Black Jack (5 page)

than who she had been.

“Several times,” he assured her. “Tell me, Belle, how severe is the amnesia?”

She couldn’t decipher the underlying emotion in his voice. Part concern, part something

else that had her wondering not just who this man was, but what he was to her.

“The past six years are gone,” she answered truthfully, though she wasn’t certain why she

had. This man had her guard up, yet a part of her was reaching out to him, desperate to trust

him. “Did you know me well?”

His hands tightened at her hips. “I’ll let you decide that. Meet me tonight at the tavern,

alone. No mother, no driver. You could ride that racy little motorcycle you looked so good on.

The one you keep in storage here in Hagerstown.”

She rode a motorcycle? Since when did she ride a motorcycle?

She shook her head almost instinctively, rejecting the idea that she would, that she could

ride, even as she remembered the wind in her hair and the power pulsing between her thighs.

“I’ll be there at eleven.” His fingers caressed her hips. “Will you be there, Lilly?”

“I’ll be there.” The decision was made so quickly, so instinctively, that she almost called

the words back.

“Good girl.” Were those his lips brushing against the shell of her ear?

Lilly shivered at the exquisite sensation of warmth, almost a kiss, as she took in a hard,

shocked breath.

“I’ve missed you, Lilly.” Was that a note of regret in his voice?

Lilly fought the overwhelming urge to turn and confront him, to demand the answers she

was certain he had. There was no doubt he had known her during those lost years. There was

no doubt he may have possibly known her intimately.

“Who am I?” The words slipped past her lips, the emotion in her voice undisguised, the

fear that she fought to keep hidden revealing itself in the husky, plaintive tone of her voice.

Behind her, the warm male body bracketing hers was still for a long moment before she felt

the silent sigh ripple across his chest.

“We’ll discuss that tonight.” There was a promise in his voice and, a part of her feared, a

warning.

A warning about what? The truth perhaps?

The truth could be a double-edged sword, her uncle had warned her several times when she

questioned if he had had the past six years of her life investigated once he learned she was

alive. Surely he had, yet he refused to give her a straight answer.

The evasiveness had been driving her insane. Perhaps, this time, someone would give her a

straight answer.

“And if I don’t show up?”

His hands eased away from her slowly as the sound of her mother’s voice discussing the

merits of a particular porcelain plate filtered through the dim room.

“Then I guess you don’t show up,” he murmured. “Perhaps, Lilly, there’re things about

yourself that you don’t really want to know.”

As she tried to understand that comment he slipped away from her, the warmth of his body

no more than a dream as she turned quickly to try and catch a glimpse of the man who had

held her so intimately.

Was he the one following her? Was he the one that filled her fantasies as well as her

nightmares?

However, all she saw was his back as he slipped out the door and moved quickly past the

long, narrow window of the shop.

Lilly began to race after him. Waiting until tonight for answers suddenly seemed less than

feasible. She wanted those answers now.

“Lilly, Mrs. Longstrom has the most gorgeous lace tablecloth in the back room.” Her

mother’s voice stopped her as she took the first step. “You simply have to come back here and

see it. I believe it would be perfect for the breakfast room at the manor.”

Lilly turned quickly back to her mother, a question forming on her lips, a demand to know

if her mother had seen the man speaking to her. If she knew him.

In the moment that the words would have slipped past her lips, she snapped her teeth

quickly together. Her mother hadn’t seen him, or she would have already posed the same

questions to Lilly.

Angelica suddenly paused, her gaze sharpening as though she sensed or saw something in

Lilly’s face that concerned her or perhaps angered her.

“I believe it’s time we go.” Angelica moved quickly across the room despite the height of

the heels she wore with her alabaster slacks and matching sleeveless blouse.

Lilly protested as her mother’s fingers curled gently around her arm and urged her toward

the door. “Really, Mother, we don’t need to leave.”

She had to get her bearings, had to make sense of what was suddenly happening. What she

was feeling.

She should never have had such a reaction to a man she couldn’t see, only hear. A man who

seemed more familiar to her than her own body.

She followed her mother from the antiques shop, back to the busy tree-lined street. Pausing,

Angelica Harrington made a quick call to the chauffeur, gave him their location, then turned

to her daughter with a worried frown.

“I tried to do too much at once,” Angelica said, the apology in her voice pricking at Lilly’s

conscience. “I should have allowed you to rest a little longer.”

“You’re going to have to get used to this, Mother,” Lilly informed her firmly as she let her

gaze survey the busy street with narrowed eyes behind her dark sunglasses. “Just as I have to

get used to myself.”

Lilly didn’t catch her mother’s look of consternation. The older woman watched her

daughter as one might watch an alien, waiting, watching for any signs of danger. But together

with the wariness there was also pain.

A mother’s dream had come true. The daughter she had thought she had lost forever had

returned home. Her child lived and breathed. She was given the chance few parents who had

lost children were given. A chance to say all the things she hadn’t taken the time to say before.

A chance to kiss her daughter good night. A chance to see her smile. Hear her laughter.

Perhaps.

Travis wondered if Lilly had learned to laugh again. He knew the few times he had managed

to pull laughter from her it was like seeing sunshine for the first time.

He wondered if her mother saw sunshine when she saw her daughter’s smile, or heard her

laughter. He wondered if she’d seen that smile or that laughter since her daughter had been

home. God knew, Lilly deserved at least a few moments of happiness before the world went

crazy on her again. And before her mother possibly lost her daughter all over.

One thing was certain, beneath the impatience and flashes of irritation Angelica

Harrington’s heart was also breaking as she watched the young woman she had been told was

her daughter.

