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Delta Force Die Hard
Carol Ericson
A soldier out for justice finds an unlikely ally Delta Force captain Joe McVie is faced with a mission unlike any other. One that involves socialite do-gooder Hailey Duvall, who isn't all that she seems…which is why someone wants her dead.And why Joe will do anything to keep this innocent beauty safe….


A wounded soldier battles for total recall.
But can he trust his elusive memories?
Amnesia has robbed Asher Knight of his memories of a fatal mission. Now he doesn’t recognize Paige Sterling, the woman who claims to be his fiancée. Does the Delta Force lieutenant have PTSD—or something more sinister? On the run, he must rely on Paige to dodge unknown assassins and help him regain his memory...but is the secret she keeps from him even more shocking?
Red, White and Built: Pumped Up
CAROL ERICSON is a bestselling, award-winning author of more than forty books. She has an eerie fascination for true-crime stories, a love of film noir and a weakness for reality TV, all of which fuel her imagination to create her own tales of murder, mayhem and mystery. To find out more about Carol and her current projects, please visit her website at www.carolericson.com (http://www.carolericson.com), “where romance flirts with danger.”
Also by Carol Ericson (#u9d078651-d12d-522c-a9f2-6864111b058a)
Delta Force Defender
Delta Force Daddy
Locked, Loaded and SEALed
Alpha Bravo SEAL
Bullseye: SEAL
Point Blank SEAL
Secured by the SEAL Bulletproof
SEAL
Single Father Sheriff
Sudden Second Chance
Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Delta Force Die Hard
Carol Ericson


www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
ISBN: 978-1-474-09350-7
DELTA FORCE DIE HARD
© 2018 Carol Ericson
Published in Great Britain 2019
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF
All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.
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www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Contents
Cover (#u41a0c51f-a7f2-577f-8e4e-b0038997f4cc)
Back Cover Text (#u65b90009-75b7-58cc-b255-01613aee2d03)
About the Author (#ud0822bf2-d2a2-54dc-aa58-039a7ae64c8e)
Booklist (#u5413da33-0f58-58d5-b52d-38d9d035f5d2)
Title Page (#u14cdb419-b2e8-5395-aabe-89593a7f6f29)
Copyright (#u3e934f88-f707-55c1-ae63-f97696e13206)
Prologue (#uf530b379-6d0d-5312-8778-0b13a516a28a)
Chapter One (#u35cca60d-8b81-5e6e-88c7-730ba104c6c0)
Chapter Two (#u52b4de6b-c9bb-531c-be90-30a0385d4ba2)
Chapter Three (#u7e3eb92a-c000-5af5-b5d5-bdac37d1d07b)
Chapter Four (#ue737bac7-ddff-5640-ac23-f400430dd78a)
Chapter Five (#u81e7b388-7909-583f-a6b4-002ca691be22)
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)
Chapter Fourteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Fifteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Sixteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Seventeen (#litres_trial_promo)
Epilogue (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
Prologue (#u9d078651-d12d-522c-a9f2-6864111b058a)
Pain seared through his left ankle as he put weight on it. He listed to the side, throwing out a hand to wedge it against the rocky wall of the cliff face. As the gritty surface abraded the skinned flesh on the heel of his hand, he sucked in a breath.
Sinking into a crouch, he extended his injured leg in front of him and surveyed the rocky expanse below. Even with two steady legs, hydrated and nourished, this landscape would pose a challenge to navigate. Parched, weakened by hunger and with a bum ankle, he didn’t stand a chance.
He eyed the gray skies, scuffs of cloud rolling across the expanse, promising rain and relief—and more challenges. He dragged his boot over the rocks coated with dirt. Once the rains started, rivulets of water would wash the grit from the stones, joining forces in a muddy stream, making his path to the bottom of the mountain a slippery—and dangerous—proposition.
He’d already witnessed one of his men take a tumble down the side of a mountain. Had Knight survived that fall? If he knew anything about his Delta Force team, he’d lay odds on it. But even if Asher Knight had made it through, the men who had double-crossed them would’ve finished off Knight.
They wouldn’t have left any witnesses.
He took a deep breath and swiped the back of his hand across his mouth. “Did you think it was gonna be easy going AWOL in Afghanistan in the middle of enemy territory, Denver?”
His voice sounded rusty to his own ears, but it was strong enough to startle a bird from its hiding place. The bird scuttled and flapped before taking wing and soaring up to those threatening clouds. He watched its ascent with something like envy roiling in his gut.
He willed himself to stand up—he owed it to Knight and the others to persevere. He stomped his bad foot and secured the laces on his boot—the tighter, the better for support. He hoisted his backpack and belted it around his waist. He strapped his rifle across his body. Couldn’t afford to lose that if he took a fall.
The first step jolted his bones, and he gritted his teeth. The next step felt worse, but at least he didn’t slide down the mountain.
Several more yards of jerky movement and his face broke into a sweat, which dripped into his eyes, blurring his vision. Maybe this descent would work better by touch and feel than sight, anyway. He didn’t need to see the view if he pitched off a cliff.
Something scrabbled behind him, dislodging several small stones that tumbled down and peppered the back of his legs. He could get lucky and ride down with an avalanche.
“Meester.”
Ripping his sidearm from its holster, he whipped around and took aim at...a boy. The boy looked down at him from several feet above, clinging to the side of the mountain like a goat.
Denver’s muscles coiled, and he spat out in guttural Pashto, “Who are you? Where did you come from?”
The boy’s eyes grew round, crowding out the other features in his gaunt face. Then he raised an old Russian rifle, pointed it at him and said, “American soldier. You die today.”
Chapter One (#u9d078651-d12d-522c-a9f2-6864111b058a)
“I’m sorry. Lieutenant Knight doesn’t remember you.” The army officer on the line cleared his throat. “But he doesn’t remember much of anything. He didn’t mention your name. That’s for sure. Are you positive you’re engaged to him?”
Paige’s hand shook as she tried to hold on to her phone. “That’s crazy. Do you think I’d make up some phony engagement to an injured Delta Force soldier?”
The army officer on the line paused, and a burning rage sizzled through Paige’s veins. She released it as a hiss through her teeth.
“I—I’m sure you are engaged and Lieutenant Knight will remember soon enough. The doctors are confident he’ll remember everything.”
“Oh, that’s encouraging.” Paige took a deep breath and closed her eyes. “What else has he forgotten?”
“Well, ma’am.” The officer coughed. “If he’s forgotten it, how would he be able to tell us about it?”
Her fist clenched in her lap. “You must know details of his life. Does he remember them?”
“I’m just the messenger, ma’am. I don’t know much about Lieutenant Knight’s condition.”
That’s for sure. Paige took a gulp of water from the glass on her desk. “Can I talk to his doctors? I’m a psychologist myself.”
“Ma’am, since you’re not next of kin, the doctors won’t speak to you.”
She ground her back teeth together, suppressing the scream that ached in her throat. “His mother is dead, his father’s in prison and he’s an only child. Whom exactly is the doctor speaking to about his care?”
“I don’t know, ma’am. We called you because Lieutenant Knight had your name and number in his phone. Yours was the only number listed in his favorites.”
“There!” She was his favorite. Didn’t that mean something? “Obviously, I’m the person he’d want you to contact in an emergency. Can I fly out to see him?”
“No, ma’am. We can’t allow that—yet.”
The soldier’s words punched her in the gut, and she doubled over. She had to speak to Asher, had to see him. Once they were back in each other’s arms, he’d remember everything.
“How much longer will he be in Germany?”
“Again, ma’am, I’m not at liberty to discuss any of the particulars of the lieutenant’s recovery with you. I got the order to call you out of courtesy...because you’re a favorite.”
She wished he’d stop saying that word. “Can you at least tell me he’s not badly injured physically? Will he make a full recovery?”
“He’s strong. As far as I know, he’s doing fine physically and is expected to make a full recovery. And, ma’am?”
“Yes?”
“That’s off the record.”
When the call ended, Paige sank to her chair behind the desk and placed her hands flat on the surface. What did this mean? Just because Asher had amnesia and couldn’t recall the details of their relationship...or her, did that mean it never happened? What were those doctors in Germany doing to help him recover his memories?
