But no. That slut and her fucking biker boyfriend were in on it together – refusing the cash, keeping Dave’s life in a holding pattern and under his parents’ thumb – and he’d just snapped. God, anyone would. And now these two gun-toting vigilantes show up, knock him out, throw him in a goddamn truck. How the hell they did it right under the noses of his father’s security guys, Dave would never understand.
Dave Townsend was almost certain that he’d be dying that day. He just had no idea who’d actually be doing the killing. He also had no clue how he was going to die.
Maybe it’s better to just go to sleep.
He rolled over now, lay on his stomach. The blonde woman hauled down his khakis, jammed a needle in his ass. She looked delicate and sweet, but holy God, she was not. A bitch on wheels, more like, and Dave would have enjoyed watching her writhe around under him, tied up and bloody. Scared and begging. He’d like that just fine.
The waves of sleep were coming at him now, and he barely felt the dark-haired giant pick him up, easy as you please, and throw him back in the truck. Dave closed his eyes, and hoped that whatever greeted him the next time he opened his eyes was merciful enough to do whatever they had planned quickly.
Chapter Eighteen
The first thing that Sarah was fully aware of was a tiny pin-prick of light, smack in the middle of a whole lot of darkness. She focused on that light, wondering what it was, why it seemed so far away. It came to her that she hadn’t actually seen light for what seemed like a very long time, and the urge to move closer to the small white flame grew inside of her.
She fought against the hands holding her down and immobile; she struggled hard. It would be so easy to just stay here in this world made of pillows, she knew, but she somehow also knew that it would be a mistake to keep sinking in to it. It was too soft, too warm. A trap.
The light was expanding now, spreading. She tried to reach for it.
“Sarah?”
A voice came out of the darkness, startling her. She’d thought she was all alone here.
“Sarah? Oh, God, honey. Move your hand again, OK?” Fingers on her cheek. “Please?”
Her Mom was here. She redoubled her efforts to move, to open her eyes, to say something. A small moan escaped her lips.
Footsteps now, heavy ones. A large hand touched her face, opened her eyelids one at a time. She saw a blurry outline. A man.
“Sarah? You hear me, sweet thing?”
Mac?
Nothing in her body was working properly: she couldn’t form words to answer him, or move her head to nod. She tried to blink rapidly, but even her damn eyes weren’t cooperating, and she managed two slow blinks at Mac.
“Can she see you?” Annie again. “Sarah? Can you hear us?”
“She can.”
Relief flooded through her now at the third voice. Noah. Noah’s here. Thank God.
“She can?” Annie said to her son. “You’re sure?”
“Yes.” Noah moved closer. “She can see and hear. She can’t move.”
“That’s OK, Noah.” Mac’s voice was unbelievably gentle. He turned back to Sarah now, and she stared in to his blue eyes, trying to ask a million questions, say a million things, all without uttering a word. He studied her, then smiled. “Hey, Sarah. Good to see you again.”
She blinked again, her vision starting to clear a bit. She saw lots of white, and now she heard steady beeping. Machines?
“You’re in the hospital,” Mac told her. “You’re safe, and everything’s going to be OK. Alright?”
Sarah tried to nod, managed a small head jerk. Mac looked pleased, and Annie clapped her hands over her mouth. Mac stood up and Annie immediately sat down in his spot. She grasped Sarah’s hands and squeezed.
“You feel that?”
A tiny head movement again.
“I love you, honey.” Annie’s cheeks were shiny with tears. “I love you so much.”
Sarah felt the corners of her mouth move. Just a twitch, but Annie saw it. She smiled back at her daughter.
“Can I touch her?” Noah again.
“Oh, I’m sorry, sweet boy.” Annie quickly wiped her face. “Of course you can. Come here.”
Noah appeared now and Sarah used everything she had to focus on him. He stood on her other side, gazing down at her seriously. She drank him in, looking for any signs of distress or damage, but he looked OK. Well-rested, even calm. She wondered how Annie was managing to keep him so low-key in the hospital.
“Sarah?” Noah said and touched her hand.
She blinked again.
“I have new baseball cards,” he said. “King gave them to me. And Jax gave me some too.” He paused, maybe sensing the automatic emotional response inside her at the mention of Jax. “You want Jax?”
Oh, God, yes. I don’t know why I do so badly, but I want Jax. Please, get him here. Please.
“Sarah wants Jax,” Noah said. “Now.”
“I’ll call him,” Annie said and stood up. “He’s been here every day, waiting for you to come back to him. Hang on, baby girl. You’ll see him. Soon.”
**
Jax pulled up to the abandoned warehouse, looked around. King had chosen well, he was happy to note: nothing but open space as far as the eye could see, and the building wasn’t even visible from the closest road. Ideal for keeping people hidden away from the world. This would also be a great place for someone to fall off the planet. Someone could just mysteriously disappear out here. Jax wondered if Dave was going to be one of those someones.
