Page 19 of Question Everything

“I’m going to shower first. Then we’ll check the computer and see what turns up in the database.”

“Sounds good,” she said, lifting Sarah up.

That was his cue to leave them alone. He walked into his bedroom and shut the door. He saw her bag open on the floor, clothing neatly folded within. The bed was made, and the room was tidy; it was clear that a woman had been here. He stepped into the bathroom and found her toiletry bag hanging on the doorknob. Her scent was even stronger in here. Lifting a bottle of her shampoo, he inhaled and felt her essence surround him. He shook his head.No. No, no attachments.He turned around and reached into the shower, rotating the faucet to the hottest setting. He stripped off his sweatpants and tee shirt and submerged himself under the steamy spray. He had to wash away any thoughts of Mia. She wasn’t here to stay, and she wasn’t here for him. He had to keep his life as simple as possible. He already had enough of a tangle of complications with work. He couldn’t handle anything else.

A few minutes later after he rinsed his own shampoo out of his hair, he shut off the water and grabbed a clean towel from the rack, drying himself off before wrapping it around his midsection. He walked back into his room to grab some clean clothing from the chest of drawers that sat squarely between the room’s two windows. Glancing to the right, he saw a black sedan parked across the street with two burly looking men sitting in the front seat. From this angle he couldn’t see their faces, but he was able to make out the license plate number of their car. He went over to his night table and grabbed a pad and pen from the basket he kept there for scribbling his late-night thoughts. Jotting the series of numbers and letters down, he grabbed a pair of sweatpants and threw them on commando, ripped off the top sheet of paper and stuffed it into a pocket. He knew that he’d have a better line of sight from his office window. That’s where he was headed next.

CHAPTER 10

Mia told herself to calm down her racing heart.

Kyle had come out of the bedroom just as she was about to knock on the door and see if she could come in and grab a clean diaper to change the baby. She had heard the shower shut off a few minutes earlier and almost stumbled across the threshold when the bedroom door flew open. She felt her eyes widen at the sight of Kyle in low-slung sweatpants, shirtless. He had a distinctive tattoo under his right nipple that extended around his ribs to his back in some sort of swirled pattern; his hair released droplets of water as he walked past her, lifting his finger to his lips as if to signal that she was to remain quiet.

Despite recognizing that she was in quite the predicament herself, she couldn’t stop her core from tightening at the sight of him. He moved with a panther-like grace, almost silently making his way into his office, leaving her holding the baby and wondering what it was that had him on what she recognized as some sort of heightened alert. She hadn’t allowed herself to think about the way she felt about Kyle, but she couldn’t deny the attraction.Don’t fall for your rescuer. Don’t succumb toStockholm Syndrome. You don’t even know why you’re here in the first place. Try to remember. Try to remember…

She closed her eyes. She could see herself behind the wheel of a car, driving fast, trying to get away from something, from someone, but… what?Why did she crash her car into a tree? Was she scared that she was being followed? If so, why was that happening to her?Ever since spending the evening with Sibby and the rest of Kyle’s family, she had a nagging sense that she had her own sibling out there somewhere. She could feel the connection and then that sensation would evaporate, like fog on a late autumn morning, before the sun rises enough to burn it away.Was someone out there looking for her, someone who knew who she was and loved her? Would that person come for her and if they did, would she recognize them when she saw them again?She looked down at her daughter, now asleep in her arms, her soft weight reassuring, her tiny lips still moving as though she was dreaming of more breast milk. She only had small pieces of the puzzle.By not remembering more, was she putting them all in some kind of danger?

Just then, he re-entered the room and silently sat down next to her. She pulled the two sides of her shirt closer together, suddenly feeling exposed having just fed the baby. She looked at him and knew that there was a problem.

“Mia, listen carefully. There’s a car parked outside that looked suspicious to me, so I called in a favor and had the plates run through the DMV. It’s stolen. There are two men sitting inside of it and right now the police are on the way. I told them not to use their sirens; I don’t want to alert these thugs that they’ve been noticed. I need to get more information, and I don’t want to scare them off.”

“How could you possibly know that those men stole that car?”

“I’ve lived here long enough to recognize my neighbors’ vehicles and the comings and goings of their guests. It’s a friendly block and we all look out for one another. Besides, it’s my job. Or I hope it’s still my job.”

She nodded her head to indicate that she understood.

“But I have a bad feeling about those men. I think they’re here for you. Is there any reason that someone would be following you?”

She swallowed a gasp. “I have no idea, Kyle, I’m sorry. I just don’t remember.”

“Okay, okay,” he replied. “Maybe they’re private investigators. Maybe your family hired people to find you. It feels too fast, but since you have no idea of who you are, I guess anything is possible.”

He looked directly at her, and Mia was sure he was about to ask her something else, but he stopped himself.

“What, Kyle? What do you want to know?”

He released a breath and said, “Everything. But since you have no idea yourself, I guess we’ll have to wait until you regain your memory to find out. In the meantime, can I please have your driver’s license? I can at least run that through the system and see if anything turns up.”

“I’m sorry to be such a burden,” she said, glancing down at the baby’s face, then crossing over to where she’d left her handbag. She pulled out her wallet and handed him her license. Then she searched his eyes once more, feeling drawn into him despite her instincts warning her to stay away. “If it helps any, I don’t have a headache today. Maybe that’s a good sign. Maybe things will start reappearing in my mind again.”

“Yeah,” he said softly. “But for now, lay low. Stay away from the windows and give me a little time to sort this all out.” He reached for her hand and grabbed it, giving it a brief squeeze.

She felt like a million pins and needles shot up her arm at his touch.No. No. Stay detached.She shook her head to clear her mind, then said, “Okay. I guess this means that there’ll be no car shopping for me today.”

“No, not today. Or at least not until I can rule out that someone is out there watching you with a bad purpose. Once we clear that up, you can do whatever you’d like.” He stood up. “The uniformed cops will finish their questioning of those two goons out there, then I’ll get the report, and we’ll take things from there. I’ll just be a minute.” In two strides he was gone, back inside his office.

She could feel her body begin to shake. The problem with that was that she was not clear on the reason. Either Kyle was worried about what he’d uncover about the men outside, or she was terrified at her body’s reaction to him. Either way, mere thought of the outcome made her shudder. She closed her eyes for a moment and tried to calm her emotions. She tried to think about what happened right before the car accident, but nothing came to mind. It was as if there was a big black hole in her thoughts, and anything that transpired in her life before the crash was just erased. It was both frustrating and frightening.

She gently stood to put Sarah into the Pack and Play, carefully maneuvering her own body so that she didn’t wake the baby. Sarah settled down and Mia silently made her way into Kyle’s office. The window shades were drawn down low and he was hunched over the computer screen giving her a clear view of his tattoo. The ink was carefully drawn to look like a maze of some sort, with concentric circles drawn with a bold stroke. For the briefest moment she wondered what it might be like to trace the pattern with her fingers, but then froze when he sharply turned around to face her. She drew in a breath.

“I didn’t mean to startle you,” she began. “I just wanted to see if you’ve found out anything more about those two men outside.”

“No, not yet. I have a buddy at the department waiting on the report.” He pushed back his chair and motioned for her to sit on the unmade mattress of the pull-out couch next to the desk. “I did run your license, though. I’m not sure what it all means, Mia, but you’re not who you claim to be.”

A cold shock ran up her spine. “What do you mean?” she asked, trying her best to sound convincing.

“Mia Sawyer, or at least the Mia Sawyer at your last known address, died peacefully in her sleep at the age of eighty-seven late last year. She had no surviving family.”

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