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Pregnesia
Carla Cassidy
Former navy SEAL Lucas Washington found her shaken and bruised in a car. Beautiful – and very pregnant – she couldn’t remember what had happened to her or why she was terrified of going to the police. Lucas vowed to protect her and, as hours turned into days, a family came to claim her. Had Lucas just delivered his Jane Doe to safety…or into the hands of a killer?



Pregnesia
Carla Cassidy


www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

Table of Contents
Cover (#u6acb674b-059c-5a00-9e39-1a049001652b)
Title Page (#uf5b02e5c-f777-547e-ab40-36346457c915)
Chapter One (#u9e4e0d50-dbe2-5716-9869-9fb4d5e0dcde)
Chapter Two (#u03ba3d0c-9576-587c-bb3f-6577b4f9fed3)
Chapter Three (#u79b48f83-26ee-5893-ae1b-bca153ed6981)
Chapter Four (#u66ffa9f7-3b4a-50e6-86bb-e547c465472b)
Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Thirteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter One
Lucas Washington stared at the darkened house across the way from where he stood on a quiet residential Kansas City street. Although everything was silent and it appeared the occupants of the house were sleeping, Lucas knew this was the most dangerous time in the job he had to do.
He was about to repossess the two-year-old Buick in the driveway, and he didn’t know if there might be a crazy man with a rifle in one of those darkened windows ready to protest the repossession.
Lucas didn’t believe in favors, giving them or getting them. Still, it was repaying a favor that had him standing on the street on a cold November night at two in the morning. Repossessions were usually done in the middle of the night when hopefully the deadbeat was sleeping and there was less of a chance of a confrontation.
As the third partner of Recovery Inc., it wasn’t unusual for Lucas to be repossessing some kind of vehicle. But the business dealt in big-ticket items, speedboats and airplanes and such, and they often ventured into dangerous territories to get back whatever was necessary.
A two-year-old Buick wasn’t their usual kind of job, but when Bob of Big Bob’s Used Car Sales had called and asked Lucas to repossess the car, Lucas had reluctantly agreed.
Big Bob had given Lucas’s sister a heck of a deal on her car and had overlooked the fact that Loretta’s credit wasn’t exactly stellar.
Besides, business had been slow lately and Lucas had been out of sorts. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that in the last four months his partners had both found love and suddenly had a life that didn’t include him.
He scowled and pulled his collar up against the cold night air, then reached into his pocket and grabbed the key that Bob had provided him. All he wanted to do was get this car to Big Bob’s, then go back home to his apartment.
According to Bob, who had financed the deal, the man who’d driven it off the lot hadn’t made a single payment in four months. Bob’s phone calls to try to work something out had gone unreturned, and so he’d called Lucas.
“No pay, no play.” Lucas muttered. He hoped there wouldn’t be any drama, that Mr. Deadbeat would wake up in the morning and wonder what in the hell had happened to his ride.
He approached cautiously, checking the windows of the house a final time then heading across the street. He crouched behind the back fender and listened, but heard nothing to cause him alarm.
Pulling the key from his pocket, he edged around to the driver’s side and tried the handle. It was unlocked. Sweet. Mr. Deadbeat had made it remarkably easy.
He opened the door, slid into the seat and breathed a sigh of relief. He put the key into the ignition, cranked the engine and yelped as a hand fell on his shoulder.
He whirled around, expecting Mr. Deadbeat with a gun. Instead he found himself staring into the biggest, bluest eyes he’d ever seen. Female eyes. They belonged to a blonde who looked as if she’d just gotten the hell beat out of her.
A nasty gash decorated one side of her forehead. It had bled down her face and onto her white blouse.
“Please, if you’re stealing the car, just let me out now.” Her voice was thin and reedy and her face was pasty white.
“I’m not stealing the car, I’m repossessing it. What are you doing back there?” As he asked the question he backed out of the driveway.
He wasn’t about to sit and talk with a bloody woman in the backseat with the engine idling when Mr. Deadbeat might come outside.
He pulled out onto the street and headed in the direction of Big Bob’s. He glanced in the rearview mirror and saw her slumped in the corner, a perplexed frown on her pretty face.
“What are you doing in the car? Is it yours?” he asked. What in the heck was going on? “What happened to your head? Did somebody beat you up?” The questions snapped out of him. He didn’t like surprises, and a banged-up woman in the back of the car was definitely a surprise.
He also didn’t like the fact that she wasn’t talking, wasn’t offering any explanation for her presence. He frowned and shot her another glance in the rearview mirror. Maybe she was seriously hurt.
“Do you need to go to a hospital?” he asked more gently.
“No!” The word shot out of her like the report of a gun. “No, please.” Her eyes were shiny with tears. “Just drop me off someplace. I’ll be fine.”
A domestic issue? he wondered. Maybe she was afraid that if she went to the hospital, whoever hurt her would find her. He tightened his hands on the steering wheel. There was nothing he despised more than a guy who abused women.
“Look, if your husband or boyfriend hurt you, then you really should go to the police.”
“Please, no police, no hospital. Wherever you’re going I’ll just get out there and everything will be fine.”
“What’s your name?”
His question was met with silence and once again he looked at her in the rearview mirror. She met his gaze, then quickly looked out the side window. “My name isn’t important,” she finally said.
“Is this your car? Your husband’s car?”
“No, I don’t know who it belongs to. It was the only one on the block that wasn’t locked and I was cold. I was just going to sit in it for a little while and try to warm up before leaving.”
Something definitely wasn’t ringing true. She wasn’t telling him her name or what had happened to her. He’d get the car to Big Bob’s, then figure out what he was going to do with the young woman.
What he’d like to do was drive her straight to a police station or to a hospital, but he’d heard the absolute panic in her voice when he’d mentioned either option.
His quick, easy favor for Bob was turning into something much more complex, and that was the last thing Lucas wanted or needed.
He breathed a sigh of relief as the car lot came into view. He told himself that he wasn’t a part of whatever drama the woman in the backseat had going on and yet there was no way he could just dump her at Big Bob’s.
She was obviously in some sort of trouble. He needed to get a closer look at the gash on her forehead to see if she needed medical attention.
He turned into the lot and pulled through a gate that led to a secured area. He’d park the car, drop the keys into a lockbox, then close a gate that would make it impossible for Mr. Deadbeat to retrieve the vehicle using the key he still had in his possession.
He glanced to the backseat where the woman lay, her eyes closed and looking as pale as the winter moon. He pulled through the gate, parked the car and cut the engine. Only then did she open her eyes and stare out the window as if terrified of what might happen next.
