know me. Hands behind his head, he stared at the ceiling. Where do we go from here?
How could this person who wore Oliviaâs skin, spoke with Oliviaâs voice, moved with Oliviaâs grace, not be Olivia? Medical explanation aside, reality was hard to take. How could one moment erase ten years, a lifetime? Donât dwell on it. Sheâll be back. This is just temporary.
âYou were in a car accident.â He tried to reach her on the level of facts, if not on the physical one that grounded him. âAnd your brain was a little shaken up. The doctor said it might take a while for you to get your memory back. Headaches, anxiety, dizziness. Theyâre all normal. They should all go away. And weâre going to do everything we can to help you.â
The information Aurora had faxed him earlier in the day wasnât reassuring. Given the location of the damage to Oliviaâs brain, permanent memory impairment was a possibility. What if Olivia never remembered the life theyâd shared? What if she never loved him again? What if this Olivia left him for good?
He gave a sharp shake of the head. No, he couldnât accept that. âDr. Iverson recommended a rehabilitation therapist who specializes in traumatic brain injuries. Sheâll help you improve your motor skills and give you techniques to improve your concentration and manage the pain.â And if he was lucky, sheâd perform a miracle and give him his Olivia backâthe way she was before. âIâve arranged for her to meet us at the house.â
He turned his head toward Olivia. She wasnât asleep. Her muscles were wound too tight; her breath came too fast and shallow to be restful. âOlivia?â
She didnât answer. The force of her fear stole his breath. And all he was doing was adding to it. His touch had once calmed her, aroused her, made her melt. Now, it sharpened her fear.
As sheâd slept earlier, heâd tried to get into her head. What would it be like to remember nothing? The depth of the dark emptiness had almost swallowed him whole. No shared past. No trust. No love. Only fear. Getting into the most evil of criminal minds couldnât compare to the terror of having a lifetime erased.
If he believed in prayer, he would pray now. But he didnât. Hadnât in a long time. The futureâtheir futureâhad always seemed so bright. But now, caught between an Olivia who wasnât Olivia and Kershawâs need for vengeance, he couldnât conjure up any of the dreams that usually saw him through his trips through the sewers of society for the scum that thrived there.
Catch the scum. Get back to Olivia. That was the plan. Always.
But the rules had changed and this was a whole new game.
Sebastian ran a hand over his face. He was stuck here, waiting, just waiting like a paralyzed slug. The trail was getting cold. He couldnât look for Kershaw. He couldnât find the information he needed. He couldnât seek the triggers to bring the whole damn thing to an end.
And in the panic-stricken eyes of the woman who looked like Olivia, he could not find the wife whoâd been his haven.
Kershaw was God-knows-where. The team heâd requested was on its way, giving Kershaw time to do whatever evil his rotten mind plotted. Olivia wasnât safe hereânot even with him watching over her, not even with the guard outside the door. Every doctor, every nurse, every aide who walked through that door was a possible threat. He needed to get Olivia to the safety of the Aerie. And for that, he needed to earn a slice of her trust.
He slid out of her bed and into the hard chair beside it. She would come back to him. She had to. In the meantime, she needed him even if she didnât know him. He leaned forward, dangling his hands between his knees. Closing his eyes, he touched her the only way he couldâwith his voice. âLet me tell you about homeâ¦â
THE NURSE HAD SHOOED Sebastian out of Oliviaâs room while they got Olivia ready to go home. Leaving the stiff stranger in the bed was a relief, and he hated that it was. She was his wife; she deserved his understanding. How was he going to get through the weeks, maybe months, before she was well again without going crazy?
Paula had dropped off a bag of clothes the night before and threatened to return early enough to spirit Olivia to Nashua rather than let her return to the Aerie. Sebastian hadnât told Paula about Kershaw yet, but he would have to, and he dreaded the blowback that would create.
First he had to get Olivia home, then heâd worry about Paula.
Needing to do something other than dwell on Olivia or Paula or the way his life was crumbling like slag on the side of a mountain, he snagged the phone out of his pocket and checked messages. Three from Suttonâthe reason why heâd turned off the ringer. And one from Cyril Granger. He checked his watch and bit back a grumble, then punched in the garageâs number anyway. At the sound of Cyrilâs cigar-gruff voice, Sebastian gave silent thanks for early risers. âSebastian Falconer.â
âFalconer! I got the results you wanted.â
Hand in pocket, Sebastian braced. âShoot.â
âLucky your wife had all that metal around her or sheâd a been dead.â
Heâd made sure she had the safest car on the marketâthat was no accident. âWhat happened?â
âAs far as I can tell, she probably hit the brakes for some reason. Maybe deer. Maybe snow. Maybe something else. Skidded and went over the embankment.â
Sebastian couldnât wrap his mind around the information. Heâd been sure Kershaw had tampered with the car. âAn accident?â
âLooks that way.â
âNo tampering?â
âHereâs the interesting part. I couldnât get the taste of smoke out of my mouth.â
Sebastian frowned. âSmoke? From the crash?â
âNo, thatâs just it. It didnât taste like engine smoke. It was more electrical. So I followed my nose and, sure enough, I found something.â
âWhat?â Sebastian prodded as he ground tight steps the length of Oliviaâs room.
âSomeone swapped the brake switch fuse from a 5 amp to a 40 amp.â
Sebastian stilled. âWhat does that mean?â
âMeans that if she woulda gone five more minutes down the road, smoke woulda billowed up and blinded her. She woulda choked on it. Her eyes woulda watered. Then you coulda blamed the accident on tampering.â
Five more minutes would have put her on Mountain Roadâclose enough to run into a sheer wall of granite or into Trotterâs Pond if she lost sight of the road.
Kershaw.
âCan you tell when the swap was made?â Sebastian asked.
âNo way to tell for sure. Anytime between the last time she used the car and got into it again. Itâd take about ten minutes for the wiring harness to catch fire.â
And
