Zander’s soft, strong voice carried through the air, slowly lolling her to sleep. When she woke again, the book was on the bedside table and the light was off. Zander was nowhere to be found. Part of her wished that he’d climbed into the bed beside her and slept there through the night, but he was a gentleman, always respecting her space. No matter how many signals she gave that she was open to a romance with him, he never took advantage in the least. It just made her want him even more. Her head ached as she rose. She was in no shape for romance as it was. Probably much better to take things slow.
She made her way downstairs. Zander had already started preparing breakfast. She was feeling much better today than she had the day before. She remembered he’d promised to take her clothes shopping. She had forgotten that she had no money or way of paying for anything. She was going to point that out when he set down a plate of eggs and bacon in front of her on the counter.
“Will you be up to shopping today?”
“I will be, but I don't have any money.”
“Don't worry about that, Emma. I just want you to be comfortable.”
“You've already done so much for me.”
“Will you reconsider me having my friend to hack into your social media account?”
“I should probably reach out to the people from my life to let them know I'm okay.”
“I think that's wise.”
“I'm still not ready to leave here,” she said.
“You don't have to do anything you don't want to. But I'm going to have to leave you alone a little bit later today. Are you going to be all right?”
“I'll be fine. I'll probably just sleep all day.”
After breakfast, they loaded up into Zander's car and made their way to the Fate Rock Mall. He took her to all the clothing stores she wanted to visit and waited for her while she tried things on. She didn't know what her style was, but she chose mostly comfortable clothes. Jeans, warm long-sleeved tops, a new pair of boots that didn't remind her of trudging through the wilderness in the freezing cold. When they made it back to Zander's house, he let her know that his friend had hacked into her social media account and had the password.
“You can log in here on my computer,” he told her as they sat in his office. “And you can call me on the landline if you need anything.” His phone number was scrawled out in neat handwriting on a sticky note beside the phone.
She looked up at him and nodded. She could see something in his eyes. Something that told her he wanted to kiss her, but he didn't. She wished that he would. What was he waiting for? What if she never got better?
So instead of waiting for him, she stood up from the computer desk and wrapped her arms around his slim waist. She rested her head against his chest and inhaled the scent of him. He drew her closer, and she let out a shuddering breath. She didn't want to let him go. He stroked her hair, and then stepped back.
“I’ll only be gone a few hours. Please call me if you need anything.”
“I will.”
“There is food in the fridge if you're hungry. And I left some cash if you want to order a pizza or takeout from Squad Goals.”
“I wish I could pay you back somehow.”
“You don't have to pay me back. I don't want you to ever worry about that. I'm not taking care of you for a reward. I'm taking care of you because I care about you. Because you're a sweet, caring woman who needs protection. And I would not be who I am if I expected anything in return.”
“Someday, I just hope that I can do as much for you as you've done for me.
“I'm sure you'll get the chance if that’s what you want.”
“I hope so.” She looked deeply into his eyes, wishing he would kiss her. And then, as if her wish was granted, he leaned down and softly brushed his lips over hers. A wave of electricity passed between them and she suddenly felt weak in the knees. She felt herself falling, and he caught her.
“This is why we need to take things slowly,” he said in a low husky voice.
“I’ll be better soon,” she said.
“I know you will. But not today.”
“I know you're right.”
“I want you to know that I’m not holding back because I don't want you. Because I do. I'm holding back because I don't want to hurt you. And I never will hurt you.”
“I don't know how I know this, but I know you would never hurt me.”
“I'm glad. And I am truly grateful for that. But I have to protect you, Emma. Even from myself.”
“You go now. I'll be okay.” She looked up at him. He really was such a good man. She was extraordinarily grateful to him. For everything he'd done for her, and everything he hadn't done.
He kissed the top of her head and then disappeared downstairs. Emma was left alone with the login information for her social media account. As soon as she logged in, she saw a plethora of messages from friends asking where she was and why she hadn't shown up in Denver.
She answered a message from her friend Dahlia, who had sent the bulk of the texts — she didn't want her to worry, but Emma wasn't ready to leave Fate Rock just yet. She needed to see things through with Zander, and she wanted to know what had happened to her.
“I'm okay, Dalia,” she started. “I was in an accident. I'm staying with someone in Fate Rock, Colorado. I have had an injury. But I'm safe. I'm having trouble with my memory, but I hope that it will soon return. I will let you know if anything changes. This is my address. I want you to know that I'm safe.”
Emma felt better about everything after sending the message. She didn't want her friends to worry, but she didn't know the woman. Even though Dahlia had probably been a good friend in her past, in the present, Zander was the only person she really knew. And right now, Zander was the one she wanted to be with.
Chapter 8
Zander made his way up the long, winding road toward the gas station where the attendant had been found. The police believed it was the location where the mayor had been murdered because the blood samples matched. He had all the forensics on the body and the crime scene, and he had been studying them the night before when Emma woke up from a nightmare.
