Mission--Memory Recall

by Virginia Vaughan

  She placed the key into his hand. “Don’t disappear on us again, Marcus, okay? Mom and I wouldn’t be able to stand losing you again.”

  “You understand why I can’t stay, don’t you?”

  She nodded. “I don’t like it, but I do understand. You’ve always been the kind of man who puts other people before his own wants and desires. That, I’m proud to see, hasn’t changed.”

  He pulled her into a hug, hating that he was once again leaving. But he knew where his family was now and he was determined he would make it back to his mom and sister one day soon. They had a lot of catching up to do.

  He watched Shannon disappear through the double doors that led to the treatment area then turned and headed out. Bethany fell into step beside him. She’d graciously hung back when Shannon had pulled him aside, but now she was right by his side again.

  “Where are we going?” she asked him.

  “To the house to pick up something first. Shannon said it was my personal belongings. Maybe something in there will help shed some light on this situation. So far, I haven’t found anything here that can tell me what happened the night of the ambush.” He glanced her way. “If whatever’s in that box doesn’t answer some questions, then I need to speak with someone that was there that night. I know your files were destroyed back at Milo’s, but do you remember anything about the other surviving rangers?”

  “I’ve studied those files over and over for the past eighteen months. Trust me. I know everything that’s inside them.”

  “Then I think it’s time for me to meet my former comrades.”

  * * *

  Bethany felt her face flush when Marcus left the house carrying a box containing his belongings. She knew what was inside...the cell phone with her photo. Shannon had showed it to her. How long until Marcus saw it, as well?

  She shook her head. She couldn’t worry about that now. If it came up, she would simply tell him that that was the past and they had no relationship anymore.

  Her gut clenched even thinking about it. It wasn’t true. Despite her best efforts, she couldn’t deny she’d begun to trust Marcus again. She shuddered, remembering the feel of his hand on her skin when he’d examined her ankle. She recalled longing for more once he’d moved his hand away. Stop it, she told herself. She couldn’t fall for those green eyes or his gentle touch again.

  But she was falling. She couldn’t deny it. From the moment she’d seen him again, all those old feelings had come rushing back to her. She wanted to believe in him, wanted to trust that he hadn’t been involved with treasonous activities. She wanted him to be a good man.

  God, please let him be good.

  It was the first time she’d asked the Almighty for anything in a long, long time, but she didn’t try to take it back. She wanted it too badly.

  “Do you want me to drive?” he asked.

  Bethany handed over the keys and then realized how easily even that decision had come to her.

  She slid into the passenger’s seat while he got behind the wheel. “So where are we going?” he asked.

  She knew each of the surviving ranger’s names, backgrounds and locations by heart, but that didn’t mean she’d also memorized their exact addresses. She had already tried looking them up online to no avail, so she pulled out her phone to call Rick for the address. “Colton Blackwell lives in Louisiana. We should start there. I’ll phone Rick and see if he can hunt down an exact address for us.” She started dialing then realized Marcus was staring at her with a concerned look on his face. “What’s the matter?”

  He zeroed in on the cell in her hand. “Your phone. He’s been tracking it. That must be how he keeps finding us.”

  “Impossible. This is a CIA-issued secure line. It’s untraceable except by the highest levels of CIA security.”

  He locked eyes with her and suddenly she realized what he was thinking. Whoever was after them had classified CIA clearance or had someone in the Agency passing him information.

  “I’ll call Rick.” She finished dialing then outlined the situation when her supervisor answered. “This guy seems to find us no matter where we go.”

  “Now, Bethany,” Rick intoned. “I think you’re jumping to conclusions. Surely, tracking down Marcus’s family wasn’t much of a stretch. He must have known you’d go there—” his voice became gravelly “—despite my direct orders that you bring him back to Langley.”

  She grimaced at his scolding. “I know, I know, but he wanted to come, hoping to learn more about his past.”

  “Has he remembered anything?”

  “Not yet. Our next step is to contact the surviving rangers from his team and speak with them. That’s really why I’m calling. I was hoping you could find a current address for Colton Blackwell. He was one of the members of Marcus’s team.”

  “They’ve all been fully vetted about that night. Everything they know, we know.”

  “Possibly, but we both know that soldiers talk to one another more freely than they talk to officials or write reports. It’s worth a shot.”

  “Bethany, I can’t stress this enough. We need to know whatever Marcus knows about the night of the ambush. You have to help him regain his memories.”

  “So does that mean you now believe he has amnesia?” She glanced at Marcus, who was hanging on her every word.

  “I trust you, Bethany. If you believe it, then I’m trusting in your judgment.”

  Releasing a pent-up breath, she locked eyes with Marcus and gave him an unsteady smile. She believed it. There was no doubt left in her mind that his memories of his life were gone, buried. She still could not say what he’d been doing the night of the ambush, but she believed he didn’t know, either, and that at least was a comfort to her. “Can you access the files to see if anyone has been tracking my cell phone?”

