Page 72 of Thorn

Juliette longed to believe him. But she’d been duped before. George had duped her. George had played her for a fool and then…her body quaked. She couldn’t put a reason behind those thoughts or feelings.

Thorn slid a warm hand from her shoulder to her wrist. Then he tapped where it felt stiff and painful. He let go to say and sign, “This is an IV. You’re in a clinic now. In Paris. I found you ill on the floor.”

Juliette reached up with the hand that didn’t have the IV and fingered the hospital gown at her neck. “Who else is here?” she whispered.

He stopped and smiled at her. “It’s nice to finally hear your voice. You and I are the only ones in the room. Can you hear me?” He signed.

He must have been told about her hearing disability. He had a wonderful low rumbly voice. She could hear him past the ringing. “Yes. I hear you.”

“We’re the only two people in the room,” he continued. “I came here to help you. From America. From DC. I want to get you home again safe and sound.”

“Washington?” Juliette whimpered and then she turned herself into her pillow and started to cry. The move was wholly a body response, and it had surprised Juliette. The analytical part of her brain seemed to stand off to the side. It didn’t try to comfort her, it simply tried to understand. Something about the government and Washington DC equaled pain. “Are you here about the whales?” Juliette asked past her sobs.

Thorn had sat perfectly still as she was reacting to her thoughts. He didn’t try to shush her or tell her to stop. He simply sat with one warm hand resting on her arm. It felt like a safety line. Even if he was frightening her.

“I have nothing to do with whales. Is there something I should know about that?”

Good question. What was upsetting her about the whales? All she could conjure was the vision of men in white military uniforms. And so that was what she blubbered out.

And her analyzer brain said, no they had been her foe, but they weren’t her enemy.

She must have said that out loud, too, because Thorn said, “I need to know who your enemy is, so I can protect you.”

Juliette focused on that question.Who are my enemies?The voices that she heard in her head were speaking in Russian and then the pain. Her feet jerked up toward her stomach as she pulled into fetal position.

“Who hurt your feet? Who burned you?”

Russian was the language, but who were the people? She had no idea. Yes, she did. It was the men who had tried to kidnap her in Toulouse. “They were scientists.”

Wait.

Juliette froze − mid-thought, mid-breath, mid-beat of her heart − froze. These were memories. Again, the fact that she could remember was startling.

“Say it out loud, I need to know how to protect you.”

“I remember,” Juliette whispered. “I’m experiencing a memory from before the accident.” Her hand moved up to her scalp to touch the scar, but the move made the tape of her IV pull and it moved the plastic insertion, uncomfortably, so she went back to gripping the sheet. “I had an accident.”

Thorn nodded.

“I’ve formed memories since the accident, but I had amnesia from what happened before the operation.” Her words weren’t even whispers. Her lungs had stiffened and felt solid in her chest. She couldn’t deflate them to push air past her vocal cords. “I had a few memories of my childhood, but they weren’t like a film. They were like stagnant pictures, like I was turning pages in a photo album. I…I’m remembering something. I’m remembering something that happened before.”

Thorn lifted his hand in a fist and coughed but left his hand up covering his mouth. From the shift in his jawline, Juliette thought that he was mouthing something. She’d seen a movie where the secret service talked into their cuffs, but Thorn was wearing a turtleneck that was made out of sports material and was tight to his body. There was nowhere for him to hide a communications device.

Juliette’s gaze travelled up his arm to the sheer strength of his shoulders and chest. He looked like he was capable of heroism. But Juliette wasn’t sure it would be enough.

Wow, that was a thought.

How did she come to be in such a predicament? What about her made her unique enough that someone would hunt and try to capture her? More pictures of the men kidnapping her from her grandmother’s street, crawling under the leaves through the ditch, changing her appearance in the bathroom.

How did this Thorn guy find her to protect her? And why would she be worth protecting?

“That’s a rabbit hole,” Thorn said.

Juliette cut her eyes to him.

“Or a tsunami. Hard to tell what’s going through your mind. But I can see the thoughts whirring. How about I help you calm them a bit?” He waited for her to nod before he spoke again. “Take a moment and think about the word ‘serenity.’ Where would you go − anywhere in the world − to feel peace and quiet.”

Juliette thought that she didn’t have a lot of experience with places where one could find peace. “Peace isn’t quiet,” Juliette said.

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