There was no doubt Lilly was definitely Victoria Lillian Harrington. DNA proved it, her

dental records proved it, but there were no fingerprints to back it up. Her fingerprints had

been removed the day she signed on with the Elite Ops. With her return the blame had been

lain on the fiery car crash.

Standing well out of her line of vision, he watched her closely, a smile tugging at his lips as

she slid her sunglasses on and continued to watch the street with what he knew were eagle-

sharp eyes.

She’d caught him following her several times throughout the afternoon. Each time she had

stopped, arrowed in on him, and watched him with a familiarity he knew did nothing but

confuse her.

He’d seen that confusion. He’d felt it. He’d nearly tasted it as he stood behind her and

breathed in her scent.

She was fighting to make sense of the world she was in and the memories she had lost, but

she was still game to fight for the answers.

She would be there tonight. There wasn’t a doubt in Travis’s mind that she wouldn’t find

the bar in time to meet with him. He wondered if she would make it there alone, or if her

shadow, the bodyguard her uncle had hired, would manage to follow her.

Lilly Belle, code-named Night Hawk, would never have allowed herself to be tracked to a

meeting. She would have ensured she arrived alone, and if she didn’t, then she would ensure

the one following her regretted it.

That was his Lilly. She could be merciless, but in being so, he’d watched, year by year,

another piece of her soul erode.

Those wounds were still there, in her eyes, along with her confusion, her wariness.

“What do you think?”

Travis glanced over his shoulder at the towering former Russian who stood carefully back

from the edge of the building.

Nik Steele watched Lilly and her mother, his icy blue eyes lasered in on them intently.

“I think we need to plan for when all hell breaks loose,” Travis grunted as a limo drew to a

stop in front of the two women.

The chauffeur jumped out, and Travis couldn’t help the amused twitch of his lips. He had to

admit, Wild Card made a hell of a chauffeur.

“Looks slick in that perky little hat, huh?” Nik said. “Maybe we should send pictures to his

wife.”

Travis snickered at the thought. Wild Card’s wife was a hell of a woman; he had no doubt

she wouldn’t ooh and aah over how cute she thought he looked. It was enough to make a

single man shudder in fear. Or in envy.

“Save the pictures,” Travis advised him. “Maybe we could throw darts at them instead.”

Nik’s amused grunt was a rough, broken sound, part amusement, part mockery. The man

never laughed. He rarely smiled. But hell, Travis couldn’t remember the last time he’d

laughed himself.

“So what are we putting in our report to Live Wire?” Nik asked him as Wild Card helped

Lilly and Angelica into the car.

What was he putting in his report to Jordan?

“She’s viable,” he stated.

“Really?” The skepticism in Nik’s voice wasn’t lost on Travis. “That’s not how I saw

things, Black Jack.”

“Do you intend to report differently?” As the limo pulled away, Travis turned back to the

mountain they now called Renegade.

Nik was the only one of the team that seemed to change code names like underwear. Jordan

couldn’t seem to make his mind up about the big, blond-haired giant.

“Not me.” Nik shook his head firmly as he glanced back at Travis. “If I were you, I’d talk

to Wild Card, though.” He nodded in the direction the limo had taken. “Make sure he has the

same report. Because I’m betting ‘viable’ isn’t the word he would choose either.”

But it was the one he would use in his report, Travis promised himself. He’d talk to Wild

Card. Tonight, he’d meet with Night Hawk. The game was about to begin. That meant

“viable” had to be the word they all used. Or Night Hawk would pay the price.

Under no circumstances could the Elite Ops be revealed. The damage it could cause, the

danger it could represent to them all, was too high.

If Lilly wasn’t considered viable and an asset to the operation, then she was a risk. And all

risks had to be eliminated.

Immediately.

lilly had thought
there would be no way to find a

motorcycle she hadn’t even known she owned. The idea of it intrigued her, though. The

thought of riding wild and free with nothing but the wind surrounding her filled her with a

sense of heady excitement.

Finding the damned thing would be the hard part. Or so she had thought.

Lilly didn’t have memories of the past six years, but she had a strong sense of intuition.

As she rode through Hagerstown in the rented cab, her gaze narrowed on street signs and

buildings, Lilly found herself pulling free bits of memory. She could remember riding through

town in the dark, but she didn’t remember why.

A certain street sign snagged a memory and she had the driver turn. A building pulled at a

memory, a sense of familiarity struck her at an intersection, and soon she had the driver

stopping in front of a lot filled with storage units.

She stared at the long lines of blue and white units. A flashback tore through her mind,

causing a sudden shaft of pain to seize her temples.

It was here. She knew the unit number and the code to the lock. Her temples throbbed with

pain, but she knew. The memory of it was there, a little hazy, but present.

Paying the driver, Lilly left the car and entered the lot, walking quickly to the farthest line

of units. She could feel the security cameras trained on her as she kept her face turned

carefully from them.

The storage unit she moved to was a simple ten by ten with a combination key and digital

code lock.

Lilly bent to the edge of the bottom frame, moving aside the thick layer of gravel carefully

until she revealed the cement pad beneath the unit. There, a small depression had been

hollowed out of the cement. The key rested there, wrapped in a protective, heavy plastic case.

Within seconds she had the unit unlocked and the key returned to its resting place.

Opening the door slowly, Lilly reached in, flipped the light on, and entered the unit as she

closed the door behind her.

There was more than a motorcycle sitting there. Lilly felt her throat tighten, her heart racing

out of control. Perspiration dotted her forehead, and for a moment she swore she would

become ill. On one wall a series of shelves had been hung. A wide black case sat in the middle

of the shelf, surrounded by smaller ones.