  She heard fingers clicking the keys of his computer. “Hmm, that’s weird.”

  “What is it?”

  “It looks like someone did access your phone files.”

  She gasped, surprised, and turned to Marcus. “Who was it, Rick?”

  “Bill Donahue. A mid-level analyst from the terrorism task force.”

  Bethany didn’t recognize the name. “What’s his connection to Marcus or to me?”

  She heard Rick’s keyboard clicks again. “I don’t see anything. It’s so obscure that it strikes me as odd. I’m going to track down Agent Donahue and find out what he’s been doing in those files and why. I’ll get back to you afterward. I’ll also see about getting you that address.”

  “Should I ditch the phone?”

  “No, that’s not necessary.” She heard him typing again. “I’m adding another layer of security on your line. Now no one will be able to access your phone records without my approval.”

  “Thanks, Rick.” Bethany pressed the off button and ended the call. Although she felt better knowing they could not be tracked with her phone, the name Rick had mentioned continued to haunt her. She didn’t know anyone by that name. Why, then, was someone from the terrorism task force accessing her records and possibly following her around?

  She turned and told Marcus about the find. “Any chance that name rings a bell?”

  He furrowed his brow, thinking hard, then slowly shook his head. “It doesn’t, but it doesn’t mean Bill Donahue’s not a part of this.” He pressed a finger to the bridge of his nose and sighed. “Why can’t I remember?”

  His frustration was so palpable that it pierced her heart. She reached out for his hand and held it. “You will,” she told him. “One day soon, you’ll remember it all.”

  The smile on his lips spread all the way to his eyes and he squeezed her hand. “Do you really believe that, Bethany?”

  “I do. And I’ll be right there with you every step of the way.”

  Her phone buzzed with a text message from Rick. “It’s an address for C
olton Blackwell.” She loaded the information into her maps app. “Looks like it’s a six-and-half-hour drive. It’ll be dark before we arrive there.”

  “Then I guess we’d better get going.”

  He put the truck into gear and they headed away from Waco and toward Louisiana.

  They were an hour into the trip when her phone rang. She glanced at the screen and groaned.

  “Who is it?” Marcus asked.

  “My sister, Lisa.” She’d made the mistake of agreeing to spend Christmas with Lisa and her husband last month. It had been a tediously pedestrian affair and Bethany had spent most of her time online working on her investigation, unaware how close she actually was to finding Marcus. She contemplated not answering it and even sent it to voice mail.

  “You don’t want to talk to her?”

  “It’s complicated.” Her relationship with Lisa was a mess and she wasn’t about to get into it with Marcus. She’d once shared such intimate family details with him but was hesitant to do so again.

  “I can’t ever thank you enough for reintroducing me to my sister. I may not remember her, but there’s something different just knowing she’s out there. I have someone I can count on now. It’s a very satisfying feeling.”

  “Yes, well, your sister was happy to see you. From what I understand, you two always had a good relationship.”

  “Oh. I take it you and your sister don’t get along?”

  She hesitated. “It’s not that we don’t get along.” She strained for the words to explain their relationship without really going into detail. “She doesn’t approve of what I do.”

  “Really? She doesn’t like that you work for the CIA?”

  “I don’t think its proper enough for her.”

  He gave her a confused glance. “What do you mean?”

  “My sister has the perfect life. She married a lawyer, has two kids, the big house, the country club, all that.”

  “Sounds like you’re jealous.”

  “No, I’m really not. I never wanted any of that despite my parents’ constant pushing me to settle down, marry the right guy. Their vision of the perfect life isn’t the same as mine.”

  He nodded as if he understood just how she felt. “So, what is your vision of the perfect life?”

  “I love to travel and learn about other cultures. That’s just not good enough for any of them.”

  “Maybe they just don’t understand you.”

  “I’m sure they don’t. They don’t want to understand me, either.” She didn’t mention how much it hurt to know she was an outcast in her own family.

  He patted the steering wheel. “You know, my sister said something to me. She told me she was always worried about me when I deployed. It was as if she was in a constant state of worry. She didn’t like my job but how could she argue about protecting the country? Maybe your family feels that way, too. It sounds like your life frightens them and they don’t know how to process it.”

  “I suppose that’s right,” she acknowledged. “They never made much of an effort, though.”

  “So, do they know about your covert work?”

  “Oh, no. They think I travel to the Middle East to translate and negotiate logistics for military bases in the region. That in itself is dangerous enough for them.” She rolled her eyes. “If they knew about my covert missions, they would really be beside themselves.”

  “So they believe you take risks because you enjoy it instead of because you’re trying to save lives. If they knew that, it might make a difference.”

  “I doubt it.” Her phone rang again. It was her sister calling back. “Argh.” She sent Lisa’s call to voice mail again. “My family doesn’t understand that accepting this desk job permanently is a demotion for me. I want to go back to field work one day, but I guess I’m just scared of it right now, you know?” She sighed. “Which suits them just fine because they don’t seem to care how much I miss being in the field, traveling, meeting people, putting to use the skills I’ve spent years perfecting.”