The connection between the gas station attendant, the mayor, and Emma was too strong to be random. But the police had not yet found any evidence to connect Emma to the other two incidents. Zander was determined to find the evidence and connection. Something terrible had happened to Emma. Something so bad that it haunted her dreams and had stolen her memories. He hoped that giving her the login to her social media accounts would help her unlock her memory.
He stopped on the road where he had found Emma that night in the snow. He pulled off the highway and got out of the car. Looking around at the snow-covered trees and dense forest, he thought about the topography of the landscape. How could she have possibly gotten here?
No new insights came to him. He got back in the car and drove in silence, trying to put together the pieces of the puzzle. He couldn't see how anything was connected. There had to be something he was missing. It was beyond his grasp and felt like an itch at the back of his mind.
He made it to the gas station that had been cordoned off with police tape. The snow that had fallen in the last several days had been stamped down from police activity. Deep puddles of mud and brown snow surrounded the area.
He ducked under the police tape and entered the building. The forensics team had already done their work and the place was abandoned. Zander looked around the front of the gas station. It was such a small rural place that it had no security camera. The owner clearly hadn't expected a crime such as this to be committed on his property.
Zander shuddered at the thought of one of their local businesspeople being taken down in cold blood. But why? It hadn't been a robbery. Nothing had been taken from the inventory or from the cash register. A dead body had been found in the back in the shed. Zander walked through the gas station. He looked in both of the bathrooms and then walked out the back door. The mud and muddy snow was worse out here.
He shivered in the damp cold. He walked toward the shed. The blood of the mayor had been found here and evidence of that was still sprinkled in the snow drifts beyond the shed.
Zander inspected the shed. It was mostly just equipment for the gas station. Some hand tools and some automotive equipment. Nothing too interesting or special. He opened up his phone and read the forensic files again. The mayor's blood had been found here, and so had the gas station owner’s, but the mayor's body had been found twenty miles away. Why had they moved the body? Were they just trying to throw them off the trail? Obviously with modern forensics, it was easy enough to identify the mayor's DNA from the blood in the mud and snow. There had to be another reason.
This was what the police department hired him for. To delve into the mind of the criminal. He still couldn’t piece together a reason that the mayor’s body would be moved, unless the criminal was just naïve and uninformed. And had no idea that the police could identify blood samples so easily. The bullets in both the mayor and the gas station owner had come from the same gun: an unregistered weapon that couldn't be traced to anyone. The owner of an illegal weapon had to have some savvy as a criminal, so then, why had they moved the body?
Perhaps he was asking the wrong questions. Maybe there was no reason that they moved the body. Maybe it was just a trick. Zander rubbed his temples. He wasn't getting anywhere.
He walked back to the car and headed out towards where the mayor's body had been found. As he drove there, he wondered if maybe the criminal was trying to hide the body, but they hadn't done a very good job. Were they in a rush?
He made it to where the mayor's body had been found, and knelt down in the ditch about a mile from the road. The body had been found by the landowner. At the time, the ground had been frozen. Perhaps it was too difficult to hide the body very well. That could be an explanation. But then why not burn it or hide it somewhere else? He must have been in a rush.
Zander circled around the crime scene. The location was far enough away from civilization that it made some sense to choose it. The closest house was three miles away. If that rancher hadn't randomly stumbled upon the grave, the mayor's body may not have been found for years.
Zander made his way back to the car, the warming air melting the snow. It created a deeper chill as the moisture entered the air. The sky was gray and dark, the day dreary and heavy, and it seemed to reflect the heaviness he felt inside. He didn't feel as if he was anywhere closer to solving this case or making the world a safer place for Emma.
As he was driving back toward the gas station, he turned on the radio and listened to the news. There was a big New Year's Eve celebration in town, and he wondered if Emma would like to go. It might be nice to have some novelty after all the worries and problems she'd been through. He decided he'd ask her when he got back to the house.
He imagined kissing Emma at midnight on New Year's Eve. The subtle sense of happiness surrounded him like a warm blanket. Then, almost at the gas station, he saw something strange that he hadn’t noticed before. There seemed to be skid marks on the road that led off a cliff into the distance. He stopped the car and got out. The snow had melted, revealing what had been covered before.
He looked down the cliff. In the distance, light glinted off glass and metal. He squinted, trying to make out what the object at the bottom of the cliff could be. Then it occurred to him: it must be a vehicle. Zander quickly slipped out of his clothes and shifted into his grizzly bear form. It would be far easier for him to traverse the steep incline in his animal form. As he gingerly stepped off the road and made his way into the ravine, his human mind took a backseat to the mind of the grizzly. His inner beast was completely and totally distracted by the knowledge of his mate.
“Claim her. Claim her now,” the beast growled as the human mind tried to maintain control.
He had to solve this case. He had to find out what had happened to her. As he drew closer, it became clear that the object was indeed a vehicle. The front door was open and the scent of his mate filled the air. This was Emma's car.
