Sudden Recall

The rifle was lifted for a second, just long enough for her to get the message. Apparently, trying to run was out of the question. So what was the new plan? And was Parker dead?

“We figured sooner or later you’d go to him for help. Little obvious, don’t you think? Crying to the big bad SEAL in his cushy new job driving prisoners around. Too bad he can’t help you no more. Too, too bad.”

Sienna swallowed. Tears filled her eyes, and that painful ache in her chest was back. It usually only surfaced after a bad dream—like the one she had of that little boy crying. She didn’t even know Parker, despite his apparently thinking they were best friends or something. Why would she shed a tear over the death of someone she barely knew?

Still, it slipped down her face, and she didn’t wipe it away in case the gunmen were watching. They’d let down their guard if they thought she was as helpless as she looked.

She kept up her act when the gunman’s grip on her arm tightened just enough that she could reasonably let off a whimper. They’d soon think she was surrendering, but her first order of business was getting out of his hold. Then she’d either have to steal their van or run down the street until she found someone willing to give her a ride into town.

They stepped out of the trees and the helicopter’s rotors whipped her hair around her face, obstructing her view of the three vehicles and the man holding his arm. Parker had been right; he’d winged one of the gunmen.

“I can’t believe you let him hit you.” The rifleman to her right lifted his weapon, his voice disappointed but in a hard way. There was no sympathy for his friend.

“It was a mistake. I won’t let it happen again.” The injured man spoke in broken English.

“You’re right, you won’t.” The rifle popped off one shot, and the injured man fell to the ground.

Sienna looked away from the carnage while the rifleman chuckled.

“Let’s go.” The man holding her stepped over the dead guy, which forced her to do the same. “You have an appointment with the boss.”

“I think you have the wrong person. This must be some mistake. I run a tiny ranch and I take care of my sick aunt. What could you possibly want with me?”

“Not us, just the boss.” He chuckled. “Nice try, though. This whole ‘I don’t remember’ act is cute and all. I nearly busted a gut when I heard about that. But it’s not going to fly. The boss has ways of making people remember things.”

Dread crested over her like an ice cold wave. She wasn’t going to suddenly get her memories back, not even with whatever horrifying method their “boss” came up with. The doctors couldn’t do anything about her amnesia, which was why she’d checked out of the hospital.

A year later and she still didn’t recall one iota of her past. Aunt Karen asked her about it every few weeks, but other than that she just let Sienna go about her business.

The whole thing was bizarre. And not just the situation she was in now.

Aunt Karen was like an acquaintance living in her house. Sienna had figured she’d develop familial affection for the older woman at some point, but it hadn’t happened yet. What kind of niece didn’t even love her own aunt? And what had Parker said, about her not even having an aunt, just an uncle? How strange was that?

It was like everyone knew more about her life than she did. Sienna wanted to grab her hair at the roots. All the tiptoeing around, all the side glances and making sure she hadn’t snapped. It was infuriating. She wanted to just get in her truck—if it actually worked—and drive off into the sunset. But every time she got ready to leave, it was like her aunt got needier.

Now she was about to get a ride out of town when she really didn’t want to go.

The gunman shook her arm. “Move. Now.”

* * *

Parker was pretty sure his rib was broken. He lay on the ground listening to the men walking Sienna to the van, then rolled over and did a push-up, getting his legs under him. Oh, that hurt. He jogged after them in time to see her struggle against the man holding her, desperate not to be put on the waiting chopper. Good girl.

She was giving the fight a valiant effort, further proof that what she’d said was true. In fight-or-flight mode no one was good enough to keep up the pretense. She’d have done even better in this situation had she retained all of her previous skills, which meant they likely truly had been forgotten.

At least these men didn’t seem to want her dead, or she’d have been killed already. No, they only wanted him dead—which was pretty much the story of his life.

Since the single gunman had his back to him, Parker cracked the door on his truck and grabbed his phone, hoping they wouldn’t see the dome light. He sent a text to the duty phone at the marshal’s office that was manned 24/7, a code that meant, “Get everyone here. I’m in serious trouble,” along with his location. The team wouldn’t thank him given they’d also had a rough day, and were probably all home in bed by now. But they would understand.

