That’s when he realized that his apartment was just as plain as dry, white paint. Lucky slowly approached Lana and started sniffing her feet.
“Oh, so you’re the one that was barking,” she cooed at the dog. She petted him lightly.
“Um, have a seat. I’m just going to go and put something on,” Alec said as he glanced down at the carpet.
“Take your time. I’m not in a hurry.”
****
Layla had nearly swooned when Alec opened the door. She had remembered he was in excellent shape, but the beads of water on his muscular shoulders and his wet hair made him a Roman god.
She removed her jacket and placed it on the gray couch next to her purse. She had on a short-sleeved, dark burgundy jacket that had no buttons, exposing the matching bustier that showed a lot of her midriff. The outfit was part of her new style. That’s when she cursed herself for listening to Bruce. Feeling self-conscious that she had overdressed, she tightened the jacket around her as she sat down on the sofa.
Layla looked around the living room. It was the home of a true bachelor. There were a few framed pictures on the walls of what she assumed were Alec’s family members. She looked over at the end table next to her. There was a photo of Alec, his parents, and another guy that had brown hair like Alec’s, but the cut was a different. This guy’s hair was a little longer, floppy-like.
A vision formed in her mind. She was back in the Peterson house. A young Alec was smiling at her next to the man in the picture. “Lana, this is my brother, Eric.”
The memory faded as quickly as it formed. She rapidly blinked her eyes.
“Are you okay?” Alec asked.
She looked up. He had put on a pair of shorts, showing off his smooth muscle-defined legs, and a Florida Gators T-shirt. The German Shepard was standing behind him looking at her. “Yes.”
“Do you want a drink? I don’t have anything fancy, though. But I’ve got rum, gin, and beer.”
His statement about not having anything fancy struck her. What did he mean by that? “I don’t need anything fancy, as you put it. Gin is fine, thank you.”
“Sorry, it’s just that . . . I know you drink . . . expensive stuff, like high-end champagne and wine.”
“Not all the time. I’m not a snob.”
“I didn’t say you were,” he said quickly. “And I didn’t mean to imply it either.”
She realized that his comment was from the pain that she had caused him by choosing a man who had more money than him. “It’s okay. I . . . In hindsight, I understand why you said that.”
“What do you mean?”
“Um, I just mean that I brought it on myself.”
Alec gave her an inquisitive look. “I’ll get that gin. You want ice? Any chaser? I got some ginger ale.” If he had questions about what she meant, he wasn’t going to ask them.
“Just ice, please,” she said.
He nodded and left the room.
Layla had taken an anxiety pill before she came, so she had to be careful with the alcohol. She basically asked for the drink to keep her hands busy for when they got into the meat of why she was there. Layla took slow, deep breaths to calm her nerves as she waited for him to come back. She could hear an icemaker running.
A minute or two later, Alec emerged from the kitchen with two cups that looked like a cross between a yellow and orange color. The dog happily trotted behind him. He handed her the cup that was in his left hand.
“Thank you,” she said and held the cup in both hands.
“It’s nine-thirty. Most husbands would wonder where their wife was heading without him on Tuesday evening,” he remarked as he studied her.
“Damien had to go out of town at the last minute,” she replied and sipped her gin. It wasn’t as strong because the ice had diluted it, which suited her just fine. She couldn’t get drunk because she was driving.
Alec sat down next to her on the couch, leaving about three inches between them. The dog lay down next to the coffee table. He beat his tail on the floor as he looked around the room.
“Why did you come here?” Alec asked as he stared down in his lap.
“I need answers to questions that only you can provide,” she said. “I’ve remembered a lot from my past, but not enough to . . . Let’s just say, it has created more questions.”
“Tell me what you have remembered already.” He took a sip from his cup that was filled with dark liquid.
Layla started from the first memory she had. She told him everything that she remembered and what she had been told. However, she left out that she had recalled them having sex and the episode she had experienced with Damien the last time they had made love. Layla also admitted to him that she called Carter to see if his voice would trigger any memories for her. But she left out that she had phone sex with him on the same call. As exciting and pleasurable as it was, she felt ashamed of herself when she had remembered the violent memory of Carter choking and hitting her.
Alec glared at her. “Bruce was right to warn you to stay away from Carter. Now I see why he got involved. You can’t call him again. It’s too risky.”
“I know that now, but can you tell me more about . . . when I had enough of him? Why did I stay with him after the first time he hit me?”
He took a long swallow from his cup. “I want to, but I don’t know if it would be good for you to hear it. My mother fessed up that she told you some things when she ran into you in Orlando. She said that you got so upset that you ran off.”
She wasn’t surprised that his mother had told him about running into her. “Yes, but . . . I wasn’t ready for what she had to tell me. I thought I was, but I wasn’t. But now I am ready for the truth. I need to get down to the bottom of all this. I won’t be able to go on with my life until I do.”
