“Physically she’s fine, but she’s still struggling with some memory issues,” Lucas replied. “Which is why I asked you to bring proof of your relationship to her. Since she can’t remember you, I want to make sure you’re who you really say you are.”
“Of course,” Robert said. He opened the folder in front of him and handed Lucas a photo. It was a wedding picture. Julie was the bride, a handsome blond man was the groom and on either side of them were Robert and Martha. “That was the day my brother married Julie,” he said. “We were thrilled that he’d found such a lovely woman to share his life with, and we were eager to welcome her into our family.”
She was a beautiful bride, Lucas thought as he studied the picture. And a little over a year after this happy photo had been taken she had become a pregnant widow. He handed the photo back to Robert.
“It’s been almost ten days. Why didn’t you report her missing sooner?” he asked. Micah had told him that according to the neighbors Julie was living in Martha and Robert’s home. Why had it taken so long for them to realize she wasn’t there?
“She told us she felt like she wanted some time alone, that she was going to stay at her house for a few days,” Robert explained. “We thought maybe she just needed some space. Our home isn’t huge, and we were kind of on top of each other.” He frowned. “She doesn’t remember any of this?”
“No,” Lucas replied. There was absolutely no reason for him not to trust the two people in front of him, but he couldn’t explain the faint thrum of apprehension that worried him.
Maybe it was nothing more than the fact that he hated the idea of Julie leaving. Or perhaps it was the knowledge that she had no husband, no father for the baby she carried.
This was definitely more difficult than he’d thought it would be. He hadn’t expected that handing her over and telling her goodbye would feel like a loss.
JULIE NEARLY CAME UNGLUED when Micah’s cell phone rang. The last thirty minutes had been the most agonizing she thought she’d ever spend.
She leaned over the back of the front seat as Micah answered. When he clicked off, he looked at her in the rearview mirror. “Buckle up, it’s a go.”
So, Robert Montgomery had passed the Lucas test and she was about to be reintroduced to family members whom she’d been close to before whatever event had stolen her memories.
She leaned back and fastened her seat belt as Micah pulled away from the curb where they had been parked and headed toward the café.
“You okay?” Troy asked.
“Nervous, but okay,” she replied. Her heart felt as if it might pound right out of her chest and the baby did a sudden somersault as if sensing her anxiety.
“You know Lucas would never put you in a dangerous situation. Both Micah and I can tell that he cares about you.”
Troy’s words created a ring of pain around her heart. He might care about her, but not enough to want to be a part of her life. Once her picture had appeared on the evening news he’d certainly wasted no time arranging to get rid of her.
She frowned. That wasn’t fair. Lucas believed he was doing what was best for her, and even though it pained her, she knew she had to somehow push him out of her heart.
As Micah pulled up in front of the café, Troy got out to escort her inside. She grabbed her overnight bag from the seat next to her in one hand and grabbed his arm with the other.
She was so nervous her legs felt wobbly beneath her. Maybe she’d take one look at Robert and Martha and all her memories would instantly return. She wanted that. Even though they’d found out her name and knew bits and pieces of her life, she wanted, needed her memories back.
As they entered the café she immediately spied Lucas. Martha Montgomery rose as Julie approached the booth, and when Julie got close enough the older woman pulled her into a hug.
“Oh, Julie, dear. We’ve been worried sick about you,” she exclaimed.
Julie held herself stiffly in the stranger’s arms, but as the hug continued she felt herself begin to relax. They weren’t strangers…they were family, she reminded herself.
As Martha released her, Julie slid into the booth next to Lucas, surprised to discover that Troy had disappeared.
“Julie, honey, we know this is difficult for you,” Robert said. “Lucas has explained about your memory issues. But I’m sure once we get you home, you’ll be just fine. The baby’s crib is all set up and we’re eager to get you settled back in where you belong.”
“Before that happens, there’s something you should know,” Lucas said. “Somebody tried to grab Julie and shove her in the back of a van at the store the other day. You have any clue why that might have happened?”
Martha and Robert exchanged pointed glances as Julie felt a new tension coil in her stomach. “My brother, God rest his soul, was a good, but troubled man,” Robert said. “He had a weakness for drugs and gambling. At the time of his death, he owed money to people who don’t easily overlook debts.” He turned his attention from Lucas to Julie. “Part of the reason we had you move in with us was that you had been receiving threatening phone calls from these people. I guess they got tired of making phone calls and decided to get more aggressive.”
Julie looked down at the table as she tried to process this new information. Her husband had been a drug abuser and a gambler? She could only guess that the marriage hadn’t been a happy one. Was that why she’d forgotten it, forgotten David?
“The problem,” Robert continued, “is that Julie doesn’t have any money. Another reason we decided to move her in with us was so we could sell her house and get her out from under that payment. Our plan was for her to live with us until the baby was born, and then she could go back to teaching and get on her feet.”
“There was no life insurance policy on her husband?” Lucas asked.
Robert grimaced. “My brother cashed it in months before his death. He left Julie nothing.”
“Why don’t we order some breakfast and chitchat a bit about more pleasant things?” Martha suggested.
