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Fear squeezes my chest so hard I think I might pass out.
“Dylan’s fine,” Audrey says and reaches for me. I slip an arm around her waist, lean against her and wait for my pulse to slow. “He’s in the bedroom with Dakota, Ash and Zane.”
That sends another round of palpitations through my chest. “Zane. Is he okay?”
She shakes her head, bites her lip.
“Oh God. What did I miss? I was at work all day.” Stupid work. Zane needed me. Dylan needed me. “Where are the boys?”
She nods at the corner of the room where it looks as though a toy store exploded. “Miles is keeping an eye on them.”
Miles glances away from the jumble of limbs and toys that are Scott and Jax and Teo, and waves at me.
“He’s a great kid.” I make a mental note to buy him one of those chocolates with nuts and raisins he likes. “They all are.”
Audrey rubs my back. “Yeah.”
“Will you tell me what happened? Why is everyone here?” I’m still expecting the worst. “The longer you wait to tell me, the more scared I get, Aud.”
“Sorry. Zane had a small flashback, Ash says. They had him look at his DCFS folder and that brought back bad memories, it seems.”
Christ. “Why show him the papers? I thought we’d decided there was nothing more to investigate.”
This is so wrong, that Zane should suffer like this. He’s always stood by us, through storms and dark times.
“It seems the case isn’t closed,” Audrey mutters. “That guy hurting Zane in his memory? Turns out Zane had gotten his name wrong, and now he remembers it. And with it a lot more things he’d rather not recall.”
“Holy crap,” I say with feeling.
“Yeah.”
Which means that Zane could be right, and those horrible memories could be real.
Puts my problems with Dylan and work in a hell of a new perspective, makes me feel small and unimportant when our friend is trying to keep afloat.
“I’m going in to see him,” I tell Audrey.
“No, Tess. Too many people—”
“I’ve been his friend as long as Ash and Dylan. So have you. And don’t get me wrong, but knowing what he remembers… I’d say Zane would be a whole lot easier in his skin in the company of women right now, rather than guys.”
She gives me a wide-eyed look but then follows me as I stride across the living room and knock on the bedroom door.
***
“Z-man, you know who I am,” Asher is saying, his voice strained, as we enter the bedroom. “Come on, man, snap out of it.”
He’s standing by the bed, and I take a step to the side, finding Zane hunched over on its edge, Dakota beside him.
“Zane.” she touches his arm, and he flinches. Even from here I can see her eyes well up. “He doesn’t recognize me, either.”
“You have to let it run its course,” Dylan says, blue eyes hooded, mouth a grim line. “That’s how flashbacks work, in real time.”
“Um, why don’t you guys step out for a minute?” I say, tucking my loose hair behind my ears and stepping closer to the bed. “I want to talk to Zane.”
“Tess.” Dylan’s gaze brightens, and my heart flutters, forgetting for a moment everything except being close to him, the heat of his tall, strong body, the tilt of his full lips, the power in those blue eyes.
“He won’t know you,” Asher says, his voice low and deep with sadness.