“I won’t hurt you,” he said softly. “I need to leave this car here, but mine’s parked close by and I’ll be glad to take you wherever you need to go.”
He opened his car door and got out, then opened the back door. She stepped out of the backseat with obvious reluctance, and as she did, he gasped in stunned surprise.
She was pregnant.
Very pregnant.
The idea that somebody had beat up a pregnant woman caused a wealth of unexpected protectiveness to surge up inside him.
She was only about five-two, dwarfed by Lucas’s six feet. And when she looked up at him, her blue eyes were once again filled with the threat of tears.
“Maybe you could drop me at a motel? And maybe I could borrow enough money to pay for the night? I promise I’ll pay you back. If you’ll give me your name and address I swear you’ll get every penny back.” Her voice held a ring of desperation and promise.
“I can’t do that,” he said. “You’re obviously in trouble. Tell me what’s happened. Tell me your name.”
Her lower lip began to tremble and her eyes filled with tears. “I can’t.” The two words were a mere whisper.
She drew a deep, tremulous breath and leaned back against the Buick. “I can’t tell you because I don’t know.” She raised a hand to her forehead and winced. “I don’t know who I am.”
Lucas narrowed his eyes and stared at her, wondering if she was for real. She could be lying through her straight, white teeth.
She shivered and he knew he had to make up his mind quickly. She was coatless and pregnant, and somebody needed to clean that wound on her head. He’d do what he could to help her tonight, but in the morning she’d have to be on her way.
She might not be telling him the truth about having amnesia, but there was no way he could just abandon her in her present condition.
“Look, my apartment isn’t far from here and my sister lives down the hall from me. She’s a nurse. You need somebody to look at that cut on your forehead. Why don’t I take you there and we’ll figure out what to do with you after that?”
She eyed him warily and placed her hands on her protruding belly. “I don’t know you,” she finally said.
“My name is Lucas. Lucas Washington.” He raked a hand through his long, shaggy hair. “I don’t know about you, but I’m freezing and just want to get home. You’re obviously in trouble, and if what you told me is true, then you need to trust somebody. It might as well be me.”
“You’ll take me to your sister’s?” she asked. Lucas nodded. “And she’s a nurse?”
“That’s right.”
“Okay,” she agreed, although there was still more than a little wariness in her voice.
As Lucas walked to his car with her following just behind him he told himself he’d see her safely through what was left of this night, but tomorrow she had to go. He wasn’t about to get any more involved in whatever drama she had going on in her life.
COULD SHE TRUST HIM? She didn’t know. He seemed all right even if he did look like what she’d assume a car thief might look like. At least he wasn’t a car thief. She just wasn’t sure what else he might be.
As she got into the passenger side of his sports car, she shot him a surreptitious glance. His black hair hung nearly to his shoulders and framed a face that was lean and slightly dangerous looking. The black leather jacket he wore stretched across broad shoulders and his dark jeans hugged slender hips and long legs.
On some level she found him intensely attractive, but could she trust him? Her head pounded with nauseating intensity. But the pain couldn’t touch the frantic terror that clawed inside her.
Why didn’t she know her name? How had she gotten hurt? Why couldn’t she remember anything? She was pregnant and she didn’t even know if she was married or not. She wasn’t wearing a ring, but that didn’t necessarily mean anything.
“You all right?” Lucas asked as he turned into the parking lot of an apartment complex.
At least he hadn’t driven her to some field where nobody would hear her scream. “I guess,” she replied. “To be honest, I’m terrified.”
He pulled into a parking space, then turned to look at her, his eyes dark and enigmatic. “You don’t have to be terrified of me. I promise I won’t hurt you.”
“I think that might be what all serial killers say just before they murder somebody,” she replied.
A rumble of deep laughter escaped him as he turned off the engine. “I guess I never thought about that before.”
He got out of the car and she did the same, comforted by the fact that if he did try to hurt her and she screamed, surely somebody in one of the apartments would hear her.
She had to trust somebody. She had no money, no identification and a headache that threatened to topple her to her knees. The night was cold, and she was beyond exhaustion. Even if she didn’t care about herself, she cared about the baby she carried.
Surely after she slept she’d remember who she was and what had happened to her. All she needed was a couple of hours of rest and everything would become clear again.
She followed him into the building and down a long hallway. Not a sound came from any of the doors they passed. It was almost three in the morning and the building held the silence of a tomb.
“This is my place,” he said softly as they passed apartment 104. “My sister’s place is at the end of the hall.”
When they reached the apartment numbered 108, Lucas knocked softly on the door. There was no reply and he rapped harder.
“I feel terrible,” she whispered. “It’s the middle of the night and you’re waking her up.”
“Loretta won’t mind,” he replied, and knocked once again.
The door cracked open and a pair of sleepy dark eyes that looked remarkably like Lucas’s peered out. “Lucas, what are you doing here at this hour of the night?” The door closed again and there was the sound of a chain being removed and then the door opened all the way.
Loretta Washington was as petite as her brother was broad. She had the same rich, black hair and dark eyes, and those eyes widened as they saw her. She opened the door wide enough to allow them entry and then belted her short blue robe more tightly around her waist.
“What’s going on?” she asked.
“Jane here has a problem,” Lucas said.
Jane? As in Jane Doe. She supposed for now the name would serve her as well as any. “I’m sorry to bother you in the middle of the night,” she said.
“Nonsense, come into the kitchen where I can get a look at that head wound.” Loretta had a calm efficiency about her that put Jane somewhat at ease.
She allowed herself to be led through a tidy living room and into a small kitchen with a round wooden table. “Sit,” Loretta instructed, pointing to one of the chairs at the table.
Jane complied and fought an overwhelming desire to weep with relief. She sensed safety here, at least for the moment. Lucas sat in the chair across from her and eyed her with the same wariness that she’d used on him. Looking into his dark eyes, that sense of safety was more tenuous.
“What happened?” Loretta asked as she got a first-aid kit from under her kitchen sink.
“She doesn’t know,” Lucas said, but his tone indicated that he didn’t quite believe her.
“I wasn’t talking to you,” Loretta exclaimed. She got a damp cloth and began to wipe the side of Jane’s face. Jane closed her eyes against the gentle touch. “What happened, honey?”
“I don’t know.” She winced as Loretta began to clean the cut. “All I remember is running and running. Then I was tired and cold, so I crawled into the car where your brother found me.”
“She says she has some kind of amnesia or something. She doesn’t know her name,” Lucas said, and once again his voice was laced with a touch of suspicious disbelief. “For the time being I’m calling her Jane.”
Jane met his gaze. Those dark eyes of his seemed to look inside her soul, but there was nothing there for him to see.
