by B. J Daniels
But even as he thought it, he knew she’d be even more determined to find the person behind this herself. She’d been taken into protective custody, locked up and held by armed guards. Look at the chance she’d taken escaping to get to the carousel for the second meeting.
The fact that the killer had blown up a floor of the hotel and almost killed her in a phone booth wasn’t going to slow her down. Just the opposite. And he knew there was nothing he could say that would dissuade her. Not this woman. Not this time. She wouldn’t believe anyone could protect her now.
Her eyes opened. Aquamarine with flecks of gold.
“Hello,” he said softly, never so glad to see those eyes looking at him. Even if she was frowning.
“How are you feeling?” he asked.
“My head hurts.” She tried to sit up. The effort made her wince.
“Easy. Stay still. An ambulance is on its way.”
She blinked. “Ambulance? What happened?”
“You don’t remember?” he asked.
“No.” She glanced around in confusion. “I don’t remember….”
“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of everything until you’re feeling better. If you’ll let me do that,” he added, bothered by the fact that she was still frowning at him.
“Do I know you?”
“Jack,” he said, studying her intently. “Jack Adams.” The name didn’t seem to ring any bells. “Do you know what day it is?”
“Of course. Friday, March 17.”
Friday. The day before the murder. The day before she ran into Liz on the street and went to the coffee shop for some girl talk. The day before she became the only witness in a murder case.
“Where am I?” She frowned as if she realized she wasn’t in the part of the town she thought she was. He felt her pull away. Friday. They hadn’t met yet. He was a stranger. His heart sank.
She was still in grave danger and yet she didn’t know it. Didn’t remember anything—especially the face of the killer. Nor Jack Adams’s face, he reminded himself. If he thought she wouldn’t let him protect her before, she really wasn’t going to now. Not a complete stranger.
The ambulance pulled in, lights flashing. An EMT ran toward the phone booth. In a few seconds Karen would be gone. Once she got into the ambulance headed for the hospital, Captain Baxter would hear about it. Jack knew he wouldn’t be able to get near her after that. But the killer might. Look how close he’d gotten this time.
“Karen, you have to listen to me—”
She drew back, squinting at him as if trying to put him into focus. “Do I know you?” She didn’t sound as though she’d necessarily mind knowing him.
The notion came out of nowhere. It never even hit idea stage. Certainly couldn’t have been considered a plan because given more time he would have realized just how flawed it was. But he didn’t have time. The words just popped out, almost of their own accord.
“Of course you know me, Karen. I’m your husband.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Husband? She stared at the man. As in married? Surely she would remember getting married, wouldn’t she?
He smiled. Jack Adams did have a nice smile and there was something about him—
“What have we got, Detective Adams?” an emergency medical technician asked from the open phone-booth doorway.
Detective Jack Adams? She’d married a cop? She hated to consider what her mother must think of that.
“She fell and hit her head,” her husband answered.
Is that what had happened? Could explain her headache and the fact that she and her husband were on the cold floor of a phone booth with a crowd outside and an ambulance waiting.
“How long have we been married?” she asked her cop husband quietly.
“Just a few…hours.”
A few hours? He had to be kidding. She glanced down half expecting to find herself still in her wedding gown. “Was it an informal wedding?” she asked, trying to understand what she was doing in jeans, a T-shirt and sneakers.
“We eloped. Got married at city hall.”
“Well, congratulations,” the EMT said as her husband moved out of the way to let the man check her over.
She leaned back against the glass wall, feeling a little light-headed and confused and…married, she thought, looking over at Jack. His gaze met hers and she felt something chemical arc between them.
“Wow, her pulse just spiked,” the EMT said. “So did her heart rate.”
She didn’t doubt it. But after all, she was a newlywed.
The EMT shone a flashlight into her eyes. “Doesn’t look like she suffered a concussion, though.” He checked her vitals again. “She seems stable.”
Stable? Karen doubted her mother would agree. “Have I told my mother yet?” she asked Jack. Jack. She liked the name. Jack Adams. A strong name. Just like him. Broad shoulders. Nice slim hips. She noted the way his jeans fit his behind. Ummm.
“No,” Jack answered. “You wanted to wait.”
Probably just wanted to put it off, she thought.
“Do you want us to take her in?” the EMT asked.
“No, I’ll get a doctor to look at her,” Jack said, studying her with concern.
She smiled. What a thoughtful husband she had. “I’m sure I’ll be fine. How bad could a little fall be, anyway?”
Her husband didn’t look convinced. Husband. She thought she could get used to this.
“I’ll take her to my doctor’s office on the way,” he said.
On the way where? “Are we on our honeymoon yet?” she asked, wondering how she’d hit her head in a phone booth and what the two of them had been doing here to begin with. Maybe he’d brought her to the carousel for a ride. She could hear the music and smell the river. What other reason would they be here?
Shouldn’t they have been headed for some place more…intimate? At the least, more private than a phone booth?
But then she couldn’t imagine herself married. Let alone eloping. Or getting married at city hall. Her mother was going to kill her.
