23. Valentina
VALENTINA
“Whoever was taking care of you did a decent job.”
I wince, keeping my eyes closed as the doctor provided by these strangers tends to the wound on my head. We’ve been here an hour and she’s been all over my body, helping me understand what’s injured, what’s healed, and what could have caused my memory loss.
It all comes down to the blow to the head when Diego was run off the road, but the fact that small things have come back is a promising sign. Unfortunately, the speed at which things return can’t be increased. It’s all up to my own mind.
“He’s a good man,” I murmur. “I don’t know the extent of his medical capabilities but I know I’m alive because of him.”
“This will scar.” The doctor shifts beside me, and her coat brushes against my bare arm.
“Even if you’d gone to a hospital, it still would have scarred.
When you’re fully healed and the skin has grown back, there might be something we can do about the hair loss along the wound. Implants and things.”
“I don’t know if I care about that,” I admit. How I look hasn’t much crossed my mind these past few weeks since Diego’s been all over me like a horny fever and I haven’t minded one bit. If he can look past the wounds, the bruises, and the big old dent on my forehead, then so can I.
“The old you would,” the doctor remarks with a smile, and I finally open my eyes.
“Was she vain?” I ask, thinking back to the elegant, brand-name clothing I found in the closet.
“I wouldn’t say vain. You were… particular in what you liked and how you dressed. You treated that with as much care as any of your other weapons.”
“Wow…” Hearing myself be talked about in such a way is so strange when compared to how I feel… and what I feel. I felt no connection to the clothes, the makeup, or the jewelry, and yet it was clearly part of my identity.
“Okay, I think we’re good here. I’d like to keep you on some painkillers and we’ll wean you off slowly over time. Everything else looks good.” Her warm blue eyes lock onto mine. “And if you feel dizzy or nauseated at any point?”
“I’ll come find you,” I reply. “Which… would suggest everyone intends for me to stay here?”
Confusion flitters across her expression as she steps away and pulls off her medical gloves. “Of course. Why wouldn’t you?”
The why reveals itself moments later when a tall man with light brown hair, golden skin, and piercing blue eyes pushes the door open. I only spare him a glance because Diego pushes past him a second later and rushes inside.
“Valentina!”
“Diego!” I throw myself off the bed and make it two steps before I’m swept up in his tight embrace, and suddenly, the world is righted. My heart thuds against my ribs, threatening to burst free with each passing second, and Diego briefly tightens his grip.
Then he leans away and cups my face, running his eyes over me at breakneck speed. “Are you alright? Did they hurt you? I swear I’ll kill them if they hurt you.”
A snort rises up from the man at the door as I shake my head. “I’m okay. Anything new is from the crash, a few bumps and bruises but nothing else. They took care of me, even restitched a few things.”
Diego’s eyes dart down to where the wound he badly stitched exists under my clothes, and he winces. “I didn’t hurt you with my bad stitching, did I?”
“No,” I assure him. “You saved my life, Diego. That will never change.”
“Sorry to interrupt.” A woman joins the man in the doorway and her plump, red lips stretch into a warm smile as she tucks several strands of her fair blonde hair behind one ear. “I’m Ivy. This is Ruslan.” She tilts her head toward the man. “Welcome back, Valentina.”
Ivy. Ruslan.
Those names spark familiarity in my mind, and I step back from Diego, though he slides his hand firmly into mine. “I know your names.”
There’s an undeniable rush of hope in Ruslan’s eyes. “You do?”
“I had rings in my pocket. They were engraved with names. Your names.” My attention splits between them. “Were you two married?”
Ivy and Ruslan exchange a glance, then Ivy brings her hands together as she smiles. “We have a lot to catch up on. Are you hungry?”
Thirty minutes later, we sit at a large table in a spacious kitchen flooded with countless good scents. Diego sits next to me, his back as tense as a metal pole, and not once does he let go of my hand.
Not that I want him to.