Alec studied her for a moment. “Twelve years had gone by after we broke up. I had moved up the ranks at headquarters during that time. One day, I got an IM on Facebook . . . from you. You had written that you understood why I might not want anything to do with you, but you really needed my help. You see, I always had aspirations to join the FBI, and I told you that when we were dating. So, I guess you thought I had followed through with my career goals. After some thought, I responded to you and sent you my phone number. You called me a day later stating that you had packed your things and left Carter – for good. But you knew that he would come after you to either drag you back home to him or to kill you because you knew too much. You had said that he had committed federal crimes outside of dealing drugs. That the bureau would want Carter. I told my boss at the DC location, and he authorized me to investigate further. Bruce was my partner back then, too. He had wanted to come with me to New York to meet you, but I had asked him to hang back.” Alec stopped to take a sip from his cup and then continued. “You checked into a Super 8 a few miles outside of New York City under an alias. You paid cash for the room.” Alec smiled and glanced over at her. “You were always smart.”
Layla bashfully looked to the side as she grinned. He was so sweet – and good-looking. For the life of her, she couldn’t figure out why she would dump a nice guy for a man who she knew was a criminal and a drug dealer.
“When I got to your room, you . . . had bruises on your face. I got angry . . . I . . . had never been so mad in my life. I said that he didn’t have to worry about the agency getting to him because I was going to find him. Then you calmed me down – said that it wasn’t worth me throwing my career or freedom out the window, especially to avenge you. To this day, I beg to differ,” he said as he looked at her.
“Oh, Alec,” she murmured as she looked down at her drink.
“Anyway, you told me that this was the second time he had hit you, but there wasn’t going to be a third time. Carter wanted you to become an assassin for his organization since you were a better shot than any of the guys working for him. You refused – you couldn’t kill anyone in cold blood. He countered that you had no problem shooting two guys who were part of a group
of seven who had broken into y’all’s townhouse trying to take Carter out. That was different to you. It was self-defense. The cops had investigated, but the paperwork got ‘lost’. That’s when you realized that Carter had members of the NYPD on his payroll. Anyway, during the argument, you stated that you learned about his boys selling drugs to kids and expecting mothers. You demanded that he instruct his guys to stop selling it to them. Carter snapped. You two started arguing and then he struck you a few times and left. You packed up your things and got out of there. You had already been at the motel for three days by the time I got there.” He took a sip of his drink.
Layla took a sip of hers and continued to listen.
“You told me that he and some of his goons had faked profiles, scamming money from disability benefits and Social Security. And he was behind two bank robberies that had taken place in Northern Virginia. The guys who robbed them were pretty efficient. They had small explosives that they used to blow the vaults open at both banks. The security cameras had been cut during the robberies, so we had very few leads. You knew the names of the guys in on the robbery and who was running the scam on disability and Social Security. You also knew all about Carter’s drug ring, and you mentioned a prostitution ring. You had found out about the prostitutes recently and believed some of them were underage.”
“Goodness,” she mumbled and sipped her drink.
“Do you want me to go on?”
She lowered the cup from her lips. “Yes, please.”
“You offered to tell everything you knew in exchange for protection from Carter and immunity from any laws that you had indirectly violated. I called my superior then and there. It took about twenty-four hours before we had a deal on the table. During that time, I got a room at the Super 8 next to yours just in case Carter found you before the team arrived.”
Is that when we made love?
“You signed the deal and were placed in protective custody. Two agents took you to a safe house in the Catskills. It was about a hundred miles outside of New York City.”
“Was it a cabin?” she asked before she could stop herself.
“Yes, do you remember that?”
“I remember being in a cabin,” she said quickly.
Alec nodded. “You were supposed to stay there until it was time to testify against Carter and his associates. But, as you know, the justice system can be slow. Two months had gone by, and we hadn’t even arrested Carter yet. The director said this was a big case, and we had to make sure we had enough to make the charges stick. The last thing any of us wanted was for Carter to slip away under a loophole or questionable evidence.”
“Did you and Bruce stay with me at the cabin? Were you my protection there?”
He cleared his throat. “Not at first. Two other agents had been with you for a month. Then you had requested to see me. I said I was willing to come up to see what you wanted to talk about. The agents on your detail made a request to their supervisor to have a few days off and recommended that Bruce and I cover for them. Their supervisor approved it. He was also acting supervisor over Bruce and me at that time. Our original supervisor had taken a two-week leave of absence because his wife had gone into labor with their first child, and she had experienced complications. The baby was born sick, so he had wanted to be there for his family. Anyway, we came to the safe house and guarded you until my supervisor came back to work and found out about it. He had called and told us that he was sending agents to relieve us. He had also said that Bruce and I were too close to the case since all of us were old college buddies. I had no choice but to follow orders. However, we were only a hundred miles away since we were part of the team that was keeping Carter under surveillance.”
“What happened then, Alec?” she whispered as she watched his expression turn grim.
“It was the last time I saw you. A few days after Bruce and I returned, something went wrong at the safe house. Turns out that one of the agents that relieved Bruce and me was a mole for Carter. We never learned if he had always been on Carter’s payroll or if he had sold you out for a big payday.”
