“The first thing I’m going to do is take a shower. A very long, very hot shower,” Quincy said. “And change clothes. I forget just how long I’ve been wearing this.”
Logan grinned. “Your bag’s in the back. You’re lucky I grabbed it before going off to look for you last night.”
“Yeah, well…” She sighed. “Thanks for that, by the way. I know I put us in a bad spot.”
“You put us in a very bad spot,” he agreed. “But we’re both fine and this is going to work. Once we’re on that train, we should be off your Colonel’s radar. Come on.”
She hoped that was true, but she wondered. The Colonel had been so sure of himself, so unflappable. Quincy doubted he was the kind of man to be shaken off so easily. Logan grabbed their bags and pushed out of the car. Quincy followed him out but paused beside the building. “Go on,” she said when he paused to wait for her. “I’ll wait out here for you.”
Logan hesitated, obviously debating the odds of that.
“I’m not going to disappear again,” she promised.
“I’m not worried about you running off. I’m worried about the other kinds of trouble you seem to find.”
Well, he wasn’t wrong but she rolled her eyes so he wouldn’t know it. “I’ll be right here, in your line of sight the whole time,” she said impatiently. She needed him to go inside. She needed a few minutes to collect herself. She was in pieces on the inside and she needed to patch herself back together if she was going to be able to hold a rational conversation about everything she’d learned.
The sun was warm on her face so she tipped it up, leaning her head back against the wall. The buzzing had come back at some point but it wasn’t as bad as it could be. It had been nice, those few hours without it. She wondered just how far away the Colonel and Brandon were. An hour? A few minutes? Could they see her right now, maybe watching from a distance? If so, this plan of Logan’s wasn’t going to work. But she had a feeling the Colonel was giving them some space. If she were within eyesight, she would be dead. He had made it perfectly clear there would be no more chances. He would rather put a bullet between her eyes than risk losing her again. So at the moment, they appeared to be fine. They just needed to keep it that way.
The door jangled beside her. “Everything okay?” Logan asked, bumping her softly with his shoulder.
“Yeah,” she said, opening her eyes and looking up at him. “Just tired.”
He wrapped an arm around her shoulders, pulling her against him. “I know,” he said, glancing down at his watch. “Give me two hours to get us safe and you can rest for as long as you need.”
Quincy smiled. He really could be sweet. She doubted she’d be able to get more than her usual broken sleep but it was nice that he tried.
“Yeah,” she agreed, humoring him. “Two hours. So,” she looked around, shading her eyes with her left hand. “Which one is ours?”
Chapter 56
Logan
Getting to the train was a non-event, as it turned out. Despite his relaxed attitude, Logan had been alert, ready for an ambush. Quincy hadn’t said as much but he suspected this Colonel had made a strong impression on her. There wouldn’t be another attempt to take her alive. She was too much of a flight risk, especially with a partner. No. The next assault would be fatal. So he kept his eyes open for decent sniper nests and roadblocks that could be deadly. But there had been nothing. So maybe the Colonel really was staying back, watching to see what their next move would be. If so, that would play right into their plan.
The four-mile walk to the train depot had turned into a four-mile run, which had been all the better. Quincy had looked up at him with those ridiculously big green eyes of hers and he had caved. After all, the quicker you moved, the less chance someone had to take you by surprise. She was in good shape and he had a feeling that had come in handy doing whatever she had done to shake Brandon at the gas station. But he didn’t think she ran because she liked it. It had something to do with what went on inside her head. Logan wondered briefly if the Colonel had told Quincy why she was on his hit list. If he had gone into detail on Dr. Garrison’s research or her value to the wrong kind of people. It was possible the Colonel himself didn’t even know why she was a target. He could simply be hired help, contracted to eliminate targets. And then he decided it didn’t matter right now. Quincy would tell him. They would deal with it once they were in the relative safety of the train. And he would do the same. He would tell her everything this time. There was no reason to hold back now.
“Wow,” Logan deadpanned when Quincy opened the door of their compartment. “You weren’t kidding with the luxury suite, were you?”
“It’s luxury for a train.”
“Luxury must mean tiny,” he said, stepping into the small space and sitting their bags down on the bed.
“I prefer cozy,” she said. “Makes it seem small on purpose.”
He couldn’t argue with that. “I know you want to grab a shower,” he said, looking doubtfully into the cut-out space that held the walk-in shower, “but can you wait long enough for the train to pull out?”
It was unlikely the Colonial would figure out their scheme in time to catch the train but he didn’t want to take any chances. “I’d like to be mobile, just in case we have any unwanted company.”
“That’s smart,” she said tiredly. “How long do we have?”
Logan glanced at his watch. “Another half hour. Why don’t we head down to the drink car. It has a good view of the platform and I wouldn’t mind a soda.”
“Sure.” Quincy smiled tiredly and held out her hand. Logan just stared.
“Come on,” she said. “We’re supposed to be married. We better act like it.”