A light blinked above her door, indicating her next client had arrived. How in the world could she help anyone right now when she couldn’t even help herself?
She dragged herself out of the chair, straightened her shoulders and strode to the door. Plastering a smile on her face, she swung it open.
“Come on in, Krystal.”
Her next client sashayed into the room, flicking her long hair over one shoulder and wiggling her hips in a tight skirt that she must wear to impress her johns—which she wasn’t supposed to have anymore.
She smacked a piece of paper on Paige’s desk and tapped it with one long fingernail. “Can you sign now? Only two more sessions after this one before I satisfy the terms of my probation.”
Paige scribbled her signature on the form. “I hope you’ve gotten more out of these sessions than just the completion of your probation.”
“I have.” Krystal sat in her usual chair and crossed her long legs. “You’ve been great, Paige.”
Paige took the seat across from Krystal and nodded, which Krystal took as a signal to launch into a recitation of her sad life story.
Her words filled the room, and Paige tried to catch one or two to get the gist, although she’d heard most of it before.
“So, do you think I should call my father?”
Paige blinked and dropped the pencil she’d been tapping against the arm of her chair. She dipped forward and patted the carpet to buy time, to hide her confusion at the question that seemed to have come out of left field.
“It’s right next to the leg.”
“Huh?” Paige looked up, her face flushed with heat.
“The pencil. It’s next to the left chair leg.”
Paige’s fingers inched to the left and curled around the pencil. “Got it.”
Krystal arched one painted-on eyebrow. “So, do you? Do you think I should call the scumbag?”
Clearing her throat, Paige folded her hands in her lap. “What do you think?”
“I knew you were going to say that.” Krystal slumped in her chair and clicked together her decorated nails. “Why do you always answer a question with a question?”
“If you did call your father, what would you say?”
“I’m not sure.” Krystal chewed all the lipstick off her bottom lip. “I don’t want to remember any more stuff about him.”
“Any more stuff?”
“I know you helped me with the repressed memories and all that, and remembering my father’s abuse really did help me deal with my issues and figure out why I thought hooking was a good way to make a living, but I think there might be more.” Krystal dashed a tear from her face, leaving a black streak on her cheek. “I have a funny feeling in my gut that he did more to me, and I’m afraid seeing him again is gonna make those memories bubble up. And I don’t want them. I don’t want them anymore.”
Paige hunched forward, her knees almost touching Krystal’s, and shoved a box of tissues at her. “You want me to tell you what to do? Screw it. Don’t talk to him. Don’t see him.”
After Krystal left her office, all smiles and thanks, Paige plopped down in her desk chair and scooted up to her computer. She brought up her calendar on the monitor and placed her first call to cancel her appointments for the next two weeks.
If just seeing her father would prompt memories for Krystal, maybe seeing her would do the same for Asher.
She felt guilty canceling on her clients, but she’d just gotten her most important client ever.
* * *
ASHER WEDGED HIS boots against the railing surrounding the porch and squinted into the woods beyond the clearing. The doctors here must be wary of him going postal or something, because he could sense them spying on him. Spying? That was what his intuition told him, anyway.
He huffed out a breath and watched it form a cloud in the cold air. Funny how he could remember all the skills he’d learned as a Delta Force member, including that last mission—the one that had thrown him for a loop and wiped out all his previous memories—but he couldn’t recall the rest of his life.
The doctors had assured him it would all come back, not that he had much of a family to come back to—mother dead, father in federal prison for bank robbery and no siblings or even aunts and uncles. No wife.
He glanced at his left ring finger and wiggled it. No ring tan and the docs had assured him they’d perused his army files and no wife was listed—even though it felt like he could have one. Something—or someone—more than just his memories felt missing.
The guys who might know more about him than anyone else—his Delta Force team—couldn’t be reached right now. Their commander, Major Rex Denver, had gone AWOL. He should know—he’d been there the moment Denver had escaped.
The man he’d trusted with his life, had looked up to, had followed blindly, that man had shot and killed an army ranger and had pushed Asher over the edge of a cliff before escaping. Asher had been rescued by a squad of army rangers, surviving the fall with minor injuries...because his head had taken the brunt of the impact.
Asher ran a fingertip along the scar on the back of his head where his hair had yet to grow back. That moment, that scene when Denver had shot the ranger and then turned on him and pushed him into oblivion was etched on his brain, but he couldn’t remember his own family.
The doctors in Germany had tried to fill him in on his background, so he knew the outline, hadn’t even been shocked by the details of a dead mother and a father imprisoned for bank robbery. On some gut level that life had resonated with him, but he couldn’t recall the specifics.
The docs showed him pictures of his Delta Force teammates, had even allowed him a phone call with Cam, who’d been on leave.
Asher scratched the edges of his scar. That phone call hadn’t gone well. Cam had accused him of lying. He didn’t have a chance to get into it with him because the psychologist ended the call. The doc had shrugged off Cam as a hothead, and that definitely rang a bell with Asher.
An ache creeped up his neck, and Asher tried to massage it away. The doctors had warned him about trying too hard to remember, but what else could he do in this convalescent home? The army called it a rehabilitation center, but Asher didn’t feel rehabilitated. He needed...something. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but a big piece of his life was missing.
He snorted and dropped his feet from the railing, his boots thumping against the wood porch. Most of his life was missing right now, and if he wanted it back, he’d be well-advised to keep taking his meds and going to his sessions with the shrinks. Shrink. Shrinky-dinky.
Where had that come from? He shook his throbbing head. The stuff that popped into his mind sometimes convinced him he’d already gone off the deep end.
A flash of light glinted from the trees, and Asher squinted. As far as he knew, no roads ran through that part of the property. A new symptom, flashes of light, had probably just been added to his repertoire of strange happenings in his brain.
He rubbed his eyes, and the light flickered again, glinting in the weak winter sunlight. He cranked his head around to survey the buildings behind him. Most of the patients here napped after lunch and the staff took the time to relax. He had the place to himself—as long as his spies were on break.
When the third flash of light made its way out of the dense forest, Asher pushed back from his chair and stretched. Investigating this would take his mind off the jumble in his brain.
He zipped up his jacket and stuffed his hands into his pockets. This felt like a mission and his fingertips buzzed, but he felt stripped bare without his weapon. He wouldn’t need it for what would probably turn out to be something caught on the branches of a tree, but at least he had a mission.
He strode across the rolling lawn, scattered with chairs and chaise lounges, abandoned in the wintry chill of December. He glanced over his shoulder, expecting someone to stop him, although he didn’t know why. He wasn’t a prisoner here. Was he?
Hunching his shoulders, he made a beeline for the forest at the edge of the grass. When he reached the tree line, he tensed his muscles. His instincts, which seemed to have been suppressed by the drugs he got on a regular basis, flared into action.
He stepped onto the thick floor of the wooded area, his boots crunching pine needles. Where had the light gone? It had flashed just once more on his trek across the lawn, like a beacon guiding him.
The rustle of a soft footstep had him jerking to his right, his hand reaching impotently for a gun. “Come out where I can see you.”
A hint of blue appeared amid the unrelenting greens and browns of the forest, and then a head, covered with a hood, popped out from behind the trunk of a tree.
“Asher?”
He swallowed and blinked. Had the docs chased him out here, too?
The figure emerged from behind the tree and the hood fell back. A tumble of golden hair spilled over the woman’s shoulder, and Asher had a strange urge to run his fingers through the silky strands.
“Asher, it’s me.” She held out a hand, keeping one arm around the trunk of the tree and leaning out toward the side as if approaching a wild animal. “It’s Paige. Do you remember?”
Paige? Her voice sounded like cool water tumbling over rocks in a stream. A sharp pain lanced the wound on his head, and he rubbed his fingers along the scar to make it stop.
She hugged the tree with one arm, her other arm stretched out toward him in a yearning gesture that made his heart ache.
“Are you in pain, my love?”
His mouth gaped open. “I-is this a joke?”
Her eye twitched, but her smooth face remained impassive. “No joke, Asher. I’m your fiancée.”
“My fiancée? But...”