Parker clicked the door as quietly as he could while Sienna kicked and struggled against her captor.

The helicopter pilot yelled through the open door. “Let’s go!”

Parker took cover behind the truck, his gun aimed at the man. “US Marshals—let her go!”

The gunman pointed his weapon and fired. Parker ducked for a second, then lifted up to shoot again—aiming for the far side of the man so there was less chance a miss would hit Sienna.

She kicked out at the gunman so that the man’s shots went wide and missed Parker. Sienna grabbed the man’s head and ripped the wool balaclava from his face.

Brown hair fell down across his forehead and surprise flashed on his face, distracting him enough that Sienna was able to slam his head back against the side of the helicopter. He dropped to the concrete, unconscious. Maybe she hasn’t forgotten everything.

A boot crunched gravel at his back and Parker spun. He sideswiped the rifle with his forearm and punched the man. The fight was nasty, but Parker got him on the ground, arms behind his back. “Who sent you here?”

The man didn’t answer.

Sienna sprinted over and took cover behind Parker.

Parker asked again, “Who sent you?”

The man on the ground chuckled. The words he spoke were Italian, but Parker understood them nonetheless. He was going to kill himself. Before Parker could flip the man to his back and prevent the suicide, he’d already bitten down on what was likely a cyanide capsule in a fake tooth.

Parker pulled Sienna away so she didn’t have to see or hear the man’s unpleasant death. The helicopter rotors spun faster and it lifted off the ground, those inside apparently fully prepared to cut their losses and bail on this whole endeavor.

Parker held his arm around their faces while wind flicked his shirttails up and down. A convoy of cars pulled up and parked in the spot where the helicopter had been, surrounding the remaining living man. His team piled out, guns drawn, looking as perturbed as he felt.

Parker turned Sienna so she could focus on him. “Are you okay?”

She nodded. “Thank you.”

He wanted to say, “Always,” but that would imply there was some kind of link between them, some emotional connection deeper than two strangers standing by a truck on a highway. He wasn’t going there again; he had to keep a distance.

“You want to tell us what on earth is going on, Parker?” His boss, Jonah Rivers, was newly married and probably mad he’d been pulled away from precious time with his bride. Behind Jonah was US Marshal Wyatt Ames, a former police detective, and behind him the team’s married couple—Hailey and Eric Hanning. Jonah’s gaze was riveted on the front of Parker’s vest.

Parker glanced down and saw the bullet lodged there. Jonah’s eyebrow rose.

“Everyone, this is Sienna.”

Ames grinned, but then he always was cocky. “Explains a few things.”

Parker ignored him and pointed out everyone so she knew their names. “I was with Sienna when she was almost abducted by this guy.” He pointed at the man who’d killed himself with the capsule in his tooth. “And this guy.” He pointed at the man who’d been shot, though Parker was only responsible for the graze on his arm. “The one over there is only unconscious.”

Eric and Hailey broke off to handcuff the last man alive.

Parker blew out a breath while Jonah strode over and held out his hand. “It’s good to see you, Sienna.”

Parker whipped his head around. “You know her?”

Sienna said, “I watched some of the zoo animals at my ranch after the flood, up until Jonah’s wife, Elise, reopened it a month ago.”

“That was you?”

“Yes.” There was a question in her eyes. “My aunt didn’t like it, either, but I told her it wasn’t like the animals were going to come in the house, so why should she be bothered by them?”

“That’s how I met Sienna.”

Parker didn’t like the smug look on Jonah’s face. He wanted to tell his boss everything he knew about Sienna’s past—her real past and not whatever story she’d concocted instead of telling people the truth about her bizarre medical case. Then he’d watch Jonah’s facial expression change.

Instead, Parker said, “How nice.”

Jonah chuckled, apparently not fazed by Parker’s belligerence. He never was, and Parker hadn’t been hired on to a fugitive apprehension task force because of his people skills.

“I’m assuming the helicopter reported in this area was on account of you?”

* * *

While Parker told Jonah all about what had happened, Sienna left him and strode to her truck. Her purse was still on the front seat, her phone inside. Nothing had been taken, which made sense since the gunmen hadn’t been there for that. They’d been there for her, and when they’d failed, the one in charge had...killed himself. Who did that? Her mind spun so fast she was dizzy from it.