Logan was beginning to be able to read her pretty well and her exhaustion was bleeding through the cracks in her usually flawless walls. If she needed a little extra security, he wasn’t about to deny her. Besides, no army man worth his salt would turn down the opportunity to hold hands with a beautiful woman.
“Yes ma’am,” he said, taking her hand in his and pulling her closer.
Logan had been right. The view from the drink car was perfect. He could see the entire boarding platform and the parking lot to boot. No one could get on or off the train without him seeing. He ordered a coke for himself, a large black coffee for Quincy, and waters all around. He threw on a bottle of wine, winking at the waitress and telling her it was their honeymoon. It was far too conspicuous being the only couple in the drink car not drinking alcohol. He watched Quincy gaze out the window, lost again to some place far away. It was time to find out what exactly had happened during those hours she had spent with the Colonel and Brandon.
“So,” he started. “Want to tell me how you managed a joy ride with the Dynamic Duo when, last I knew, you were sound asleep in the bed next to me?”
“I’m never sound asleep,” she said idly.
Logan waited. He would let her tell the story however she wanted.
“I don’t sleep. Not really. A few hours here and there, but rarely anything substantial.”
Logan rolled that around in his head. “That sounds exhausting,” he finally said.
“It is,” she agreed, eyes still trained out the window but not really focused on anything. “It is completely exhausting. I just can’t stop. My brain jumps around, running through idle and random information that I’ve read or heard or seen. And then there’s the constant white noise in the background that I can’t seem to get away from.”
She finally glanced away from the window, down toward her hands that had wrapped around her mug of coffee. “That’s why I run. It’s one of the only times my mind can relax. How do I explain it?” she wondered to herself.
“When I run, the gears in my brain seem to tune themselves to my body, instead of my body to my brain. The more I settle into a run, the more my mind lets go.”
The dark circles under her eyes took on a deeper meaning. Logan had noticed them the first time they’d met. Well,
maybe the second. The first time they’d met, he’d just noticed her eyes.
“So much had happened in the last 48 hours. Finding out you weren’t exactly who you said you were set off my survival instincts.” Not exactly an accurate description of events, but he’d give her some leeway.
“Having a shot taken at me in broad daylight didn’t help. And then stealing a car and embarking on a cross-country road trip with someone I didn’t know if I trusted.” She sighed. “I do now, of course. But the headache was the final straw.”
Logan broke in. “Do you have them often?”
“The headaches?” she asked. “No. Yes.” She mulled it around. “What’s ‘often’? I get them when I get stressed and the last few days definitely qualify. Ironically, that’s the best sleep I ever get, after those headaches.”
“Not really worth it, if you ask me,” Logan said drily.
“Try living through one,” she snarked.
“Try watching someone you love live through one,” he shot back.
She looked nonplussed for a moment, not sure what he meant by that, before understanding dawned. “Jones?” she asked.
Logan just nodded, trying not to think about it too hard.
“Was that Dr. Garrison you called? When you thought I was stroking out?”
“It was. Not that he could do anything, hundreds of miles away.” He let the silence stretch, waiting for her to look at him.
“I told you about the pain Jones was in before he died.” Quincy nodded. “He would get headaches just like that. Agonizing. They would roll over him in a wave and there was nothing I could do to help.” It was his turn to look out the window. “I don’t like being helpless.”
“I’m sorry I left,” she said quietly. “I should have woken you up. I know that. I knew it then, too. I just didn’t do it. I needed the space. The silence. I thought running would help me gain some sort of perspective. I felt, I don’t know...”
She tightened her grip on the mug, frustrated. “It was compulsive. I had to run and I knew I would never sleep until I did.” She shrugged. “Doesn’t make it right.”
“No,” he said slowly. “But it does make it understandable.”
Quincy shook her head, not quite willing to let it go so fast. “You would never let one of your soldiers get away with going AWOL.”
“Please,” he said. “I would never mistake you for a soldier.” There it was. He’d been waiting to see that smile. It was tired, but it was real. The train whistle blew and the conductor gave the old-fashioned “All aboard!” The train jerked into motion and they looked at each other and smiled. Within seconds, they were rolling down the tracks and away from the Colonel and the company he worked for. He hoped.
Chapter 57
Logan
The shower had been running for almost an hour without a word or sound from Quincy. Steam was billowing out from around the glass door from the heat of the water, filling their compartment. Logan was sure there was a quota per cabin - a max cap on water usage - but he let her be. She deserved a break after the week she’d had.
Their scenic getaway had gotten started without a problem, which seemed almost suspicious after the last 48 hours. No one matching Quincy’s descriptions of the Colonel or Brandon had boarded after them. He couldn’t rule out the possibility that the company bankrolling the Colonel had another agent on them, one they hadn’t seen, but it seemed unlikely. The Colonel had to be the driving force behind the disappearance of Dr. Garrison’s suspected RNB patients. He was obviously former military, probably special ops. He’d tracked Quincy like a bloodhound. He’d only needed to catch the scent, which Brandon had been lucky enough to find. Logan worried the man might be inside their heads. If he knew how they’d given Brandon the slip at the truck stop, dumping Quincy’s phone in a truck headed the opposite direction, he might have guessed what they’d do now. If he found them again, he’d put a bullet through Quincy’s head without hesitation and walk away. It was a troublesome thought but one he had no control over. The Colonel would find them or he wouldn’t. Logan had done everything he could to shake the tail and now all he could do was keep calm and keep watch. Quincy was smart and had proved she worked well under pressure. He could count on her to keep her head and not freeze up when the time came. That was more than he could ask of most people.
