by A. P. Jensen
“What the fuck is going on? Did she have another dream?” Gerald shouted and passed through the throng.
Jackie and Bones barred the bathroom door and faced Gerald with impassive faces.
“It’s nothing,” Jackie said.
Raven opened the door at that moment and silence fell. She was pale and numb with shock.
“So?” Jackie demanded.
She gave a slow nod and then stared at Gerald. “I have a problem.”
Gerald crossed his arms, confused by the excited chatter, chuckles and grins forming on the men’s faces. “Now what?”
Bam Bam elbowed him. “You’re gonna be a grand pop.”
For a moment, Gerald didn’t understand and then he did. He put his hand on hips and bellowed, “You’re pregnant?”
Raven burst into tears, baffling all the men who began to make a quick getaway. Bam Bam and Jackie were the only ones who stayed and gave her a reassuring hug.
Bam Bam glared at Gerald. “You can’t yell at pregnant women.”
“She . . . I . . . Fucking shit!” Gerald exploded and stormed from the room. He reappeared a minute later with Cain who was expressionless and armed. “Give him your hair. Do it now,” Gerald ordered.
Raven came out of her emotional state and gaped in horror at Cain who wasn’t even looking at her. He was more focused on the Unmemorables who were cracking their knuckles and checking their guns to make sure they were loaded.
“Get him out of here,” she said in a desperate voice.
“He has to do right by you,” Gerald declared.
“Are you out of your mind? This is the twenty-first century!”
Gerald stilled. “You’re not having an abortion, are you?”
“No.” The word popped out of her mouth without her consent, but the thought never crossed her mind. “I’m raising it on my own.”
“No, you’re not,” Jackie snapped. “That’s my niece or nephew.”
“And my little cousin!” Bam Bam said proudly.
Bones shook his head. “This is not good.”
Happy shoved Bones from behind. “Speak for yourself.”
“The Council will have a fit if they find out an Unmemorable is giving birth to a Henson.”
Cain finally turned. “What are you talking about?” He looked Raven up and down and fixed his eyes on Gerald. “What’s this about an Unmemorable and a Henson?”
“I need time,” Raven blurted out before Gerald could answer. Cain wouldn’t remember anything she said, but he’d remember what Gerald said and she really needed time. She’d never pictured kids in her life. Ever. Even before she stepped into the brutal, magical world, the thought of having a child was laughable. Now, she was pregnant by a man who couldn’t even remember her and potentially didn’t want her anymore. She was a killer . . . and mother-to-be? She swayed and Bam Bam put an arm around her waist to steady her.
“You better think fucking fast,” Gerald snarled and jerked his head at Cain. “You can leave.”
For a minute, Cain didn’t move and then he punched Louie in the face. He reeled back and crashed into three others. With that, Cain strolled out.
“What was that about?” Raven asked.
“Louie was smiling,” Harvard said as he helped Louie up.
“What the hell is wrong with him?” she asked and felt panic welling up inside of her. Cain didn’t like the fact that she was an Unmemorable and what if her kid had the same traits as her? What if she couldn’t break the curse and Cain couldn’t even remember their child?
“We’re here,” Jackie reassured her and kissed her on the cheek.
She stared at him. “I don’t know what to do. He doesn’t want me.”
“You haven’t given him a fucking second chance,” Gerald snapped. “Give him your hair, tell him, and if he says he doesn’t want you, we’ll kill him. Simple.”
“We can’t kill Cain,” she mumbled.
“Yeah, we fucking can,” Bones said.
Needless to say, she seesawed between what to say and how to say it for days. She knew she had to tell Cain. If he didn’t want her, it’d destroy her, but she had to know one way or another. She was stunned by the show of support from the Unmemorables. Most shocking was Gerald’s paternal support and his renewed hostility toward Cain who didn’t know what the hell was going on. Even Big Daddy and Luester unearthed from wherever they hibernated nowadays and congratulated her. Sunshine was the youngest and the thought of a baby cheered and struck them hard. She reassured them that she’d try to search for the hostages again and Gerald vetoed that immediately, stating it was too risky. She gave him a death glare that he returned.
