Chapter 5

Trevor must not have heardLarchmont correctly. But his boss’s expression remained stony, without the slightest trace of humor.

One of our enemies . . .

That would be hard to narrow down. Trevor and his colleagues had a long list of adversaries in their line of work.

Any of them might want to destroy Trevor, his colleagues, and/or the agency they worked for.

“You can’t be serious,” Trevor finally muttered. Why would Larchmont ever think that?

“I’m dead serious. Her past doesn’t check out.”

“What does that even mean?” Was this a mind game Larchmont was playing on him? His boss’s way of manipulating the situation?

“The real Sadie Carrington died in a car accident four years ago. The woman you befriended assumed her identity.”

Trevor narrowed his eyes. “Tell me more.”

“I don’t know this woman’s true identity yet, but she’s not the accountant she claims to be. That’s where you come in. You need to get close to her and find out who she really is. We need to know the truth.”

Trevor could see his boss’s point. If enemies wanted inside information on the Shadow Agency, he and his colleagues needed to know who would go to such desperate measures and why.

But personal and professional lines had intermingled, leaving things even more complicated than usual.

“If Sadie has an assumed identity, then she has a good reason for it,” Trevor finally said.

“Not in our line of work.”

Trevor opened his mouth to dispute what Larchmont said, but he couldn’t. His boss was right.

“She lost her memory,” Trevor said instead.

His eyes widened. He hadn’t known that yet.

“Hopefully, she’ll regain it,” Larchmont said. “When she does, you need to find out what she knows.”

Trevor clamped his mouth shut, not liking the thought of any of this.

“In the meantime, don’t tell her you knew each other before,” Larchmont added.

Trevor’s eyes widened at the audacity of his boss’s words. “Wouldn’t it be easier to get close to her if she knows about our prior relationship?”

Larchmont’s gaze locked with his. “Not knowing her beforehand makes you less of a liability if things go south or if the feds get involved.”

“The feds?” Trevor’s voice rose in surprise.

“If it turns out Sadie is trying to get classified information from you about your time in the military, you’ll want to distance yourself from her. As it stands right now, you just met because you saved her life. Get to know her, but keep her at arm’s length if you know what I mean.”

Trevor’s shoulders ached as he tried to comprehend everything Larchmont had said.

This couldn’t be happening.

He didn’t want to be in this position.

Yet, on the other hand, if Larchmont’s words were true, maybe Trevor should put personal distance between himself and Sadie.

Then another thought hit him: what if Sadie had been using him this whole time?

He couldn’t marry the image he had of Sadie with the image of the woman who might be a backstabber.

But the best operatives were great at what they did—great at subterfuge.

And if Sadie Carrington wasn’t even her real name . . . then who was she?

Could Trevor really have been this naive? It wasn’t usually a word used to describe him. He’d always been so cautious. So on edge. So unwilling to let his guard down.

But Sadie had been different.

He’d allowed her to slip past his defenses.

Maybe that had been his first mistake.

Still, the situation Larchmont had presented him with felt impossible.

His boss wanted him to get close to Sadie without sharing that the two of them had been dating. Trevor had to get close to her but not too close. Close enough to find out information but not close enough to be affiliated with her.

That seemed like the most torturous assignment he might ever receive.

“How am I supposed to do any of this?” Trevor finally dragged his gaze back to Larchmont.

“Someone tried to kill her.” Larchmont sounded as if he’d just been waiting for Trevor to ask. “She’ll need someone to stay close and keep her safe. She knows you found her and called 911, so she’ll already have a measure of trust with you. Tell her you work for a private security group. Everyone will think you were in the right place at the right time for the job. It will be a win-win.”

Trevor thought about Larchmont’s idea a moment and sighed. As he chewed on the plan, he glanced down the hallway.

A man had started around the corner but paused when he saw Trevor.

The next instant, the man turned and took off in a run.

Wasting no time, Trevor darted after him.

