by KaLyn Cooper
Forcing in a deep breath, she tried to clear her head.
Almost there.
“Time to wake up, Kat.”
She breathed in deeper. Wakefulness shoved the nightmare away.
She felt Alex’s warm body next to hers.
But was it Alex?
She didn’t dare move in case it wasn’t.
Molten brown eyes flecked with gold met hers when she finally forced her lids up. His dark brown hair was down to his shoulders once again. She recognized the hard planes of his face, the overnight scruff of his beard, and the soft lips that had kissed every inch of her body.
Yes. It really was Alex.
Wasn’t it? Or had her nightmare morphed into a good dream?
She felt as though she were awake, but nothing felt right.
Digging her nails into her palm, she quartered the room looking for bad guys.
A man in his late forties, maybe early fifties, stood next to the tubes that ran from bags on hooks into her hand. They obviously didn’t want to kill her because they could’ve done so at any time.
Near the back of the room stood a familiar man with graying hair and a very fit body. She knew him. He was…a Marine, but he was in civilian clothes. What the hell was his name? The woman beside him was Gina.
Top Cooper—that’s his name! Top Cooper. His wife, Gina, is standing beside him. As her gaze continued through the last two quarters, she discovered the room was empty…and not the one she usually shared with Alex.
Had Alex and Top Cooper rescued her?
“Welcome back,” the older man said. “Do you know who you are?”
“U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander Katlin Callahan.” She could barely get out her whole name. Her mouth was so dry. Even her throat felt sandy.
“May I give her some ice chips?” Gina was a godsend.
“Please,” she managed to say but it sounded like a whisper even to her. Had she slept with her mouth open? Had she snored? How embarrassing if all these people had been there while she was sleeping. She’d have to apologize to Alex later for the nightmare and thank him properly for pulling her from her mental madness.
Gina raised the bed and spooned ice slivers into her mouth which nearly melted on contact. Bliss. Katlin tried to pick up her arms, but they were just too heavy. For now, she’d let Gina feed her.
“Do you recognize anyone in this room?” Katlin noticed that the man asking questions kept his hands on the drip control of her IV.
Would he knock her out with some kind of drug if she didn’t answer his questions correctly? What if she didn’t know the answer? Would he give her some kind of truth serum? Maybe that’s what was in the bag hanging from the pole.
She scanned the room one more time looking for video equipment. Maybe somebody was watching this interrogation from a remote point.
But everyone in the room seemed so casual around him, but Katlin wasn’t sure of the man’s threat level.
Okay. Maybe she was just being paranoid.
“Katlin, did you understand the question?” Although the man’s voice was gentle, it was still insistent.
Fuck. She’d better answer him.
“Top Cooper and his wife Gina.” Katlin watched the middle-aged couple beam with pride.
Her gaze returned to Alex’s. “And this is Alex.” It was a damn good thing nobody asked her his last name because she didn’t know it. “You’re here.”
“Yes, Kat, I’m here.” His gaze held hers as he ran the back of his finger over her cheek, smiling as though they hadn’t seen each other in months. But they had, hadn’t they? Katlin tried to remember when the last time she and Alex had been together.
Nothing. She simply couldn’t remember. Perhaps her brain was still tired. She needed to roll over and go back to sleep, or start working on her first, followed immediately by her second, cup of coffee. Maybe then her brain would start working and she could remember when she and Alex had seen each other last.
She was happy that Alex was there, but she wondered why everyone was in the room with them. She gathered as much moisture from her surprisingly still dry mouth as possible and swallowed. “Why is everybody in our bedroom?”
Alex laughed. “Where else would I be?”
Where else would he be? The question threw her. All of a sudden, she couldn’t think of where else he might be. She thought very hard and couldn’t come up with a single other place that Alex could be. Should be.
He worked. Didn’t he? He must. “At work?” She asked tentatively.