A million emotions coursed through his brain in a tangled mess. Ivy. Shrinky-dinky. He tried to latch on to one, but something stung the back of his neck. As he clapped his hand against his flesh, the beautiful face before him melted away and he sank into darkness.
Chapter Two (#u9d078651-d12d-522c-a9f2-6864111b058a)
As Asher hit the ground, Paige gasped and lurched forward.
Loud voices and a crashing noise had her jumping back behind the tree.
“What the hell, Granger? Did you have to shoot him with a dart?”
Paige backed up and scrambled for cover behind a clump of bushes and a rotting log. She flipped up her hood and smashed her face into the mulch, the smell of moist, verdant dirt filling her nostrils.
“Don’t give me that, Lewis. If that guy gets away, it’s your ass and my ass.”
“I don’t think he was running for the hills or anything. Where would he be going? Besides, he’s got enough drugs pumping through his veins that he wouldn’t get far, anyway.”
Paige held her breath as two sets of footsteps marched closer to her hiding place. She couldn’t see the two men and she hoped to God they couldn’t see her.
The other man, Granger, snorted. “You’re gonna count on that? This dude’s big, and even though his mind’s messed up, he’s still in Delta Force physical condition.”
“That’s exactly my point.” The underbrush crackled and rustled as if the two men were hauling a tree trunk. “You brought him down, and now we gotta carry him back. We coulda just told him the Ping-Pong tournament was starting or something.”
A bug crawled across Paige’s face and she squeezed her eyes closed, willing it away from her nose. These two men could not catch her here, as much as she wanted to save Asher from their clutches.
“We didn’t know what he was up to or his state of mind. I don’t trust any of these guys, and I’m not gonna lose my job or risk getting my ass kicked by any of them—especially this one.”
Huffs, puffs and curses replaced the conversation of the two men, and when the forest had gone silent once again, Paige raised her head and peeked over the crest of the log.
She crawled on her belly in the opposite direction, every cell in her body screaming at her to turn back toward Asher. Would he remember their meeting when he came to? Would he understand what they’d done to him? Would he know to keep her a secret?
By the time she reached the end of the wooded area and scrambled downhill to the access road, tears streamed down her face. What were they doing to Asher and why?
He was a hero who’d risked his life for his country, and that very country now held him captive, held his mind captive.
She hiked along the side of the access road, her boots scuffing the dirt. She couldn’t go to the police. She couldn’t go to the army. She might be putting Asher in danger if she did.
Before she hit the main road, she glanced over her shoulder at the hillside covered with trees. She’d be back.
She’d be back to get Asher and get him the hell out of that loony bin—after all, she was the fiancée of a D-Boy.
* * *
ASHER GROANED AND shifted to his side. His tongue swept his bottom lip and he tasted dirt. The forest. The woman.
A chipper voice pierced his brain. “Coming to?”
He peeled open one eye and took in the form of a sturdy nurse in pink scrubs. It wasn’t this woman—Tabitha—he’d seen in the forest. How come he could remember her so well?
“What happened?” He cupped the back of his head with his hand, flattening his palm against the scar.
“You got a little too ambitious.” She shook a finger at him and he wanted to chomp it off, but the sentiment floated away before it even registered.
“While everyone else was napping, you decided to take a walk across the lawn and collapsed midway.”
Asher ground his teeth together, mashing the dirt in his mouth. You’re lying, Tabitha.
“I remember heading across the grass.” He massaged his temple with two fingers. “I don’t remember much after that.”
As he struggled to sit up, Nurse Tabitha sprang into action and perched on the edge of the bed. “Let me.”
She curled a strong arm around his shoulders, hooked the other around his chest and helped him sit up. “There.”
“How’d I get back here?” He straightened up farther, hoping to dislodge her hand resting on his chest.
She curled her fingers, briefly digging her nails into his pec before releasing him. “Granger and Lewis went out to move the lawn furniture and saw you sprawled on the grass. They got you back to your room.”
Asher ran his tongue along his dry teeth and recognized the cotton mouth associated with the meds they gave him—the meds he’d chucked this morning. His gaze wandered to the window, the curtains open to the dark night.
“Did I pass out? Have a seizure? It was daytime when I took that walk, or at least late afternoon.”
Tabitha’s translucent eyelashes fluttered. “Just a little overexertion, and because of your...brain injury, the doctors thought it best to medicate you.”
Of course they did.
Asher scratched the scruff on his jaw. “Thank God for Lewis and...”
“Granger.”
“Right.”
Tabitha hunched forward, her pink tongue darting out of her mouth. “I could shave you if you’d like.”
He’d rather grow a beard down to his knees. “I’m...”
“How’s the patient feeling, Tabitha?”
The nurse leaned forward and pressed a warm, clammy hand against his forehead. “He’s awake and feeling fine, certainly looking fine, and I’m sure he’s ready to eat. Are you hungry, Lieutenant?”
Asher threw back the covers, realizing for the first time he was naked beneath a hospital gown that gaped open in the front. Who’d done the honors of taking off his clothes? He sure hoped it wasn’t Nurse Touchy-Feely.
His gaze darted around the room, looking for his missing clothes. “I am ready to eat. Too late to grab something in the mess hall?”
“Not so fast there, Lieutenant Knight.” Dr. Evans stood by the bed, hovering over him. “I’d like to run a few tests and then bring Dr. Goshen in to see you.”
“The shrink?” He swung his legs over the side of the bed, almost taking out Tabitha. “I’m fine. I passed out. I didn’t have a hallucination.”
Did he? Was Paige, his fiancée, all an illusion? Nobody had said anything yet about finding a woman in the woods. If she hadn’t been a dream, he hoped she got away, because he had a feeling she wouldn’t be welcome here.
“Your passing out could’ve been psychological. We don’t want to take any chances.” The doctor jerked his thumb at Tabitha. “While we’re poking and prodding your body and mind, Tabitha can go down to the kitchen and put in an order for your dinner.” The doctor adjusted his glasses. “You can have dinner in bed and we’ll give you something to ensure you have a good night’s sleep.”
Asher’s blood boiled and his hand clenched into a fist. Then he closed his eyes, dragging in a deep breath. If he kicked up a ruckus now, they’d never let him out of their sights again.
“You know, that sounds good about now.”
“Of course it does. Tabitha, help the lieutenant back into bed. I’ll do my thing and go round up Dr. Goshen.”
Tabitha reached across him, her right breast brushing his arm, and fluffed up his pillows. “We had some delicious pork chops and mashed potatoes tonight. I’ll have the cook fix you up a special plate and have him add an extra dessert.”
“That’ll work.” He eased back onto the bed, his gown hitching up to his thighs.
Tabitha tugged on the edge of the material, her fingers dangerously close to his crotch, and then twitched the covers back over his legs. She tucked the covers around his waist, and her hands lingered next to his hips.
“Anything else I can get you before ordering your dinner?”
“I’m fine, Tabitha. Thanks.” He even managed to crack a smile in her direction.
Wrong move.
The nurse turned pink up to her strawberry blond hair. “We’re going to make sure you stay that way...Asher.”
When Dr. Evans returned with the psychiatrist, Dr. Goshen, Tabitha squeezed Asher’s thigh and gave him an encouraging nod.
He endured their invasion of his body and mind with a smile on his face and an agreeable tone in his voice. When Tabitha returned with a tray groaning with steaming food, Dr. Goshen shook out two blue pills next to the plate.
“Take these when you get some food in your stomach, and you’ll be back on track.”
Back on track to crazy town? The only track he wanted to be on was the one back to the forest...and Paige.
* * *
PAIGE RAN HER fingers through her damp hair and collapsed on the hotel bed. He really didn’t know her. His dark green eyes had been vacant when he looked at her. Maybe he suffered from more than memory loss.
She’d worked with enough people suffering from PTSD to know it could take many forms. Maybe he was a danger to himself and others and that was why the army had him stashed away here—captive. Maybe he’d been trying to go AWOL, like Major Denver. Maybe they were just holding him here until he got better before they court-martialed him.
