Chapter 22
22
Growling under his breath, fisting and refisting his hands, he stalked through the crowd after Remi. He’d seen her rush into the ladies’ room moments ago. Her friend Hank had finished talking, and now a band was entering the stage. Loud music was about to shift this entire scene, and the crowd would probably grow more raucous. Dancing Bigfoots everywhere. Now, that would be a sight to avoid.
An entire family dressed for the part stood between him and Remi.
“Excuse me. I’m so sorry. Excuse me.” He didn’t miss the glares from the parental Sasquatches as he tried to cut through. But come on! Maybe they were upset because they hadn’t won the contest —“the best-dressed Bigfoot wins” —he didn’t know.
Didn’t care.
He just needed to get to Remi, and he was doing his best to remain patient and act polite.
Frustration fueled his breath as he entered the hallway, then he approached the facilities. A line had formed outside. A couple of women who weren’t dressed up exited the ladies’ room, and two more pushed in. Had he missed Remi’s exit? He didn’t feel comfortable going in to check things out, but he needed to know that she was okay.
“Excuse me.” Hawk directed his words to a thirtysomething woman in white fur. Was she a Yeti? “I’m looking for someone. Can you ask Remi if she’s still inside?” He hoped that anyone coming or going would check.
“Sure.” She opened the door but didn’t step inside. “Hey, Remi. You in there? Your boyfriend is waiting.”
A couple of women in armor exited and gave him a funny look. “What are you supposed to be?” He had no idea why he’d blurted that out. He didn’t care.
“Mandalorian. What planet are you on?”
Earth? But he didn’t have time to engage and shouldn’t have started a conversation. The clueless look on his face must have given him away.
“The Star Wars universe? Hello?” The two women laughed and kept walking.
Good.
Okay. “Remi, you in there?” He opened the door and called into the restroom. Then let the door close.
The woman who’d initially called for Remi shrugged. “Either she isn’t in there or she’s avoiding you. She might have ditched you for being so possessive that you have to stalk her in the women’s bathroom.”
He didn’t offer a reply. It wasn’t like he’d actually gone in, so her claim was completely false. He’d seen Remi go inside. Could he have missed her leaving the restroom? If so, she must have gone out one of the other exits. But where?
Next chance he got—burner phones.
He followed the hallway until he exited the event center and stepped out into the blustery wind. He never should have let her go after the doctor on her own. Once he caught up, she could simply explain he was here to help. Apprehension squeezed his insides. Made his palms sweat. Had this been a trap like he feared, and had someone taken Remi? He couldn’t protect a person who didn’t cooperate, but he couldn’t exactly say that Remi was uncooperative. She had her own ideas about the best next steps.
Hawk stood under the awning as the rain picked up. He took in the full parking lot and, across the way, the ferry station.
A figure rushed toward him from the side of the building. “Hawk.”
He grabbed Remi and pulled her with him under the awning and out of the rain. “Are you okay?” He sounded too harsh. “What happened?”
“Can we just go?” Discouragement edged her voice.
They took a cab back to his helicopter, and once inside, he powered the bird up. Turned on the heater to blast away the chill. They hadn’t spoken while in the cab, where the driver could overhear.
She shrugged out of her wet rain jacket, donned the headset, then rubbed her arms. “Where to next?”
What had happened? “That depends on what you learned from Dr. Holcomb.”
Remi relayed the conversation to him. He took everything in stride. He’d made a list in his head of possible outcomes.
So, they wanted something inside Remi’s head. What was Cole up to? Preventing that from happening? She sagged against the seat. He worried that she was exhausted and on the edge of collapse.
“So, you didn’t get to talk to Dr. Holcomb. You didn’t need her anyway. Remi, talk to me . I’m here to listen. You’ve already remembered a military guy in a helicopter, reaching for you. That’s something, and we’ll figure this out. Think about the last thing you remember before waking up at the hospital. Where were you?”
“The café across from the cathedral in Novograd. I was there to take pictures for my travel blog.”
“What happened to your camera?” he asked.
“I didn’t have it on me in the hospital. It wasn’t recovered. It was lost.”
“Or maybe it was recovered. Someone could have it.”
She gasped. “The puzzle pieces. I only have two pieces, so I can’t be sure, but what if I was the one to take the picture that someone is sending me? What if it’s one of my pictures from my trip?”
“If you were to get more pieces—and saw the completed picture—would you remember if you’d taken it?” he asked.
“Or would it even jog my memory?” She huffed.
He hated seeing her frustrated. “It’s already coming back to you, Remi. Just relax.”
“If only it was that easy.”
“What can I do to help?”
“Listening is good. But honestly, I wish I had brought my camera with me. It’s beautiful here.”
“I wish we didn’t have to leave and that we had time to explore. You could get a camera and take pictures as long as you wanted.”
She glanced at him. “Where are you taking me now?”