Quincy really was smart, he mused. He’d guessed she was intelligent based on her ability to stay unidentified and off the radar for so long but the first time he’d seen her had confirmed it. It had been more of a gut feeling than scientific proof, considering they hadn’t even spoken that first time out on the quad. But they’d locked eyes, if just for a moment. Long enough for him to see.
Logan decided to rustle up a game of Frisbee with a bunch of undergrad jocks, knowing it would give him a valid reason to be there and knowing he would need one to stay off her radar. She had been near-impossible to track down and it wasn’t by being unobservant. The college kids were athletic and energetic but he was a trained army lieutenant. He had no trouble keeping one eye on the game and one on the walkway leading past. So he’d seen her the moment she’d shown up at the coffee kiosk. He thought he’d known what to expect but he’d been unprepared for the reality. He’d pulled her profile picture from the college database so he knew who he was looking for. A little on the small side, casually dressed, blending in with the students around her. But then the sunlight hit her and his impression changed. In the picture, her hair was a dark brown but standing outside in the sun, she lit up, the auburn of her hair turning to flame. How she’d managed to be invisible for so long, he didn’t know. That hair was sure to attract attention and her eyes...those big, almond-shaped eyes. So distinctive. More green than anything had a right to be. And the intelligence. She had noticed him almost immediately and he could practically see her mind turning, processing the scene. Wondering why a thirty-something year old man was messing around with a bunch of undergrads. Survival was her top priority and he was afraid, in that split second, he’d pushed too hard. Afraid she’d disappear. He’d worked hard to get this close to her and he didn’t intend to lose her now. He hadn’t been entirely convinced the smile he’d given her would be enough to throw her off but he poured every ounce of charm he had into it.
And now here they were. The shower shut off, jarring him out of his stupor, and Quincy stepped out, wrapped in one of the soft, oversized robes provided for their suite. At least something in this luxury compartment fit the bill.
“I didn’t realize how long I was in there,” she said after a quick glance out the window. “Sorry.”
“No worries,” Logan replied. “You needed it.”
Quincy cocked an eyebrow and Logan felt his face heat up. “I didn’t mean it like that. I just...you’ve been...it’s not…”
Quincy finally raised a hand, mercifully ending the torture. “It’s fine. I really did need it. I had been in the same clothes for almost 24 hours.” She sank down onto the bed and leaned against the window, cupping her head against her arm as she looked out. “Dr. Garrison thinks I have some sort of head injury?” she asked.
It was a blunt observation, with no lead in or preamble. Logan absorbed it and considered the sudden subject change, not quite sure what to say.
“I take it the Colonel had some things to say?”
She nodded her head, still looking out the window.
Logan sighed. “You know, I’m really not good at this part. Dr. Garrison is the one who understands the science.”
Quincy shifted around so she was facing him, sitting cross-legged on the bed. “But you’re the one who’s here.”
Logan hesitated, but only briefly. She was right. She deserved to hear the truth. Or as much of the truth as he knew how to give her.
“Dr. Garrison knows all the technical stuff. I’m just the muscle.” He thought for a second. “Like the Colonel, I’m guessing. But I can tell you what he told me when he was working with Jones. And what he told me after.”
Lo
gan leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees and looking at the ground, trying to think. This was difficult enough when the patient knew about the head injury. But how do you convince someone with no memory of it? He needed to get his head on straight, frame it right. But he shouldn’t have worried. Quincy jumped right in.
“I have amnesia. But you know that already, right?”
Logan shook his head slowly. “I didn’t know. Not for sure. But I suspected.” He sat back up, propping his feet up on the bed next to her. “It was the little things. The lack of even the smallest of details. Usually when someone is spinning an alias, there’s something. Mundane details that make it seem more realistic. But you had nothing. Nothing on your family, where you were raised, anything from your past.”
“I told you my birthday,” she protested.
“No, you lied about your birthday”. He smiled. “You won’t tell me your mom’s first name but you’ll tell me your birthday? I don’t think so.” She looked like someone who wanted to protest but knew she didn’t have a leg to stand on. “And you really seemed to have no idea.”
“No idea about what?” she interrupted. “What don’t I know? Why don’t I know it?”
He could see the frustration bubbling up, seething right below the surface. “Why can’t I remember anything past a couple of years?”
“Listen,” Logan broke in. “I know you’re frustrated, and I’m going to tell you everything I know. You just have to hang with me.” She blew out a big breath, fluffing her hair away from her face, which was drying and getting alarmingly large as it did so. “And maybe brush your hair or something,” he suggested.
She grinned. “Who am I trying to impress? My fake husband? He’s seen worse.”
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