Sienna had twenty-three texts and three voice mails from her aunt. She sent a text back that said, I’m fine.

Two seconds after it sent, her phone rang. She turned to sit sideways on the front passenger seat and answered.

“Yes.”

“Where are you? I’ve been calling you for an hour!”

Sienna gritted her teeth. “I got a flat tire, then three men with guns and a helicopter chased me through the forest and I barely got free before they could put me in the chopper and take me to who knows where.”

Silence. “Did you kill them?”

Sienna choked. She’d said the whole thing in her most sarcastic voice, like what happened was just another day at the office, and Aunt Karen only wanted to know if Sienna had killed them? “Two of them are dead, but it wasn’t me who did it.”

Why was her aunt worried about that, and not whether or not Sienna was okay? Because while she was fine physically, mentally was a whole other question. “Listen, Aunt Karen, I’ll be home soon to heat up dinner...”

“I already ate. Is someone there with you?”

“A marshal stopped to help me with the flat.”

“Jackson Parker?”

Sienna frowned. “How did you know that?”

“Have him drive you home. Tell him to come inside so I can meet the man who saved my darling niece’s life.”

It just didn’t ring true. Nothing about her life did except the feel of Parker’s hand wrapped around hers. Remembering it was keeping her sane when she wanted to drop to the ground and cry. Not just from fear. When she looked at Parker it was like all those feelings of loss surrounding what she couldn’t remember intensified.

Maybe he was right and they had been friends. She wasn’t big on trusting people on face value, but Parker made her want to believe it. It felt right. He felt right.

But there was nothing she could do about it when she didn’t recall a thing. She couldn’t make any kind of move when she didn’t know their history. What if there was something huge she was missing because she’d lost her past? If she jumped in now, she’d look naive. That was why she had to back off and not rely on Parker too much, even if it was the easy route.

Sienna hung up and rubbed her gritty eyes. When she looked up, one of the marshals was in front of her. He shot her a cocky grin and stuck his hand out. “Wyatt Ames.”

She shook it. “Sienna Cartwright.” As always, it sounded foreign. Like she was living someone else’s life.

“So you’re the one who has him all tied up in knots.”

“Excuse me?”

“Parker.” Wyatt glanced once in his direction and then back at her. “A man doesn’t look at a woman like that if it doesn’t mean something.”

“Am I supposed to know what you’re talking about?”

He grinned. “I guess not. Parker told us about the amnesia thing. That really happens?”

Sienna kept a straight face. “I wouldn’t know. I can’t remember.”

Wyatt laughed, which made Parker pause in his conversation and look over at her. “That’s exactly the look I’m talking about.”

Parker went back to his conversation, and Sienna shook her head. “It’s not like that. We barely know each other.”

Well, she barely knew him. The reverse might not be true.

“Listen, I really need to...”

She was interrupted when the gunman she’d knocked out started yelling as he regained consciousness. Parker raced over while the marshals struggled to restrain him. Sienna watched, wide-eyed, as he stuck two fingers in the gunman’s mouth. The man bit down. Parker winced but didn’t back off. He pulled out a capsule and lifted the man up. “Put this one on suicide watch.”

The female marshal nodded, and they hauled the guy to their car.

Parker walked to her then, giving Wyatt a side nod that made him stride away. But not before he glanced back at Sienna and mouthed, See.

She wasn’t interested in getting mixed up in the interplay between the marshals. That wasn’t her world. All she wanted was to get back to the ranch and hide under her covers until the sun came up.

“Are you okay?” The hardness of Parker’s features had softened. She steeled herself against it and glanced at the trees. That persistent feeling of being watched just wouldn’t go, even now that the immediate threat had passed.

“I’m not sure how I’m going to get home.”

“At last, a problem of yours I can actually solve.” The smile curled the corners of his mouth. “I’ll give you a ride. Okay?” Sienna nodded, and Parker strode past Wyatt, who handed him a set of keys. She glanced again at the dark forest around them as she followed.

There was definitely someone out there.