The front door of the house opened to admit Cain and Raven’s palms began to sweat. Vegas, Harvard and Jackie eyed her and she jerked her head at them to leave. They gave Cain a threatening glare that he didn’t notice. Jackie slapped a black kit in Cain’s hands before he slammed the door. Cain unzipped the kit, tensed and looked around the room as if expecting an attack. He took in the Christmas decorations and then her in yoga pants and an oversized sweater that said, Don’t Mess With Me, I Like Knives. It was a present from Bam Bam who thought it was appropriate for her to wear during this occasion.
“Who are you?” Cain asked, not moving away from his position by the door.
She took a deep breath and tried to stop nerves from leaking into her voice. “I’m Raven.”
“The Unmemorables said I bought this house,” Cain said.
She nodded. “Yes.”
He glanced around and shook his head. “No.”
“No, what?”
“I would never buy this place.”
She dug her nails into her palm. “This place isn’t nice enough for Jane?”
A flicker of something crossed Cain’s face, but she couldn’t read it.
“You know Jane?”
She made a noncommittal sound and tugged on her sweatshirt so she wouldn’t leap up and pummel him.
“Broke up with her over a year ago,” Cain said, looking around suspiciously. “Is this a trap?”
Maybe, she thought, but she’d let him off the hook for good if he didn’t want to be on it. “Why wouldn’t you buy a house like this?” she asked, stalling.
“This isn’t a bachelor pad,” he said.
“And?”
“And what would I need a house for when I live at Council headquarters in Texas? I’m not planning on settling down with anyone.”
The Unmemorable curse was the worst punishment she could think of. To be wiped from someone’s memory completely, good and bad, was a depressing cycle. If the Unmemorables fell for a woman, how could they deal with her “amnesia” day after day? Answer: they couldn’t. It was easier to live a half-life where they had cheap sex and ignored the outside world, which in turn ignored their existence. She got it. She wasn’t sure which was worse—her child being normal and never knowing who she was or being like her. What would Cain say?
“If you broke up with Jane a year ago, why’d you make out with her?” Raven asked.
“How do you know about that?”
Of course he wouldn’t remember her walking in and witnessing the whole thing. She crossed her arms and waited for him to answer. She wasn’t sure what was going to happen when he got his memory back and right now he had no reason to lie to her since he had no clue who she was.
“You have feelings for her?” she prodded, slicing her own heart to ribbons, but she had to know.
Cain threw up his hands. “Why are we talking about Jane?”
“Because you love her!” she shouted and shot to her feet, hands balled into fists. Her whole body was shaking and the tears that seemed always so fucking close to the surface were suddenly in her eyes. “The minute you forgot...” she reined in it and finished semi-calmly, “I just want to know what it is that made you go back to her.”
Cain’s eyes narrowed. “Who are you?”
“I’m nobody,” she said and swiped at her eyes.
&n
bsp; “You’re very emotional.”
That pissed her off and dried up the fresh supply of tears. “If you found out Jane was pregnant, would you marry her?”
“No,” Cain said without hesitation.
Her heart sank. If he didn’t want Jane, yet kept going back to her, there was no way in hell he’d want Raven. Her hand slid into her pocket and closed around a thin braid of hair. She felt as if she was going to be sick. She memorized his piercing blue eyes, unyielding lines of his face and short-cropped hair. He was dressed like what he was, the wealthy elite. Today he had on a blood-red button up beneath a black trench coat. His shoes were shined to perfection and she wondered idly if he’d been in the military. Well, she’d never know.
“I have one more question,” she said.
“Another personal question?”
She would have thought he was making a joke, but his face and mouth were set, and he was clearly waiting for the punch line.
“You never talk about Angel,” she said and knew she should’ve left it alone when his face began to morph into something dangerous.
He moved away from the doorway and she backed up. She hadn’t brought any weapons because she wasn’t sure how much self-control she had where Cain was concerned. She never anticipated that she’d have to defend herself from him.
