Page 20 of Desire Me
“You know her,” Remi said. A statement, and a harsh one at that.
Saint choked off a laugh that rose out of nowhere. He definitely knew her.
Get a grip, asshole.
“We—”
The words he’d been about to speak turned to dust in his mouth as he stared at the man across the room. He took in the dark stare, the resolve. The arrogance. Well-earned, Saint knew. This man’s family would be formidable opponents, and right now they appeared to have more involvement, more right to Rae than he had. It didn’t matter that they’d had sex—he and Rae barely knew each other. He hadn’t known enough to find her when someone had tried to murder her.
He thought back over the past week, the days and nights of worry. Of hunger. He needed Rae in his life. Needed to be the one to protect her. No matter how involved Remi and Leah were, they didn’t care about her the way he did. They couldn’t.
He wouldn’t let them.
He squared his shoulders. “Rae is my girlfriend.”
Chapter Eleven
King muttered curses under his breath, too low for anyone but Saint to distinguish, but his friend didn’t contradict him. Saint prayed that would continue.
“You’re her what?” Leah asked. Doubt screamed through every syllable.
Saint firmed his voice. Rae stared at her lap, and he stared at her, willing her with everything inside him to look up, acknowledge him. Acknowledge them.
“We’re in a relationship.”
Not a total lie—he didn’t say what kind of relationship.
“We’re dating?” Rae croaked. The sound of her voice tugged him closer, and he didn’t stop himself from moving to her side, though he was careful not to touch her again.
“Not just dating. Living together.” He had no clue where she was living, or how. For now, she needed to stay with him.
“And what’s her full name?” Remi’s voice came heavily laced with suspicion.
“Rae Smith.” Yes, he was talking out his ass. “Spelled with ane, because Smith is plain enough. That’s what she always said.”
He gave Rae a small smile, but his hand landed on his chest, his fingers curling around the crucifix beneath his shirt. He was going to have a helluva lot to confess the next time his mother guilted him into joining them for mass. There was nothing new about that, except it wasn’t lies he was usually confessing.
Their priest wasn’t the only one he’d be confessing to—Rae would get her memory back eventually. Would he have to answer for lying to her somewhere down the road? Yes. Was he willing to lose her now for consequences that he’d have to face and might be able to talk himself out of somewhere in the future? No, absolutely not. He couldn’t lose her no matter what. He couldn’t walk away from her or let her walk away.
Remi wasn’t finished with his interrogation. “Where is her ID?”
Saint frowned. “I assumed it was on her when she left the apartment that morning. She keeps one of those slim pouches in her pocket, no purse.” He’d observed that at the restaurant. Had whoever hit her taken it, or an observer at the scene? “Rae often goes for early morning runs, so I assumed that was where she’d gone that morning.” Her body told him she exercised often, whether that was running or something else.
Damn, I’m better at this than I realized.
“Does she have family we need to contact?”
Saint tore his gaze from Rae then, looked to Remi, a pang hitting his chest. “She doesn’t have any family.” She hadn’t mentioned any, at least. If she did, he’d do what needed to be done to find them. But he couldn’t do that without intel, and only Rae could give it to him—if she ever remembered it.
“My turn for questions,” he said firmly. “Explain Rae’s condition to me.”
Leah took over, getting technical about TBIs andtemporally graded, MRIs and neurologists and electroencephalograms. Saint understood most of it, and what he didn’t, he questioned carefully, wanting to be fully aware of what they were dealing with. When Rae walked out of this hospital, her recovery wouldn’t be over; it would be just beginning. Every bit of information was filed away for future use in helping her fully heal.
A knock on the door cut into the explanation. The nurse King had spoken to earlier poked her head inside. “Visiting hours are over, folks. Leah, will you be staying?”
“I’ll be staying,” Saint told her.
Leah immediately protested, but Saint wasn’t budging. “You expect me to leave my girlfriend here alone when I’ve just found her, without her memory? When someone just tried to attack her? Hell no.”
