When Lightning Strikes

After enduring a thorough examination, and having generous blood samples drawn for tests, Hannah was left alone in the room to dress. Hearing Daniel call out to the doctor in the hall, she went to the door and listened. The doctor was telling Daniel that he’d check for drugs and for any serious injury that might have affected her memory, but that the blood test results wouldn’t be available for a few days.

She already knew that they’d find nothing, but understood that Daniel had to make sure. The sad truth was that he couldn’t be sure about her, and that uncertainty would undermine their partnership.

Hannah tried to face the situation squarely. Without his trust, she was better off without him and he without her. It made no sense for Daniel to risk his life for someone he didn’t truly believe in.

What she needed to do now was catch a ride or walk back to the church. She’d wait until no one was around, then go inside and try to reconstruct the missing pieces of her life. She was convinced that everything she needed to clear herself was there. All she had to do was find some way to trigger her elusive memory.

As Daniel and the doctor’s voices moved away from her down the hall, Hannah slipped noiselessly out of the room. A door marked Emergency Exit was only a few steps away.

This was her chance.

She hurried toward it and was nearly there when Daniel stepped around the corner. Hannah ran right into his chest, and before she could take a breath, he clasped her wrist, holding her fast.

She stared at him in mute shock. She wasn’t going anywhere and they both knew it.

“I… I was just going to—”

“Save your excuses,” he said with barely disguised anger. “I’m here to take you to talk to the doctor.”

The young physician looked at them both curiously as they came into his office. The new tension between them was impossible to miss. Hannah sat down in a chair across from the doctor, and Daniel stood behind her.

“The results of your blood test won’t be back for three days or so,” the doctor began, “but from your pupil reaction and reflexes, Miss Jones, I don’t think there are any drugs in your system now. You also don’t have a concussion. Your memory lapse, as far as I can tell, isn’t being caused by any physical trauma.”

“Then that leaves psychological, right?” Daniel pressed.

“That’s a fair guess, but you’re going outside my area of expertise. All I can say is that I found no sign of an injury that would explain her inability to remember recent events.”

Daniel reached down and took Hannah’s hand, holding it firmly but without hurting her. “Then we’ll be going on our way. You know how to bill the agency for this,” Daniel said.

“Good luck,” the doctor answered with a nod. “I’ll send the test results along when they come in.”

As they walked to the door, Hannah felt her stomach sinking. Daniel would never understand why she’d wanted to get away, and why it would have been the best thing for them both. The only thing he’d see in what she’d tried to do was another reason to distrust her. Trying to make things better, she’d succeeded in making them far worse.

She let out a small sigh. For years she’d prided herself on not needing anyone for either her comfort or safety. Depending on a stranger now, and putting him in mortal danger because of it, went against everything she believed in.

“It would have been better for you if I’d managed to get away,” she said simply.

Daniel laughed bitterly. “You were doing it all for my sake, right?”

“No, but what I said still stands. It would have been better for you.” He walked her to the SUV, and opened the passenger door, waiting until she was in and buckled up before he walked around to his side. Wolf looked at her from the back seat, but sensing something was wrong between her and Daniel, remained still.

They drove away silently, Daniel concentrating on the traffic as they headed west.

She could clearly sense that what disturbed Daniel the most was that she’d tried to trick him. He’d never lower his guard around her again but, unless she could somehow gain his trust, he would be as much her keeper as her ally.

“Where are we going?” she asked.

“To a safe house about halfway to Shiprock. It’s the best place I can think of for us right now.”

They’d gone a few miles out of town before he spoke again, keeping his attention fixed on the road and not even glancing at her. “Is there someone who has known you for a long time who I can talk to—preferably a person who sees you a lot.”

“What do you want, a character reference?” There had been no sympathy or caring in his tone. Daniel was all business now that she’d shaken his trust.

He glanced at her coldly. “Answer my question, please.”

She thought of responding that he hadn’t answered her, but changed her mind. She’d pick her battles carefully from now on. “I wouldn’t drag either my friends or clients into this. I’m not sure why those men were after me, but this is a deadly business. I don’t want anyone I know getting hurt on account of me.”

“We need to find someone trustworthy who might have seen you during that time you can’t account for. They might be able to shed some light on what happened during those hours.”

“My guess is that only someone who works at the church could do that, but I doubt they’d speak freely to you if you came in asking questions. They don’t know you. And I obviously can’t vouch for you right now.”

“Tell me about your clients and your business.”

“I run a small bookkeeping firm out of my home. I don’t have employees—so basically, I’m it. My firm is my livelihood and I’ve worked hard to get it off the ground. Being accused of stealing is about the worst thing that can happen to someone in my profession. Make the victim a church, and you can pretty much write off your career. But ask yourself one thing—what kind of creep would be willing to hunt down a woman and kill her for two thousand dollars—money that, from what you’ve said, hasn’t even been reported missing? There are more blank spaces in that story than there are in my memory.”

“I know,” Daniel answered quietly. “But no one will hurt you while you stick with me. You can count on that.”

Hannah believed him. From everything she’d seen, Daniel Eagle was a man of his word. When he offered his protection, he meant it. To get to her, they’d have to kill him. And from what she’d seen of his fighting skills, it would take a lot to do that.

Like the stereotypical Navajo warrior, Daniel was cool under pressure, quiet and highly dangerous to an enemy. He also possessed a vibrant maleness that only a woman without a pulse could resist. Though at the moment he was a reluctant ally, there was something infinitely seductive about having a man like Daniel protecting her.

Yet that could all change, and she had to remember that. Once he found out the details of her past, would he still believe she was telling him the truth? That was a question she just couldn’t answer, and one she had every right to worry about.

“So how much farther is this safe house?” Hannah asked.

“We have less than a half hour of drive time before we get there. The house actually belongs to a buddy of mine. It’s near Hogback, just inside the Reservation. No one’s living there right now. Mitchell’s away for the next two months. He’s participating in law enforcement training back east. Nobody will bother us there.”

“Is Mitchell part of Gray Wolf?”

“All I can say is that he and I got to be friends when I worked as a cop a lifetime ago.”

“But what if the neighbors see us?”

“They know me. We won’t have any problems. You’ll be safe. It’s a tight community with a lot of cops or former cops, and ex-military.”

Hannah took a deep breath, then let it out again. “You realize that I don’t have a wallet, money, ID, or anything on me except the clothes on my back, and the shirt isn’t even mine. Is there any way I can get a few things from my home?”

“No, that’s out of the question. It’s probably being watched.”

She nodded. “Okay, fair enough. But I’ll still need a change of clothes and a few personal items.”

“We can stop at the trading post near where we’re going. You stay in the vehicle with Wolf. Give me a list with sizes, and I’ll get whatever I can find.”

The stop to buy the things she’d asked for was quick. After that, they continued the drive that took them past harvested cornfields west of Hogback and dry desert above the river valley. Daniel remained silent throughout and, after a while, Hannah decided to do something to break the unsettling quiet that was grating on her nerves.

“I’ve heard of the brooding hero, but I think I’d rather have a more talkative one,” she said, a wry smile touching the corners of her mouth.

“I don’t brood, and I’m no hero,” he muttered.