“I couldn’t leave you.” Alex leaned over and kissed her lips. She felt weird kissing in front of other people.
“That explains your presence, and I’m not really concerned why the Coopers are here, but what I really want to know is who the fuck is he?” Katlin pointed to the oldest man in the room.
The man nodded his head. “Katlin, I’m Dr. Brian Tobias, your neurologist.”
For the first time, Katlin realized they were not in the penthouse apartment. She glanced around the room. Nothing looked familiar except Alex, Gina, and Top Cooper.
Alex gave her a quick kiss then slid off the bed standing next to her.
“Stick out your tongue,” the doctor ordered as he moved to the other side of her bed.
She couldn’t feel any stitches on her tongue, but her mouth was sure as hell dry. She complied, sticking it out as far as she could. “May I have more ice slivers?”
Gina picked up the glass and fed her another spoonful.
“Now wiggle your toes.” Dr. Tobias lifted the sheet off her feet.
She got it. He was testing her. Complying, she watched her toes move up and down.
“Without turning your head, follow my finger with just your eyes.” The physician moved his finger in all directions including making a circle.
With a nod to Gina, she placed a rubberized cap over Katlin’s head and attached wires from a machine to the metal nodes. “This is a small portable EEG. We need to take a look at your brain waves.”
Over the next ten minutes, the neurologist gave her a thorough examination, testing her involuntary reflexes while asking her the year, the president, where she was born, the names of her family members, and a litany of other innocuous questions.
“Look, I’m over this,” Katlin snapped. Anger poured from every cell in her body. “It’s my turn to ask the fucking questions.” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she was appalled at her behavior. She wasn’t like that. Immediately contrite, she apologized. “I’m so sorry. I have no idea what came over me. But I do have questions.”
Dr. Tobias patted her hand. “It’s completely understandable. The inconsistent behavior is common after a TBI. It may last several days or even weeks.”
TBI. What was that? She should know that abbreviation but couldn’t seem to pull the words together and connect them to the letters.
The doctor gave her a small smile. For a second it looked almost condescending and Katlin’s anger flared. Then she realized it was just his way.
“You’ve had a moderate, closed, traumatic brain injury. That means that your brain was jarred around and swelled inside your skull. The good news is that there were no external punctures and we haven’t seen any fragments floating around inside.” His face scrunched up.
Was he mad at her? Had she done something wrong? A paranoid fear raced through her. Katlin glanced around the room. Gina and Top stared at her expectantly. Alex had a hopeful smile pasted on. He was nervous. Maybe even scared.
“Do you remember what happened to you?” The doctor’s question forced her focus to return to him.
“When?” Popped out of her mouth.
“What is the last thing you remember?” the doctor said slowly.
Anger flashed. She was not some child with a learning disability. She clearly understood English. Her memory was simply blank in places. A second look around the room and Katlin felt like she was overreacting. She should simply answer his question.
She had to t
hink hard. She remembered sitting around the bedroom, she thought it was hers, talking with a bunch of women. She focused on their faces. She knew them all very well. They were her team members. But where? Were they on a mission or were they at her place?
“I’m not sure,” she admitted. “But I remember sitting around with my team.” As she said the words, she recalled a group of men coming to their door. Although she could see their faces clearly, she felt the annoyance they’d caused. As her gaze drifted to Alex, she instantly knew he hadn’t been there.
“I think we were on a mission, maybe with some men?” She shook her head. “Beyond that, I’m not sure of anything.”
The doctor patted her hand once again. “Amnesia surrounding the trauma is not unusual.” He glanced at the others before returning his gaze to her. “Don’t worry about it. Many accident victims don’t remember the few minutes before, during, or after. It may come back or be lost forever.”
Accident. The word bounced around in her mind. Her vision blurred. The roar of the SUV’s huge engine filled her ears. She felt her body rock side to side.
A flash streaked across in front of her.
She threw her arm up to protect her eyes. Cringing, she waited for the explosion to her right.