“My former CO that I mentioned. John Marshall. He has to know something.” Hawk suspected the reasons why John hadn’t been up-front. He was probably monitoring Cole’s activities under some classified status. John had been connected to the intelligence community before exiting the military and apparently had remained plugged in. And since Hawk had shown up to stop Cole, his brother might be onto John now and could possibly target him. That fear gnawed at the back of his mind, but John knew how to take care of himself.
“And where is he? Local?”
“Seattle area.”
“Can’t we just drive from here?”
She really didn’t like flying. “I don’t want it to take several hours to get there and I’d have to come back to get the bird. Besides, I know just where to land. It’ll be a short trip, I promise. I’d say this trip to Port Angeles has been a waste of time, but now we know what lengths someone has gone to. Think about it, Remi. You’ve been monitored since you arrived at Hidden Bay. Someone has known where you were all along, while you thought you were hiding.”
Was there someone at the lodge—a guest, or staff—that was part of watching Remi? His gut tightened.
She didn’t respond, and he left her to her thoughts while he finished filing a flight plan and then flipped all the required switches on the dashboard. The rotors started up but needed time to warm up before he took off. In the meantime, he could check the weather again.
“I’m going to take her up now. If you remember anything else, you can share it with me. I’m here to listen and help you figure it out.”
“Right. You’re the guy to help me get my memories back. And I’m here when you’re ready to talk about Cole.”
They made a great team. Except he wasn’t ready to talk.
This flight would take Hawk’s complete focus, but he knew this Agusta was good for it and his skills would get them through. The helicopter lifted and fought the wind. He focused on flying through the inclement weather and thought about next steps. He’d texted his buddy Gordo Bates, a former Weyerhaeuser helicopter mechanic who owned an aircraft salvage business. He had helped Hawk find and put together this bird. Gordo was going to leave Hawk a vehicle at the warehouse that he could use for a day or two.
After landing at Gordo’s salvage yard protected by a fenced and gated-off area, Hawk powered down and allowed the rotors to cool off before shutting down completely. The deep ache of exhaustion coursed through his bones, despite getting a few hours of sleep early this morning. Remi was getting dark circles under her eyes. They needed more rest and sustenance before taking one more step deeper into this quagmire.
Forty-five minutes later, he steered through an industrial section to a gated warehouse turned into a few condos and then drove around the back. They got out, and he led her up the steps to the second floor, where he pressed in the security code and opened the door to let her in, then reset the alarm.
“Where are we?”
“This is just a condo I bought six months ago, after selling my house. It’s sparse.” He’d been busy trying to track down his brother. Busy with his job. That was before he got fired.
Now he was busy with Remi.
One bedroom. One bath. Anything bigger would have been out of his budget because he spent most of his money on that helicopter. A guy had his priorities. He turned a few lights on in the kitchen and one soft light in the cozy den. Well, it was cozy now that Remi was in it.
“This is ... nice,” she said.
He chuckled. “You don’t sound convinced. I haven’t put up pictures yet. I’m not much of a decorator.”
“But why bring us here? I thought we were going to John Marshall’s.”
He released a heavy sigh. “We’re both exhausted. By the time we get to John’s, it’ll be late. I thought we could use a reprieve. Eat and rest. Head out tomorrow. Don’t worry, nobody’s going to find us here.”
“Not even your brother?”
He lifted a shoulder. “He doesn’t know about this place.” Yet.
“As far as you know.”
“Right.” He nodded. “For the last year or so, I’ve been looking for him so I could face off with him. Try to bring him back from the dark side. I’ve come close to finding him, but with his training, he’s a ghost. I figured he might pay me a visit one day because he doesn’t like me in his business. Never did. So, in case of any unwanted intruders—my brother or otherwise—I have security cameras in place.” His brother wasn’t his only worry. After taking out that terrorist—the incident that got him fired—he’d been threatened by the man’s associates in the terrorist cell. This condo had been a good move. But now he’d found Forestview and Hidden Bay. He might settle there instead. One day at a time, dude. “I know it’s small, but I’m not home that much.”
“Do you happen to have extra clothes I could borrow? Do you have a washer and dryer?” She looked down at her attire.
“I have some sweats and T-shirts you could wear if you really want to wash your clothes, but they’ll be too big on you.”
“That’s fine with me.”
“And I have these.” He pulled a couple of burner phones out of a kitchen drawer and handed one to her.
“Oh, nice. Thanks. You’re all kinds of prepared.” She smirked at him.
A friendly, teasing smirk.
He showed her the bedroom and the alcove with the stacked washer and dryer, then left her to it. Hawk snagged some clothes out of his closet so he could change too. When she emerged from the bedroom in a T-shirt and sweats hanging off her, he used the bathroom to take a quick shower, then pulled on jeans and a sweatshirt. He headed to the kitchen, where Remi stood at the fridge staring inside the freezer. She peered over her shoulder.
His stomach chose that moment to growl. “Well, what will it be? We have lasagna, lasagna, and lasagna, and—oh, wait—enchiladas. And chicken nuggets. Some frozen broccoli. What’s your preference?”