“It isn’t much of a honeymoon so far, huh?” she said as Jack helped her to her feet and over to a Jeep, the lights on top flashing red and blue. He really was a cop. “I’m sorry.”
He closed the Jeep door and looked down at her through the open window. “You have nothing to be sorry about.” He smiled then, a sweet, slow smile that warmed his eyes and sent a shiver through her.
Well, one thing she wasn’t sorry about, she thought, as she watched him go around to the driver’s side and climb in. She was pretty sure she was glad she’d fallen in love with this man.
“It must have been rather sudden,” she said as he drove away from the river, the sound of the carousel fading away.
He nodded. “Love at first sight.”
“I guess!” she said, studying his face. She could see how it might have happened. He had a nice face, boyish but just imperfect enough to be interesting as well as masculine and definitely handsome.
But still, it seemed so unlike her. She had a feeling she hadn’t been acting herself lately.
But what made her believe him was the electricity she felt sparking between them, especially when their gazes met and held.
Like right now. He’d looked over at her, concern still in the depths of his brown eyes. She felt herself sizzle under his gaze and smiled shyly. They must have a great sex life. She couldn’t wait to have her memory refreshed.
“I want you to see a doctor, just to make sure you’re all right,” he was saying.
“I really am fine, Jack.” She liked the feel of his name on her lips. “I don’t want a silly little fall to spoil our honeymoon. Where are we going for our honeymoon?”
“It’s a surprise.”
“I love surprises,” she said, sitting back in the Jeep and watching the world rush by. Married. It felt strange, but good. It felt unfamiliar, but somehow right. Just like this man beside her.
JACK PACED outside the doctor’s examining roo
m like a man in one of those old movies whose wife was about to give birth. When the doctor finally came out, he gave Jack a big smile and a slap on the back.
“Karen tells me the two of you were married this morning,” he said. “Congratulations.”
“Thank you,” Jack said, knowing he was going to live to regret his impetuousness—and probably very soon. “How is she?”
“She has a slight concussion. I’d keep an eye on her.”
That’s exactly what Jack planned to do.
“And don’t worry, her injury won’t interfere with your honeymoon plans,” he said with a wink.
Great, Jack thought as Karen came out of the examining room and he led her out to the Jeep. She took his arm. He could feel her body heat, warming the mild spring afternoon. He could feel himself begin to heat up, as well. How was he ever going to be able to keep his distance from this woman?
“Tell me how we met,” Karen said as he drove out of town. “Tell me everything.”
“Wouldn’t you rather wait until your memory comes back on its own?” he asked.
“No,” she said, cuddling next to him. “I want to hear your version, then when I remember, I’ll know how we both felt. It really must have been love at first sight. I just can’t imagine me doing something so…”
“Impetuous?” he supplied. It was going around.
She smiled and nodded. “I’ve always been so prudent and cautious. You must have really swept me off my feet.”
Prudent and cautious? That definitely didn’t fit the woman he’d come to know.
“You must bring out another side of me I didn’t even know existed.”
He groaned, afraid that just might be the case. Imagine what side he’d bring out in her when she got her memory back. The murderous side.
“Please tell me everything, from the moment we met to how we fell in love to the wedding ceremony and how I ended up in a phone booth on my honeymoon with a knot on my head.” She ended with a laugh. “Don’t leave out a single detail.”
“Well,” he began, wondering just where to begin and how much to tell her. Since the whole marriage was nothing but a lie, he could have made up any story he liked.
But instead, he found himself telling the truth. Up to a point.
“I literally could not take my eyes off you the first time I saw you,” he began.
“LIZ JONES,” Karen said, shaking her head as they left Missoula far behind. “How strange after all these years and how awful.”
He’d had to tell her about the murder. Wasn’t any way to get around it. Just as he’d had to tell her about the man she’d seen in the hotel hallway. The man who had seen her and Jack’s fear that she might be in danger.
She smiled and snuggled against him. “I know it must not seem odd to you—it certainly does to me—but I feel so safe with you and I don’t really remember you.” She looked up into his eyes then, her expression serious. She seemed to study him for a very long time. “I do know you,” she said after a moment. “Maybe not in my head but definitely in my heart.”
Guilt twisted at his insides. He almost told her the truth right then. He knew by lying about the marriage he had only compounded the problem. But if he hoped to keep Karen alive, he had to protect her not only from the killer but the police. He had to consider that there was a leak in the department. Or that Baxter had gotten sloppy when he stashed Karen on the top floor of the hotel. And where had all the cops been at the second stakeout?
Whatever was going on, he couldn’t trust the police to take care of her.
Karen loved the ski lodge and the view, just as she had the first time. Only now, in what was left of daylight, she wanted to explore the place, including the old chalet. He had to smile at her delight at finding the chalet stuffed with old furniture and odds and ends. She was full of ideas on what they could do to restore the place and live in it full-time, and he listened to her, caught up in her excitement. But he knew once she found out the truth, all of those ideas would be tossed out like yesterday’s newspaper—along with him.