He slammed the truck door and right away, the front door opened. King and Honey stepped out of the building, and greeted him.
“Any trouble getting him?” Jax said to Honey.
She smiled. “Nope.”
Jax knew she wouldn’t be offering any more information at all, so he just nodded. The less he knew about how Dave came to be here in this warehouse, the better. And the less she knew about what happened next, the better. Her part was over, and Honey was free to wander away and do whatever the hell she did when she wasn’t kicking ass.
Did a woman like Honey go for massages? Go grocery shopping? Do laundry? Jax supposed she had to all those things, but it was impossible to picture her as anything but a hardcode hired vigilante. She operated just on the legal side of the line… though Jax thought she toed that line pretty carelessly in those damn killer boots.
“OK, so.” King’s voice was harsh. “The Denver PD have an arrest warrant out for this fucker, so we can take him on in anytime you say so. Tank’s certified and legit, as you know, so he can bring Townsend in and not have to worry about being charged with kidnapping.”
“And if Tank shows up with a badly-beaten Townsend? How much trouble can he get hit with?”
King shrugged. “Private security guys do what they have to do to bring in dangerous criminals. Guys like Tank may get a bit rough, but in my experience, the cops are so grateful that the job is done, so long as the guy is breathing, they accept explanations of ‘reasonable force’.”
“Yeah?”
“Yep. Tank’s no fool, and his papers are impeccable. He can handle any questions that may come up.”
“The family?”
“They have lots of explaining to do about why they harbored a fugitive. Believe me, they won’t make too much of a fuss about their dickhead criminal son being dragged in by a private security company employee performing a public service.”
Jax nodded. “OK. Let’s get this show on the road.”
He was so looking forward to having a little conversation with Dave. And by ‘conversation’, he meant, ‘starting to pound on him until he cried’. For as long as he lived, he was never going to forget Sarah’s smashed face as she lay on the living room floor. In the almost two weeks since her attack, her injuries had started to heal up, but the bruising was still terrible,
and his heart caught every time he saw the damage to her soft skin. Jax wondered what Dave would look like at this time tomorrow.
Just then, his cell rang and he sighed in annoyance. When he saw who it was, he froze with fear.
Is she crashing? Has she died? Fuck me. If I’m all the way over here in Wyoming when she goes, I’m never going to forgive myself.
“What?” King said, alarmed at his expression. “Who is it?”
Jax answered, trying to stay calm. “Annie?”
King and Honey watched as Jax’s face went from worried to shocked to happy, all in the space of about seven seconds. When he disconnected, he looked like a completely different man: lighter and ten years younger.
“Sarah’s awake,” he said.
“She’s awake?” King echoed. “But – how…”
“I don’t know. I’ve got to go.”
“What do we do with him?” Honey asked. “You want us to keep him here until you come back?”
Jax paused. The temptation to cause Dave extreme physical pain hadn’t completely gone away, but it had diminished. Next to the need to get eyes on Sarah and hold her again, it had become barely noticeable. It was an echo, a shadow, a faded watercolor.
You’re not that kind of man, not in your core.
You don’t have to do this.
Call it off. There’s still time.
Call it off.
Goddammit, Aidan. You get a raise.
“I’m calling it off,” Jax said.
Neither Honey nor King looked surprised, though they did look very relieved.
“Good,” Honey said. “I wasn’t able to say anything, but this whole thing wasn’t you, Jax. I’d have hated to see you make such a huge fucking mistake.”
“Me too,” King said.
Jax sighed. “Me too.”
They all stared at each other for a few seconds.
“So,” King said, all business again. “Tank drops him off at the Denver PD?”
“Yeah. Totally unharmed, alright?”
“Well.” Honey smirked. “Maybe a little bit harmed.”
Jax rolled his eyes. “What did you do to the fucker?”
“Just stomped on his balls. Not so hard, though.”
“OK, OK.” Jax smothered his grin. “So unharmed except for his balls.”
“Sure thing.”
“I’ll pay more than in full, man,” he said to King. “Charge as if the entire job was done, and throw on your percentage too. For the inconvenience of driving to Fucking-Nowhere, Wyoming.”
King regarded his friend, then nodded. “You’re the client, and the client is always right.”
“Damn straight. Thanks, guys.”
Jax launched himself at his truck, his mind already back in Colorado. He slammed the door, gunned the engine, glanced at the dashboard clock. It had taken him just over seven hours to drive all the way out here to Fucking-Nowhere, but he bet he could haul ass back to Denver in about five. To hell with speed limits or rest breaks.
I’m coming, baby. Just hang on…I’ve got so much to tell you.
**
Just over five hours later, Jax ran – quite literally ran, and flat-out – down the hall to Sarah’s room. Mac was waiting outside and Jax skidded to a halt, panting.
“She’s OK?”
Mac nodded. “Mostly.”
“What’s that mean?”
“The right side of her lower body’s pretty numb and non-responsive in terms of reflexes, so she’ll need some intensive physical therapy. She’ll have to relearn how to walk, most probably, and those muscles will need some time to strengthen.”
