Chapter 27 Luca
There’s a noticeable shift between us after the cops leave, an unspoken agreement that we’re together in this.
I’m still reeling from the protectiveness that blazed inside me as Honey and I rushed home on my injured leg, the relief I felt when I saw that Emery was okay, the way my pulse thumped heavily in my chest at the sight of her. It’s us against the world.
While Emery brushes her teeth, I let Honey out for her last potty of the day and wait while she decides which toy to take to bed.
Understandably, it’s a tough decision. Annie brought her with a laundry basket full of supplies, Em has ordered a few things online, and between the chew toys, the multiple dog beds, and the plethora of treats now lined up in the “Honey cupboard” we cleared out for her, it’s possible there’s more of her stuff in this house than my own.
I hear the bathroom faucet turn off followed by a muttered “fucking Betty” carrying down the hall.
I laugh dryly, dropping Honey’s leash in a basket near the front door. Walking back, I lean against the bathroom doorway. “Are you sure it wouldn’t help her paranoia if I went over and talked to her myself?”
“I don’t even know anymore,” Em says, spitting and then rinsing the sink.
“But I still worry that if she mentions something and you don’t know what she means, she’ll be back on high alert.
She thinks everything is nefarious, and in this case…
it sort of was.” She turns to face me, frowning.
“I don’t get why she called tonight. What happened? ”
“Maybe she called earlier, and they only got around to following up.”
Her frown deepens. “Maybe.”
“And is it so bad if she knows I’ve lost my memory?”
Emery puts her toothbrush in the porcelain cup on the counter and flips off the light. Her arm catches on my waist as she passes, her fingers instinctively hooking in the belt loops of my pants to tug me after her. I don’t need any convincing and obediently follow her down the hall.
Oblivious to what she’s done, Emery sits on the couch, pulling me down next to her.
“Normally, no.” She sighs. “But she’s already suspicious and thinks that she saw me kill you, remember?” Pushing onto her knees, she crawls over me and pretends to stab me, dramatically mimicking the music from Psycho.
Falling back, I can’t help but cough out a horrified laugh. “This definitely doesn’t look suspicious,” I say, my hands coming to rest firmly on her hips. Our laughter tapers off, and we’re both suddenly very aware of our position.
Emery’s eyes fall to my mouth, and I wonder what she’s thinking. My wife has the benefit of remembering what it feels like when we undress each other, when we’re naked together, when I’m inside her, and I’m so overcome with a wave of envy it makes the room spin.
“What can I say? I’m a killer,” she says, before climbing off me and back to her seat.
“Anyway, couple that with the fact that if Betty thinks something is off about you, she will dig to the bottom of this like an obsessed private eye, and the fact that the BioNEX team knows that the dogs put in the BioVIVE had some memory loss, and the fact that if anyone ever got wind of your amnesia, they could dig hard enough to find out we were in the lab that night… we can’t risk anyone knowing anything. ”
“I thought you said you got rid of the footage or whatever?”
“I did. But according to Robert Pattinson there’s a backup log that lasts for thirty days.”
I blink, sure I’ve heard her wrong. “I’m sorry, did you say Robert Pattinson?”
“He’s a robot,” she explains, then adds, “named after an actor.” Waving this off, she continues, “Whatever. It means that the data is gone from the main system, but if someone knew what days to pull footage from to look deeper, they would find everything.”
“Right,” I say, and I know what we’re discussing is important—an understatement, really—but it’s hard to focus when she’s this close to me. I can imagine another world where I would have kept her on my lap and fucked her right here on the couch.
“And they won’t have a reason if we don’t give them one, which is why we need to keep working on your memory,” she says.
“Okay, wait, speaking of memory,” I say, remembering my earlier question. “Did I go to college?”
“College? No. You and Crash had so many regular clients by the time you graduated high school, you already had a thriving business. Neither of you particularly wanted to go, so it didn’t make any sense. Why?”
“You said something today about cramming for a test like college. I had a thought that I hadn’t gone to college, but didn’t know if it was an actual memory, or my brain just connecting the dots.
“Oh!” she says, eyes going wide. “I don’t know if there’s a way to know the answer, but either way it’s a step in the right direction.
Let’s say you did just connect the dots, that kind of cognitive function requires several interconnected regions of the brain to work together.
That’s the work of a very active brain.”
“Really?”
“Really. Your body still needs rest, but I think getting out today did you some good. Annie’s going to flip when she hears this.”
Thrilled, I reach for her hand next to my hip and carefully stroke her fingers. My pulse hasn’t fully stabilized since I watched the police cruiser pull into the driveway. Anything could happen to one of us at any time; I’m proof enough of that.
We have so much to figure out, but fear has a way of making some things clear. I saw that police car and I knew… I want to love Emery again. Whatever mistakes she made, life’s too short to hold on to them.
Exhaling, she leans her head back against the sofa. “I think the adrenaline from seeing the police on the porch is finally leaving me.”
“Em,” I begin, wanting to tell her all of this. She gazes up at me, brown eyes turned down at the corners, dark circles lining beneath. “You need to get some rest,” I say instead. “We’re both in for the night. You should go to bed.”
“Not yet,” she argues. “I want to hang out with you some more.”
“Aren’t you exhausted?”
She shakes her head but then nods, murmuring a resigned “Fine. Let me get my pillow.”
I want to protest, to tell her to come with me into the bedroom, but everything is so perfect, I don’t want to rush it. Rushing is what we did before.
So I muster all of the restraint I can find and lean forward, pressing a kiss to her forehead. “Good night, Em.”
She smiles at me, her eyes shining. “Good night, Lukey.”