  “It does sound like you miss it. How come you accepted a desk job then?”

  She felt a hitch in her throat. How could she tell him she was physically unable to function in the field after losing him? She couldn’t. She wouldn’t. But there was another reason that had kept her out. “There was an investigation after the ambush and it was determined the translator that I vetted was really working for the enemy. He led our guys right in the ambush.”

  Her heart constricted as the unbidden memories flooded through her. “After that, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what clues I’d missed about him. I thought he was a decent guy and my judgment got a lot of good men killed.”

  “It sounds like he fooled a lot of people, not just you.”

  “It was a few months later, after all the hubbub had calmed down, that I saw a report that this translator was found among the dead. The oversight committee concluded that he got caught up in the ambush and was accidentally killed.

  “Only, Marcus, that’s not what happened. I saw the photos and he was clearly executed. That really made me start wondering about him. Wondering, was I really wrong? Or was he being used as a scapegoat? I guess you could say that was the start of my investigation.”

  “So a dead translator led you to suspect corrupt soldiers, which led you to me.”

  She nodded. “I guess you could say that was the train of investigation.”

  He gave an amused smile that irked her. “What’s that smirk about? Do I amuse you?”

  “No, Bethany. You amaze me. When you were talking about your family, you were so tense and agitated. But when you started talking about the translator, the investigation, you lit up.”

  Her heart fluttered when she heard the unmistakable note of admiration in his tone.

  “You seem very passionate about your work.”

  “I guess I am.” Or rather, she used to be.

  “So, I take it you’re estranged from your family?” he asked. “That’s a lonely life.”

  “I’m CIA. A solitary life is almost a given for the work I do.”

  “I doubt that’s true. I bet many of your colleagues are married with families.”

  She couldn’t deny that. Rick had been married for six years and had recently discovered his wife was pregnant. But he worked in the office full-time and rarely traveled. She couldn’t think of one person in the covert analysis division who had been able to maintain a relationship. In fact, she knew of three whose spouses had filed for divorce in the past year. Perhaps that was why she and Dillon had been drawn together. They understood the job and the risks.

  She checked her phone and noticed she had three missed calls from him as well as a text message that read Just checking in. Call me soon.

  Bethany really needed to call him.

  She glanced over at Marcus, remembering that she’d never had to find time to phone him. He had been on her mind constantly. She doubted it would have taken him three missed calls and a text message to get a response.

  She had to stop.

  Comparing them was futile. Dillon was stable and kind while Marcus made promises then left her high and dry.

  Strangely enough, Dillon was just the kind of man her mother and father would approve of her dating. He exuded self-confidence and his cover job was as an attorney for an overseas oil company.

  She could not even say for sure if that made Dillon the more attractive option or not.

  Seven

  Marcus let his mind wander as the music mingled with the sounds of the highway. The song on the radio held a steady beat and he thumped his finger to it against the steering wheel. It was a familiar tune. Although he didn’t know, he felt certain he had a specific memory—a good memory—associated with the song. He glanced over at Bethany sleeping in the passenger’s seat and wondered if she was a part of that
memory.

  There was something between them. He knew it. He felt it deep inside him. Even since the first time he’d seen her in the diner, he’d felt a stirring in his gut that this woman was something special to him. Just as certain as he knew he liked this song and this band, he knew Bethany Bryant was more to him than she seemed.

  You might not like the answer, a voice deep inside warned him.

  He didn’t care. He only wanted to know the truth, to understand why his heart kicked up a notch when she touched him and why he seemed so powerfully drawn to her. He was a moth and she was the flame and, just like that moth, he couldn’t stay away. A car roared up behind him, fast approaching and bearing down on him with its bright lights on. Marcus flipped the mirror so the light wouldn’t be so blinding and slowed down, hoping the car would go around him. Tonight, he was willing to give the approaching vehicle a wide berth to pass.

  But the car didn’t go around him. Instead it roared up behind him and tapped him bumper to bumper.

  Bethany awakened, startled by the sudden impact. “What’s happening?” She glanced at the vehicle behind them. “Is that him?”

  “I thought it was just a motorist. Now, I’m not so sure.”

  The car rammed them again and pushed the back wheels onto the shoulder. Marcus gripped the steering wheel, trying to level off, but the truck spun. He jerked the wheel and they were back on the street. Adrenaline pumping through him, he pushed the accelerator to the max and lengthened the distance between them.

  Bethany took out her gun and checked it.

  He reached to stop her hand as an image of some crazy, drag racing kid floated through his mind. “What if it’s not him?”

  She seemed to understand his concern and nodded. “I’ll just fire a couple of warning shots.”

  She pulled down the window, leaned out and fired two shots. The truck swerved then came back faster and rammed them again.

  She slid back inside. “It’s our guy.”

  “Hang on.”

  He started maneuvering but the truck matched him move for move. They had to get away from this guy. He was too close to meeting up with Colton Blackwell and possibly learning something about his past.