Julie was grateful for the suggestion. Hopefully it would give her a little more time to feel comfortable with the people who intended to take her home with them.
Lucas motioned for the waitress and they all ordered. While they ate, Robert and Martha told her a little more about her life with them.
With each moment that passed, a weary acceptance filled Julie. Robert and Martha appeared to be kind, well-meaning people. There was no reason for her not to leave with them.
Except that she didn’t want to leave the man seated next to her. Lucas was quiet during the meal, as if he’d already disconnected from the situation, from her.
Love me, her heart wanted to plead. Ask me to stay with you. Don’t send me away with people I don’t remember. Don’t send me away at all. But all too quickly they had finished eating and it was time for her to leave.
There was nothing to stop her from going with them. They’d had the documentation to prove that they were who they claimed to be, and Julie knew it was time for her to get back to whatever life she’d forgotten.
As they reached the sidewalk outside, Robert and Martha started toward their car as Lucas grabbed Julie’s arm. “She’ll be right there,” he said, indicating they should go on.
She looked up at him, wishing for things he couldn’t give, yearning for an ending different than the one she was getting. “They seem like really nice people,” she finally said.
He nodded, his gaze intent on her, and for just a moment she thought she saw something wonderful in the depths of his eyes, something warm and caring, something that looked like love. “You’re going to be just fine, Julie.” He said the words forcefully, as if trying to convince himself as well as her. He reached up and tenderly tucked a strand of her hair behind her ears, then stepped back from her.
“So I guess this is goodbye.” Her throat grew thick with emotion. She finally felt free to say the words that burned in her heart.
His strong jaw clenched and
his eyes darkened. “I know through this whole thing I’ve been your lifeline, but once you get your memories back you’ll realize what you feel for me is nothing more than gratitude.”
Was he right? Did she feel so strongly about him because she was lost in a sea of the unknown? Was the love she felt for him nothing more than gratitude masquerading as something deeper?
“Julie, I told you not to want anything from me, that I’m not cut out to be a husband or a father.”
“I know. I just don’t understand why you’d say that about yourself. You have all the qualities it takes to be a wonderful husband and father.” She wanted to touch him, but his eyes grew even darker and he took another step back from her.
“You have my cell phone number if you need anything. Goodbye, Julie.” He shoved his hands in his coat pockets, a distinct dismissal of her, of any hopes she might have had to the contrary.
“Goodbye, Lucas,” she replied. She tightened her grip on her overnight bag, then turned and headed toward Martha and Robert’s car.
Her heart sat like a heavy boulder in her chest. Robert opened the back door of his car with a reassuring smile and she slid in. As he pulled out of the parking lot, she turned and gazed back at Lucas, who hadn’t moved from his position on the sidewalk.
Her last impression of him was that he looked as alone as she felt, and that somehow this was wrong, all wrong.
“I’m sure you’re exhausted from all this drama,” Martha said. “All of this can’t be good for the baby. We’re going to make sure you get plenty of rest and healthy meals.”
Julie offered her a weak smile. “I am tired,” she admitted. But not from anything other than the difficulty in telling Lucas goodbye.
She stared out the window and watched the passing scenery, her thoughts still on the man she’d just left. There was no way she believed that her feelings for him were mere gratitude. She knew what she felt in her heart, and it was love.
“Are you warm enough back there?” Robert’s voice pulled her from her thoughts.
She met his piercing blue gaze in the rearview mirror. “I’m fine,” she assured him. Fine. Everyone seemed to be using that word a lot when it came to her and her future. You’re going to be just fine, Lucas had told her. But she didn’t feel as if she’d ever be completely fine again.
She sat up straighter and frowned as she noticed they were driving north. She could have sworn Robert and Martha lived south of the café where they had met.
“Are we going home?” she asked, a strange feeling of dread welling up inside her.
“We’re taking you right where you belong, dear,” Martha said.
Julie’s sense of dread grew bigger, a faint alarm ringing in the back of her head. Then she saw it just ahead of them—the Church of Enlightenment. Even though she couldn’t remember coming here, didn’t recognize it from memory, she knew what it was.
“What are we doing here?” she asked. She unfastened her seat belt as Robert pulled the car up to the gate that led into the inner compound.
He clicked a remote button on his dash and the gate opened. At the same time Julie tried to open the back car door, somehow knowing that she needed to escape.
But the door wouldn’t open. Panic welled up inside her. Why was she locked in like a prisoner? Why were they bringing her here? Oh God, something was wrong. Something was terribly wrong.
As Robert pulled through the gate and it clunked shut behind them, Julie’s memories came rushing back. And with them came the knowledge that she was in grave danger.
Chapter Eleven
Lucas watched them pull out of the café parking lot as his heart twisted in a way he’d never felt before. She was better off without him. Robert and Martha Montgomery seemed like fine people, and eventually Julie would find another man, one who would be a great husband and a terrific father. She was better off without him, and he was better off without her.
Even as he told himself this, he hurried to his car and got in, driven by an impulse he didn’t understand. He wanted to see the house where she’d live, the place where she’d bring her baby after he was born and get on with her life.
