ArousingMemories (10 page)

With a roll of her eyes, she grabbed her flashlight and
opened her door. “Let’s go take a look.”

Sev was quiet as he walked beside her. He hadn’t said a
thing throughout the drive and hadn’t even given token resistance to her
driving. Even without looking at him, she could sense his alertness. Like her,
he scanned their surroundings, looking for danger, perhaps even hoping for it.
If one of the Sons showed himself tonight, they might be able to capture him
and learn what they needed to know.

Haley flicked her light on and Sev did the same. It was easy
to slip into their old routine, their old rhythm of working together. They each
swept light and attention in opposite directions and slowly approached the
tape. Sev lifted it up a bit to let her pass under before doing the same. They
continued their actions until they reached the edge of the burnt hull of the
old building.

She tried to bury the memories of what she had found here
that horrific night. They loomed large in her mind regardless. Sickness formed
deep in her stomach as she recalled the moment when she had thought Noah was dead.
The feeling increased with images of Markowitz’ remains. Her eyes closed
briefly while she took a moment to deal with the grief, put it aside and do her
job.

“Stay alert,” she ordered Sev and stepped gingerly through
the wreckage.

“Yes ma’am,” he replied.

She didn’t bother to check what he was doing. He knew how to
watch her back. There was no one in the world she trusted more than he. She
could admit, too, if only to herself that being with him again in the field
felt good, felt right. She missed it. She missed him. Of course, even if
breaking them apart to promote her to team leader hadn’t been necessary for the
organization, they couldn’t have remained a team. Sev and his outdated ideas
would have seen to it. Even now, he couldn’t bear the idea of her being out
here, doing her job. He didn’t trust her nearly as much as she trusted him.

No, that wasn’t fair. Sev knew she could handle herself. He
couldn’t help worrying about her. He could help the way he handled it, however.
Insisting she stay out of danger was unrealistic. She was born to run toward
trouble, not away from it, the same as he. It was too damn bad he couldn’t
accept it, live with it. And if she continued to mull the unfairness of it all,
she wouldn’t be doing her job very well. Pushing aside her personal problems,
Haley stepped farther into the ruin.

Sev swept his light in a slow arc, eyes and ears alert and
straining for any sign of trouble. It was rare for him to be backup to Haley.
When they had worked together, he had always been team leader, taking the lead,
putting himself in the firing line. He found this switch of roles
disconcerting, awkward even, although he trusted no one more to protect her.
Being out here was almost guaranteed to be a wild-goose chase. There was no way
their people had missed evidence about the Sons’ plans. He knew it and he knew
Haley knew it. This was mostly a means of blowing off steam. She was frustrated
and grasping at straws. Frankly it was a much better way of handling how she
felt, how they both felt, than sitting around watching videos and monitoring
internet chatter. He only hoped Haley wasn’t putting too much strain on herself
with this horrifying trip down memory lane. He had only heard about what
happened and his stomach was tight with regret. She must be really suffering.

An hour of sifting through the rubble, and they could head
back. He’d insist upon it, rank be damned.

A small sound caught his attention. It was hardly more than
a scrape on the ground, but it made him turn toward Haley. A shadow loomed up
from behind a partially collapsed wall. Sev swung his light toward the figure,
shouting a warning to Haley as he did so. Her head popped up from where she had
been searching a pile of God knows what. Her light came up, too, shining a spot
on what was clearly a man. The glint of a gun, pointed at her, kicked Sev’s
heart rate and legs into overdrive. He sprinted to Haley and hip-checked her
into the pile at the same time he fired at the attacker.

Haley went down with a thud and a curse. The man went down
as well. He made no sound, but his gun flew out of his hands and skidded in
Sev’s direction. Sev dropped his flashlight, picked up the weapon on the fly
and slid to a stop. He trained his gun on the prone figure. He watched and
waited to see if there was any movement, prepared to fire another shot.

“Sev, hold your fire!” Haley ordered.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her stand and slowly
approach the suspect. She held her semiautomatic in both hands, at the ready
out in front of her, the light tucked under her arm. “Careful, I can’t tell if
he’s dead,” he warned.