“You don’t know your name?” Loretta asked gently. “Do you know what day it is?”
“November second or third.” Jane knew she must be right because Loretta nodded with encouragement. Loretta asked her several more questions, about the year and who was the president.
“I know all that,” Jane said. “I just don’t know who I am and what’s happened to me.” Again fear bubbled up inside her and she fought against it, refusing to show either of them just how terrified she really was.
As Loretta checked Jane’s blood pressure and pulse, Lucas continued to watch her with hooded eyes that gave nothing away.
“Well, the good news is your vitals are all normal and you don’t need stitches on your forehead,” Loretta said. “But you really need to go to the hospital to be checked out for other head injuries.”
Panic swelled in Jane’s chest. She wasn’t sure why, but she felt that if she went to a hospital or to the police, she’d only be putting herself in more danger. “No, I’m sure I’ll be fine if I can just get some rest.” She looked at Lucas once again. “Maybe you could take me to that motel we talked about earlier?”
“Nonsense,” Loretta exclaimed. “It’s almost morning now. There’s no reason for you to go anywhere. I have a spare room where you’ll be perfectly comfortable for the night and we’ll sort out everything else in the morning.”
“Oh, I couldn’t impose anymore,” Jane said, offering a weak protest.
“Don’t bother arguing with her,” Lucas said. “Loretta might be small, but she’s as stubborn as the day is long.”
Loretta cuffed him on the back of the head and gave him an affectionate grin. “Why don’t you get out of here and let us women get to bed?”
“Walk me to the door?” he said to his sister.
Loretta nodded, and as she followed Lucas out of the kitchen, Jane slumped forward and cradled her belly in her arms as she felt the baby move around inside her.
At the moment the only thing she was certain of was that she loved the baby she carried. She had no idea who the father was, or what her relationship might be with that man, but it didn’t matter. She had a feeling she’d loved the baby from the moment of conception.
What would she have done if Lucas Washington hadn’t stumbled upon her? Where would she be at this moment? Still in the backseat of that car, slowly freezing half to death? And what would she have done in the morning when she had to leave the car?
She shivered and again a low pulse of fear filled her. It was more than the fear of not knowing her name. It was some innate knowledge that she was in danger. And the most frightening part was not knowing who might be after her and why.

Chapter Two
Lucas sat at his kitchen table and watched the morning sun peek over the horizon. He’d only slept for a couple of hours, but felt rested. He’d never needed much sleep. Not sleeping too soundly or too long had been a survival mechanism learned in his youth, with his father’s explosive temper that could erupt anytime day or night.
He tightened his fingers around his coffee mug as he thought of those nights of terror. If it hadn’t been for his younger sister, he wasn’t sure he’d have survived his childhood.
Initially he’d worried about leaving a stranger with Loretta for the night, but he’d realized a very pregnant woman with a head wound didn’t pose much risk. Besides, Loretta was tougher than she looked.
Jane.
She’d haunted what little sleep he’d gotten. Once Loretta had cleaned the blood off her face, Lucas had gotten his first real look at her. She was stunning, with her heart-shaped face and big blue eyes. Her complexion was smooth and her skin had looked soft and supple.
He’d been surprised by the tiny kick of pure male lust in the pit of his stomach. He was thirty-three years old and rarely felt that particular feeling. And he’d certainly never felt it for a pregnant woman suffering from amnesia.
He consciously willed himself not to get interested in any woman. He had his work and his sister and that’s all he’d ever really needed.
Getting up from the table, he stretched with his arms overhead. He needed a shower. By the time he was done his sister would be awake and he could check in on Loretta and her patient.
As he stood beneath a hot spray of water he thought about the mysterious Jane. He suspected she might be lying. Even though there had been genuine fear in those gorgeous eyes of hers, he wasn’t convinced that her amnesia was real.
What he thought was that she’d probably had a fight with her boyfriend or husband and had concocted the amnesia story to buy her a little time. As long as she didn’t go to the police or to the hospital, the man in question couldn’t find her or go to jail on domestic abuse issues.
Surely by this morning she would have “remembered” her name and found forgiveness in her heart for the guy who banged her up. It happened all the time. It was a story Lucas knew intimately.
He dressed in his customary jeans and pulled on a ribbed, long-sleeved navy shirt, then returned to the kitchen for another cup of coffee before heading to his sister’s apartment.
He needed to call one of his partners and let them know he wouldn’t be in to the office until later in the afternoon. He needed to figure out where to bring Jane and wasn’t sure exactly what to expect.
Lucas and two of his ex–navy SEAL buddies had started Recovery Inc. when they’d gotten out of the service. The company dealt in recovery of both items and people in sticky situations and had been successful beyond their wildest dreams.
Despite the financial rewards, Lucas lived a simple life. He used most of his money to help pay Loretta’s student loans and was determined to help her pay for medical school next spring. Her dream had always been to be a doctor, and Lucas wanted to make sure she achieved that dream.
He pulled his cell phone from his pocket and punched in the number for Micah Stone, one of his partners and his best friend.
Micah answered on the first ring. “Hey, partner, what’s up?”
“I just wanted to let you know that I won’t be in this morning. I’ve got some things to take care of, but I should be there sometime this afternoon.”
“That makes two of us. It looks like Troy will have to hold down the fort by himself,” Micah replied. “I’m being fitted for a tux this morning. Have you been fitted yet?”
Micah’s wedding was less than a month away and Lucas was serving as his best man. “Not yet. I’ll try to get in before the end of the week.”
“If you don’t, then you know Caylee will be chewing on your backside. And trust me when I tell you she has very sharp teeth.”
Lucas laughed. Caylee was Micah’s fiancée. She was definitely a spitfire, but Lucas had never seen his friend so happy.
“Then I guess I’ll see you sometime this afternoon,” Lucas replied, and the two men hung up. Lucas was glad Micah hadn’t asked him why he’d be late. He wasn’t sure why, but he wasn’t eager to share the night’s events and his mysterious Jane with anyone.
If she’d taken advantage of their kindness, as he suspected, then he sure didn’t want his partners to know he’d been taken for a fool.
He finished his coffee and checked the clock. Just after seven. Loretta would be up by now and he was eager to see what Jane had miraculously remembered this morning.
When he reached Loretta’s apartment door he rapped lightly and his sister answered almost immediately. She was dressed for the day in blue-flowered scrubs and held a cup of coffee in her hand.
“I’ve been expecting you,” she said, and motioned him to the kitchen. “My houseguest is still asleep.”
“Did you talk to her after I left last night?” Lucas leaned against the counter.
“A little, but not much. She was exhausted and I figured the best thing for her was a good night’s sleep. I take it you don’t believe her story.”