Silence.
Katlin opened her eyes and felt like an idiot. Everyone in the room stared at her. She lowered her arm.
Dr. Tobias patted her hand. “Flashbacks are not uncommon with a TBI either.”
The double negative took Katlin a few minutes to unravel. Her mind had just relived the situation which the doctor had called an accident.
“I remember.” She gleefully smiled. A memory had returned. “I’d never call an RPG an accident. I’m quite sure they shot at us on purpose which makes it the antithesis of an accident,” Katlin replied.
Everyone in the room stared at her, again. Dr. Tobias looked at the other three people.
“She was speaking Arabic,” Alex said in English as he took her hand in his. Looking down at her, he asked in English, “How many languages do you speak fluently?”
She replied in perfect Spanish, “Five languages, twelve dialects but it’s rude for us to speak in Spanish when others might not know that language. Does Gina speak Spanish, Top?” Katlin said as she looked at the man she’d known nearly all her life. Exactly how long she wasn’t sure, but she knew she had a familial love for him. He wasn’t her brother, though.
Fear of the unknown shot through Katlin once again. She was sure she had a brother but couldn’t picture him. Was he blond like her? Did he have red hair? She felt sure she was of Irish heritage.
“No, but she knows a little Japanese,” Top answered in Spanish, redirecting her thoughts.
Katlin looked at Gina and said in Japanese, “Thank you so very much for the wonderful care you’ve given me these last four days.”
At Dr. Tobias’s raised eyebrows, Katlin translated.
“How long have you been here?” The doctor asked.
“Four days, maybe five?” Katlin wasn’t sure, nor could she say how she knew that. “I think that’s what you, Gina, told me.”
Gina smiled. “Yes, every day I would give you a count. Today is day five. But you were in the hospital for a week before they brought you here.”
Katlin looked around the bedroom. “Where am I?”
“You’re in one of the Tysons Corner safe houses.” Top’s smile was sincere. “We brought you straight from the hospital here.”
Katlin’s gaze slowly swept the room. It was very nice. The blue-gray walls were just a shade beyond institutional yet warm and homey. The hospital bed obviously didn’t belong there. She wondered where her king-size bed was. Had they taken it out to make room for this one? As she stared at the furniture, it didn’t look familiar.
“Is this my house?” She finally asked.
Top chuckled. “Yes. And no.”
Now Katlin was more confused than ever.
“You own this house,” Alex explained as his thumb rubbed over the back of her hand. “And several others. They are contracted to Guardian Security for use as safe houses.”
He stared at her as though waiting for a reaction.
She had none.
Okay, so she owned a bunch of houses, but she’d asked if this was her home. At least that’s what she’d meant.
“I don’t think you’ve ever lived in this house.” Top answered her question.
“If I don’t live here, then why didn’t you take me to my house?” Seemed like a reasonable question to her, but she wondered when everyone else in the room exchanged a worried glance.
Had something happened to her home?
All of a sudden, Katlin caught a whiff of coffee. She was never a morning person, barely coherent until she had a second cup. Obviously, her brain needed to be caffeinated. “May I have a cup of coffee?”
“Only a little,” Dr. Tobias said. “We want to watch your blood pressure.”
“Pardon my lack of manners.” Gina’s gaze swept the others. “Who else wants coffee?” Orders taken, she disappeared from the room.
Now, what were they talking about before her body demanded coffee? She couldn’t remember. No one else seemed to be anxious to return to that conversation so Katlin asked, “Alex, is Griffin still in San Francisco? How’s the audit going?”
Alex’s gaze whipped to her. “How did you know about the audit? You were unconscious when all that happened,” Alex said to Katlin before turning his head toward Dr. Tobias, “How can she know those things?”
Well, hell. How did I know about the audit if I was unconscious? Am I psychic now?