“Don’t tell me my job,” she snapped out. Her tone was
fierce. Christ, she was mad, probably because he had protected her. Well, too
damn bad. He couldn’t regret what came instinctively to him.

He watched her circle the guy, study him, roll him over with
her foot and finally lower her weapon. “He’s toast.”

Sev didn’t lower his guard even as he stood beside her to
see for himself. A bloom of blood covered the guy’s chest, his eyes were open
and obviously unseeing. With the light afforded by the rising moon and Haley’s
flashlight, he looked around to see if any other danger lurked. Haley did the
same. Nothing and no one else stirred. Whoever this guy was, he appeared to
have been alone.

Sev studied the man’s weapon. It was a Sig, no throwaway
piece from a pawn shop. “He must be with the Sons.”

Haley glared at him. “You think? What gave it away, the
expensive firepower or the swastika tattoo on his throat?”

He stared down at the body. “I didn’t notice the tat.”

“Yeah, well, it’s kind of a giveaway with these guys. Of
course, given that he’s dead, we can’t ask him.” Her tone was biting. Her anger
palpable.

His own temper flared. “Sorry, sugar, I guess I should have
let him kill you.”

She rounded on him and jabbed a finger in his face. “You
should have warned me and trusted me to react appropriately. Maybe there was no
way to keep him alive, but we’ll never know because you reacted like a
caveman.”

“Bullshit!” He jabbed his own finger back at her because
there was enough truth in what she said to piss him off. “I would have done the
same for any other operative. If it had been up to you, you’d have been a
sitting duck out here. You didn’t even hear him.”

“Yes, I did,” she bit out. “I may have been a half second
behind you, but I did hear him. I can take care of myself.” She stopped, took a
deep breath. “Call in backup while I search his body.”

Without waiting to see if he complied, she squatted down and
started the task. There was nothing for him to say in further defense of his
actions, so he put aside his feelings and did as he was told.

Chapter Six

Noah paced his room like a caged tiger. Funny how he knew
exactly what it looked like for a big cat to walk back and forth in its cage.
He could see the image clearly in his mind, yet he still couldn’t remember his
own face or name or any of the important things the others needed from him. The
most that happened was a fleeting nightmare. Or waking even without one to
images that swam inside his head for a few seconds like a kaleidoscope. None of
it was pleasant. Each brief experience made him miserable. He instinctively
turned away from it all, exactly what he needed not to do, before his rational
self tried to keep the images in place. To say it was frustrating was to take
understatement to new heights. He was going mad from the effort to remember and
disgusted with his cowardly reactions when memories seemed to be fighting to
reach the surface of his mind. Everyone kept telling him to relax and not worry
about it. The memories would return when they were ready. But how was he
supposed to follow the advice when all the people around him looked at him
every day with the same expectant look? He was letting them down, and people
were going to die because of him.

Shit! He stopped, pulled at his hair with both fists and
leaned back with a groan of frustration. He felt like a dick. Not only couldn’t
he remember, but he was spending his time lying around, eating and screwing.
The first two things were justifiable. Even an amnesiac understood the
importance of recovering from injuries. It was the fucking that was hard to
justify. Sex should be a reward for a job well done, not a substitute for doing
the job at all. And it wasn’t only one person, either. No, he apparently was a
man who liked variety. Finding heaven between a woman’s legs in the afternoon
did not stop him from feasting on another man’s cock in the evening. So what
did that leave for the night? Was he going to find himself trussed up and
flogged by a leather-clad Ms. Mac next?
Why not?
his cock asked as it
came to life.

He shook his head. “Noah Turner, boy slut,” he said out loud
to the empty room.

“Is that a new kind of superhero?”

With a start, he looked up to see Haley standing by his
half-open door. He blinked at her a few times, embarrassed to be caught talking
to himself. If he wasn’t careful, they were going to lock him up. “Ah, no, no,”
he stuttered in reply. “I was just,” he stopped, chuckled self-consciously. “I
think I’m going a little stir crazy, to be honest.”