She rolled over onto her stomach and pounded the pillow with her fist. No way. She had a hard time believing Major Denver turned, but apparently Asher himself had confirmed it. He’d been the lone survivor of the disastrous mission that had resulted in the death of an army ranger, the defection of Denver and Asher’s fall and subsequent amnesia.
If Asher were in trouble with the army, wouldn’t they just tell her? That would be enough to keep her away. Her inside army source, Dad’s friend and now Mom’s confidant Terrence Elder, hadn’t mentioned anything about an arrest or court-martial. Terrence had pulled in a few favors to find out where Asher had been sent after Germany. That was how Paige had tracked Asher down to the convalescent facility, Hidden Hills, here in Vermont.
Asher’s own teammates had been no help at all. If they’d returned her calls, and only a few did, they denied any knowledge of Asher’s whereabouts and weren’t too concerned about finding him. They’d viewed his accusations against Major Denver as the supreme betrayal of the man and the team.
But Asher would always do the right thing. With his father in federal prison for bank robbery, Asher followed the straight and narrow path. If he saw any wrongdoing, he’d report it—no matter who it was or how much it pained him to do so. She had firsthand knowledge of that.
If Asher said Major Denver killed that army ranger, pushed Asher off a cliff and took off, that was what happened.
But Asher had amnesia. How did he remember all that and not remember his fiancée? And if he didn’t remember her, he didn’t remember...
Her cell phone rang on the nightstand and she swept it off and answered. “Hi, Mom. Everything okay?”
“We’re fine. Everything okay there? Did you see him?”
“Sort of. It’s a long story.” She tapped her phone’s display. “You’re not using FaceTime. Is Ivy still awake? It’s three hours earlier there.”
“I’m sorry, honey. Ivy went down for a nap right after dinner. Do you want me to do the face thing when she wakes up?”
“That’s all right, Mom. I’m exhausted.”
“I-is Asher okay? Do you think you can help him?”
Paige scooped in a big breath. “I do. I think I can help him.”
“All by yourself? Maybe you should come home, Paige. You don’t need this stress. Let the army handle it.”
“I can handle the stress, Mom. Don’t worry about me. It’s Asher who needs help this time, and I’m not going to abandon him.”
Her mother clicked her tongue. “Don’t push yourself. You don’t do well under pressure.”
After that comment, Paige ended her call with Mom sooner rather than later and stretched out on the bed, staring at the ceiling.
She’d better start doing well under pressure, because the only way to help Asher was to get him out of that hellhole and restore his memory of her...and their daughter.
* * *
THE NEXT MORNING after breakfast, Paige shook out a clean pair of jeans. She’d wear the same hooded jacket as yesterday, since it seemed to have kept her hidden in the forest. Those two goons had no idea she was hiding in plain sight.
Asher had been on that porch by himself after lunch, so she’d aim for the same time again. Would he follow her signal? Would he rat her out—just like he’d ratted out Denver?
At least nobody had come into the small town of Mooseville looking for her. If she could get back to that wooded area again, she’d be safe. She just needed Asher to trust her.
Could he trust a...stranger? She clutched the jeans to her chest and bowed her head. She and Asher could never be strangers. Her love for him soaked every pore in her body.
When he found out she was pregnant, he’d swept her up in his arms and swung her around and around, even though the pregnancy had been a surprise and she wasn’t quite...ready. He’d wanted nothing more than a family of his own...and now he couldn’t even remember he had one.
She wiped the back of her hand across her tingling nose. She had no time for tears and no time for Mom’s doubts. She had to rescue her man, if he’d let her.
After lunch, Paige parked her rental car in a turnoff on the main road, tucking it away and out of sight. As she hiked up the road to the access trail, she tilted back her head and studied the sky. The sun still shone through the clouds, enough for her to catch its beams with her mirror and signal Asher, as she’d done yesterday.
She ducked onto the access road and pumped her legs up the hill as the terrain grew more challenging. A steep angle and a few bushes didn’t faze her. She’d hike through fire and brimstone to get to Asher.
The trees became denser, but Paige had marked her way the day before and those bits of blue yarn guided her back toward the compound perched on the hill.
She located her lookout tree and jumped to catch the lowest branch. She swung herself up and clambered from branch to branch like a clumsy monkey to reach her perch.
She shrugged off her pack and pulled out the binoculars. She scanned the desolate lawn. Maybe the action perked up in the warmer weather months...or maybe this retreat kept its patients drugged up and chained in the basement. Clenching her teeth, she shivered.
Fifteen minutes later Asher rewarded her patience by appearing on the porch, taking the same chair as yesterday. She focused the lenses on him, and her heart filled with joy. He looked healthy, if...lackadaisical.
As she reached into the inside pocket of her jacket, the door behind Asher opened and a nurse stepped onto the porch.
“Damn.” Paige’s whisper stirred the leaves on the branch hanging next to her face.
Were they watching him now? They must’ve been watching him yesterday to notice he’d left the porch and loped across the grass.
Her jaw ached with tension and disappointment. She might just have to go through the front door and demand to see him.
She refocused on Asher and the nurse and pressed her lips into a thin line. Was personal massage part of Asher’s recovery?
The nurse, standing behind him, had her hands on his shoulders, massaging and rubbing him. Each time she reached forward, her hands slid beneath his jacket and moved against his chest.
Either Asher liked it or he was too zoned out to care. Each time the nurse’s hands slid farther and farther down his chest, working toward the inevitable happy ending.
Asher turned his head and said something, and she stopped. Had he gotten the feeling his fiancée was watching?
When the nurse retreated inside, Paige grabbed the mirror and caught the weak sun. She tilted it back and forth, and Asher raised his head.
He’d seen it.
Paige’s soaring spirits crashed a minute later when Nurse Grabby-Hands returned to the scene, this time pushing a wheelchair ahead of her.
Paige held her breath as the nurse helped Asher from the chair to the wheelchair. He listed to the side, and the large woman wrapped both of her arms around his body to right him. She kept her arms around him, putting her face close to his while talking to him.
Paige growled. “Get out of his face.”
The nurse tucked a blanket around his legs and aimed the chair down the ramp.
If Asher needed a blanket on his lap, he’d be too weak to accompany her through the forest and down the hill. Squinting into the binoculars, Paige tracked their progress across the lawn. The nurse pushed the chair with one hand, her other resting on Asher’s shoulder.
They made it about midway and stopped. Paige swore when she noticed Asher’s attire. He did have a jacket on against the cold, but he wore it over a hospital gown. No wonder he had a blanket draped over his lower extremities. He was in bigger trouble than Paige imagined and a sob burst from her chest. She’d never get him out of here like that...especially with Nurse Ratched hovering over him.
Suddenly both of their heads jerked in unison. The nurse turned to face the building with the porch where Asher had been sitting.
Paige swept her binoculars toward the building and zeroed in on a doctor standing and waving. Paige tracked back to Asher and the nurse on the grass. The nurse jumped to her feet and waved back.
Leaning over Asher, the nurse smoothed the blanket across Asher’s lap and tucked it under his thighs. Then she ran her hands over his chest before pulling his jacket closed. Finally, she turned and scurried back to the building.
Paige watched the doctor and nurse team go inside and shut the door behind them. She jerked the binoculars back to Asher and held the mirror up to the sun again, tilting it back and forth.
But what could he do in a gown and a blanket? He didn’t even have shoes.
Asher sat quietly for several moments, and then Paige’s heart slammed against her chest as he rose from the wheelchair. The blanket fell from his lap and he bunched it up and stuffed it into the chair. Then he shrugged out of the jacket and wrapped it around the blanket. From behind and from a distance, it might just look like someone slumped over in the chair.
Without looking behind him once, Asher took off in a jog across the lawn.
Paige stashed the binoculars in her backpack and scrambled down the tree. She hit the thick carpet of mulch just as she heard Asher crash through the trees.
“Are you here? Are you here? Paige?”
Her heart took flight. He remembered her. All he needed was to see her once.
“Here! I’m here!”
He emerged through the trees, the hospital gown flapping around his bare legs, a pair of socks the only barrier between his feet and the sharp needles and twigs that formed the forest floor.
She rushed to him. “Asher. Oh my God, Asher.”
He grabbed her hands and held her off from throwing herself in his arms.
