Chapter 28

chapter

twenty-eight

“We need to develop a plan,” Gage said, purposefully shifting the conversation. “One of our first orders of business should be figuring out why you’ve lost your memory, Nia.”

Of all the things she’d expected him to say, that probably hadn’t been one of them. But he couldn’t stop thinking about it. They needed to find some answers.

Nia pulled her legs beneath her and sank deeper into the chair. “I keep thinking about it, and I just don’t know.”

“No tenderness on your head from where you could have been hit?” Austin grabbed another piece of pizza.

“No.” Nia touched the side of her head as if feeling again for bumps or sore spots. “It was one of the first things I thought about.”

“No needle marks on your arms or anywhere else?” Gage asked.

“I thought there was a spot on my arm at first, but I think it was just a mosquito bite.” She paused. “I suppose something could have been slipped into my drink. But, at this point, I’m not sure how much good it would do to go to the hospital and be tested. The risk may not be worth the reward. It would take a lot of time to get the results.”

“I’m not sure what else it could be if it wasn’t a drug,” Gage said. “Let’s say something was put in your drink. Did you walk away from the table during dinner?”

Nia shook her head. “I didn’t. Rob and I met for a couple of hours, and the conversation was pretty intense. There were no opportunities to get up.”

“You don’t think that Rob . . . ?” Austin didn’t finish his question.

Gage swung his head back and forth. “He wouldn’t have put a drug into her drink. I know him. He wouldn’t do that.”

“I can’t see him doing that either. But unless the waiter did it . . . I don’t know how it would have gotten there. I suppose someone who’s amazing with sleight of hand tricks could have walked past.” She frowned. “But Rob and I were sitting against the wall, and I just can’t see it happening.”

Gage’s thoughts still raced. He didn’t have any other good explanations as to what could have happened.

The last thing Nia remembered was being in that restaurant, so something had clearly occurred after their meal.

They needed to retrace the timeline. They’d find some answers if they did.

“You said the conversation was intense.” Gage shifted in his seat. “Did Rob give you any clues about why he wanted to back out of the contract? Have you remembered anything new?”

Nia stared off in the distance, her eyes darting back and forth as if she tried to recall something. “Rob just told me he thought he could improve on the project and that it wasn’t ready for release. I pressed him to go deeper with that. I’d seen the app myself and thought it was great. Honestly, when he told me that, I thought he was being too hard on himself. That’s why I didn’t capitulate to what he was saying.”

“So you weren’t going to let him back out of the contract?” Gage clarified.

“It wasn’t as simple as that.” Nia ran a hand through her hair, leaving her curls standing on end. “We had signed a legally binding contract. This wasn’t something that just popped up in a day after we signed the paperwork. This deal has been in the works for months. Up until yesterday, Rob was excited about it.”

“So this goes back to the fact that something happened between his meeting in your office and the time that he called and asked you to meet him for dinner . . .” Gage wished he had some type of magic device that would let him see into the past. If only those existed.

“Someone texted him right as he was leaving my office. Then he had a call from that same number twenty minutes later,” Nia noted. “My best guess is that phone call was what set this in motion. If we could figure out who made the call, then maybe we could get some answers. But like I said, the call came from a burner.”

“Do we know if Rob went back to his apartment in between going to your office and meeting you that night?” Austin took a long swig of Mountain Dew as he waited for their answer.

“We don’t know for sure,” Nia said.

“We could try to track down the security footage to show him from the time he left and see where he went after that,” Gage said. “It’s going to take work. We’re going to have to pinpoint every camera between there and his apartment and see what happened.”

Nia sat up straighter. “If we could do something like that, then we could also see what happened between the time at the restaurant and the time I got to Rob’s apartment. Maybe that could provide us with some answers as well.”

Gage glanced at Austin. “Do you think you could work on that for us?”

“Absolutely.” Austin nodded.

“What are we going to do?” Nia turned back to Gage. “I know it’s late. But I don’t want to just sit here and twiddle my thumbs.”

“Maybe we should try to track down Brittany,” Gage suggested. “She did ask for my help. And her actions all seem pretty suspicious, wouldn’t you say?”

“I would,” Nia agreed.

Gage glanced back at Austin. “Where did you say you saw her again?”

“She was at a place called Avenue 12.”

“Why in the world would Brittany go back to Avenue 12?” Nia asked as she and Gage left the hotel room.

“That’s an excellent question,” Gage said. “Something we’re going to need to figure out.”

Austin had given her a new phone since Nia’s had been disabled. This one was untraceable, and she’d routed her old number to it. Gage had insisted that it was only safe she had a cell in case something went wrong.

She agreed.

Nia glanced at her outfit. She’d cleaned the smudges from her face, but her clothes were a different story. They still looked dirty.

“I don’t think I’ll be allowed into the club wearing this.” Then she shot a glance at him. “You either—no offense.”

“No offense taken. Let’s see if the boutique downstairs is still open. We might have a few minutes until it closes if we’re lucky. I know they sell some high-end clothes in there.”

Just as they got downstairs, an unsmiling middle-aged brunette pulled metal gates over the opening of the clothing store.

Gage strode up to the woman and plastered on an apologetic smile. “I know you’re closing, and I hate to ask you this. But is there any chance my girlfriend and I can grab new outfits? We lost our luggage, and we really want to go out tonight. I promise we’ll be quick.”

An annoyed expression crossed her face, and she continued to tug the gate over the storefront. “I’m getting ready to leave.”

“I know, and that’s why I hate to ask. But what if we only took five minutes of your time? We flew all the way here from Des Moines, and we certainly didn’t come here so we could stay in the hotel all night.”

The woman’s eyes flickered back and forth between the two of them. Her gaze assessed the smudges on their clothes from being underneath that car, and she sneered.

“You certainly can’t go out on the town looking like you do.” She paused and let out a breath through her nose. Then she nodded and sighed. “Five minutes. That’s all I’m giving you. Please don’t make me regret this. My daughter has a band concert tonight.”

“We’ll make it worth your time,” Gage promised. “And you won’t be late. I don’t want that on my shoulders.”

She stepped aside, and Nia and Gage rushed inside.

“Find something understated,” Gage whispered as they wove between clothing racks. “We need to stay below the radar.”

Those had been Nia’s thoughts also.

She scrambled around, looking for something she could wear that would be a sure fit. She knew she didn’t have time to try anything on. She found a black bodycon-style dress in her size, as well as a pair of strappy black sandals and a wristlet.

They would have to do.

Besides, black would help her to blend in, and the stretchy fabric would be comfortable .

Gage had already grabbed something as well, and they checked out.

Then Gage flashed another smile at the snooty employee as he slipped her a couple extra bills, and the woman’s shoulders relaxed some.

Was Gage one of those guys? The kind who could charm people?

Nia had a feeling the answer was yes. However, he also had a sincerity about him that confused her. He was suspicious yet concerned. Accusatory but protective.

Who was Gage Pearson? Who was he really?

They slipped back into the lobby and disappeared into their respective bathrooms to get cleaned up and changed.

After Nia put on the dress, she stared at herself in the mirror. It would be better if she had some makeup to touch up her face. But, overall, she looked much better—and much more appropriate for going out tonight.

Now she only hoped that Gage approved.