didn’t answer. It felt as if all the muscles in her legs had disappeared, and the world started to spin around, but that didn’t stop her. She took off running.
However, she didn’t get far.
The man caught her almost immediately, and he dragged them to the ground. Not a slam. It was gentle, and he eased his hands around hers to cradle the baby. While she was thankful he was being so careful, that didn’t mean she could trust him.
She heard the sirens getting louder with each passing second. Soon, very soon, there’d be others, and she might not be able to trust them, either.
“I have to go,” she said, struggling again to get away from him.
But the man held on. “Tessa, stop it!”
She froze. Tessa? Was that really her name? She repeated it several times and knew that it was. Finally, something was clear. Her name was Tessa, and she was somewhere on a farm or ranch. Near a burning building. And this man had saved her.
Maybe.
Or maybe he just wanted her to think that so she wouldn’t try to run away from him.
“How do you know me?” she asked.
He gave her that look again. The one that told her the answer was obvious. It wasn’t, not to her, anyway. But he must have known plenty about her, because he’d asked if the baby was theirs.
She didn’t know if it was.
Mercy, she didn’t know.
“You know damn well who I am,” he snapped. “I’m Landon Ryland.”
That felt familiar, too, and it stirred some different feelings inside her. Both good and bad. But Tessa couldn’t latch on to any of the specific memories that went with those feelings. Her head was spinning like an F5 tornado.
“Landon,” she repeated. And she caught on to one of those memories. Or maybe it was pieces of that jumble that were coming together the wrong way. “I was in bed with you. You were naked.”
That didn’t help his glare, and she had no idea if she’d actually seen him without clothes or if her mind was playing tricks on her. If so, it was a pretty clear trick.
A fire engine squealed to a stop, the lights and sirens still going, but Tessa ignored them for the time being, and she gave the man a harder look. She saw the badge then. He was a lawman. But that didn’t put her at ease, and she wasn’t sure why.
“Can I trust you?” she came out and asked.
He grunted, and then he studied her. “Is this an act or what?”
Tessa shook her head. Not a good idea, because it brought on the dizziness again. And the panic. “I don’t remember who I am,” she admitted, her voice collapsing into a sob.
He mumbled some profanity and stood when one of the firemen hurried toward them. “An ambulance is on the way,” the fireman said. “Is she hurt?”
“Maybe. But there’s also a baby with her.”
That put some concern on the fireman’s face. Concern in her, too, and she pulled back the blanket to make sure the baby was okay. Something she should have done minutes ago. But it was just so hard to think, so hard to figure out what to do.
The baby was wearing a pink onesie, and she appeared to be all right. Her mouth was puckered as if she were sucking at a bottle, and she was still squirming a little but not actually fussing. Tessa couldn’t see any injuries, thank God, and she seemed to be breathing normally.
“I’ll tell the ambulance to hurry,” the fireman said, moving away from them.
And he wasn’t the only one rushing. The firemen were trying to put out the rest of the blaze, not that there was much to save. There were also other sirens, and she saw the blue lights of a cop car as it approached.
She caught on to Landon’s hand when he got up and started toward that car. “Please don’t let anyone hurt the baby.”
That seemed to insult him. “No one will hurt her. Or you. But you will tell me what I need to know.”
Tessa didn’t think this had anything to do with that memory of them being in bed, but she had no idea what he expected from her. Whatever it was, he clearly expected a lot.
Landon pulled his hand out of her grip and started toward the man who stepped from the cop car. The second man was tall, built just like Landon.
A brother, perhaps?
The second man and Landon talked for several moments, and she saw the surprise register on the other man’s face. He kept that same expression as he made his way to her.
“Tessa,” he said. Not exactly a friendly greeting. “I’m Deputy Dade Ryland. Landon’s cousin,” he added, probably because she didn’t say anything or show any signs of recognizing him. “We need to ask you some questions before the ambulance gets here.”
Tessa nodded because she didn’t know what else to do. The baby and she were at the mercy of these men. Her instincts told her, though, that she should get away, run, the first chance she got.
Maybe that chance would come soon. Before it was too late.
But it wasn’t Dade who asked any questions. It was Landon. He put his hands on his hips and stared down at her. “We need to know what happened to Emmett.”
“He’s dead,” she blurted out without even realizing she was going to say it. “And so is his wife, Annie. Annie was killed in a car accident.”
Where had that come from?
“That’s right,” Dade said, exchanging an uneasy glance with Landon. “Emmett and Annie are both dead.” As Landon had done earlier, Dade knelt down, checking the baby. Then Tessa. Specifically, he looked into her eyes. “She’s been drugged,” he added to Landon.
“Yeah,” Landon readily agreed.
The relief rushed through her. That was why she couldn’t remember. But just as quickly, Tessa took that one step further.
Who had drugged her?
The drug had obviously messed with her head. And maybe had done a whole lot more to the rest of her body.
She had a dozen bad possibilities hit her at once, but first and foremost was that if someone had drugged her, they could have done the same to the baby.
The panic came again, hard and fast. “Did they give the baby something, too?”
“I don’t think so,” Dade said at the same moment that Landon demanded, “Tell me about the baby.”
Tessa latched on to what Dade said about the baby, but she had to be sure that the newborn hadn’t been drugged. It was something they’d be able to tell her at the hospital.
It’s not safe there.
The words knifed through