“What is this interrogation about?” Cain asked.
“They’re just questions. I’m an Unmemorable and...”
“There’s no such thing as a female Unmemorable.”
She rounded the couch and cursed the fact that she wasn’t at full strength. “There is. I’m the one who gave the location in Utah.”
Cain paused. “You haven’t Seen anything else from any of the hostages?”
She didn’t have the heart to tell him about Delilah. She would . . . after. “No. I saw Angel in a dream and he mentioned you were his brother.”
“It’s not a secret.”
“You...” She searched for the right words. “Do you ever talk about him? To anyone?”
“No.”
She wanted to ask him why he hadn’t told her that Angel was his half-brother, but clearly, she couldn’t ask him more without inciting him to violence. Her hand gripped the braid in her pocket. It was time. He stood in front of the Christmas tree, one hand still gripping the small kit that Jackie put in his hand. She wasn’t sure what it was and she didn’t care.
“I’ll give you something and then I’ll leave,” she said quietly and started forward.
Cain visibly tensed, and she stopped, unsure what he’d do. She watched him punch Louie in the face for smiling and torture the Battalion prisoner without mercy. He wasn’t her Cain, he was the Council hit man and not at all happy about being here right now.
“It’s nothing,” she reassured him and pulled the braid out of her pocket to show it to him.
Cain scowled. “What the hell is going on?”
She slowly walked toward him and her throat began to close up. “If you don’t like this, you’re free to go. You won’t have to see me again.” She’d survive this, she told herself. The Unmemorables were here for the long haul. She had family. She wasn’t alone.
Cain watched her as she stopped three feet away. She could smell him now and it brought back memories of the few days they lived here together. She remembered him cooking in the kitchen on Christmas Eve.
“You ever been in love before?” she asked him.
“Before you? No.”
Shit, the pain in her chest was physical. Maybe it was better if they left it like this. She didn’t want to hear what he had to say about Jane, Angel or why they didn’t suit. She knew all the reasons. She didn’t want to witness the disgust on his face or his reaction when he found out she’d stupidly gotten pregnant.
“I don’t care how complicated this is. We’re meant to be together. Everything happens for a reason, Raven. You believe that?”
A tear trickled down her cheek and she closed her hand around the braid. “Maybe you should go.”
Cain didn’t move.
She took a step back and he took one after her. Her eyes bulged and she whipped her hands behind her back.
“What are you doing?” she gasped.
“This is important, isn’t it?”
More tears slid down her cheeks. “T-to some people.”
“To me?”
She swallowed hard and felt her lower lip quiver. “I don’t know.”
He held out his hand. “Let’s find out.”
She faced death too many times to count. None of those confrontations terrified her as much as what was happening at this second. She stared into Cain’s eyes. He couldn’t possibly know what was happening, but he sensed it was significant on some level. His eyes were trained on her and she had the feeling she’d roused his curiosity to the point where he was now intent on finding out what this was about.
Raven bit her lower lip. With her heart pounding like a jackhammer, she held out the braid. The moment Cain made contact with it, his eyes began to blaze. Her body went on lockdown. She could take it.
Cain calmly wrapped the braid around his wrist. She opened her mouth to protest, but shut it when Cain shot her a lethal glance. She took an uneasy step back and he lunged. She cried out as he snatched her up in his arms and rushed toward the stairs.
“Cain! What the...?” she shouted.
He didn’t say a word, which freaked her out more than if he’d yelled at her. Was he going to toss her from the second story window? Cain reached the master bedroom and dropped her on the bed. Quick as a flash, she heard the kit unzip and a familiar, unwelcome click as a handcuff went from her wrist to the metal headboard.
“Cain!” She tried to kick him as he quickly grabbed her other wrist and secured it as well.
Her blood turned to ice as Cain reached into the kit and pulled out tubes, a tourniquet, needles, cotton balls, adhesive tape and wipes. She tried to sit up.
“Cain?”