There’s a certain uncomfortable sensation that comes with looking in the eyes of people who hold memories and feelings for me that I can’t reciprocate.
They look at me like they know me, and from the snippets of information I’ve gathered so far, they do.
I was part of this group of people, whoever they are, and I was important to them.
But I feel as alien as Diego appears to be as the tallest of them, Bradley, sets down two steaming bowls of pasta.
“It’s not much,” he grunts in a deep, gruff voice. “But it’s good.”
“He’s being dramatic,” Ivy remarks with a smile. “He’s a good cook when he wants to be. It’s just, none of us have been doing much cooking or eating since…” She trails off and Ruslan, who’s sitting next to her, shifts as if his arm has grasped her thigh under the table for comfort.
“Since what?” I tighten my grip on Diego’s hand. “You’ve all been… mysterious. Talking and acting like I should know who you are, but I gotta say, none of this feels good.” Even as the words leave me, there’s a niggle in the back of my mind because some of it does feel good.
There’s distant familiarity even in this situation, but it’s like trying to decipher a fogged photograph.
Something clatters on the counter near Bradley, but I can’t make out what it is.
“In time,” Ruslan says quietly, “you’ll remember. The doctor said it wasn’t permanent, correct?”
“But she did say the timeline was impossible to gauge,” Diego adds. “It could be anywhere from six days to six months.”
“Given what you’ve told us…” Ivy’s smile strengthens, and it seems to be a calculated choice that she’s the one talking to me and not one of the others.
“You went missing about a week before you ended up in Diego’s car.
Eight days, to be exact. It was the morning of our wedding, Ruslan and I.
You were my maid of honor.” Her voice cracks ever so slightly, but she masks it well with a deep inhale.
“That’s why you had our rings. Ruslan didn’t trust Bradley with them since he has a penchant for losing things. ”
“I don’t,” Bradley mutters. “But whatever.”
“You so do. You couldn’t even find cufflinks that morning,” Ruslan remarks. “Can you imagine what you would have done with two small rings?”
Bradley rolls his eyes as he approaches the table, and he sits with only a mug of coffee. “No one likes cufflinks, anyway.”
“We called off the wedding because your disappearance was so out of character,” Ivy continues.
My stomach tightens. “You didn’t get married?”
“No.” Ivy’s smile doesn’t waver. “We can get married at any time and we knew we wanted all of our friends there. By the time we made it to the start of the ceremony, there was no trace of you, so we called it off and started the search.”
Diego shifts beside me, and his chair creaks, then he clears his throat. “You started the search? You didn’t call the cops?”
“No,” Ruslan replies. “We didn’t.”
“Seems a bit weird, don’t you think? Your friend goes missing and you don’t call the cops? Eight days and not one phone call?”
Ruslan exchanges a look up the table with Bradley. He takes a deep breath that almost seems to thin the air around us. “I won’t get into details,” he says. “All you need to know right now is no, we didn’t call the cops.”
Diego’s thumb shifts against my knuckles, but he doesn’t say anything else.
“We’re pretty adept at looking for missing people,” Ivy says.
“I say we. It’s more them. I’m not exactly involved in any of that, but the main point I’m trying to make, Valentina, is that you are one hell of a woman who doesn’t just disappear off the face of the earth.
We knew something had happened. Something bad.
But we found nothing. Not a single clue, not a hint, not even an encrypted message anywhere. You were just… gone.”
The stab of pain in Ivy’s tone makes my heart clench, and warmth builds unexpectedly behind my eyes. I swallow quickly to combat the sensation. “But you found me.”
“We did.” Her eyes close briefly. “The card you have with you is how we tracked you. We kept our ear to the ground, hoping for a hint of life from it, but we had nothing until we got a brief flicker at your apartment.” Her eyes slide to Diego very briefly.
“It was our very first hint that you were alive, and it was so brief that while Ruslan and Bradley ran to search the place, Raven was running tests to make sure it wasn’t a glitch. ”
“You searched my apartment?” Diego remarks sharply. “Does the law seriously mean nothing to you?”
