A Man Worth Remembering

Leigh noticed the scar then. A puckered dimple on her right forearm. It appeared to be well healed, but she thought it might be a bullet wound. Or maybe her imagination was just working overtime. Just the sight of the injury, however, caused a sickening feeling in her stomach. It was yet another chilling reminder of her past she couldn’t remember.

She finished up in the bathroom, returned to the room and got back on the gurney. A moment later, Gabe pushed opened the door and came in with a large disposable cup in each hand.

“Coffee,” he announced. “I figured you’d need your caffeine fix by now.”

Leigh didn’t know about that, but the steamy brew smelled wonderful. “I’m a big coffee drinker?”

He nodded and glanced at one cup and then the other, apparently trying to decide which one was hers. He finally took a sip from one and grimaced. “Yours. Three sugars, just the way you like it.”

She took the cup, knowing she would indeed like it. Odd. Why had sugary coffee felt familiar and not her husband?

Her husband.

As she’d done to her own face in the mirror, Leigh scrutinized his. Actually, he wasn’t bad-looking. A little on the rough side, and the small scar on his chin only contributed to that image. His skin was a pale bronze, obviously a DNA contribution from the Hispanic heritage that his surname signified. The dark blue eyes, however, indicated some Anglo blood as well. All in all, it was a good mix that had produced an interesting face.

His eyes were…not bedroom eyes, even though it was the first description that sprang to mind. The dark lashes made them look half-closed, dreamy, but there was nothing bedroom about them. Those eyes meant business.

“Is the coffee all right?” Gabe asked when she took a sip.

“It’s fine. So, you know how I like my coffee—that still doesn’t mean I believe everything you’ve told me.” Placing her cup on the table beside his, she glanced at her ring finger and noticed a faint line. Not necessarily from a wedding band. But it was possible. “Did I have any ID on me when you pulled me out of the lake?”

He stretched out his leg so he could work his fingers into the front pocket of his jeans. He fished out a single key. “This was tucked under the floor mat in the car. It had your fingerprints on it.”

“It’s for a car?”

Sanchez shook his head. “You left the keys to your rental car in the ignition. This looks more like a house key. Is it familiar?”

“No.” It looked like a key, that’s all. A key to a house, and she had no idea where that house might be. Austin, maybe, since that’s where she supposedly worked. “You didn’t find a purse or wallet on me or in the car?”

“I think the person who tried to kill you probably took it.”

That was possible, which made her wonder if the attack was robbery related. But she didn’t think so. She probably wouldn’t be here if it’d been a simple robbery.

Leigh glanced at him. So far, he’d cooperated with her questions. Well, some of them anyway, but she had no way of knowing if what he’d told her was the truth or even part of the truth. Heck, she wasn’t even convinced that the man was truly her husband.

“Why didn’t you kiss me when you pulled me out of the water?” she asked. “If we’re really married, wouldn’t a kiss have been the husbandly thing to do?”

It happened so quickly, she didn’t have time to protest or wonder why she’d issued such a stupid invitation in the first place. Gabe slipped his hand around the back of her neck and angled her head. His mouth came to hers. Touched. Brushed. And lingered.

Before he got down to business.

The kiss that followed was hot and clever. Slightly rough and a heck of a lot longer than it should have been. It certainly wasn’t a husbandly peck. It had a slick veneer of all sorts of emotion, including some anger, but that didn’t quite cover up the pure, raw attraction that sizzled beneath.

When he finally set her free, there was no doubt in Leigh’s mind that she’d been kissed by someone who knew exactly how to do it.

Gabe looked deeply into her eyes. “Remember me now, mi vida?” he drawled, his tone a cocky challenge.

Actually, Leigh didn’t, but she thought she might like to remember him. Too bad that kiss muddled her brain even more than it already was.

She pushed him away and turned her head toward the window. There wasn’t much she could do about her erratic breathing, but she didn’t want him to see the telltale bewilderment that had to be in her eyes.

“Look, I may not know who I am, but I’m not stupid,” Leigh said crisply. “Other than the obvious thing of someone trying to kill me, something isn’t right.”

“Funny, it felt right to me.” When her gaze came to his, he rubbed the pad of his thumb over his bottom lip and flashed her a grin that set her teeth on edge.

“I didn’t mean that kiss. There has to be a reason why I have all these crazy feelings.” Leigh aimed her finger at him when Gabe started to speak. “And I’m not talking about your mouth on mine. Why won’t you tell me what’s really going on here?”

Gabe dropped onto the gurney right next to her. “You’ll be safer not knowing.”

“I didn’t buy that from Jinx, and I won’t buy it from you. I could regain my memory in the next minute, and if I follow through with that asinine theory, I’ll be in more danger than I am right now. Somebody wants me dead, and I don’t think they care if I have amnesia or not.”

He nodded eventually. “Okay. I’ll give you the condensed version.”

“Why not the whole thing?”

“It’ll only muddy the waters, and it won’t help you sort things out.” He didn’t wait for her to agree. “A little over two years ago you came across some sensitive information regarding a high-ranking government official named Joe Dayton.”

Leigh gave that some thought. All right. What he said could be true. “I found this when I was working at the bookstore in Austin?”

The corner of Gabe’s mouth kicked up. “No, you were working somewhere else at the time. And don’t bother to ask where, because I won’t tell you.”

“Another of Jinx’s orders, or did that come from Special Agent Walters?”

“Not Jinx. Not Teresa. My order. Like I said, it’ll only confuse you more if I overload you with a bunch of facts that you don’t need right now.”

Leigh wasn’t happy about it, but she’d take what she could get. Besides, on that point he might be right. “Okay, finish the short version. What about this Joe Dayton?”

“He was as dirty as they come,” he answered after hesitating. “We didn’t know if he was working alone or if what you learned would make you a target.”

She shook her head, not understanding. “So, why did he wait two years to come after me?”

“You’ve been hiding all this time.”

Finally, something made sense. But it was just the beginning. She needed a lot more pieces of information for this puzzle to come together.

Gabe’s pager began to beep. He jabbed the button to make the sound stop and sprang to his feet. In the same motion, he whipped out his pistol and reeled toward the door.

Leigh hadn’t thought she could be any more frightened, but that did it. Her heart began to pound. “What’s wrong?” she asked, getting off the gurney.

Gabe motioned toward the window. “See if anyone’s out there.”

She hobbled toward it, ignoring her stitches, and peeked through the side of the blinds. It was dark, and they were several floors off the ground, but she saw six cars in the parking lot.

“Nobody,” she reported. But the words hardly left her mouth when four men exited one of the cars. “Somebody,” she amended. “There are four of them.”

“Watch the door,” Gabe ordered and then traded places with her so he could glance out the window. “We don’t have much time. We have to get out of here.”

Leigh started out the door, but Gabe latched onto her arm and yanked her back. “We can’t go that way.”