* * *

As Trevor rounded the corner, he saw the man was already gone.

What? How could this guy have disappeared so quickly?

He pushed himself forward, still searching for the man.

A flash of movement caught his eye.

It was him. The runner.

He’d ducked into the stairwell.

Trevor hurried after him, not wanting to make a scene but not wanting the guy to get away either.

A food service worker pushing a cart full of dinner trays appeared in front of him.

Trevor stopped so quickly his shoes squeaked. But he didn’t collide with the cart.

“Excuse me!” he yelled.

The woman scowled as he hurried past.

The diversion had taken entirely too much time.

Trevor reached the stairwell and paused.

Up or down?

He listened for footsteps.

Down, he decided.

He hurried to the first floor and burst out the doors.

A bustling lobby greeted him.

He scanned everyone there but saw no one suspicious. No one was running or looking over their shoulder.

Then he noticed the trashcan beside him and saw something black poking out.

He grabbed it and frowned.

The black jacket and hat. The man had ditched his outerwear.

Trevor glanced at the people around him.

The runner could be anyone in this crowd. But, most likely, the man was now gone.

Trevor’s jaw tightened in frustration.

Who had that been? Was Larchmont right? Was one of their enemies targeting the team? Was Sadie collateral damage? Or was she an enemy herself?

If so, it would take a while to narrow down the culprit. There were too many to count.

Could it be Jovi Casanova, the power-hungry rebel leader who’d tried to overthrow an entire government in eastern Europe?

William Burke, the arms dealer?

Johnson Gwen, the Ponzi scheme guru?

Of course, this was the area where he’d taken down Frederick Moreau, a drug trafficker. But Frederick was now behind bars—for life.

Trevor picked up the jacket and hat. He’d give it to Larchmont to be tested. Maybe there would be some DNA or fingerprints on the material.

For now, he needed to get back to Sadie.

Or whoever she really was.

But he knew this was far from over.

* * *

Sadie had to get a grip.

Falling apart right now wasn’t an option.

The man she’d seen outside . . . he hadn’t appeared in her room. Maybe he hadn’t come here to harm her. Maybe her brain was just going haywire.

She tried to concentrate instead on what she did know.

She drew in a deep gulp of air, trying to calm her breathing.

She’d been told her name. Sadie Carrington.

She knew she had a head injury she would need to be supervised for.

She knew she was at the hospital in Traverse City, Michigan.

None of that truly felt like enough, however.

A knock sounded at the door, and a fiftyish man wearing an ill-fitting suit stepped into the room. He was tall and thin with a thick brown mustache and a bland demeanor that matched his pasty skin.

“Detective Bennett with the Traverse City Police Department.” He moved his jacket aside to show her the badge at his waist. “I hope I’m not here at a bad time.”

“Time seems irrelevant right now.”

He paused beside her bed. “Understandable. I need to ask you some questions.”

“It’s going to be hard for me to answer considering I don’t remember anything. They said a car hit me. The man who found me . . . maybe he saw something. Can he come in while we talk?”

It was the strangest thing. There was no reason why Trevor should bring Sadie any semblance of comfort. She didn’t even know him.

From what she understood, he was simply a stranger who’d arrived at the beach at the same time she did.

But his eyes seemed kind.

Maybe there was something else he could offer. Or maybe she was just reaching for anything that might bring her some balance. Maybe that man was the only thing she really knew right now—even though she didn’t really know him.

“If you’re comfortable with him being here, I could talk to you both at the same time,” Detective Bennett continued. “Especially because you say you don’t remember anything until waking up here at the hospital.”

Sadie started to nod, but then remembered the pain that had caused last time. Instead, she responded in a raspy voice. “I said that because it’s true. Apparently, I have amnesia.”

Detective Bennett stepped into the hallway and said something to someone out of sight. A moment later, the man who’d introduced himself as Trevor strode inside.