“Why not?”
“Because . . . you had killed him.”
“What!”
“Let me explain,” he added quickly. “This is what we think happened. Agent Turner must have suspected something was wrong, or he overheard a conversation involving his partner over the phone. Agent Turner’s body was found in the snow about fifteen yards away from the cabin. He was shot in the head. The bullet was from an FBI service weapon. Forensics was able to match the bullet to Agent Brown’s gun. You must have realized you were in danger. We don’t know if Agent Brown pulled his gun on you or not, but we found his body in the cabin. He had two rounds stuck in his vest and one round between the eyes. The bullet didn’t match either one of the agents’ guns, and you and your clothes were gone. But that’s what we found when we traced back your steps from the crashed car.” He took a sip of his drink. “See, we believe that you took the agency vehicle Turner and Brown used to get there because it was crashed outside of the city. We hypothesized that you were coming back to New York to get in touch with the local office there for help. Anyway, a Good Samaritan found the car crashed against a tree on the side of the road and called the police. The cops ran the plates and found that it was registered to the FBI in New York, so they contacted that office. Of course, it came up in our system that it was loaned out to Brown and Turner. Bruce and I got the heads up from another agent who was working the case with us. We got to the crash site as soon as we could. By the time we got there, the special agent in charge had chased off the NYPD officers that responded to the 911 call and secured the area. From what I was told by my co-workers who were already on the scene, the SAIC threatened the hell out of those poor cops. I don’t even think they filed a report on it. Your things weren’t in the car, and you weren’t either. So, we went to the cabin, and you weren’t there. It was like you disappeared into thin air. That’s when all of us suspected the worst. That Carter and his people found you and–” Alec looked up at her.
“Killed me?”
“Yes. We had watched him after your accident, and we didn’t see you with him, so we thought he had done away with you. But it’s obvious that we were wrong because you’re sitting on my sofa. What happened that night, Lana?” he asked softly.
“Maybe I had flagged down a car and they helped me . . . No, that wouldn’t make sense. None of this makes sense. When I woke up, I was in a clinic with a broken leg, sprained neck, and no idea who I was. When I woke up . . . I had a different name and – a fiancé,” she whispered the last few words.
What the hell?
“Well, unless you had been in two separate car accidents, Damien fed you what he wanted you to believe. How did you meet him?” Alec asked as he sat up on the sofa.
“I . . . I don’t remember. I was going to ask you that, quite frankly. Considering what you and Bruce told me, I had to have met him before I left Carter. Perhaps we . . . knew each other when I was with Carter. Damien might have known what Carter was about and tried to help somehow.”
Alec’s eyebrow cocked up. “Do you really believe that?” he asked with disbelief in his tone.
“I don’t know,” Layla said defensively as she stood. She started to pace the room.
The dog and Alec watched her.
She stopped. “But there has to be some sort of reasonable explanation. Perhaps Damien was associated with the government at that time. Maybe I tried getting help from him, and he advised me to call the FBI, and that’s when I remembered you were with the bureau.”
“No way. If that were true, you would have told me about him when I met you at the motel. And he would have notified the FBI himself that a case was coming our way.”
“Maybe he was working undercover and couldn’t.”
“Shit,” Alec scoffed. “Now you’re reaching. What did he say when you confronted him?”
“Um, I haven’t told him any of this. I haven’t even
told him that I’m seeing a psychiatrist to recover my memories.”
His faced scrunched up. “Why the hell not?”
“Because I . . . Well, in the beginning, he would get upset when I talked about getting my memories back. It was like he took it personally. I would back down, but it got to the point where I couldn’t live with the questions anymore, so . . . I went behind his back and sought treatment. When I realized that he lied about my name, I assumed that he knew about Carter and was trying to protect me by telling the hospital staff a fake name, and he was my – hell, we weren’t engaged at the time of my accident,” she said with startled realization. “We couldn’t have been if what you told me is true.”
“It is,” he stated seriously. “You need to come clean about what you’re doing and ask him why he lied to you about your past — and how you two met,” he said the last part with intensity.
Layla took a sip from her cup, thinking she should have had Alec hold the ice. Her drink needed to be stronger. She knew she should confront Damien, but she wasn’t ready. “Damien probably saved my life by telling the clinic staff that my name was Layla Neilson. I don’t want to come off in an accusatory tone. I want to be calm and have all the facts first.” She took a long swig from the cup, finishing the drink off.
“All right. What about the fib he told you about your parents?” he asked.
“He probably knew that I was estranged from my real family and wanted to spare me the pain of that. He painted a pretty good picture of my adopted family.”
“Who he said died, by the way,” he retorted sarcastically.
She was becoming annoyed with Alec’s inquiry of Damien. “He’s my husband. And he has treated me like gold. I have no reason to believe that he meant any harm toward me.”
“I’m not saying that he wants to hurt you, but something isn’t right about his part in this. You don’t remember him from your past at all. You’ve remembered everyone else,” he said loudly.
Blank Slate Page 15