Lucas raised an eyebrow. “Do you?”
Loretta sat at the table. “I don’t know. I do think she had a trauma of some kind and she seemed genuinely afraid and confused. She looks to be around eight months pregnant. If some man whacked her upside the head, he should be hung by his manly parts for the rest of her life.”
Lucas grinned. “Ah, Loretta, tell me how you really feel.” Love for his sister surged up inside him. Loretta was six years younger than him. With both their parents dead and the history they shared, the two siblings were particularly close.
“What I feel is that you need to put your overactive cynicism aside when you talk to her. She may not have amnesia, but she’s obviously in trouble.” Loretta drained her coffee cup and got up from the table. “I’ve got to get to work.”
Lucas walked with her to the front door where she turned to look at him once again. “Feed her something, Lucas. And if she needs to stay here a couple more days, it’s fine with me.” She reached up and kissed Lucas on the cheek, then left.
Lucas returned to the kitchen, poured himself a cup of coffee and then sat at the table. He wasn’t surprised by his sister’s generous offer to a stranger. Loretta made a habit of helping people.
Sometimes it amazed him how his sister had survived the dysfunction of their past with such a goodness of spirit, such a pure, sweet soul. Too bad he couldn’t say the same about himself.
He had his cup halfway to his mouth when Jane appeared in the doorway. She was clad in a white nightgown that stretched taut across her breasts and her belly. Her blond, curly hair was tousled, and it was obvious by the widening of her eyes that she’d expected to find Loretta, not Lucas, in the kitchen.
“Oh!” She instantly hunched her shoulders and crossed one arm over her breasts. Her lower lip trembled and her eyes looked as if she’d been crying. Once again Lucas felt a strange surge of protectiveness. “I’ll just … I’ll be right back.” She darted out of the kitchen and back down the hallway.
It was only then that Lucas realized he’d been holding his breath. He took a sip of his coffee and tried to forget the vision of her, so soft and feminine, and so utterly vulnerable.
She returned moments later, this time clad in the jeans and the dirty, bloodstained white blouse she’d worn the night before.
“Doesn’t Loretta have something you can wear?” he asked.
“Your sister is tiny.” She placed a hand on her stomach. “And right now I’m not. She didn’t have anything big enough to fit my stomach.”
“Sit down and I’ll get you a cup of coffee,” he said.
He got up as she sat. He poured her a cup of coffee and carried it to the table, where he set it before her.
“How are you feeling this morning?” he asked.
To Lucas’s horror, she burst into tears. “I thought everything would be all right this morning,” she said between sobs. “I thought I’d wake up and I’d know who I was and what happened, but I don’t know any more now than I did last night.”
The sobs were painful to watch. Lucas grabbed a handful of napkins and handed them to her. She was either the greatest actress on the face of the earth or she was telling the truth.
She cried so hard he got worried about her, about the baby. He pulled up a chair next to her and awkwardly patted her back. “Don’t cry,” he said. “We’ll sort this out, but you’ve got to stop crying. It can’t be good for the baby.”
That seemed to penetrate into her head, because the sobs wore down to sniffles, and finally ceased altogether. She wiped her cheeks, and when she looked at him once again, there was desperation in her eyes.
“I’m so afraid,” she said. “I don’t know what’s going to happen to me.”
“For now, nothing is going to happen,” Lucas replied. “You’re safe here. Loretta told me to tell you that you’re welcome to stay for a couple of days until you feel better.”
Tears welled up in her eyes once again. “I can’t believe how kind you’re being to me.”
He wanted to tell her that it wasn’t him, that his sister was the kind one. He was the cynical one who still didn’t know whether to believe her or not.
But for the moment he decided to give her the benefit of the doubt. If she was lying, then sooner or later he would know. If she was telling the truth, then he sure as hell didn’t want to be responsible for tossing a pregnant woman out on the streets all alone with no money and no memory.
“Are you hungry?” he asked.
“Starving. I can’t remember the last time I ate.” A half-hysterical spurt of laughter burst out of her.
“Scrambled eggs okay?” he asked as he got up from the table.
“Fine. But please, you don’t have to wait on me. If you’ll just show me where things are, I can do for myself.” She started to get up, but he waved her back down.
“I’ll take care of it, just sit tight.” He got the eggs from the refrigerator and set to work making breakfast.
As he worked she stared out the window, tiny frown lines dancing across her forehead. Again he was struck by her prettiness. She wasn’t screamingly drop-dead gorgeous, but rather she had a quiet, simmering beauty. He frowned and whipped the eggs more forcefully than necessary.
The last thing he needed was to be attracted to her. She obviously had a man in her life. And in any case Lucas didn’t do relationships.
She continued to stare out the window as if lost in thought while he fixed the eggs and popped in toast. Then once it was all done he placed the food on two plates, one for her and one for himself.
“Lucas?” She turned to look at him, her blue eyes troubled. “I know this sounds crazy, but I have a terrible feeling that I’m in real danger.”
He set the plates on the table with a sinking sensation in the pit of his stomach. This was growing more complicated by the minute. And there was nothing Lucas hated more than complication.
JANE STARED AT HIM and tried not to notice that his dark hair had a gleaming shine to it that made it look silky soft and that he smelled like soap and shaving cream and a hint of a clean cologne. “You don’t believe me, do you?”
Since the moment she’d told him that she didn’t know who she was, that she had no idea what had happened to her, she’d sensed his suspicious disbelief. And she wasn’t sure why it was so important to her that he accept what she was telling him.
“I don’t know what I believe,” he finally replied. “I think it’s possible you had a fight with your boyfriend or husband or whatever, and you need a safe place to hide out until things cool off and the two of you can kiss and make up.”
She reached up and touched her forehead with a frown. “I can’t imagine wanting to kiss and make up with anyone who did this to me.”
He picked up his fork. “He’ll buy you flowers or candy and swear he’ll never touch you again and you’ll end up going back and things will be great until the next time he loses his temper.” His voice held a harshness in tone.
“I wouldn’t be involved with a man like that,” she exclaimed.
He raised a dark eyebrow. “How do you know?”
She felt the warmth of a blush on her cheeks. “I might not know who I am, but I know what I’d tolerate, and I’d never stay with a man who put his hands on me.”
She felt a swell of tears burning at her eyes and bit them back. She’d cried herself to sleep the night before and had awakened and cried some more. She was tired of crying. “Maybe nobody hit me. Maybe I just fell and hit my head on something,” she said.
“I don’t think so,” he replied. “Do you have bruised knees? Scraped-up palms? Anything that might indicate you’d fallen?”
“No.”