“You’ve gotta help me. You’ve gotta get me out of this place...whoever you are.”
Chapter Three (#u9d078651-d12d-522c-a9f2-6864111b058a)
His words chipped off a piece of her heart, but she squared her shoulders and stepped back from him. “We have to go through these woods and down a steep hill. Can you make it dressed like that?”
“I could make it naked with one arm tied behind my back to get out of here. Lead the way.”
“Let’s go. You should’ve kept that jacket though.”
“That jacket might buy me some time if someone happens to look out the window at the drugged-out invalid to make sure he’s still drooling in his chair.”
“You’re not drugged?”
“I’ve been spitting them out—and pretending.”
She held a branch to the side for him. “They still didn’t trust you enough to give you clothes.”
“They underestimated me.” He charged after her. “Don’t worry about clearing a path for me. Just go. I’ll follow you.”
“Your physical health is okay?”
“Strong as an ox.” He nudged her back. “Stop talking. You’re wasting energy.”
She scrabbled and stumbled her way to the forest’s edge. When they reached the path down to the access road, she made a half turn. “You can make it down?”
“I survived a tumble off a mountain in Afghanistan. I can traverse a wooded hill in Vermont.”
He didn’t need her to show him the way anymore, and he barreled past her into the descent, reaching back with one hand. “Keep up now.”
As his gown gaped open in the back, her eyebrows shot up. “You’re naked under that thing.”
“Their way of keeping me tame. Like I said. They underestimated me.” He craned his head over his shoulder. “If you’re really my fiancée like you said, my bare backside shouldn’t shock you.”
“I’m not shocked.” She twisted her fingers out of his grasp. “And stop dragging me or we’ll both end up in a freefall to the bottom of this hill.”
They had no words left as they negotiated their way down. When they hit the access road, Asher peeled off his socks, now decorated with dirt, small pebbles and pine needles.
He bunched them in his hand and stuffed them into the pack on her back. “I don’t want to leave any evidence.”
He hung back as the access road spilled onto the main drag. “It’s too exposed here.”
“The car’s less than half a mile away. Wait here and I’ll pick you up.”
As she started to turn away, he grabbed her hand. “You’ll be back?”
“I didn’t come all the way out here to leave you behind, Asher Knight...even if you don’t know who the hell I am.”
Paige ran to the car, the pack jostling on her back. She wished she had some clothes in there for Asher. She never would’ve imagined she’d be rescuing him in a hospital gown and nothing else.
When she reached the car, she lunged at the door and threw it open. She gunned the engine and swung into a wide U-turn.
The empty road in front of the access entrance stretched before her, and a wave of panic washed through her body. When Asher stepped out from behind a bush, a sob escaped from Paige’s lips.
“Get hold of yourself, girl.” She flipped a U-turn again and pulled over.
Before she even stopped the car, Asher had yanked at the door and jumped inside. “Go!”
She didn’t have to be told twice—or even once. Her foot punched the accelerator and the little rental roared in protest before switching gears and lurching forward.
The tires ate up the road, and Asher put a hand on her arm. “Slow down. We don’t want to get a ticket.”
Glancing in the rearview mirror, she eased off the gas. “But if we do get pulled over, we can tell the police what’s going on. You’re not a prisoner. You haven’t been committed.”
“Really?” He cocked an eyebrow at her. “I don’t know what the hell is going on right now. That’s the US Army, the United States government. They can tell the cops whatever they want and, I guarantee you, I’ll be back in their clutches.”
Paige’s heart flip-flopped, and she tried to swallow her fear. She was the daughter of a police officer, had always trusted law enforcement, had always trusted authority. Now she had to rely on herself.
Asher jerked his head toward her and braced his hands against the dashboard. “Unless that’s what you want? Where are you taking me?”
Paige drew in her bottom lip. Great. Now she had to deal with Asher’s paranoia. Was it real or imagined? She slid a sideways gaze at him. Maybe his mental issues involved more than amnesia. Maybe he’d been kept naked and drugged because he did pose a threat to himself...and others.
She could feel his hard stare boring into the side of her face. A stranger’s stare.
“Is that it? Are you one of them?”
His harsh voice grated against her ear, and she took a deep breath. If he could listen to reason and think logically, that would tell her a lot about his mental state.
“I’m taking you to my motel right now. We should leave as soon as I can check out. This is a small town and the people at that house of horrors will most likely fan out there first to look for you.”
He nodded, his mouth still tight.
“Why would I contact you secretly and help you escape if I were in cahoots with the hospital and planned to deliver you back to them? What would be the plan? To test you? They don’t need to test you. They have you captive and a pharmaceutical cornucopia to keep you complacent.”
His firm jaw softened and he blinked his eyes.
“What did they tell you about the woods yesterday? Because I can tell you right now, one of those stooges who came after you, Lewis or Granger, shot a dart in the side of your neck to take you down.”
Asher clapped his hand against the left side of his neck. “They said I passed out.”
“Yeah, like a lion passes out after a few hundred blow darts sink into him.”
“I suspected something but didn’t let on.” He touched the back of his head. “I’m still pretty confused, but I pretended everything was great so that I’d have another opportunity to go outside...in case you came back.”
“Well, I did.” She reached for his thigh and stopped herself. He still thought of her as a stranger, but she planned to remedy that.
She grabbed the bottle of water in the cup holder instead. “Do you want some water?” She shook the bottle and the water sloshed back and forth. “It’s not laced with anything—except my germs.”
His hand hovered near the bottle for a couple of seconds and then he snatched it from her. He downed the rest of the water. “Sorry. Those damned drugs make me thirsty.”
She looked away from the road and pointed to his feet. “We’re going to have to take care of those.”
“My feet are the least of my worries right now—and I have plenty.”
About a half hour later, they hit the outskirts of Mooseville and Paige tapped Asher’s shoulder. “You should slump down in about five minutes, just until we get through the town. My motel is tucked away from the main drag. I can sneak you inside without a problem.”
“I’m not going anywhere sitting in this car.”
“Excuse me?” She always did have to deal with Asher’s stubbornness, but his stubbornness combined with amnesia and fear just catapulted it to another dimension.
“It’s too risky. Pull over now and I’ll get in the trunk.”
“The trunk?” Her gaze swept his large form, unchanged from weeks of captivity and bed rest.
“I can squeeze in. I’m not taking any chance of anyone seeing me in this town. Is it really called Mooseville?”
“It is and I will.” She pulled over and popped the trunk from the inside of the car. They both got out and she lifted the lid of the trunk. “Make yourself comfortable.”
“Looks like heaven compared to that hospital bed.”
He crawled inside the trunk and his hospital gown spread open, revealing his mighty fine backside.
“Here, let’s get you decent.” She tugged the gown around his thighs, her fingers skimming his cold skin. She started to remove her jacket.
“Leave it on. You shouldn’t look any different from when you left... Shut it.”
Paige slammed the lid of the trunk on Asher, curled into a fetal position. She could do this, despite what her mother believed.
She drove through the sleepy town of Mooseville and pulled up to her room at the motel. She shouted over her shoulder. “I’m back at the motel. I’ll just grab my stuff and check out.”
After Asher gave his muffled assent, Paige slid from the car and pushed the door closed with a click. It took her ten minutes to throw her stuff in a bag. She dumped the three bottled waters from the fridge into a plastic bag, along with her leftover sandwich from the day before.
She strode to the motel office, swinging the room key from her finger. The bell on the door jingled when she swung it open.
Charlie, the motel’s proprietor, peeked around the corner of the back office. His eyes widened when he saw her. “You’d better get out of here.”
The key flew off her finger and her jaw dropped. “Why?”
“They’re looking for you.”
Goose bumps rippled across her flesh. “Who?”
“Those folks at the rest home on the hill.” Charlie looked both ways as if the two of them weren’t the only ones in the room. “Government folks.”
She stooped to pick up the key and smacked it on the counter. “They’re looking for me by name?”
“You...and others.” He swept the key from the counter and dropped it in a drawer. “They came charging in here asking about this one and that one—mostly men—but then they mentioned your name, Paige Sterling. Said you also might be using Paige Knight.”