He shifted again, back into his human body. Shivering in the cold, he inspected the vehicle. It had been shot at multiple times. He looked in the front seat and found a phone. This was definitely her car. The connections between the killings and Emma were beginning to make sense. Had she stopped at the gas station at just the wrong time and witnessed something she shouldn't have?
He grabbed the phone and shifted again, making his way back up the hill with the objects tucked in his mouth. At the top of the cliff, he shifted and got dressed. Then he immediately called his contacts in the police department.
“I found something you need to check out. The girl I found on the road, who had amnesia. I located what I believe is her vehicle. It has gunshots in the rear taillights and a back tire. I would suspect that these bullets came from the same gun that shot the mayor and the gas station owner.”
Zander gave them the exact location, and twenty minutes later the scene was swarming with police officers. That's when he noticed he’d missed a call while inspecting the vehicle, and he had a voicemail from his home phone number. He quickly listened to the message, and what he heard chilled his blood.
“Zander, you have to come home. He's here.”
Chapter 9
“Do you want me to come pick you up?” Dahlia asked.
“No. I want to stay here. There's a lot for me to figure out. And I still haven't remembered anything about my life.”
“Are you sure? You don't know anything about this man. You really think it's safe to stay there?”
“It's the safest place I know,” she said with a laugh. She didn't know anything else.
She had hoped that hearing Dahlia's voice would spark some memory for her, but so far, it hadn't done anything but make her feel frustrated.
“If you change your mind, I can come down and get you any time.”
“Thank you, Dalia. I can tell that you're a good friend. I just wish I could remember it.”
“It'll come back to you, Em. It has to.”
Emma got off the phone with Dahlia, glad that she had at least reached out to someone, but her life still felt like a big, empty, blank hole. There was nothing there and nothing to hold onto. It was an excruciatingly disorienting feeling. But at least she had Zander. She had something to hold onto that made some kind of sense.
Maybe Dalia was right. Maybe she was being naïve in placing so much significance on a man she’d just met. But he was the only person she knew now, and the only person who mattered.
She wished she could remember the woman she used to be. Was she brave? Was she strong? Or did she compromise herself and her beliefs? She knew that she worked for a startup as a graphic designer. It sounded like a fun job. The idea of doing art in her daily life seemed appealing to her, though she didn't know if she really had any idea how to do any of that anymore. What if her memories never came back? Would she ever be able to work again? Would she have to train in a whole new profession?
Emma stood from the desk with a sigh. She felt so confused and disoriented. She wished that something about her past felt familiar. At least now she had clothes that fit her right and felt like they belonged to her.
She walked downstairs to the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. She pulled out a bottle of orange juice and poured herself a cup. The cool liquid slid down her throat and the sweet juice entered her bloodstream, giving her a quick burst of energy. She let out a satisfied sigh and smiled. The simplest things in life could be so worthwhile. She set about cleaning up the breakfast dishes, loading everything into the dishwasher and turning it on. Somehow, she remembered how to do these things, and yet she couldn't remember her job, or her childhood, or her friends. It was all so very strange.
She walked back up to her room and picked up the book Zander had been reading to her the night before. There was a bookmark in place where he'd left off. She grabbed the book and walked back downstairs to the living room. She slipped off her fur
-lined boots and curled up in Zander's chair.
She opened the book and began to read, starting off where he left off. As she read the words of the classic novel and sat in his chair, it made her feel even closer to him. She knew, as if by instinct, that this was where she belonged. He was the North Star that could guide her home. Even after speaking with Dahlia and agreeing with her that she had just met this man and didn't know anything about him, she just knew that this was home. Zander was hers. She was still injured from the ordeal in the forest, though, and even though he’d kissed her twice now, she knew he was right about not taking it too fast too soon.
She stopped reading the book and took a deep breath, imagining what it would be like to be with Zander. She imagined him cupping her face in his hands. Pressing his full soft lips to hers. Gathering her toward him and pressing her against his hard chest. She imagined wrapping her arms around his neck and sliding her tongue between his lips. She imagined tasting him and feeling him all around her. She imagined how safe and warm and beautiful it would feel to have his hands roam her body. A tingle of desire shot down her spine. And she smiled. Opening her eyes, she began to read again with a sense of hope and excitement in her heart. She would heal. And then they could be together.
Emma read for an hour, and then set down the book. She looked out the window and noticed a car sitting across the street. It didn't look out of place on the street. Most of the people who lived here had new SUVs. She wasn't sure why the car seemed notable to her. Then she was struck by the most intense sensation — the memory slammed into her body so hard she collapsed onto the couch.
That vehicle. She recognized it. It was dangerous. It was going to get her.
Her heart slammed in her ears. Her blood buzzed. Her breathing came in heavy pants. It was so fast she felt lightheaded. She jumped to her feet and hurried to the front door, making sure it was locked. Then she checked all the windows and went to the back door, making sure it was locked too.
Sly Bear (Justice Squad Book 7) Page 4