“That scrape on your head doesn’t look like it’s the result of a fall. It looks like you were hit with something.” He leaned forward and she realized his dark eyes had tiny shards of silver in them. “You know, if you’re just scared and need a place to hang out for a couple of days, it’s all right to tell me. You don’t have to make up any stories.”
“I’m not making anything up. I don’t know what to do to make you believe me. I don’t know what to say to make you understand that I’m not lying.”
Those dark eyes of his studied her intently. “Eat your eggs and toast before they get cold.”
They ate for a few minutes without speaking, until she couldn’t stand the tense silence another minute longer. “Your sister seems really nice,” she said.
He nodded. “She’s a sucker for people in need.”
“And you’re not?”
The corners of his lips turned up in a humorless smile. “I’m not a sucker for anyone or anything.”
“I know your sister is a nurse, but I’m not sure exactly what it is you do.”
“I own a company, Recovery Inc., with two of my friends. We were all Navy SEALs together, and when we got out of the service we opened the business.”
“And you repossess cars?”
He frowned, as if the question irritated him. “Last night was not our normal kind of job. I did that as a favor for the owner of the car dealership.”
“So, what is your normal kind of job?” she asked. It was a welcome relief to be wondering about him instead of wondering about herself.
“We recover items and return them to the people they belong to. But it’s really not important what I do. What’s important is what we’re going to do about you.”
“I should probably go. I’m really not your problem.” She tried to ignore the terror that coursed through her at the thought of having to leave, of not knowing where she would go.
“If I let you leave under these conditions, Loretta will have my head,” he replied. He stood and grabbed their plates from the table and carried them to the sink. “Our first order of business today is to get you a few things from the store. You need a change of clothing and some personal items if you’re going to stay here for a couple of days.”
She felt terrible. She didn’t want to take advantage of either Loretta or Lucas. But no matter how much she wanted to claim back her own life, she didn’t know where to begin.
“I can’t believe this,” she said more to herself than to him. Once again she directed her gaze out the window where the sun hid beneath a blanket of low gray clouds. She felt as if the sun was her memory, hiding someplace inside her and refusing to come out into the light.
She looked at him once again and cradled her stomach with her arms. “If it were just me, I’d leave. I’d never take advantage of your kindness.”
He leaned against the counter, those dark eyes of his impossible to read. “I’ll go to my place and get you a T-shirt and a jacket, and we’ll head to Wal-Mart to pick up what you need.”
“Whatever you buy for me, I’ll pay you back. I swear I will just as soon as I figure out who I am and where I belong.” She frowned and tried to ignore the headache that had begun to pound across the top of her head. “Maybe as the day wears on, something will jiggle my memory.”
She couldn’t imagine going day after day with no memories, with no knowledge of something as simple as her own name.
“Maybe,” he replied. He shoved off from the counter. “I’ll just get that shirt and jacket. I’ll be right back.”
As he left the kitchen she leaned back in her chair and drew a deep breath. She raised a hand and touched the scab that had formed on her forehead.
What had happened to her? Why couldn’t she remember? What if a couple of days passed and she still didn’t know who she was, or where she belonged? What then? She couldn’t just continue to stay here forever. She could take advantage of Loretta’s kindness only so long.
She dropped her hand to her belly and rubbed with a caressing motion. She thought the baby was a boy. Of course she didn’t remember anyone telling her that, had no concrete memory, it was just something she knew. Like she knew that she hated peanut butter and loved pizza.
Lucas returned with the large T-shirt and a down-filled navy ski jacket. She took the shirt and returned to the bedroom where she’d slept to put it on.
Her bloodstained blouse was probably ruined. She couldn’t imagine any laundry detergent that would be able to wash away all traces of the blood.
Lucas’s T-shirt hung across her slender shoulders and pulled slightly across her belly, but wearing the clean cotton material that smelled faintly of fabric softener made her feel better.
She left the bedroom and found Lucas waiting for her on the sofa. He stood as she entered the room, his gaze sliding from the top of her head down to her belly.
Self-consciously she placed a hand on her stomach. “Your shirt isn’t exactly made for two,” she said. “I hope I don’t stretch it too much.”
“I’m not worried about it,” he replied, and held out the coat to help her into it.
It easily wrapped around her and along with its warmth brought that scent of him, that pleasant fragrance of clean cologne and male. She found it oddly comforting.
“Ready?” he asked.
She nodded and together they left Loretta’s apartment and walked out into the hallway. “Am I keeping you from a wife or a girlfriend?” she asked as they passed his apartment door.
“No, you aren’t keeping me from anything or anyone,” he replied.
“What about your job? Shouldn’t you be at work?”
He flashed her a quick smile. It was the first smile she’d seen from him and it shot a flutter of warmth through her. “One of the perks of owning the company is getting to pick and choose when you decide to work.”
She nodded and fell silent as they walked out into the brisk November air and headed for his car. What kind of a woman was she to be carrying somebody else’s baby and feel that burst of heat at the smile of a virtual stranger?
There had been a moment when his gaze had drifted over her that she’d wished her tummy was thin and shapely, that they’d met in the grocery store or at a restaurant and were together because of a mutual attraction.
Maybe she hadn’t just lost her memory, maybe she’d lost her entire mind, she thought as she slid into his passenger seat.
Stress. It had to be stress that had her thinking such crazy thoughts. The only thing she knew she could count on, at least for the moment, was Lucas and his sister. Was it any wonder she would be attracted to him?
“If you don’t recover your memory sometime today, then tomorrow I’ll make some discreet inquiries about missing persons reports that have been filed in the last day or so,” Lucas said as he started the car. “Surely somebody you know will get worried and report you missing.”
“Unless nobody cares that I’m missing,” she replied.
He shot her a quick look. “I would find that hard to believe.”
She released a wry laugh. “I find this entire situation hard to believe.”
“Let’s play a little game. I’ll ask you some questions and you give me the first answer that pops into your head.”
“Okay,” she agreed as he pulled out of the apartment parking lot.
“What’s your favorite television show?”
“The Closer,” she replied without any real thought.
He nodded. “Good. And what was the last movie you went to see?”
“I don’t go to the movie theater very often.” She tried not to think about the tiny nuggets of information the answers revealed about herself, afraid that the nuggets would stop coming.
“What’s your favorite restaurant here in the city?”
“That’s easy, Café Italian on Maple Street.” A buzz of excitement went off inside her. “Maybe they’ll know me in there. Maybe they can tell us who I am.”
“I know the place. It isn’t far from where I found you last night in the car. Maybe we’ll go there for lunch and see what we can find out.”