“Jack, I know something is bothering you,” she said later back at the lodge. “Are you having regrets about…us?”
He looked over at her, her eyes large and filled with anguish. He quickly shook his head, his gaze softening at just the sight of her. This woman had the ability to turn him to mush with just a look. Or turn him as hard as titanium with a whole other look.
“I could never regret meeting you,” he said, realizing just how true that was. “You are the most amazing thing that has happened to me.”
She smiled, tears welling in her eyes. “Oh, Jack.” She rushed into his arms. He held her, wondering how something so wrong could feel so right.
“What did the doctor say about…” Her eyes were large, her gaze so filled with love—and desire—as she pulled back to look at him.
He swallowed, feeling like the lowest form of animal life. Wasn’t he the one who was always telling Denny that one lie led to another until you were caught up in them like a net?
Well, Jack was caught. And badly. But what other option did he have? Return her to Baxter and let him put her in another safe house? Not after the last one had blown up. Not after someone had tried to kill her a third time at the phone booth.
No, the only way Jack could protect her was to keep her with him and keep up the pretense a little longer. He’d done the chivalrous thing. Right?
“The doctor said we should wait because of your head injury,” Jack told her.
Disappointment clouded her expressive eyes. “I’m sorry. You must be as disappointed as I am.”
She had no idea. Just the mere thought of making love to her… Disappointment didn’t even cover what he was feeling.
Then she smiled. “But I suppose we have the rest of our lives.”
He saw her glance down at her ring finger on her left hand as if a little surprised and…disappointed to find it bare. She probably thought she didn’t have a very caring or romantic husband.
“You’re probably hungry,” he said, feeling like an even worse heel.
“Actually, I’m not,” she said, right behind him.
He glanced back at her. “I picked up some doughnuts. Lemon-filled.”
She shook her head. “We must have a very passionate relationship,” she persisted.
He felt his heart skip a beat at the thought. “What makes you think that?” he asked with a nervous laugh.
She laughed, too, hers more natural, though. “When I’m around you I feel…sparks.” She shrugged. “I’ve never felt like this around anyone else.”
He definitely knew what she meant.
“And when I look at you, it’s like the rest of the world doesn’t exist.” She shrugged, her smile bright as any summer day he’d ever seen. “You probably think that’s silly.”
“Not at all,” he said, his voice cracking.
“And when I touch you—” She placed the flat of her hand against his chest, directly over his heart.
Oh, God. He closed his eyes, his heart a sledgehammer. Oh, yeah. He opened his eyes to find her gaze on his.
“Good,” she said laughing, sounding relieved. “I’m glad I’m not the only one who feels this way. It certainly explains why we got married the way we did, huh?” She slid her hand up his chest and along his shoulder to his arm, then pulled back slowly as if reluctant to break the connection. “But there is something I was wondering about.”
He held his breath.
“It’s such an old-fashioned thing for us to do, getting married instead of just living together first,” she said. “I have a feeling you’re the one who insisted on marriage. Such a gallant kind of thing to do.”
Yeah, gallant. Really heroic. But he was relieved that was the only thing bothering her. “When I met you,” he said honestly, “you just reminded me of my image of the Girl Next Door. I wanted you almost the first time I saw you.” It shocked him how true that was.
“Oh, Jack, that’s so romantic,”
she said, throwing her arms around his neck.
He circled her slim waist with his arms and hugged her to him, the feel of her an intoxicant that made him light-headed—and aroused.
She pulled back to look into his eyes. “I can’t wait until I can remember every minute of it.”
Yeah, he couldn’t either. The doctor had said her memory loss would be short-term. The question was, how short-term? When she remembered maybe she’d be able to tell him who the killer was. But she would also remember that they weren’t married. Not even close. That she didn’t need him. And would know that he had lied and couldn’t be trusted. The thought made him sick inside.
“In the meantime, you have time to take a nice hot bath before dinner,” he suggested.
She smiled, her eyes an inviting blue. He knew better than to go there. “I wish you could join me in the tub,” she said suggestively. Nor there, especially.
His Girl Next Door was turning out to be quite the woman. More of a woman than he’d imagined, that was for sure.
“Yeah, I wish I could, too,” he said, meaning every word of it.
He waited until he heard the water running in the tub, before he called Denny from his cell phone.
“What the hell happened at the safe house?” he demanded when Denny answered.
“I’ve been trying to reach you.”
Jack had turned off his cell phone, busy trying to figure out how to deal with the latest challenge—his new bride.
“Where is Karen?” Denny demanded.
Jack had a sudden clear mental picture of her in the claw-foot bathtub. He dragged himself back from the enticing scene of his “wife” chin-deep in a bubble bath. “I don’t know.” Another lie. All for a good cause.
“I don’t believe you,” Denny said, no recrimination in his voice. “You’d be freaking out if you didn’t.”
Freaking. The same word Liz had used on the answering-machine tape. “This is so freaky.”
“At least she wasn’t in the hotel when it blew up,” Denny said.
“She was determined to go to the meeting place so she gave her guards the slip.”
“Amazing woman, isn’t she?”