Paige gripped the strap of her purse. “They asked for me by name? What did they want to know?”
“If you’d been here, checked into the motel.”
She glanced over her shoulder at the parking lot and her rental car with one big Delta Force soldier stashed in the trunk. “And you said...?”
Charlie folded his arms and narrowed his eyes. “Told ’em they’d need to come back with the cops and a search warrant if they wanted to see my guests’ names. I did tell them I didn’t have any single women staying here.”
“Thank you, Charlie. I’m not involved in anything illegal.”
He waved a hand. “I don’t trust that bunch up there. Wouldn’t give ’em the correct time of day if they asked.”
“I don’t trust them, either. I’m out of here. You can put the balance for the room on the credit card I used.”
“Will do. Too bad I already ran it. That can be traced now.”
“When I checked in here, I didn’t realize...” She shook her head. “It’s all right.”
“Safe travels.”
She slammed the office door harder than she’d intended and jogged to the car. She opened the back door and tossed her suitcase and pack onto the seat. When she slid behind the wheel, she turned her head to the side. “They’re already looking for me, and others. They must realize you had help. The guy at the motel didn’t tell them anything, so they can’t know I’m the one who’s here.”
A thump resounded from the trunk, and Paige knew Asher had heard her.
She squealed out of the parking lot and raced toward the town. As she turned down the main street, she said, “Can you pound on the trunk again or something so I know you’re still alive back there?”
Another loud thump answered her but did nothing to calm her nerves. “As soon as I get the chance, I’ll let you out of there. We need a place to go.”
She pulled up behind a white van at the one stoplight in town. The red light turned green, and she removed her foot from the brake pedal and held it above the accelerator as the car rolled forward.
The van hadn’t moved, and she slammed on the brake. The car heaved forward and back. “Sorry, but there’s some idiot who won’t move.”
Her hand slid from the steering wheel and rested on the horn in the center of it. “I’m going to give this guy two more seconds.”
In less than a second, both doors of the van swung open and a hulking man dressed in the scrubs of a hospital orderly burst out of the passenger side and into the street.
He pinned her with a menacing glare and started to charge toward her.
“Oh my God, Asher. It’s them. They found us.”
Chapter Four (#u9d078651-d12d-522c-a9f2-6864111b058a)
Adrenaline pumped through his body, and Asher’s limbs jerked with the power of the sensation.
Paige screamed and he flushed with rage. She had to get out of here, had to move the car. Unless they had her boxed in. A car in front and one in back that she didn’t notice?
He pounded on the roof of his prison with his fist. The car jumped in Reverse, and his head whacked the side of the trunk. He didn’t even care. They were in motion.
He heard a man shouting. Sounded like that giant oaf Granger. The tires squealed and the smell of burning rubber assailed his nostrils.
The car jerked to the left. Asher felt like he was on some amusement park ride that kept you in the dark so you couldn’t see the next turn of the track.
Paige must’ve floored it, because the car leaped forward and then the back fishtailed. As the car picked up speed, a crash echoed outside the trunk. Asher braced his body for an impact, wedging his bare feet against the side of the trunk...but none came.
The car hit a bump and then...nothing. It sailed forward. “Paige. Paige, can you hear me?”
Several seconds passed, and then he heard the sweetest sound ever.
“We’re in the clear. The van that was blocking me crashed into another car.”
Asher’s lungs ached as he released a long breath in the close confines of the trunk. “Get as far away from here as possible and head south. Can you do that?”
Maybe Paige didn’t have any breath left to answer, but as long as the car kept going forward he’d leave it in her capable hands.
Because his...fiancée had proved herself to be more than capable. In fact, she was a badass.
They traveled for what must’ve been at least thirty minutes before the car slowed down. It bumped and rumbled over rocky terrain before coming to a stop.
Paige threw open the trunk, and Asher blinked his eyes at the daylight.
“Are you okay?” They asked the question in unison, so he answered first.
“I’m fine. What the hell happened back there?” He uncurled his legs and swung one outside the trunk and then rolled out.
“Do you need to stretch out before getting into the passenger seat?”
“I just want out of this area.” He picked his way to the front door of the car as pebbles and twigs attacked the soles of his feet.
Paige got behind the wheel and cranked up the heater. “You must be freezing.”
“Hadn’t noticed...until now.” He rubbed his arms. “Are you going to tell me what went on with that van?”
She cranked her head over her shoulder and backed out of the outlet she’d pulled into. “Came up to the lone signal in Mooseville and pulled behind a white van. When the light changed, the van didn’t move. I was about to pull around it when two goons in scrubs burst out of the van. I knew right away who they were. They must’ve been waiting for me—or any of your other friends on their list—to show up. They must’ve had my picture, and when they recognized me, they made their move.”
“Now they know who helped me.” And they knew that Paige was connected to him in some way. His fiancée. “How did you get away?”
“I reversed, and they jumped back into the van, but they weren’t paying attention. The light had changed, and another car T-boned them.” She smirked. “That van isn’t going anywhere.”
“Buys us some time.”
She flicked her fingers at him. “We have to get you some clothes...and food. Are you hungry?”
“Not at all.” He tapped on the window. “Not sure where we’re going to buy clothes in the middle of nowhere.”
“We’re not exactly in the middle of nowhere. See those mountains?” She tipped her chin forward. “There’s a ski resort up there, and it’s open despite the lack of snow. They’re manufacturing it now and expect the weather to cooperate in the next day or two for the Christmas holidays.”
“You know this area?”
“No. Why would I know this area when I’m from Vegas?” She stopped and bit her bottom lip. “But you don’t know that I’m from Vegas, do you?”
He reached out suddenly and touched her wrist. “No, but I’ll remember. You’ll tell me everything.”
A smile wobbled on her lips. “Looking forward to it.”
He pulled his hand back and dropped it in his lap as guilt nibbled at the edges of his mind. Touching her had been a calculated move on his part because he’d sensed her grief at his memory loss. His amnesia might even be worse for her. At least he didn’t know what he was missing.
It had to be devastating to look into the eyes of someone who was supposed to love you and see a complete lack of recognition or feeling.
He stared out the window. Not a complete lack of feeling. Even locked in the trunk, he’d experienced an overpowering urge to protect this woman when she’d been in danger. Maybe that was normal under the circumstances, but he’d felt a tug at his heart when he first ran into her in the woods, too.
He’d get it all back. From what he’d seen of Paige so far, he had great taste in women.
“How much longer to the ski resort and do you think you can make it to a store before it closes and pick up some clothes for me?”
“Maybe an hour away. I know your sizes. Don’t worry.” A crease formed between her eyebrows. “Do you think it’ll be safe? Would they have any reason to track us there?”
“Hell, I don’t know. I don’t even know why they’d want to track me down. What do they want with me?”
“I was hoping you could tell me. All I wanted to do was visit you, and the army officer who called me wouldn’t tell me where you were. Didn’t believe I was your fiancée.”
“Why’d he call you?”
“I called the army trying to locate you when I heard about the incident. One of your team members called me to tell me about it, but he wouldn’t tell me much. The army finally returned my call after they found my name and number in the favorites on your phone.” She flexed her fingers on the steering wheel and then renewed her grip. “What happened, Asher? Do you remember?”
“That’s what’s weird.” He scratched his jaw. “I do remember what happened right before my fall.”
“That is unusual.”
He jerked his head toward her. “You think so, too?”
“Since you don’t know anything about me,” she said with a sniff, “you don’t know I’m a psychologist. I handle a lot of PTSD cases and repressed memories.”
He raised his eyebrows. “That’s convenient... A shrink. A shrinky-dinky.”
She jerked the steering wheel. “Why did you say that?”
“Shrinky-dinky? I don’t know. The silly phrase keeps coming to me every time I say or hear the word shrink.” He studied her profile—the slightly upturned nose and the firm chin. “Why?”
“When I finished my hours and got licensed to practice, that’s what you’d call me.” She licked her lips. “You remembered that on your own.”
“I did. Thank God. It’s all going to come back, isn’t it?”
She dropped her chin to her chest. “I can help you, Asher. I can help you recover your memories. It doesn’t sound like the damage to your brain is permanent if a nickname came to you like that. Did the doctors mention anything about a permanent injury?”