Jane’s excitement grew. It was possible that by lunchtime she’d know who she was; she’d at least know her name. Surely that would make it easier for her to find out what had happened to her.
“It’s a place to start,” he said, invading her thoughts. He pulled into the Wal-Mart parking lot and found a space near the front door. At this time of the morning the store didn’t look too busy.
They got out of the car and had taken only a couple of steps toward the door when a voice inside her head thundered.
Don’t let them find you.
The words seemed to come from some separate entity inside her brain and they screamed with an alarm that froze her in her tracks.
Instinctively she reached out and grabbed Lucas’s hand as fear charged through her. He curled his fingers with hers as he looked at her with concern. “Are you all right?” he asked. “Is it the baby?”
Two thoughts raced through her mind. The first was that she liked the way his big, strong hand felt around hers, and the second was that the voice she’d thought she’d heard in her head had probably been nothing more than a response to the drama of her situation.
She suddenly felt foolish. She unfurled her fingers from his and gave a small laugh. “No, it’s not the baby. I guess I just had a case of nerves.”
He dropped his hand to his side and studied her intently. “There’s nothing to be nervous about. The only thing you have to worry about is being overwhelmed by all the choices.”
She forced a smile. “That never happens with women,” she said.
Once again they began to walk to the door. Surely the words that had thundered in her head meant nothing, she told herself. But what worried her was they hadn’t sounded like nothing. They had sounded like a warning … but a warning of what?

Chapter Three
Once again Lucas found himself doubting the veracity of her amnesia story. Something had happened in the parking lot. He thought she might have thought of something or remembered something that she apparently didn’t want to tell him.
She didn’t trust him. How could he help her if she didn’t trust him?
Lucas pushed the cart with one hand, took Jane by her elbow and guided her down an aisle. When he’d seen her in his T-shirt he’d realized how tiny she was despite her pregnancy. The baby weight was all up front like a ball in her belly, but everywhere else she was slender.
“If you’ll just get me a blouse and a toothbrush, that should be enough,” she said as they walked through the linen section toward the back of the store.
Lucas didn’t know a lot about women, but there was no way he believed she could make do for a day or two with just a new blouse and the jeans she had on.
When they reached the maternity clothes, she headed directly to a clearance rack. Apparently she meant to spend as little of his money as possible.
As she thumbed through the discounted items, he spied a blue cotton long-sleeved blouse exactly the color of her eyes and plucked it from the rack. He threw it into the basket, then added an oversized blue and white sweater.
Although she hadn’t mentioned it, she probably needed some underwear, too. He certainly didn’t want to completely outfit a woman who might return to a husband or a boyfriend before nightfall. She had a life somewhere, with clothes and shoes and everything else necessary. Still, he didn’t want her to do without the bare necessities while she was with him for a day or two.
She returned to where he stood with the cart, carrying an ugly gray T-shirt that had probably been the cheapest on the rack.
“I don’t think so,” he said. She looked at him in surprise. “If I’m going to be looking at you for the next day or two, I don’t want you wearing something ugly.”
“But it’s only five dollars,” she protested.
“There’s a reason it’s so cheap.” He took it from her and hung it on a nearby rack. “What about that pink shirt there?” He pointed to a pastel T-shirt that said Baby on Board. “With another pair of slacks, you should be all right with the other things I grabbed,” he said. He averted his gaze from her. “Then we’ll head to the underclothes department and you can get what you need.”
She grabbed him by the arm and when he looked at her, those beautiful blue eyes of hers were once again misty with tears. “I can only hope that the father of this baby is half the man you are, Lucas.”
“Don’t make me into some kind of a hero,” he replied with a definite edge in his voice. “I’m just doing what anyone would do under the circumstances.”
As they left the maternity section and headed to the undergarments department, he wanted to tell her that he was the last person she should look at with such soft, appealing eyes, with that hint of hero worship that made him feel too warm inside his own skin.
As she picked out a package of panties, he stood at the end of the aisle and waited for her. An old woman stood at the other end of the aisle and appeared to be looking at Jane. When she saw Lucas she offered a sweet smile, then moved on to another aisle.
Jane returned to the cart and threw in her choices. Her cheeks were slightly pink as she looked at him. “I hope I’m a wealthy woman because I’m going to owe you a bunch of money.”
“Don’t be silly,” he replied. He pointed to the nightgowns. “You need to pick out one of those,” he said.
“Oh no, that’s all right. Loretta gave me one to wear,” she replied.
Lucas frowned, remembering when she’d stepped into the kitchen in his sister’s nightgown. “That one can’t be comfortable. I saw how it pulled across your stomach. Just pick out one that will fit you comfortably.”
As she moved to the rack to look at the items, he tried to forget that vision of her. That nightgown of Loretta’s hadn’t just pulled taut across her belly, but across her breasts, as well. Her hair had been all tousled and she’d looked achingly soft and feminine.
For just an instant as he’d held that coffee cup frozen halfway to his mouth, he’d wondered what it would be like to wake up with a woman like Jane next to him. When half-asleep, would he rub the swell of her belly and dream of the future of the baby she carried?
Jeez, what was wrong with him? He’d never thought about babies before. The last thing he’d ever wanted to be was a husband and a father. He simply wasn’t cut out for either role. Jane felt just a little dangerous to him. She made him think of things he’d never thought of before.
She picked a pale pink nightgown and added it to the growing number of items in the shopping cart. He then pointed the cart in the direction of the toiletries section. She walked beside him and paused a moment to rub her lower back.
“Sorry,” she said, and smiled. “Junior must be stretched out right along my spine.”
Her smile torched a wave of heat through him. It was the first true smile he’d seen from her and it did amazing things to her already-lovely face. Even the scab across her forehead couldn’t detract from her attractiveness.
Suddenly, he was irritated. All he wanted to do was solve the mystery of his Ms. Jane Doe and get her on her way and out of his life.
He noticed the old woman who’d been in the underwear section now at the end of the aisle where Jane stood in front of the hair care items. Once again when she saw him looking at her she smiled. She dug a cell phone out of her purse and then disappeared around the corner.
It was easier focusing on a little white-haired woman than watching Jane. He’d been too long without a woman. That was the problem. It had been months since he’d been out with anyone.
His last date had been with a friend of his partner Troy’s girlfriend, Bree. Miranda had flown in from California for a weekend visit and Lucas had taken her out. She’d been perfect for him, very hot and very temporary. He frowned in irritation as he realized Jane got to him in a way Miranda hadn’t. There was a softness about Jane, a sweetness in her smile, a fragile light in her eyes that pulled up a protectiveness in him he’d never felt for anyone except his sister.