He didn’t meet her eyes as he fixed the tourniquet around her arm. He grabbed a needle and she tried to struggle, but his hands were like steel and she couldn’t move an inch. She turned her face away because the sight of her blood gushing into the plastic tube made her feel sick. She began to shiver and a cold sweat covered her body. She was a wimp about needles and he knew it and stuck her as if he was injecting filling into a cupcake. She thought he was finished until he began to fill the next tube . . . and the next. This went on in silence for long, horrifying minutes. There was the sharp smell of alcohol as he wiped her arm and then put a cotton ball and tape over her vein.
Raven was completely wiped out. This so wasn’t going the way she planned and still he hadn’t said a word. Her nerves were wrung dry. She tried to think of the ‘correct’ way to approach this situation and now here she was, cuffed to a bed as he took her blood. On that thought, she looked at Cain and gaped as he tilted his head back and drank one of the plastic tubes. He didn’t gag or blanch. He grabbed a bottle of water on the nightstand and downed it before he hesitantly took off the braid and placed it on the bed right in front of him. He got to his feet and turned his back on her. She heard him counting under his breath before he whirled back to her. It hit her why he’d taken her blood all at once and dismay filled her.
“You have a lot of explaining to do,” Cain said and folded his arms.
Raven was still trying to get her nausea under control so she didn’t speak. They were in the midst of an intense staring contest when something occurred to her that made her yank on the cuffs hard enough to bruise her wrists.
“Jackie gave you the cuffs and needles?” she shouted, enraged.
Jackie walked in on her and Cain the night they met. She’d been cuffed to the bed just like this . . . well, naked, so Jackie knew Cain had a penchant for cuffs and provided them for this purpose? She was going to murder him.
“Who’s Jackie?” Cain asked.
“He’s a dead man,” she spat and closed her eyes. She tried to control her
harsh breaths that were seconds away from being sobs.
“Rich took the braid,” Cain said.
“I know.”
“He shook my hand when he touched down at the Unmemorables headquarters. I thought it was odd at the time, but of course he doesn’t do anything without an ulterior motive.”
She didn’t think that deserved a response so she didn’t give one.
“How much time’s passed since Utah?” Cain asked.
“Almost three weeks.”
His energy hit the room and she swore she could feel the heat of his anger on the right side of her face.
“It took you three weeks to give me your hair?” Cain asked through clenched teeth.
Still, she said nothing. A hand on her jaw forced her head toward Cain and she met his fiery gaze defiantly.
“You promised me,” he growled.
She wrenched her face out of his hold and said, “I needed time.”
“You’ve had lots of time and you were going to walk away from me just now.”
She compressed her lips so they wouldn’t tremble. “I thought it’d be best.”
“For who?”
She blinked. “For you.”
He leaned forward and shouted, “How the fuck would it be best for me?”
She jerked back, but Cain wasn’t finished. The control he exerted over himself was gone. He grabbed fistfuls of her sweatshirt and lifted her top half off the bed so their faces were inches apart.
“What will it take for this to penetrate your brain? I love you and no matter what you do, we’re meant to be together.”
“You called me a killer!” she screamed. “You said I’m more of an Unmemorable than you wanted me to be. The second you forgot about me you made out with that...”
He shook her. “I told you, I’m not in love with Jane.”
“You don’t have to love someone to screw them!”
Another shake. “You listen to me, Raven. Just because I didn’t remember you doesn’t mean the feelings I had for you left me.”
“What?”
His eyes searched hers. “Even when I forgot you, I felt unsettled and edgy and I couldn’t figure out why. I knew I was missing something and when Jane came onto me, I assumed what I was feeling had to do with her. There were big blanks in my memory and I thought we may have hooked up again, but as soon as I kissed her, I knew it wasn’t her. We went off to Utah and she hung on me. I felt guilty. I assumed I’d hooked up with someone else and she was saying she loved me. I let her down easy when we got back to Vegas, told her we weren’t getting back together. I’ve been trying to figure out who I hooked up with for weeks with no luck. I’ve been feeling like...” Abruptly he buried his face against her neck. “Fuck.”