Dr. Tobias smiled at her but addressed Alex. “I told you before, the body is amazing. Now you know why we talk to the patients as if they’re awake. Obviously, you talked to her about San Francisco.”
“Did you?” Kat insisted.
Alex nodded, his smile so broad and happy as though she were a good child who had performed a difficult task. She guessed she had.
Katlin couldn’t understand why she could remember some things while she’d been unconscious, yet she couldn’t remember what her brother looked like. She couldn’t picture him as a child or as an adult.
Did she have a sister? No. Not exactly. She had sisters of the heart not of blood. Nita, with her dark curly hair and pleasant, yet not distinct, facial features came clearly into view. She was married to Katlin’s brother. What the hell was his name? Nita and…nothing.
Bella and Simon. They had two little kids. Katlin loved her niece and nephew. She could picture the little ones, but not her brother.
Nita was on her team.
“Oh my God. My team. What happened to my team?” Her last memory of them was in the hotel-like room. Had they all been killed? Why weren’t they in the room? Were they in other rooms with nurses caring for them?
Why wasn’t anyone answering her questions?
“What the hell happened to my team?” She was screaming, anger spewing each word.
Alex wiped his thumb across her cheek. She hadn’t realized she was crying, again. “Your team is fine. They’re on a training mission.”
Even as relief washed over her, Katlin continued to cry. She was so frustrated that she couldn’t remember. When she got herself under control, she wiped away her tears, wondering if they’d ever stop. “I apologize for lashing out. It’s frightening not knowing if your best friends are alive or…” Her throat had swollen so tight she couldn’t even say the words.
Dr. Tobias jumped in. “There’s a strong possibility that most of your memories will return within the next few weeks.” Patting her hand, he continued, “You need to accept the fact that not all your memories will come back.”
Katlin burst into tears. Her head pounded. “I can’t remember my brother. I know I have one, but I can’t remember what he looks like.” She gasped for breath, crying her eyes out, once again. She placed her fist over her heart. “I know I love him. I just don’t know what he looks like.” She couldn’
t control her breathing or tears. She also couldn’t remember bawling like this ever before.
Alex took her into his arms and rubbed his big hand up and down her back. “It’ll be okay. You’re safe now. I’ve got you.” He kissed her temple. “It’ll come back. If Dr. Tobias thinks it would be okay, I’m sure we can call him, and he’ll be here within the hour.”
“What if I don’t recognize him when he walks in?” She huffed in a breath. “He’ll hate me forever. I’m his sister. I’m expected to know what he looks like.” The thought of her brother hating her brought on more tears.
Part of Katlin’s brain screamed, Where the hell are all these emotions coming from? This isn’t like you. You don’t cry. Ever.
As she tried to pull herself together, she concluded that she now cried. Probably a side effect from the TBI.
“Besides this horrendous mood swing, what else can I expect?” She asked Dr. Tobias.
“To be pissed as hell at Jack Ashworth.” Top whispered from the back of the room.
Hatred ripped through Katlin at the mention of the man’s name. Expensive popped into her mind followed by a deep-seated loathing. Images rapidly blinked on and immediately shut off. A nearly bare desk. Perfectly coiffed hair graying at the temples. Expensive conservative clothes. His face too close to hers as though he was going to kiss her.
“I hate that man. What did he do to me this time?” Katlin’s gaze bounced from Top to Alex. She wasn’t sure why she’d added the words this time. They were just there. Maybe that’s why she hated him, because he’d hurt her in the past. She needed to get her mouth under control.
Both men then looked to Dr. Tobias.
“She asked why she was here and not at her home. I don’t approve of lying to a patient in her condition. It just confuses them once they discover the truth.” Dr. Tobias spoke as though Katlin wasn’t in the room. That kind of pissed her off, but since he’d all but insisted they tell her the truth, she decided she’d let the slight pass.
“We’re not changing her memories.” Top pointed out. “It happened to her while she was unconscious.”
“Agreed.” Dr. Tobias nodded.