“I think that’s everything I should need.” Jane pulled him from his thoughts as she added a hairbrush, a toothbrush and a bottle of citrus-scented shampoo to the cart.
“Then let’s get out of here,” Lucas said. He blew a sigh of relief as they headed for the cashier lines. Maybe if he took her to Café Italian for an early lunch, somebody at the restaurant would recognize her and the mystery would be solved.
They fell into line behind a woman who looked as if she’d bought half the store. Jane covered his hand with hers on the handle of the cart. Her hand was warm on his skin as she looked up at him. “I can’t thank you enough,” she said. “I couldn’t face wearing that bloody blouse all day today.”
“We’ll run back to Loretta’s so you can change clothes, then head to the restaurant to see if anybody there knows your name.”
He breathed a sigh of relief as she pulled her hand from his. “Even if somebody just knows my first name, surely hearing that will remind me of who I am.”
He heard the thrum of desperation in her voice. It must be horrifying not to know even the most simple thing about yourself—your name. Until this moment he hadn’t really realized that if she was telling the truth about her amnesia, then she must be absolutely terrified.
All he’d been thinking about was getting her gone as soon as possible, but he didn’t want her to go unless she had her memory back.
Finally it was their turn to be checked out. As Lucas placed the items on the counter he noticed that Jane winced and rubbed her lower back.
“You want to go ahead to the car?” he asked. Maybe if she got off her feet her back would feel better.
“Are you sure you wouldn’t mind?”
He held out the keys as the cashier told him his total. “Go on, I’ll be out in two minutes.”
She smiled gratefully and took the keys from him as he pulled out his wallet to pay the cashier. As she headed toward the exit, he put the bags of his purchases back in the cart.
As he pushed out of the exit door, he saw a van pull up. The back doors opened and two men began grappling with Jane, obviously trying to get her into the back of the van.
“Hey!” he yelled. His heart smashed into his ribs as he abandoned the cart and took off running toward them.
At that moment Jane released a scream that raised the hairs on the back of his neck and drew the attention of everyone in the parking lot. Another shopper, a burly man, began to run toward the van, as well.
Jane screamed again as she struggled to get free. The two men suddenly released her and jumped into the back of the van, which took off with a squeal of tires.
The burly man and Lucas reached Jane at the same time. She launched herself at Lucas, wrapping her arms around his neck and hanging on tight.
“Are you all right?” he asked urgently. “Did they hurt you?”
She shook her head and buried her face against his chest. Despite the fact that she wore his big, down-filled coat, he could feel the trembling of her body against him.
The big man looked at Lucas and pulled a cell phone from his pocket. “Want me to call 911?”
“No!” Jane lifted her head and looked first at the man, then at Lucas. “No, please. Let’s just go home. But thank you for your help.”
The man shrugged and put his cell phone back in his pocket, then headed toward the store entrance.
Another shopper, a young woman, pushed Lucas’s cart to where he and Jane stood. “You aren’t safe anywhere these days,” she said with a worried frown on her face.
With Jane still clinging to him, Lucas pushed the basket to the side of his car. She pulled his keys from her pocket, unlocked the door and helped her into the passenger side.
He threw the bags into the backseat, then walked around to the driver door. It had all happened so damn fast. He hadn’t even gotten a license plate number on the van. All he’d seen was a small symbol of some kind on the back window.
There was no way he believed that this had just been a random act of violence. Those men had been after her. As he slid in behind the steering wheel he turned to look at her. His heart still beat a rapid tattoo of alarm.
“If you have any memories in your head, if you’re holding anything back, you’d better spill it now,” he said as he stabbed the key into the ignition. “Otherwise we’d better figure out who you are and why in the hell those men just tried to kidnap you.”
Jane stared at him as the yawning horror of what had just happened filled her with an icy chill of terror. When the van had pulled up in front of her, she’d thought nothing about it. Then the back doors had swung open and the two men had rushed her.
“I swear I don’t know anything. I don’t know who those men were or what they wanted with me.” Her heart still beat with the frantic rhythm of fear.
A knot of tension throbbed in Lucas’s lean jaw as he pulled out of the parking lot and onto the road.
She continued to look at him, needing the mere sight of him to ground her, to somehow chase away the panic that still clawed at her insides.
“I don’t suppose you recognized those men?” he asked.
She shook her head. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen them before.”
“Did they say anything to you?”
“No, not a word. They just grabbed me and tried to get me into the back of the van.” She shuddered as she relived the moment when they’d grabbed her arms, when they’d begun to force her toward the vehicle.
Lucas didn’t say another word as they drove back to the apartment. As he drove he checked the rearview mirror constantly and she realized he was watching to see if they’d been followed.
He didn’t sign up for this,Jane thought.He didn’t volunteer for whatever was going on in my life. But the idea of not having him next to her terrified her.
When they reached the apartment he grabbed her by the arm and walked her inside the building, his gaze seeming to go in all directions at the same time.
“Why don’t you go and take a shower and change clothes,” he said. “Then we’ll head to that restaurant and see if anyone there can identify you.”
The idea of leaving the safety of the apartment terrified her, but she knew she couldn’t just stay here and hope that her memories might magically return. Maybe being in the familiar surroundings of the restaurant would jog something loose.
She brought the shopping bags into the bedroom where she’d spent the night, then carried the clean clothes and the other items into the bathroom for a quick shower.
As she stood beneath the hot spray of water she thought of the moments when the men had grabbed her. She’d been so stunned that she’d been unable to think, and had reacted only by fighting back. She’d kicked and punched to get away, but they’d seemed determined to get her into the back of the van.
Why? Who were those men?
Don’t let them find you!
The words thundered in her brain and she leaned against the porcelain wall as wave after wave of fear swept through her.
Were those men the “them” that her brain had screamed a warning about? What did they want with her? Who was she? The questions pounded her as the hot water pelted her skin.
What kind of trouble was she in?
When she was finished showering, she dressed in the new clothes, the maternity jeans feeling crisp and clean against her skin and the blue blouse fitting her perfectly. She found Loretta’s blow-dryer beneath the sink and dried her hair, then brushed her teeth and pronounced herself ready for what the rest of the day might bring.
She found Lucas seated at the kitchen table, doodling on a piece of paper. He looked up as she entered, and for an instant she saw the flash of something dark, something hot in his eyes.
She might not know her own name, but she knew desire when she saw it. It stunned her and at the same time sent a shock wave of excitement through her.
There was no question that she was attracted to him, that his lean, dark good looks made her heart beat just a tiny bit faster. But she’d attempted to shove away those crazy feelings. She was carrying somebody’s baby, and for all she knew she was in a happy, committed relationship with another man.
“You look nice,” he said.