“No. They kept assuring me that I’d fully recover my memory.”
She let out a sigh. “That’s good. It is strange though that you happen to remember the incident itself. What did happen? Can you tell me?”
“I can tell you. It’s not classified or anything, and if it were, I guess I can’t remember the classification level, anyway.” He poked her in the side and got a smile out of her. “There are a few advantages to memory loss.”
“There can be.” Her pale cheeks flushed. “So, what happened out there in Afghanistan?”
“My commander, Major Rex Denver, was supposed to be having a meeting with a snitch from one of the groups that holds control of that area. The guy wanted to start feeding us intel and Denver was the man. He took me along and an army ranger. While we waited for the contact to show up, Denver took control. He shot the army ranger and then came at me. He took me off guard and pushed me off the edge of a cliff. I fell—” he tapped his head “—hit this thing and blacked out. An army ranger unit rescued me. Somehow, I managed to escape any severe physical injury, but I had a gash on the back of my head and I couldn’t remember a damned thing when I came to.”
“Except the incident that sent you over the edge.”
“No.”
“No?”
“I didn’t remember that right away, either. That unfolded for me when I got to an army hospital in Germany and much more when they got me to Hidden Hills.”
“Hidden Hills is an unfortunate name for that place.” Paige lodged the tip of her tongue in the corner of her mouth. “That kind of selective memory is unusual.”
“I stayed in Germany for a month before they shipped me to that crazy place. The hospital in Germany dealt more with my physical injuries—my head wound.”
“And your Delta Force team members? Did they ever come to visit you?”
“No.” Asher curled his hands into fists. “They didn’t like what I had to say about Major Denver. Didn’t believe me and blamed me because Denver went AWOL.”
“I tried calling a few of them, too, with no luck.” Paige drummed her thumbs on the steering wheel. “Denver went AWOL after what happened with you?”
“Right after. Apparently, he took off after he attacked me. Left me for dead, but at least he got word to someone that my body was lying at the bottom of that drop-off.”
“He did? He reported your location and condition?”
“Yeah, great guy, huh? He thought he’d killed me.”
“D-do you remember Major Denver and the others?”
His eye twitched as pain throbbed against his temple. “No. I only recall Denver in that moment. I don’t remember anything about him or working with him...or the others.”
“Maybe it’s your defense.” She lifted her shoulders. “He did such a terrible thing to you, you’ve blocked out anything good about him to protect yourself.”
“I don’t know.” He squeezed his eyes closed as the pain spread across his forehead.
“Grab my purse in the back seat.” She jerked her thumb over her shoulder. “I have some ibuprofen in there. That plastic bag on the floor has some bottled water and a leftover sandwich if you’re hungry.”
He reached around and dragged her purse into the front seat. “Where?”
“The bottle’s in the makeup bag.”
He unzipped the little leopard-print bag and plucked a small bottle from it. He shook three gel caps into his hand and tossed them into his mouth. He chased them with a gulp of water and eased his head against the headrest. “I’m going to try to rest my eyes.”
“Go ahead. I’ll wake you up when we get there.”
“I don’t think I’ll be falling asleep.”
As much as he tried to keep his eyes open, closing them soothed the pain in his head and he allowed his heavy lids to drop. He would drift off, but something urgent kept prodding him and he’d jerk awake with a start.
In a short time he’d become dependent on the drugs that had eased his passage into sleep each night. He didn’t want that anymore. He didn’t claim to be any expert, like Paige apparently was, but being drugged up had to be interfering with his memories. How could he remember his past when half the time he couldn’t remember what he’d eaten for lunch?
“Give in to it.”
“What?” Opening one eye, he rolled his head to the side and pinned her with his gaze.
“You’ve been nodding off and jerking awake for the past forty-five minutes. Is it that you can’t fall asleep or don’t want to?”
“Maybe a little of both. Maybe I snore and drool in my sleep.”
“You don’t drool—at least not when you’re sleeping.”
He twisted his lips into a smile. This woman who knew him...intimately could do more to restore his memory than all the drugs and doctors in the entire US military.
Why had they tried to keep her away from him?
The signs that flew by the car window announced cabins and lift tickets and ski rentals. “We must be close.”
“We are.” She snatched her phone from the cup holder and tossed it at him. “First things first. Can you look up a clothing store? Even if it’s a ski shop, I’m sure it’ll have pants and shirts, jackets and boots.”
He tapped the phone’s display and then shook it. “No internet connection yet. We may have to drive straight to the ski resort to get connectivity. I’m sure there are stores there. Any reason you don’t want to shop at the resort?”
“Those people from the prison...I mean rest home, might see this as a logical place for us to land.”
“Probably, but we have a head start on them, and how do they know you didn’t have clothing and an escape plan waiting for me?”
“I should have.” She skimmed her hand along the side of her head. “When I saw the situation yesterday, I should’ve put more thought into breaking you out of there.”
“I’d say you did a pretty good job.” He plucked at the hospital gown barely covering his thighs. “You didn’t know they’d have me stripped and defenseless.”
She snorted. “If they thought taking your clothing was enough to render you defenseless, they don’t know Asher Knight like I know Asher Knight.”
Tilting his head back and forth, he loosened the knots in his neck for probably the first time since he’d regained consciousness. Somebody knew him, and that deep pit of abandonment in his gut ached a little less.
He heaved out a sigh.
“Underwear, T-shirt, socks, jeans, long-sleeved shirt, boots and a jacket. Do I need to write that down?”
“You’re the one with the memory problems, not me.” She poked him in the side and grinned. “Like I said, I even know all your sizes. You stay slumped down in the seat while I go inside. I’m going to have to use my credit card though. I want to save the cash I have for later. Do you think the army is going to track me down through my credit card?”
He pointed out the window to the turnoff for the resort. “Very real possibility, but there’s not much we can do about it. I have no money. No cash. No cards. No memory. No life.”
She veered right onto the ramp and swiveled her head in his direction. “That escalated quickly. Are you okay? I mean other than the obvious?”
“Just a little brush with self-pity.” He smacked the side of his face with his palm. “I’ve recovered now.”
“You’ve shown zero self-pity. I think you’re allowed a second or two.”
“We need to come up with a way to get our hands on some cash. Maybe my old man stashed some away for a rainy day.”
“Actually—” she slid him a sideways glance “—the feds thought he had, but he never copped to it.”
“If he ever told me about it, I would’ve forgotten that along with everything else.” He rubbed the goose bumps on his arms. The temperature had been steadily dropping outside and the heater inside hadn’t kept pace with it.
Paige cranked it up higher. “We’re not going to wait to find piles of cash somewhere while you freeze to death with no clothes.”
The car bounced as she drove into a large parking lot for the ski resort. “We’ll get you dressed and then maybe just get out of here. You don’t really think it’s the US Army that’s after you, do you?”
“At first I took everything the army told me at face value. In Germany, my physical wounds were treated and everything seemed okay, except for the fact that my Delta Force unit wanted nothing to do with me because of my allegations against Major Denver. It’s when they started messing with my mind and then sent me to that so-called rehabilitation center that things started rubbing me the wrong way.”
“Let’s put that on hold for now.” She hunched over the steering wheel and peered through the windshield. “I see a clothing store on the periphery of the shops. Start scrunching down or it’s back in the trunk with you.”
He pushed the seat all the way back and slid down. “Go for it. This hospital gown is getting old...and baby blue is not my color.”
She swung into a parking space. “Look at you, making jokes. You must be on the mend—and you look good in any color...or nothing at all.”
Before he could think of a comeback, she slammed her door and the car shook.
How were they going to go anywhere under the radar if the army really was tracking Paige through her credit card? He didn’t even know if he had any money. Let alone how to access it. His doctors had told him he was from Las Vegas. He must’ve met Paige there. Had he known her for a long time?
Even if he had money, they were about as far from Vegas as they could get.
He closed his eyes, although his instincts told him to keep watch. The orderlies in the van couldn’t have gotten out of that mess fast enough to determine he and Paige would head for this ski resort and then give chase.
