Chapter 52

chapter

fifty-two

Nia’s mind reeled back in time.

Suddenly, she was laughing with Rob. Standing outside his apartment door.

She wasn’t sure why she was going inside. The two of them were just having friendly banter, almost as if the tense discussion at dinner hadn’t happened.

He unlocked the door, and they stepped inside.

Nia commented on how nice his place looked.

Rob set his keys on the entry table and then stepped farther inside, offering her something to drink.

She declined. Instead, she followed him into the living room.

As she paused near the couch, a man stepped from around the corner behind her.

Fear clutched her.

She couldn’t see his face. She only felt the knife pressed into her back. Only saw Rob’s face go pale .

“So glad to see that you guys could come join me,” the man muttered.

“You don’t have to do this,” Rob muttered. “Nia has nothing to do with this.”

“You know what I want. All you have to do is give it to me.”

“You and I both know I’m not going to do that.” Rob shook his head, a tremble to his voice.

“I told you if you didn’t there would be consequences.” The intruder pressed the knife harder into her back, the blade on the brink of breaking through her clothing to her skin.

“You need to put the knife down.” Rob patted the air with his hands as he tried to get the intruder to calm down.

Nia’s mind raced. Did she recognize that voice?

She wasn’t sure.

She wanted to react. Wanted to say something. To do something. To ask questions.

But she couldn’t.

She was frozen where she was. Even her vocal cords seemed immobile.

“I need something that you have,” the intruder said. “And you’re going to give it to me.”

“I’m never going to do that,” Rob said. “Never.”

“Nia?” A deep voice called to her, jostling her from the moment.

Yet, just as she was frozen in real life, she was also frozen in the memory.

“Nia,” the voice said louder .

The sound tried to pull her back, but she wasn’t ready to come. She wanted to see this man’s face. To recognize him.

But the memory was still blank.

No matter how hard she tried to remember, she couldn’t.

Someone shook her. “Nia!”

She blinked.

Her thoughts slammed back into the present.

She saw Gage standing in front of her, a wrinkle of worry on his brow.

“Are you okay?” He gripped her arms.

She started to say fine but stopped herself. “A memory came back.”

“What?” His voice trailed with anticipation. “Do you remember what happened?”

“Not all of it.” Not even enough of it to answer very many of her questions.

But if this memory came back then maybe more would too.

Gage listened as Nia recited what she remembered.

She’d been so close to recalling who the person might have been. Even if Gage hadn’t snapped her from the thoughts, he wasn’t sure she would have remembered more. Not based on what she’d said.

But now it was clear that someone had come into the apartment and wanted something. It still didn’t make sense why Nia had come up here with Rob. The move didn’t fit her personality or Rob’s.

They could figure that out later.

Right now, Gage wondered if the answers were somewhere in this room.

The memory had hit Nia after she’d looked at that tablet. Was that a coincidence?

Gage looked at the screen, but he didn’t see anything of note. Only a whole bunch of app icons.

He frowned. Maybe the tablet hadn’t triggered anything.

His only hope was that with time, Nia’s memories would come back. That the pieces would come together. That answers would be found.

But Nia’s sister had been abducted. Time wasn’t on their side right now.

He glanced around the space one more time.

What were they missing here in this room?

Whatever secrets Rob was hiding had to be here somewhere.