She left him to it and sank onto the sofa. “Whatever you make for you, make it for me too.”
He fixed a big plate of chicken nuggets and stuck them in the microwave.
Remi got up and moved around as if searching for a piece of Hawk in this place. She bent over, picked something up, then released a small gasp.
He peered over the counter. “You okay in there?”
“Looks like you dropped something.”
He rushed forward to see what she’d found. “That’s just ... it’s a picture of me with Cole.” He might have set it on one of the bookshelves and forgotten about it. One of them must have knocked it off somehow.
Seeing them together, arms over shoulders, smiling, tore him up inside. Grief engulfed him. He snatched it away.
“Hey.” She scowled at him. “Wait a minute.”
Remi closed her eyes and sucked in a breath. “I remember...”
“What? What do you remember?”
She opened her eyes to look at him long and hard. The way she looked at him, he instinctively knew to brace himself.
“Your brother was there.”
“What? Where?” She couldn’t mean what he thought she meant.
“The details are fuzzy. He was an important part of a special forces team.”
He stumbled forward. “Remi...” He couldn’t exactly tell her he didn’t believe her. It was more that he didn’t want to believe. “You told me that memories could be wrong. How do you know this is true? You didn’t know my brother or remember him before. Maybe it’s like you told me, your brain fixed the empty space, filled in the gaps and put Cole there.”
Remi’s mouth hung open, and he wanted to kick himself. He shouldn’t be surprised that Cole was deeply connected to her. He needed to sit down. Think about this.
His head was hurting again. Wow. Had he just said that to her? He lifted his hands, palms up. “I’m sorry.”
The microwave dinged. He should have been relieved at the interruption. He wanted to say more, but he had no idea where to go with this. He pulled the nuggets out and put a few on a separate plate for her. Grabbed a couple of bottles of water and then sat with her on the sofa and set the food on the coffee table.
Her actions were robotic, controlled. “I know you don’t want it to be him,” she said.
“You’re right, I don’t.” What did it matter? Cole was an assassin now. No longer hungry, he stared at the nuggets.
“And I can’t say for sure that the memory is correct, but you have to admit it kind of makes sense.”
“That your brain would fill in his face, put him on the helicopter?” She’d mentioned it before when he’d described his brother, but he hadn’t actually thought it could be him.
“Not what I was going to say, but that makes sense too. I guess we don’t know anything more if I can’t even trust my memories.”
He chewed the chicken nugget but couldn’t taste a thing. Then he sat back against the sofa and guzzled the water.
Finally, he said, “Let’s hope that you remember it all—I’m talking everything—over the next few hours. Like a floodgate has been opened. And I want you to tell me everything. It could mean the difference between life and death.”
“I think you’re right—that I’m about to remember it all—and that’s what scares me. Dr. Holcomb told me that someone wants what’s in my head. She could be lying. Or she could have been lied to.”
“Sometimes lies aren’t lies but someone’s perception. They simply have a different perspective of the events that occurred.”
“Or they remember things differently.”
He leaned forward and clasped his hands. “Like a soldier who lost a limb. His brain keeps telling him the limb is still there, and he feels the pain of it.”
“Or sometimes it’s intentional. In the Army, I worked to create a certain image about the military. In other words, my photographs worked to shape the narrative so that it was favorable. Someone could be shaping the narrative for us.” She rubbed her forehead. “How do we find out what’s real and what’s true, Hawk?”
“We stick to the plan. Go see John and find out what he knows.”
“Because, like you said, he sent you to Cedar Trails. Tomorrow, Hawk, we could have answers.” She leaned back and drank her water.
“Exactly. I’m counting on it.”
Remi rubbed her eyes, then rolled her head to look at him. “I want to know more about you , Hawk. You and Cole both, and why did you get fired?”
Really? She wanted to know about that right now?
He grabbed his plate and hers and stood. “Do you want more to eat?”
“I’m good for now.” She closed her eyes. “You’re stalling.”
“I have a feeling you’re going to fall asleep on me. Let’s sleep on it. You get the bed and I’ll take the sofa.”
But it was too late. Remi had conked out. Great. He didn’t want to be a jerk and leave her to sleep on the sofa while he had the bed.
He stood, then urged her to stand too. If he picked her up like some damsel in distress, she might actually slap him. Her eyes grew wide. “What—”
He took her hand to lead her. “I’m tucking you in. I’ll be on the sofa if you need me. You’re safe.” But he wouldn’t promise because no place was a hundred percent impenetrable.
Hawk was surprised that Remi let him tuck her in, and she smiled as she sank into the bed and onto the pillow, closing her eyes. “Night, Hawk.”
“Good night.” He covered her up, fighting the urge to lean down and press a kiss on her cheek.
Well, he lost that battle. He leaned in and kissed her forehead.
She was asleep and hadn’t felt a thing. Just as well.