THREE

With the exception of telling him where she lived, Sienna had been quiet on the drive to her house. He’d tried to fill the silence with music and found out the painful way that Wyatt had changed all the radio stations to what he called “classics.” Parker wanted to reach over and hold her hand, but to her they were practically strangers.

Instead, he squeezed the steering wheel until he worried it would snap.

“Is there something wrong?”

He glanced over but couldn’t see her expression in the dark of the SUV Wyatt had loaned him. “It’s been a long day.”

“Oh, sorry I kept you out.”

“Not your fault.” He snapped on his blinker and turned onto her street. “You didn’t ask those men to try and kidnap you.”

She turned away and looked out the window.

The clock on the dash read 11:37 when he pulled into her drive next to a van. “Is that your aunt’s car?”

“It’s supposed to give her the feeling of mobility by allowing her to get out on her own, but she doesn’t like to drive so I still have to take her everywhere.”

He didn’t hear any resentment in her voice, just fatigue. Which after the night she’d had, running through the forest and fighting for her life, didn’t surprise him. “Was she in an accident?”

Sienna nodded. “It was before I woke up with no memory. She doesn’t really talk about it, but I found a newspaper article online. A drunk driver hit her car late at night, and now she’s paralyzed from the waist down. She has a nurse come in every morning to help her shower and dress, but I help her the rest of the time.”

Parker didn’t know what to say, so he cracked the door and climbed out. A light over the porch flooded the front of the house with its fluorescent glare. Not a motion sensor. That would have been triggered by the vehicle pulling in. A heat sensor, then? Not many small-town residents had security like that. Parker wanted to meet this aunt of hers.

He waited for Sienna to circle the SUV and then took her hand. Because he wanted to. Because they were both tired, and they could have died tonight. It wasn’t about what he wished could have been, or what they might have had between them had she shown up in Atlanta. It was only about providing the comfort of friendship when they’d both had a bad day.

The front steps had been overlaid with a wood ramp. When Parker stepped his foot on it, a buzzer inside dinged—like a doorbell. They reached the front door just as it swung open to reveal a stout woman in a wheelchair.

With dark hair plastered on her head, she looked like a stern schoolmarm. A fact that was confirmed when she stuck her fingers on her hips and barked, “Took you long enough to get home. Did you get lost?”

Sienna grabbed a gray cardigan from a hook inside the door and pulled it on over the shirt she wore, like armor. “Sorry, Aunt Karen. We got here as soon as we could. Why don’t you head to bed? We’ve all had a long day.” She rubbed her hands up and down her arms.

The woman chuckled, an awkward, rusty sound. “You look more than worse for wear. Are you going to introduce me to your friend?”

Like she didn’t know exactly who he was? Because he’d met her before under entirely different circumstances. And he knew she was CIA. Why was she acting like this was a cover story for a mission?

Karen glanced at Parker, and he lifted an eyebrow in question. Then “Aunt Karen” pinned him with a stare Sienna didn’t catch and shook her head. Did she think she was fooling anyone? Parker wasn’t sure why he was willing to go along with it, but if there was a chance it was for Sienna’s benefit, he would.

At least until he got an explanation as to why Sienna’s CIA handler was here, pretending to be her relative.

Karen glanced between them. “How about I make us some tea? Why don’t you take a hot shower, get warmed up? Your young man and I can get acquainted.”

Sienna glanced at him.

Parker wasn’t going anywhere right then.

She sighed. “Okay, that actually sounds good. I’ll be back down in a minute.”

“You take your time.” Karen wheeled herself into the kitchen.

The corner of Sienna’s mouth curled up. “She’s a little...abrasive, but her bark is worse than her bite.”

“That’s good to know.” Parker squeezed her shoulder. “I’ll be fine. I’m a big tough guy who fights off kidnappers, remember?”

It was supposed to be a joke, but he knew she didn’t take it that way when her eyes darkened. “I remember.”

“Sorry.” He took a step of retreat toward the kitchen. “I’ll make small talk while you clean up.”

She cocked her head to the side. “Why are you staying? It’s late, and you’re more tired than I am.”

He couldn’t tell her that “Aunt Karen” had some explaining to do. So he said, “I don’t want to leave right away if there’s a chance they might come back. I’ll stick around for a little while and then head out. If that’s okay with you.”