He drove several car lengths behind them, not wanting her to see him. He didn’t want her to think that he was coming after her, that he’d changed his mind and wanted to take her home with him.
It didn’t take long for him to be confused by the direction they were traveling, and with his confusion came a spark of concern.
The farther north they drove, the more concern Lucas felt, and when the Church of Enlightenment came into view, the concern transformed to a screaming alarm.
He stepped on the gas in an effort to catch up to them, but before he could, their car disappeared behind the security gates. He braked and stared at the seemingly impenetrable gate that surrounded the buildings within.
Why had they brought her here? During their conversation nobody had mentioned the church. Julie had been terrified by the symbol of the all-seeing eye that the church used as its emblem. Why would they have brought her here? What did they—what did Julie have to do with the church?
He ran the conversation they’d shared over breakfast through his head again and again, seeking something he’d missed, a clue he’d somehow overlooked.
In retrospect the only thing that sounded odd was the idea that goons would be after Julie because of her husband’s drug and gambling debts. Julie had no money. The goons would have nothing to gain by going after her, and they sure wouldn’t try to grab her in the middle of the day in a busy parking lot.
She was in trouble. He’d handed her right over to danger. He slammed the steering wheel with the palms of his hands, then grabbed his cell phone from his pocket and called Chief Kincaid. Wendall answered on the second ring.
“Wendall, it’s Lucas. I need your help.”
“What’s up?”
“Can you meet me in fifteen minutes in front of the Church of Enlightenment?”
Wendall must have heard the thrum of urgency in Lucas’s voice, for he didn’t ask any questions. “I’ll be there.”
“And Wendall, could you bring a couple of officers with you?”
There was a momentary pause. “Are you in danger?”
“No, but I think somebody else is,” Lucas replied.
“On my way.”
Lucas dropped his cell phone on the seat next to him and backed away from the security gate. Instead he pulled to park in front of the church, his heart pounding with a nauseating intensity.
Why was she here? It didn’t make sense. He glanced at his watch. He felt as if each minute that passed was an hour as he waited for reinforcements to arrive.
What he wanted was to talk to Julie, to assure himself that she was okay. He’d like to storm the fence, either ram his car through it or climb over it. But he knew that if he was arrested for destruction of personal property or trespassing, he wouldn’t be any help at all to Julie. If she needs help, he reminded himself.
He supposed it was possible the Montgomerys had brought her here to visit a friend, or to worship before taking her home. He tried to convince himself that those scenarios were possible, but he remained unconvinced.
Once again he checked his watch. God, could the minutes move any slower? With nervous energy screaming through him, he unfastened his coat and placed a hand on the butt of his gun.
He’d kill for her.
The thought shocked him. As a navy SEAL he’d killed before, but that had been war, cases of kill or be killed. It wasn’t something he’d enjoyed, nor had he ever expected to do it again in civilian life.
But for Julie and her unborn son, he’d do whatever it took to protect her, even if it meant killing again.
He breathed a sigh of relief as a patrol car pulled in beside him and Wendall got out. Wendall Kincaid was good-looking, dark-haired and the youngest and most popular chief of police in Kansas City’s history.
Although he frowned on some of Recovery Inc.’s methods, he’d become a friend to
all three of the men. “What have we got?” he asked.
As Lucas began to fill him in on what was going on, he saw a frown etched deeper and deeper into Wendall’s forehead.
“What do you want from me, Lucas?” Wendall asked when Lucas was finished explaining everything. “Julie is a consenting adult and she went willingly with these relatives of hers. There isn’t much I can do about that.”
“But they told me they were taking her home,” he protested.
Wendall shrugged. “So they had a change of plans. No crime has occurred here.”
Lucas grabbed Wendall by the shoulder. “Maybe not yet, but I’m telling you this isn’t right. Julie would never have willingly come here. Just check it out. Make them bring her out here to talk to me. If she tells me this is where she wants to be, then I’ll walk away and not bother her, not bother you again.”
Wendall frowned once again. “Let’s go check it out,” he said.
Lucas dropped his hand from Wendall’s shoulder and breathed a sigh of relief. “Thanks, man. I won’t forget this.”
Minutes later Lucas, Wendall and Officer Ben Branigan approached the locked gate. It was Wendall who found a buzzer that Lucas hadn’t noticed before. He rang it and a moment later a man’s voice replied. “This is private property, please state your business.”
“This is Chief of Police Wendall Kincaid. I’d like to speak with Robert Montgomery,” Wendall said in a voice that rang with his authority.
Lucas’s chest was filled with such a cold, hard knot that he found breathing difficult. He told himself to relax, but it wasn’t happening, wouldn’t happen until he knew with a gut certainty that Julie was okay.
The resulting silence seemed to last a lifetime, but finally Robert’s deep, familiar voice boomed out of the hidden speaker.
“What can I do for you?”
“I want to talk to Julie,” Lucas shouted over Wendall’s shoulder.
“I’m afraid, Mr. Washington, that Julie doesn’t wish to speak with you,” Robert replied smoothly.
“I really must insist that we see Julie,” Wendall said.
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