Page 16 of Hunted in Hope Town

So he hedged. Something he’d had to learn how to do these past two years, because prior to this circle of hell, he had never hedged. Always known. Always moved forward, one certain step at a time.

He needed to find that old person again if he was going to keep her safe, but there were careful land mines to skirt around first.

“I don’t know that I… I can answer on your behalf.”

“Surely you know if your wife loved you or not.”

You’d think. But it wasn’t all that last fraught year. “We did. Love each other. We’d been married about ten years. Together fifteen.”

“But no…kids?”

Even not remembering, that would be a topic. “No. Not…yet.”

“There’s a million things you’re not telling me,” she said flatly.

“It’s fifteen years to wade through.” And as much as he’d wanted to wade through it with her, he had spent the last two being told not to do anything that might disrupt her balance. Her healing.

This felt nothing but wrong, especially with a threat hanging over them.

She looked exhausted. Wrung clear out. She needed rest, not…this. And he needed to connect with Zach, see where everything stood.

“I’m not sure we need to get into all this. Dr. Leigh has always maintained it’s best to let you go along with what you do remember and not push what you don’t. When your brain heals, when you feel safe, she thinks you might remember some things.”

“But you know the answers. Why shouldn’t I?”

“Because you suffered a traumatic brain injury, K… Jessica.”

“Don’t…switch it up. Just call me… I’ll be Kirsten here. Maybe calling me by my real name will shake something loose. Maybe Dr. Leigh is wrong.”

God, how he wished that were true, but he’d always been told it was wishful thinking. Any desire to push was selfish. He needed to be what she needed, not what he wanted.

His phone trilled in his pocket. The display read Zach Simmons. “Let’s just table this for a minute.” He answered the phone and turned away from her. “Anything?”

“Morris didn’t notice anyone following her, and neither did anyone else. Whoever left that note wasn’t sticking around to see what the results of the threat were.”

“I want to know why they weren’t on the security footage dropping off the note.”

Zach paused, which was how Ellis knew it was bad news. “There was a bit of a glitch. Cam’s looking into seeing if it was…purposeful.”

“Come on, Zach. We know it was purposeful.”

“Yeah, probably, but we still have to make sure, and maybe that’ll give us an idea of where this is coming from.”

Maybe, but he doubted it. “I don’t need to tell you where to start looking.”

“No. But we want to be careful. If someone found you, they were looking. Probably for these past two years. And we don’t know who they used or threatened to get information very few people should know.”

Too many. Even he’d known that when he’d taken the deal. He’d made too many mistakes, thinking with his heart instead of his mind.

But he couldn’t fix that. He could only dedicate himself to the same cause he had for the past two years. Keeping Kirsten safe.

“I’ll do some basic digging into the people we know want to hurt you, see where they are. We’ll go from there. But for tonight, just…”

“Rest. Right. I’ll get right on it.”

“You’re safe up there, Ellis.” There was a pause. “How’s it going with Jessica?”

Ellis sighed, glanced over his shoulder in her direction.