She wrapped her arms around her stomach. “I look pregnant,” she replied, as if somehow reminding herself and him of that fact.
A corner of his mouth curled up in a smile. “You can look pregnant and nice at the same time.”
“Thank you,” she said, aware of the flush that warmed her cheeks.
She sat at the table across from him. “What are you doing?”
“Unfortunately I didn’t get a good look at the two men who were trying to grab you, and I didn’t get the license plate of the van, but I did notice a sign in the back window.”
“A sign? What did it say?”
“It didn’t say anything. It was a symbol of some kind. I tried to draw it to see if maybe you’d seen it before.” He shoved a piece of paper to her.
She stared down at what he’d drawn—a triangle with what looked like the all-seeing eye in the center. The sight of it shot a cold, stark terror through her. She gasped and pushed it back across the table to him.
He leaned forward and covered her hand with his. “Do you recognize it? What is it, Jane? What does it mean?”
“I don’t know.” She felt ill, as if the cold November air had brought icy snow into her veins. “All I know is that seeing it makes me feel sick. It makes me so afraid.”
She turned her hand over and twined her fingers with his, needing the warmth of his hand to banish some of the chill. “What does it mean, Lucas? My God, what was going on in my life before I lost my memories?”
“I don’t know. But those men definitely had something in mind for you.” The throb of that muscle was back in his jaw.
Reluctantly Jane pulled her hand away from his. Her heart thudded anxiously as she looked at the man who had taken her in. “Lucas, maybe you should just drop me off at a shelter or something.” The words came reluctantly and with a thunderous pounding in her head. “I don’t know what kind of danger I might bring to you and Loretta.”
His eyes narrowed. “Danger has never scared me.” He leaned back in the chair. “There’s no way anyone can tie you to me. I’m not concerned about danger finding you here. And there’s no way in hell I’m going to drop you off anywhere until we know what’s going on. I don’t think those men intended to take you someplace for a nice hot cup of tea.”
A river of gratitude washed over her. It would have been so easy for him to abdicate all responsibility for her and toss her to the proverbial wolves.
She cradled her stomach as the baby moved inside her. “Junior is restless,” she said.
“Maybe he’s hungry.” Lucas pushed back from the table and stood. “Come on, let’s check out that Italian restaurant. Maybe over bread sticks we’ll learn your real name.”
They put their coats back on, then left Loretta’s apartment. “We need to stop by my place before leaving,” he said.
When they reached his door he unlocked it and gestured her inside. “I’ll be right back,” he said, and disappeared down the hallway while Jane looked around the living room with interest.
It somehow didn’t surprise her that his living conditions were spartan and as impersonal as a motel room. He’d been completely at ease in Loretta’s apartment. She had a feeling he spent most of his free time there.
There was only one photo in the room and it sat on top of the television in a silver frame. She walked over and picked it up. It was a picture of him and Loretta sitting on a park bench. He looked to be around fifteen and she was nine or ten. She leaned into him, smiling up at him as if he were the greatest thing since sliced bread, but his smile looked slightly forced.
She set the photo down as he returned to the living room. “You and Loretta have always been close?”
“It’s always been her and me against the world,” he replied.
“What about your parents? Are they still alive?”
“No, they’re both dead. But even when they were alive, Loretta and I only had each other.”
She wanted to ask him more about the dark shadow that had danced over his eyes when he’d mentioned his parents. But his terse tone and frown forbade her from asking anything else.
They left his apartment and walked back out into the cold, wintry air. She got into his passenger seat and watched as he walked around the front of the car to the driver side.
As he moved, his coat blew open to reveal that he now wore a holster with a gun. Jane’s mouth went dry. She’d known she was in trouble when those men had tried to grab her, but the sight of that gun suddenly shot it all home.
He was expecting more trouble. That’s what the gun meant. She only hoped they both would survive whatever happened next.

Chapter Four
The Café Italian was a popular lunch place. They had a reasonably priced luncheon menu and promised fast service for those who only had an hour or so to eat before returning back to work.
Lucas and Jane were greeted at the door by a smiling, robust man who looked as if he’d been eating pasta and garlic bread for most of his life. “Two?” he asked as he grabbed a couple of menus.
Lucas nodded and they were led to a table in the back, where Lucas sat facing the door so he could see who was coming and going. Jane took off her oversize jacket and sat across from him. “Have you been working here long?” Lucas asked the man as he handed them their menus.
“Just started a couple of weeks ago,” he replied. “Why?”
“Do you recognize me?” Jane asked.
Lucas heard the desperation in her voice and wondered how she was managing to hold it all together. Certainly after the scene at the store she had every right to fall apart, but she hadn’t and she’d earned a grudging admiration from him.
“Should I recognize you?” the man asked as he studied her face carefully. “Are you somebody famous?”
“No, nothing like that,” she replied. “I just … I’m having some memory problems and I remember being in here and hoped somebody would be able to tell me when.”
“Sorry. I’m pretty good with faces, but I don’t remember seeing yours before,” he replied. “I’ll ask the waitresses if any of them recognize you.”
“Thanks, I’d appreciate it,” she replied.
As he left their table, she looked at Lucas with a disheartening frown. “I thought I’d just walk in here and everything would come back to me.”
“Do you remember anything?”
She leaned back in her chair and looked around. Lucas had known the blue blouse would match her eyes, but he hadn’t thought about how it might make her skin look creamy and touchable. He hadn’t considered that with the top buttons unfastened he’d get a hint of cleavage each time she bent forward.
“I don’t remember anything specific, but this place feels familiar. I know for sure that I’ve been here before. I just don’t know if it was a week ago, a year ago or five years ago.” She puffed a sigh of obvious frustration. “What if I never remember who I am or why those men tried to grab me?”
“It’s only been a day, Jane. Maybe you’re trying too hard,” he replied.
She smiled. “Having a couple of goons try to grab you in a parking lot tends to make you try hard.” She sighed once again and opened her menu. “The eggplant is delicious here.” Her gaze shot to his in stunned surprise. “How did I know that? Why can I remember eggplant when I can’t remember my own name?”
She was getting more and more agitated with each minute that passed. Lucas frowned. “I think maybe after we eat we’ll go back to my place and just relax for the rest of the afternoon. Stop reaching for it and maybe it will come.”
“Maybe you’re right,” she agreed as she closed her menu.
With each minute Lucas spent with her, more questions whirled in his head. What did that symbol mean that he’d seen on the back of the van? Why had Jane reacted so viscerally to it? And why had those men tried to grab her? What could they possibly want from her? It sure as hell hadn’t been a robbery attempt. She wasn’t even carrying a purse.

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