She nodded. Honestly, she looked relieved. But Parker didn’t let that sink too far down. His heart didn’t need any more encouragement. Sienna turned to the hall and left him alone in the foyer.

Karen rolled to the doorway. “Kitchen. Now.”

Parker followed because it was the only way he was going to get answers.

The phone on the counter rang.

Karen grabbed the wheels of her chair.

“I’ll get it!” Sienna’s yell came from down the hall.

Karen shook her head and turned back to Parker.

“Seriously?” was all he said as he folded his arms and leaned his hips against the kitchen counter while he waited for Karen to give him some kind of answer for all of this. Sienna was out of earshot at least, on the phone by the sound of it. That meant he could talk freely with her “aunt.”

The older woman pinned him with a stare. It was no less effective, though he and Karen were no longer on the same eye level as when he’d last seen her two years ago. “I’m not going to tell Sienna who she really is. And you can’t, either.”

“What happened to you?”

“I was hit by a drunk driver. Sienna didn’t tell you? It happened while she was in a coma, so when she woke up, it was decided that I would stay with her.”

Parker said, “You’re lying about being her aunt so you can be here when she remembers whatever it is the CIA wants her to recall?”

“Yes.” There was no guilt in Karen’s expression, but then there never had been. Nor any pity when she’d found him in a sorry state just days after Sienna’s no-show. The day she’d stiffly told him to drop it, to let Sienna be and to go on with his life. To forget about her, like he could do that. Like there was no hope a CIA agent and a SEAL could find happiness together.

“What did Sienna forget that is so important?”

* * *

Sienna grabbed the phone off the desk. “Hello?”

The landline was down the hall in the office, where Aunt Karen holed up most of the day working on what she called her “correspondence.” Sienna figured she just read romance novels, given how many paperback books regularly showed up in the mail.

A sigh of relief was the first thing she heard. “Are you okay?”

“Uh...yes.” Sienna didn’t question the need; she simply strode to the door and clicked it shut without any sound.

“I can’t believe you’re actually okay.”

Who was this woman?

Sienna let the towel drop to the desk. “Why do I want to cry right now?”

“Because I’m the person who you love more than anything in the world, and we haven’t talked to each other in nearly two years.”

Sienna was sort of over other people knowing who she was. “Why would I love you? What’s so special about you?”

The woman on the phone laughed, took a long inhale and then laughed some more.

Sienna set her hand on her hip. “Seriously, I want to know.”

She chuckled, wheezing for breath. “That’s my girl. Don’t believe anything they tell you. At best, it’s nothing but a bunch of half-truths.”

“And at worst?”

“You’re not ready for that.”

“Is Sienna Cartwright even my real name?”

The woman was silent for a minute. “It was your birth name, but you’ve had so many aliases I can imagine it sounds weird.”

“And what did I call you?”

“Oh, right. Amnesia.” She chuckled again. Did people really laugh that much? “I’m Nina. Nina Holmes, your best friend since third grade.”

It couldn’t be a coincidence. Sienna had been living here months, and tonight she’d almost been kidnapped. Now this woman was on the phone, claiming to be her friend? Did this “Nina” think that she would buy it?

“Prove it. Because if you were my best friend, you wouldn’t have waited two years to contact me,” Sienna said.

“I was instructed not to. And there isn’t much I’m allowed to tell you—even if I seriously disagree with the reason. But...you take honey in your coffee.”

“What else?”

Nina was quiet for a second. “Oh, I have a good one. Your favorite dessert.”

It had taken Sienna two months of experimenting with different varieties to figure out the answer to that one for herself. For some reason it had been important to get it right. “If you think you can answer.”

“A scoop of strawberry ice cream and a scoop of chocolate—which is gross when you stir them together, by the way—with broken-up pieces of peanut-butter cups you hide in the freezer.”

Okay, so that was pretty specific. “And on top...?”

“A cherry. Obviously. No whipped cream. Which is also bizarre.”

Sienna smiled. More than anyone she’d met since she woke up from the coma, Sienna believed this woman actually knew her. Not that she thought Karen or Parker were lying, but deep affection welled up in her at hearing this woman’s voice. She knew she could reach out to Nina, but she still had to be cautious.