“No,” Bradley replies shortly. “Given the blood we found on the bed there, and Raven’s conclusion that it wasn’t a glitch, we feared the worst.”
“I saw you,” Diego continues. “That night. I was attacked at the bar where I work and Valentina saved me. On the way home, I saw you outside my apartment so we didn’t get off the bus.”
“You were attacked?” Ruslan leans forward. “By whom?”
His demand is quickly pulled back by Ivy clearing her throat. “What they mean to say is, we can understand why you ran. But from that point on, Valentina, we thought you were dead. It…” She shakes her head briefly and her eyes sparkle.
“Until the motel,” I say as it suddenly clicks in my mind. “I activated that card again. Is that how you found us again?”
Ivy nods, even as her smile wavers. “It was… confusing. That card is coded only to you and us in emergencies, and we definitely didn’t have access.
So the alert put us on edge, and then Ruslan crashed into a poor civilian, which then gave you a chance to leave.
Cassian had been tracking a few smaller leads here and there after interviewing people at the bar you work at, Diego, and then we met Mindy. ”
Bradley grunts softly and buries the sound in his mug of coffee.
“We picked up on one of her calls while following police scanners and she was yelling about you, Diego, which meant nothing to us until she gave a not-so-kind description of Valentina. From there, we tracked Diego’s phone, which also seems to be what those bounty hunters did. And the rest…” Ivy shakes her head.
“There was never supposed to be a chase,” Ruslan admits. “The bounty hunters were another wrench in the works.”
It’s a lot to take in.
More than I can process.
All these people, following police scanners, tracking cards and phones, having no worry or care for the law… it’s a lot.
“If…” I tighten my hand in Diego’s once more. “If you don’t mind, would it be alright if we were excused? This is a lot and I’m feeling… I don’t really know how to explain it.”
There’s a beat of silence where no one speaks until Ivy does. “Of course! Do you remember the way back to the room you woke up in? That’s your room.”
“I do.” Standing, I tug Diego with me and he doesn’t hesitate, then we leave the table with the food untouched.
Together, we walk back to my room in a daze and Diego doesn’t speak until we’re back inside and the door is closed.
“That man, Bradley? He was interrogating me like I had something to do with what happened to you, acting like I was some kind of criminal.” He shakes his head and paces toward the dresser, then turns. “What the hell is this place? Who are these people?”
I don’t answer. I walk very slowly to the bed and ease myself down.
“They speak like they know everything and refuse to let on. I don’t understand it. Are we prisoners? Are we under some weird house arrest? And the way they talked about going through my apartment, my bar, my life… what am I supposed to do knowing they violated—”
He cuts himself off and then suddenly, he’s on his knees before me, taking my hands in his.
“I’m okay,” I murmur.
“Are you?” Concern floods his gorgeous eyes.
“Yeah…”
“I don’t trust these people. Bradley, when he pulled me from the car, he said I was a hard man to track. That’s exactly what the cop said back in the bar. Do you think they’re working together?”
My eyes drift around the room, taking in every detail of the closet, dresser, and bedside table from before.
The longer I’m here, the more familiar it seems. Even Ivy’s explanation of how everything happened has an air of familiarity.
It’s as if I knew what they were doing because I would do the same thing.
“I don’t think they are,” I admit. “I don’t know anything, but…”
“Do you want me to break us out of here? I think I could do it. I only need one gun and that almost bald guy, he looks the easiest to take out.”
A small smile pulls at my lips and I lock eyes with him, then lift one hand to caress his warm cheek. “No, Diego. You don’t need to do any of that.”
“Why?” Concern melts into confusion as he gazes up at me.
“Because… because I think they’re telling the truth. I feel at home here. Somehow. It’s… nice. I think this really is where I’m from.”
Diego’s eyes widen, then he sighs somewhat as if defeated by my answer. “If that’s true, then who the hell are these guys, and what the hell happened to you?”