Chapter Eight #2
“The day you died…” Her eyes widened because she remembered that date.
Remembered skimming the obituary for John Smith.
Remembered the pang she’d felt. She hadn’t said anything at the time because she’d wanted to focus on him, not her past. Not her pain.
“Oh, my God. It was the day after my brother was killed.”
“Shelly…”
“It has to be related.” Everything was related.
Everything was sliding into place. “That’s probably even how you knew to come to Discovery in order to find me.
” Her gaze searched his. “Somewhere in your mind, you must have remembered this cabin. Charles probably told you about it. That’s how you wound up in Discovery. ”
His expression had shut down.
“The attacks here…my God, maybe they are aimed at you.” Her words were spilling out far too fast. “Because maybe…maybe you saw something down in Miami.” Hope had her rising onto her toes. “Maybe you saw the man who killed my brother.”
He put the photo down on a nearby table. He stared at it a moment, then his gaze slanted back to her. “You think the man who killed your brother is after me now.”
She tried to choose her words carefully. “My brother was stabbed. You were stabbed a day later.” Her voice was too high. “What if the same man attacked you both in Miami? And that same guy is after you now?”
His gaze hardened. “I don’t remember anything about that attack.”
“Not yet, but you said you just remembered the meeting with my brother, right?” She caught his hands and held tight. “It’s possible more memories will return for you. You might remember who stabbed you that night in Miami. And even if you don’t, he doesn’t know that.” He—the killer.
But John didn’t look convinced. “Shelly…”
“Please, help me.” She was not above begging. “I tried to find out who killed my brother in Miami, I worked with his partner for weeks, but we couldn’t turn over anything. If you know, if that man is here, then we can stop him. We can do this.”
His eyelashes flickered. “His partner?”
“After my dad died, Charles brought in a partner to help revamp the business. Devin Donley.” And a wide smile split her face.
“Of course! If you were working as a bodyguard, then Devin would know about it! I can call him, and he can come meet you. He’s in Atlanta now for the holidays.
It won’t take him long to get here.” She squeezed John’s hands tighter.
“Devin and Charles didn’t have secrets. He’ll know you. He’ll know about your past.”
“Shelly…” Her name came out as a growl, but she could see the hope finally flickering in his eyes.
“I’ll call him,” she said. “Just let me make the call. Let’s see what happens.”
John nodded.
She threw her arms around him. “We’re figuring this out,” Shelly whispered.
His hands closed around her hips. He lifted her up against him, held her tightly. So tightly. The warmth of his body pressed against her. For an instant, she remembered what it was like be skin to skin with him. To have his body covering hers. To feel the hard thrust of his cock into her.
He held her up with his easy strength, and her feet dangled over the floor. Her hands were on his shoulders, and their eyes were just a few inches apart.
“My past…” His voice was so deep and rumbling. “It won’t change what’s happening between us.”
The words sounded like a warning.
“I want you. You want me. There’s no going back from that.”
No, there wasn’t. “I should make the call.”
His lips pressed together. He lowered her back to the floor, and she hurried toward the door.
“You’re pretending it didn’t happen.”
Her hand rose, and her fingers curled around the doorframe.
“No, I’m not.” She didn’t look at him. “I can still feel you against my skin. Still remember what it felt like when your mouth was on me.” Her voice broke a bit.
“I’ve never had a lover like you before.
” Someone who’d possessed her so completely.
Someone who’d seemed to mark her very soul.
She wanted to ask if sex was always that intense with him but…
He wouldn’t know. He wouldn’t know if the intensity they’d shared was just typical for him and his lovers. Or if it had been something special.
For her, it had been special. And that scared her.
“I should call Devin before it gets any later.” She still wasn’t looking back at him. “This is what you need, John. This is what you wanted. The key to your past.”
She hurried back up the stairs, but his low words followed her.
“No, baby, you’re what I need.”
***
Blane read the Miami-Dade ME’s report—he read the thing three times. The medical examiner had faxed the report to Blane’s station.
According to the report, John Smith had been stabbed multiple times and left to bleed out in a dirty Miami alley. There’d been no evidence left behind. Nothing unusual discovered during the ME’s exam.
“No next of kin,” Blane muttered as he flipped through the papers. His eyes narrowed. “John’s former commanding officer claimed the body.” And the records didn’t indicate exactly when the body had been claimed. Just that it had been.
Blane had checked and double-checked the fingerprints. The guy currently staying with Shelly was the same man who’d been stabbed in Miami. The same man who should have been dead and buried. Only he wasn’t.
And he was a guy who had fucking super speed, super strength, and from what Blane could tell…super senses.
“Sir?” A light rap sounded from nearby.
Blane’s head lifted up. His door was open, and his newest deputy, Nolan Hoover, stood in the doorway. Nolan’s fist was still against the wooden doorframe, and his red hair shot out from his head at stiff angles.
“Sir, do you want to go over the schedule for the patrols at Ms. Shelly’s place?” Nolan asked quietly.
Blane’s eyes narrowed. He had an active shooter in his town. A freaking nightmare with the holiday season and all of the tourists in Discovery. He needed this nightmare to end, and he needed it to end now.
***
“John Smith?” Devin Donley repeated the name. Static crackled over the line. “He’s dead.”
Shelly hunched her shoulders as she curled her fingers around her phone a bit more. “You know him, though, right? He worked for my brother.”
“I know him.” Devin’s voice was measured. “But the guy is a dead man.”
“He isn’t.” She was staring at the dead man. “He survived the attack in Miami. He’s here with me right now.”
Silence.
Had she lost the connection? Dammit, her phone was always going out in the mountains. “Devin?”
“Say it again, Shelly. Very, very slowly.”
She blinked. “I said John Smith survived. He’s here with me right now.”
“Get the hell away from him.”
What?
“Is he in the room with you?”
He was. He was less than five feet from her, and Shelly knew he could hear every single word that Devin spoke.
“The man is dangerous. The federal government is looking for him right now. Jesus, Shelly, you have to get away from him.”
“The federal government? What are you talking about?”
“I had FBI agents come to my place in Atlanta just a few days ago! Guys in dark suits who made me nervous as hell. Didn’t understand why they were asking about a dead man but, shit, guess he’s not dead, is he?”
“No.” She swallowed the lump in her throat. “He’s not.”
“You’re at the family place in Discovery? That’s where you are?”
“At the cabin. I wanted you to talk to John, to tell him about his past—”
“The man is a fucking ice-cold killer, that’s what he is. I told your brother it was a mistake to hire him, especially to tail you. Guy got obsessed.”
No, no, this wasn’t right. It couldn’t be right.
“Look, you’re still friends with the sheriff, aren’t you? Get to him. I’m leaving now. I’m still in Atlanta so it’s going to take me a little while to reach you…”
John was stalking toward her. His face looked even harder, even more dangerous than it normally did.
“Get away from him,” Devin blasted in her ear. “Trust me on this, the guy is trouble, he’s—”
John took the phone from her. He swiped his finger over the screen, turning on the speaker. “I’d never hurt her.”
Static crackled. “John?” Devin’s voice seemed strangled.
“Shelly is safe with me.”
“Don’t you touch her!” Devin was practically screaming. “Your prints were all over Charles’s home—I suspected you all along. Faking your damn death—I should have suspected something like this. You faked it so you couldn’t be charged with Charles’s murder!”
Shelly shook her head. No, no.
“Stay away from her!” Devin snapped.
“I’d never hurt her,” John said again, voice roughening.
“I’m coming. Shelly, do you hear me? I’m coming to Discovery. Get away from that bastard. Get to the sheriff, now!”
The line went dead.