“No problem,” Jax said. “I’ll pay for the best private physical therapist in the state to take Sarah on as a client.” He moved to open the door to Sarah’s room, but Mac stopped him.
“One more thing, man.”
“OK. What?”
“She’s having some trouble with her memory.”
“No big fucking shock there, huh? The woman did have her head beaten in two weeks ago.”
“I know. Right now, she has no memory of the attack, at all.”
“Well, that’s good.”
“Maybe. But she’s also struggling to remember some other things. Things about you.”
That made Jax stop. “What things?”
“I’m not sure. She knows who you are, and that you’re important to her, and that she cares about you. But she doesn’t remember much more than that. She isn’t sure why you mean something to her.”
“Wait.” Jax felt cold. “She’s forgotten our whole relationship?”
“Big parts of it, yeah.”
Fuck me.
“Will she ever remember?” His voice was quiet, hurt.
“I don’t know.”
“Do people usually remember?”
“Truth?”
“Yeah.”
“They rarely recover their full memories. Most people have gaps for the rest of their lives. In Sarah’s case, all her childhood memories are intact, but her more recent memory is missing huge chunks of time, and it’s not just you. She has no memory at all of having Lemongrass as a client, for example.”
“Can we do anything to help bring it back?” Jax felt a sense of desperation rising in him.
Mac sighed. “In my experience, the best way to jog the buried memories is through the senses, mostly taste, touch, and sound.”
“OK, so… I give Sarah a Cosmo and she remembers our first date?”
“Maybe, and it can’t hurt to try. But Jax, it’s not an exact science. What may work with some of her memories may have no effect on others. She needs time, man.”
“Time.”
“Yeah. You have to stay calm and let her take things at her pace. You get me?”
“I get you.”
“So, you going in to see her or what?”
He took a breath. “Yeah.”
Mac swung the door open, and Jax stepped in to her room. He saw Annie and Noah’s delighted faces, saw Sarah half-sitting up in the bed. He stared at her, took in her beautiful eyes that were wide open and gazing over at him.
“Jax, Jax, Jax!” Noah said, excited. “Sarah woke up!”
“Jax…”
He thought he’d never hear his name spoken in her sweet voice ever again, and at its sound, he felt a wave of emotion crash over him. The urge to grab her up, take her home to his bed, hide her away from the whole world, never let her go, was huge. He’d make love to her so slow and deep, she’d come screaming his name.
But she doesn’t even remember kissing you. Goddammit.
“Sarah.” His own voice was rough. “How you feeling, Red?”
Her brow furrowed. “‘Red’?”
Jax’s heart plummeted.
God, if she can’t even remember that much…
“Yeah. That’s what I call you sometimes.”
“Do I like it?”
“You do.”
She smiled at him now. “OK.” She paused. “And what do I call you?”
“Stud.”
“I do?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Do you like it?”
“I do. A lot.”
Annie interjected now. “Honey, I think you and Jax need some time alone.”
“Yeah,” Sarah said. “That would be good.”
Annie and Noah left with Mac, shutting the door behind them. Jax stood there in the middle of the room, without a fucking clue what to do or say.
Sarah held out her hand. “Come here.”
He crossed the room in a flash, aching to be close to her. He took her hand, stared at her bruised cheeks. Carefully, slowly, he reached out to touch her face. She let him, and he felt nothing but gratitude that she wasn’t afraid of him.
&nbs
p; “Does this hurt?”
“Not much.” Her eyelids fluttered shut at his touch. “Mom says it was pretty bad at first.”
“It was.”
“Jax?”
“Yeah, doll?”
Her eyes flew open again. “I remember that you call me ‘doll’.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
He heaved a sigh of relief. “Well, that’s something, huh?”
“I remember something else… can I ask you about it?”
“Shoot.”
“Why did we break up?”
It suddenly came to him that he had an incredible amount of power in his hands – he actually had the power to rewrite history. He could say anything, tell her anything, and she’d believe him. He could spare her hurt, he could make himself look better than he was, he could stay quiet about Len Murdoch.
“Truth?”
“Yeah. Always, Jax. You know that.”
“Truth, baby?” he said softly.
“Yeah. Always, Jax.”
“Noah went missing when we spent the night together. He left the house, looking for you, and ended up being picked up by the cops. You felt so guilty about that, you broke it off with me. You said that your family had to come first.”
“Were you angry at me?”
“No.” He touched her again. “No, I understood.”
She bit her lip now, and blushed a bit. “You said we spent the night together… does that mean that – were we – did we sleep together?”
Jax’s thoughts reeled. “You don’t remember making love with me?”
“No.” She closed her eyes, trying to concentrate. “I remember being close to you… touching you.” Her eyes popped open. “I remember your body. What it looks like, how it feels. But not anything… ummmm… specific.”
Jax stared at her, completely and totally horrified.
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