  Her palms were sweating. The pleasure she’d had with Gabe had vanished, and cold fear had come back to take its place.

  “We want justice,” Gabe said. There was no emotion in his voice—so at odds with the furious rage barely contained in Pierce’s voice. “And we know that’s what you want, too.”

  Pierce grunted. “What I want is not to have dreams about my sister—dreams of her screaming and dying every night.”

  Eve’s body trembled.

  Gabe crossed to Eve’s side. His shoulder brushed against hers. “We’re going to Dauphin Island.”

  Pierce’s eyes seemed to double in size. “Are you kidding me? That’s where he got her! That’s where—”

  “I was just attacked right here in Atlanta,” Eve said quietly, amazed that her voice came out so level. “Here or there, if it’s the Lady Killer after me, he’s going to keep hunting.”

  From the corner of her eye she saw Gabe tense.

  “Being in a familiar place . . .” Gabe’s voice had a distinct edge now. “Our psychiatrist said that could spur her memory.”

  Pierce frowned at that.

  Eve had been told the same thing by other shrinks, so she wasn’t surprised to hear that Sarah had given him advice to visit a familiar place. Only back then, I hadn’t known which places might have actually been familiar to me. Then, the whole world had seemed foreign to her.

  It still did.

  Gabe kept his focus on Pierce. “By going down there, my team and I will have the chance to conduct our own investigation.”

  A muscle jerked in Pierce’s jaw. “So you think you’re going to find the killer, and what—use her as bait?”

  “Hell, no,” Gabe denied instantly. “Our number one priority is her safety. But we also find the lost, and there are still victims down there who are missing. We can find them. We can find that killer, and, yeah, we can put him in a cage so that he won�
��t hurt anyone else again.”

  Pierce’s gaze slid between her and Gabe. There was suspicion in his stare. “You sure have developed what seems like a very personal interest in this case.” His chin jutted up. “I’ve done my research on your group. You’re not exactly cheap, so how—”

  “My interest in this case isn’t your concern. Neither is my fee. That’s already been paid.”

  The suspicion just deepened in Pierce’s gaze.

  “We want access to Jessica’s home on the island,” Gabe said.

  Pierce blinked, seemingly caught off-guard. “But . . . but her home is for sale.” He looked down at his hands, still clenched into fists. “I packed everything up. Packed up Jessica’s life . . .”

  “But her home isn’t sold yet, right? The condo is on the market, but no one has made an offer yet.”

  Pierce looked back at Eve. “It just . . . hurt. Going in there. Seeing you—her—everywhere. The paints. The brushes.” His eyes closed. “I could even smell Jessica inside. Lilacs. She always smelled like lilacs.” His voice trailed away.

  Silence.

  Eve remembered going to the drugstore with the first bit of cash she’d earned. And buying lilac body lotion.

  Pierce sucked in a deep breath and then straightened his hunched shoulders. His gaze was like a touch as it slid over her face. “Jessica?” There was a question in that name. An almost desperate hope.

  She just stared at him.

  His lips pressed together and he gave a grim nod. “You can stay at the condo. There’s furniture in it—not Jessica’s, but furniture that the real estate agent put in for staging. Stay there. Do whatever you . . . need to do.”

  “Thank you,” Gabe said. “We appreciate your cooperation.”

  “Cooperation? Screw that. Guilt is eating me alive.” Pierce’s gaze dropped to his hands again. “I felt like it was my fault. Jessica was my sister. I was her big brother. I was supposed to protect her. I was supposed to keep her safe. I didn’t.”

  Eve stepped toward him because his pain was almost palpable. She reached out and tentatively touched his shoulder.

  He froze. “I want you to be her. I . . . miss her.” So much pain was there. Pierce exhaled slowly and his gaze lifted. “Anything you need, anything I can do . . . I’ll give you full access.”

  “Thank you,” Eve whispered. She didn’t want to hurt this man before her. She wanted to help him because it was obvious to her that he’d been through hell.

  “I haven’t gone down there, not since I put the condo unit up for sale. Jessica always loved that island. I see her everywhere there. A ghost.” His head tilted. “But you’re not a ghost, are you?”

  Eve didn’t know what she was.

  Pierce cleared his throat. “I, um, I have to go to New York . . . stupid damn merger that’s been in the works. But I’ll fly back and meet you all down there. I’ll be there as soon as I can be.”

  “That’s not necessary,” Gabe told him. “We don’t need you for our investigation on the island.”

  “But I need to be there.” The faint lines near Pierce’s eyes deepened. “I owe it to Jessica.” His hand lifted. Curled around hers. “I’m so glad you’re all right,” he whispered. “I didn’t . . . I didn’t want to go through all of that again.”

  Wade cleared his throat. “Okay, man, you saw her. You talked to her—that was the deal. Now it’s time to get the hell out of here.” He came forward and put his hand on Pierce’s shoulder. “Let’s go.” Wade glanced over at Gabe. “He was at LOST, waiting outside. The guy was desperate.”

  “I can hear you,” Pierce muttered. “But, yes, I am a desperate man. You would be, too, if you’d lost your sister.”

  Gabe stiffened.

  “I tried calling, but I couldn’t get you,” Wade said quietly to Gabe, but Eve caught his words.