They might’ve sent word back to Hidden Hills and sent someone else up here to look for them though. He and Paige had made it easy for them, but the doctors at Hidden Hills had made it hard for him. Where else was he supposed to get clothes?
One thing he did know was they couldn’t use Paige’s credit card to check into some lodge or hotel here. They’d be sitting ducks.
A shadow passed over the car, and Asher’s eyelids flew open. He inched his head up and pinned his gaze to the rearview mirror. A figure moved behind the car.
Asher ducked his head, clenching his fists, holding them at the ready. They were the only weapons he had and wouldn’t be very effective against a gun—not that his jailers at Hidden Hills could get away with murdering him in a parking lot. Could they?
In the silence of the car as he waited, his heart hammered in his ears. The rush of adrenaline ebbed and flowed in his body and he fought off the dizziness it caused.
If the guy had spotted him in the car, why hadn’t he made a move? Asher scooted up in his seat and looked in the rearview mirror first. The man had moved on—probably just someone making his way through the parking lot.
Asher sat up straighter and his gaze swept the lot. A shuttle bus waited at the curb at the base of the broad steps that led to the shops and ultimately the ski lifts. A few people were milling around the steps. When the shuttle pulled away, two women and a solo man were left behind.
The women seemed to be conferring about something over their phones, but the man watched...and waited.
Asher kept his eye on him as the man’s head swiveled from the parking lot to the shops. Was he waiting for his wife?
He could be the man who’d passed by Paige’s car. Asher didn’t see any other single men in the parking lot and not another man in red plaid.
Asher locked on to him, studying his every move. When Paige appeared at the top of the steps laden down with shopping bags, Asher sat up, every sense on high alert.
The stranger seemed to come to attention, too. He turned his back to the parking lot to watch Paige’s descent, his hands shoved in his jacket pockets.
With his fingertips buzzing, Asher clicked open the car door. His first step on the cold asphalt with his bare foot sent a shock through his system, but it only served to jolt him into action.
He left the car unlocked and then weaved through the parked vehicles, ducking and crouching in case the man decided to peel his eyes from Paige.
As she hit the last step, her vision and movement hampered by the bags swinging from her arms and clutched to her chest, the stranger made his move.
He reached his arm out to Paige as if in assistance...but Asher knew better. He shot forward, shouting and waving his arms.
“I’m here. I’m here. I’m the one you want.”
Chapter Five (#u9d078651-d12d-522c-a9f2-6864111b058a)
Paige had been moving away from the man and now she turned her face toward Asher barreling down on both of them. Her mouth dropped open and she stumbled to the side, away from the stranger and his outstretched hand, the rest of his body twisted in Asher’s direction.
His right hand still out of his pocket, the man swiveled around to face Asher. He swayed to his left and in a split second Asher took advantage of his imbalance.
He charged the man, his hospital gown flapping around him, and shouted. “Run, Paige!”
With a few feet between him and the stranger, Asher made a flying tackle at him that would’ve made his friend Cam the football player proud. Before the man could reach into his pocket for whatever weapon he had, Asher drove his shoulder into the guy’s chest, knocking him backward onto the steps.
The two women several feet away screamed.
The man’s hand clawed at his pocket, but Asher pinned the hand with his knee, driving it into the cold cement. He grunted, and Asher gave him more to grunt about as he smashed his fist against the man’s nose. Blood spouted and Asher followed up with a punch to the gut.
A woman was screeching behind him. “We’re calling the police.”
Asher landed another punch to the side of the man’s head. As he drew back his fist for another onslaught, a car horn blared behind him.
He twisted his head over his shoulder, and Paige’s rental car squealed to a halt at the shuttle stop. His hand jerked to a stop in midair, and he plunged it into the man’s pocket. His fingers curled around a syringe.
He pulled it out as Paige honked again. The man groaned beneath him and Asher jabbed him in the side of the neck with the needle.
A few more people had gathered at the top of the steps and Asher knew the cops wouldn’t be far behind. He pulled the needle from the man’s neck, staggered to his feet and jumped into Paige’s car, which she’d already put into motion.
She floored it out of the parking lot, and the car bounced like it was in a movie chase scene when she rolled off the curb into the street.
“Oh my God. You’re bleeding.”
“I think that’s his blood.”
“No.” She reached over and rubbed his burning knuckles. “Your hand is bleeding.”
“That’s from hitting him. I took him by surprise and he didn’t get many shots in.” He held up the needle. “He was counting on using this.”
Paige gasped. “Throw it out the window.”
“So somebody else, maybe a kid, could pick it up?” He dropped it on the floor of the back seat. “I’ll wrap it up and dispose of it later.”
“I screwed up. We shouldn’t have come here.” She slammed the heel of her hand against the steering wheel. “Of course this would be the first place they’d look.”
“We had to come here. We didn’t have a choice.”
She pressed her fingers against her cheek. “And your poor feet, running around out there in the cold, fighting in a hospital gown.”
“Don’t worry about me. I should’ve never sent you out there on your own. I should’ve realized someone would be staking out the ski resort.”
She lifted her eyebrows. “You couldn’t exactly go shopping in that getup.”
“I need to get out of this.” He plucked at the hospital gown. “I need to start feeling human...and then there’s going to be hell to pay.”
* * *
PAIGE GLANCED AT him as she smoothed her hands over the steering wheel. They’d finally stopped shaking, but Asher’s words sent a new jolt of adrenaline through her system.
“What do you mean?”
“I’m going to figure out who’s doing this to me and why, and I’m not going to stop until I have all the answers...and all my memories.”
“Where can we go now?” She adjusted the rearview mirror and released a small breath.
“There’s no real snow yet, right? There must be hundreds of cabins in this area, vacant for at least a few more weeks until the holidays.”
She swallowed. “You’re suggesting we break into someone’s empty cabin and make ourselves at home?”
“Just until we can get our bearings, and I can put some clothes on.” He jerked his finger over his shoulder. “Whoever that guy was back there, he’s out. His associates are going to figure we’ve fled the area.”
“We should flee the area.”
“Let’s do the unexpected.” He tapped on the window. “Make the next turn.”
For the next twenty minutes, Asher guided her through mountain roads and turnouts like he knew the place. After surveying and abandoning several prospective cabins, he had her follow a road into a heavily wooded area where a single cabin nestled against the side of a mountain.
“This one.”
“How do you know someone’s not living here?”
“Do you see any vehicles? Any pets? Any life at all?”
Her eyes darted around the property. “No, but it doesn’t mean there won’t be.”
“We’ll play it by ear.”
She jabbed his thigh with her finger. “I think you forgot how cautious you used to be.”
“I was Delta Force. I couldn’t have been that cautious.”
“You are Delta Force, and I guess cautious is the wrong word. Maybe I mean organized. You like to plan.”
“This is a plan. It’s the only viable one right now except to go on the run.”
“In a hospital gown.”
“Right. Park in the back.”
She swung the car to the right on the dirt road that curved around the house and continued through the trees in the back. Luckily the snow had held off so far this season, or it would’ve piled up in front of them. Now they just rolled over cold, frozen ground.
Ducking her head, she peered through the windshield. “Do you think they have security cameras?”
“If they do, I’ll have to disable them.”
As Paige stepped out of the car, her shoe crunched the gravel and the sound seemed to echo in the woods. She tipped her head back and scanned the edges of the roof for security equipment.
Asher appeared next to her. “I don’t see anything, do you?”
“No.” She pointed to his feet. “You could’ve at least put on the boots I bought for you.”
He curled his toes into the gravel. “I’m getting kind of used to being barefoot.”
“I’ll get them.” She buried her head in the back seat of the car, where she’d tossed the bags in her mad rush to get back to Asher fighting with the stranger. She backed out of the car with the bags hanging from her arms and turned to face the cabin, leaving her own suitcase and laptop on the seat.
Asher waved from the cement slab behind the cabin. “I think I found a way in.”
She strode toward him, the bags banging against her thighs. “I feel like a thief.”
“We’re not going to steal anything...except some soap and water.” He rubbed his hands together. “And maybe some firewood.”
A few minutes later, Asher had jimmied the lock on the back door. He rested his hand on the doorknob. “Are you ready?”

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