He walked to the opposite side of the bed, his hands jammed into the pockets of the zip-up sweatshirt he had on over his pale-blue swim trunks.

Why was there a thin sheen of sweat across his forehead, almost as if he’d been exercising or something?

She tucked the observation away.

“You wanted to see me?” The man’s voice sounded tight as he glanced at the detective.

“We’re trying to form a timeline and put together a better picture of what happened,” Bennett said. “Maybe you can fill in some blanks.”

“Whatever I can do. I just can’t believe someone did this and drove away. They need to be found and brought to justice. Ms. Carrington could have been killed.”

“That’s why I’m here,” Detective Bennett said. “Tell me what happened from your perspective.”

Sadie listened as Trevor recounted his side of the story.

He told the detective about how he’d pulled into the beach parking lot. Had seen a dark-colored sedan charging toward a woman who was running away—but not fast enough.

How the driver had hit her and then squealed away.

Trevor said he wanted to go after the other vehicle, but he knew Sadie needed medical help. However, he did get a license plate number, and he rattled it off to the detective.

Bennett jotted it down. He’d jotted a lot of things down.

He picked up the cell phone near her bed and asked for her permission to look through it. She agreed. Thankfully, the cell had been tucked into the pocket of her jean shorts and not ruined during the accident.

The detective tapped the screen and then frowned.

More concern pulsed through Sadie as she watched his reaction. “What is it?”

“You don’t have a passcode or any saved contacts.”

She blinked. “What?”

She wasn’t sure about the passcode. But didn’t everyone have at least a few contacts in their phone?

“What about outgoing calls or text messages?” Her mind continued to race.

“There’s just one text that says: Running a few minutes late. Can’t wait to see you.” Detective Bennett studied her face. “You have no recollection of who may have sent that?”

“None. And there’s no one on my contact list who can come to fill me in on the details of my life. . .”

“I’d ask if you had any enemies, but I guess you don’t know that either.” The detective grimaced as if the words had slipped out unchecked. “My apologies.”

“You’re right. I don’t remember.” Yet Sadie didn’t feel as if she had enemies.

Could her gut remember things her brain could not?

She had no idea.

An image of the man she’d seen outside filled her mind again. She couldn’t stop thinking about him, thinking about her visceral reaction to seeing him.

She needed to figure out what that meant.

“Are you going to see what you can find out about me? Run a background check maybe? I should have a birth certificate or doctor’s records somewhere. Maybe the IRS could tell you where I work?”

“Of course, we’ll see what we can do. If it makes you feel better, there’s no Sadie Carrington in the system down at the station. You don’t have a police record. That was one of the first things we checked. We’d like to run your prints also.”

“That’s fine. Whatever you need.” She swallowed hard. “Maybe if you can find the man who hit me and left me to die, then you can find some answers.” It was the only thing that made sense to her now. But just how possible would that be? What if they never found this guy?

“That’s exactly what I’m hoping to do.” Bennett’s voice left no room for doubt. “I’ll be in touch. We’re going to figure out what happened and who you are exactly.”

“Okay,” Sadie said. “That sounds great.”

But a new thought hit her: What if she didn’t like what the detective found out? What if there were parts of her life she was better off not knowing?

She swallowed hard as she tried to push those questions aside.

The nurse stepped closer and started to change the fluid going into her IV. Then she paused and squinted. “This can’t be right.”

“What’s wrong?” Bennett asked.

“The orders say to give her this dextrose solution, but I can’t do that with a head injury. It would practically be a death wish.” She swung her head back and forth. “This could lead to a cerebral edema.”

“Who wrote the order?” Bennett’s scowl grew deeper.

“It says Dr. Conroy, but he would never do something like this.” Nurse Kate shook her head again as if truly perplexed.

Trevor stepped closer, his jaw visibly hardened and his hands on his hips. “If not Dr. Conroy, then who?”

Nurse Kate frowned. “I’m not sure what’s going on. I need to figure that out.”