  She too heard the phone ring, but she’d been . . . distracted at the time. She could feel her cheeks sting.

  Gabe followed Wade and Pierce to the door.

  But before leaving, Pierce glanced back at her. “There’s . . . something else.” His gaze shifted to Gabe. “Something you need to know.”

  Gabe waited. No change of expression crossed his face.

  “My sister’s lover is down on that island.”

  Eve felt her heart stop.

  “So if you’re looking for familiar surroundings to jump-start her memory, that place—and Trey Wallace—hell, that should do it.”

  Trey Wallace. The name meant nothing to her.

  Gabe’s fingers curled around the edge of the door. “Her lover?” His voice was as cold as ice.

  “That cop is the only guy she kept around long. She’d date other men but always go back to him in the end. She loved him. She told me that.” His head turned and he stared at Eve. “Maybe I couldn’t make you remember anything, but Trey could be a different story. You’re never supposed to forget your first love, right?”

  She had forgotten. Everything and everyone.

  Pierce cleared his throat. “Fair warning, Gabe, you won’t be able to step foot on that island without him coming for her.”

  A shiver slid down her spine.

  “Thought you should know that,” Pierce said, voice low, hard. “Because of that personal interest you have in the case.”

  And then he was gone. After one last, long look at Eve, he’d hurried into the hallway. Wade was right on his heels.

  Eve found that she was frozen to the spot, mostly because she was too aware of the dangerous tension that seemed to now cling to Gabe.

  Slowly, carefully, he shut the door. Locked it. Reset the alarm. His hands flattened against the wooden door. “You should go to bed. You need your rest.”

  He didn’t even look at her as he said those words.

  Her hands twisted together in front of her. “I thought we were going to be together.”

  His shoulders stiffened. “You could already have a lover out there.”

  “I don’t know him.” Trey Wallace was a man without a face to her.

  “I had my team do a background search on Jessica. They didn’t find any current relationships for her. They told me that she’d broken up with a lover a few weeks before her disappearance.” He sucked in a deep breath. “They didn’t know you were in love with anyone.”

  He’s my lover . . . only if I am Jessica. “I don’t know him,” Eve said again, and made herself step forward. One foot. Then the other.

  But before she’d reached him, Gabe drove his fist into the door.

  Her breath caught and she froze.

  “Go back into the bedroom. Shut the door. And count yourself lucky we were interrupted.”

  She shook her head, but he still wasn’t looking at her, so he didn’t see the protest.

  “Because if I’d taken you, it wouldn’t have mattered to me who you loved, you’d be mine.” His laugh was harsh. “What the hell does that say about me?”

  “Gabe—”

  “You make me feel things I shouldn’t. My reaction to you isn’t normal. It’s not safe.” He pushed away from the door. Stalked toward the window overlooking the city. Still didn’t look at her. She needed to see his eyes, but he wasn’t giving her that glimpse into his emotions. “You’re a client, and I almost fucked you.”

  Were his words supposed to hurt her? Because they did. “I wanted you,” she said. I still want you. “And I don’t know why you’re acting so surprised that I might have been with a lover before.” Now she was the one marching toward him. There wasn’t anything frozen about her then. She was filled with a fierce fury. She grabbed his arm, spun him around, and made Gabe look at her.

  Desire and guilt. That’s what she saw in his eyes.

  “I don’t care who you were with before me,” she told him flatly. “You had lovers. I had lovers. And you know what? Maybe we were in love with them. That doesn’t make it worse—it makes it better. It makes it better to know that we can both care about other people.” Her breath heaved out as her heart
raced like a galloping horse in her chest. “But that’s the past. You actually remember your past—bonus for you—but I don’t. The fact that I can’t remember doesn’t change what’s happening right this moment. I am here now, with you. I want you. Not some guy named Trey. You.”

  He moved to touch her. His hands lifted, but then he dropped his arms. “You might change your mind when you remember him.”

  Is that what he was afraid of? “And maybe I won’t.”

  His jaw was locked tight. “I’m a possessive bastard,” he told her.

  What?

  “I want you so much that I’m fucking about to explode right now.”

  That was good.

  “But I can’t have a taste and walk away.” He gave a hard shake of his head. “That’s not who I am.”

  She didn’t even know who she was.

  “If I take you, there’s no going back. I won’t be able to go back.”

  He was warning her again. Maybe she should be afraid. She wasn’t. “And when I take you,” Eve told him as she tilted her head to stare deeply into his eyes. So bright. “There will be no going back.”

  His face hardened even more as he stared down at her. “I can still fucking taste you.”

  Oh . . . wow.

  “It doesn’t seem like it, but I am honestly trying to be a damn gentleman for you right now.”

  He was?

  “If I were in love with you . . . and you slept with another man, I think I might just go insane.”

  She licked her lips.

  His gaze fell to her mouth. “Fucking. Insane.”

  “I don’t know Trey—”

  “Tomorrow, you will. Tomorrow, everything will change.”

  She wrapped her arms around her stomach, suddenly feeling cold.

  “I should have kept my hands off you.”

  Eve turned away from him. Headed toward the bedroom. “I wanted them on me.” She’d wanted more than that. She’d wanted him in her. She still did. Would she still want him tomorrow? Not if he kept acting like a dick.