“Ah,” she replied in a knowing voice. She was smiling, too,
and she looked lovely, but tired, very tired. She worked constantly to find out
about the terrorist attack, the one he should know about. Guilt swamped him.
She needed a break. So did he from his useless thoughts.

“Any chance of getting out of here?” he asked before she
could say anything more.

She pursed her lips at the question. “Hmm.”

“Please,” he added and even knowing he sounded pathetic, “I
promise I won’t try to run away or anything.”

“Oh, Noah, that’s not a concern.” He was sure she was merely
trying to spare his feelings, or maybe there was more to her reluctance.
Perhaps she knew what he had been up to the other night with Sev and was
unhappy about it. Without his memories, he couldn’t tell where he stood with
anyone over anything. All he knew was his experiences with both people helped
him from coming completely unglued. Each in their own way, Haley and Sev made
him feel wanted and safe. They also gave him mind-blowing orgasms, and that was
no small thing. He certainly loved the taste and feel and smell of both of
them, so different, yet both perfect.

“Maybe a picnic lunch by the river,” he suggested with a
toss of his head to the window. His room faced the back of the building they
were in, and all he could see were trees and a bit of water.

Haley smiled and the tiredness he had seen earlier vanished.
“That sounds like a capital idea.” She crossed over to him and planted a sweet
kiss on his lips before going to the phone by his bed and calling the kitchen
to make the arrangements. He couldn’t hold back a victorious grin. He was
getting out finally and as his cock reminded him with a twitch, fun things
could happen between two people on a picnic. He didn’t know how he knew, but at
that moment, he didn’t give a damn.

Within the hour, Noah sat on a blanket beside Haley,
polishing off a roast beef sandwich. In one hand was a travel mug of iced
coffee he sipped at lazily as he watched ducks feeding in the water before him.
He could hear traffic noise on the other side of the massive old factory
building where his organization resided, but here in the back there was idyllic
nature. The only thing marring the scene was a low wire fence that cordoned off
the lawn abutting the river. It was a security precaution in case someone found
their location. The fence would set off an alarm if touched. Haley had told him
this the moment they came out so he wouldn’t make a mistake. He had taken in
the information and put it aside immediately. He preferred to pretend he was
having a nice time with his lover. He wondered, though, if he was subject to
such sentimental thoughts or was he only having them because of the amnesia.

“What kind of man am I?” he asked before he could think
better of it.

Haley popped her eyes open. She didn’t answer right away.
She was measuring her words. “A good one,” she finally replied with a shrug.
When he continued to look at her expectantly, she added more detail. “You’re a
brave man, loyal, decent, dedicated.”

“Thrifty, reverent? Am I a Boy Scout or something?” As soon
as he said it, he shook his head. “Why do I know these totally useless things
about life, yet can’t remember the important stuff?” Her hand moved to clasp
his. The contact warmed him, settled him. “Sorry, you were saying?”

“You’re funny and adventurous. Being from California, you
like to surf and you drive too fast. You treat every road like a freeway. And
while I may be prejudiced given that I trained you, you’re a top operative.”

“I can’t be very good. I blew my cover or something after
all.”

She squeezed his hand. “It wasn’t your fault.” Her face
clouded over. “We think the Sons were tipped off to your infiltration by
someone.”

“Someone in this organization?” What a disturbing thought.
Were they safe where they were?

“There may be a mole. But don’t worry about it. Everyone is
working in rotating pairs, including our security teams here, and only Ms. Mac,
Sev and I are privy to all the information being gathered.” She was trying to
be reassuring, yet he could see the concern in her eyes. “We’ll figure out what
went wrong eventually. Anyway, you went to the scheduled meeting to discuss the
final plans of the attack. You couldn’t wear a wire because while the group is
made up of madmen, they’re still pretty tech savvy. I stayed here and when you
were long overdue for a check-in, I gathered a few people and went to the
warehouse the terrorists were using as headquarters. I waited a fair distance
away when I saw them take off. You weren’t with them and I knew something had
gone wrong.”