Page 3 of Beyond Reason

“Vaguely.” I pulled the sheets down so I could run my hands along my chest. Aside from the wires hooked to me, I was slender. Far more slender than I’d ever been.

My arms were completely devoid of tattoos, but there were splotches of red scattered along my torso—birthmarks.

Not mine.

Maybe I was sick. Maybe I was hallucinating.

Maybe…

“You came in with a few personal items. They’re on the bedside table there.” I followed her gesture—the black bag was zipped up, but there was enough bulge to it that it obviously held something. “Your wallet, your phone, car keys, and a flash drive.” She paused. “Do you have any recollection of how you were injured?”

That was an easy question to answer. “No.”

She tsked softly. “While you were somewhat lucid and moving, you were asking for someone named Axel, and you said his name again a few minutes ago. Are you sure you don’t need us to call someone? Or…” Her lips pressed together, and I saw the look of concern crossing her features a moment before I realized why it was there. “Did he have something to do with your injuries?”

The instinct to stand up and strangle her with one of the wires strapped to my chest was so instant and visceral I nearly followed through with it. Instead, I forced those emotions from my face and looked at her with a helpless shrug.

“No? I don’t think so. I can’t really remember anything. Can you tell me more about what happened?”

At least it was easy to say convincingly. It wasn’t a lie. I had the briefest flashes of memories, but everything was hazy, a cloud tinged with the faintest recollections of a man’s eyes.

Axel.

Why was that name the only thing I could think of?

The nurse was talking to me again. There was a fire at a pharmaceutical facility, and apparently I was the only person they’d found alive?

I tried to recollect the scorch of flames on my skin, because I could feel it now—the taut sensation of burned flesh healed over. It rippled along my shoulder, down my back. It was a distant ache that told me time had passed since it happened and now, but I couldn’t dredge up the memories.

I couldn’t remember a fire.

I couldn’t remember anything burning.

But I could remember him.

Axel, who looked at me with his half grin and told me that I needed to be careful when I went out, because the last thing he wanted was to show up at a scene and find me scattered across the floor.

Axel, who had once told me his least favorite scenes to clean were fires. There was too much to try to erase, and most of the time he left the place to burn after he’d gotten rid of any evidence because there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about smoke damage.

Axel…

“Has anyone come to see me?” I asked. I hated the way my voice sounded just a little small, just a little hurt, like it mattered if someone had stopped by. But it was all part of the act, right?

If some part of my mind flared again with the thought of blue eyes full of concern, full of anger, full of passion…

I’ll always come for you, even if it’s for the last time.

I shivered as the words ghosted across my mind.

“When can I get out of here?” I had more questions than I’d gotten answers, but instinct told me I wasn’t going to get them here.

“Mr. Lister, you’re awake and coherent for the first time in months. I’m sure the doctor would agree that it would be better for you to stay for a while.”

Mr. Lister.

I wasn’t Marshall Lister.

My name was Xavier Benham, though I hadn’t used my last name in so long I was surprised I hadn’t forgotten it. Even that didn’t sound right, though. Benham. No…

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