Remember Jamie Baker (29 page)

Ryan sucked in a huge breath and let it out in a long, hard puff. “Okay. Okay, Jamie, I get it.”

I nearly collapsed from relief.

Ryan’s face turned hard, and he strutted back to me as if he was about to make a demand and wasn’t going to take no for an answer. “Fine. You need this. But I need
you
, so I’m going with you.”

I tried not to smile, but I failed. Seriously. Ryan Miller was perfect.

I grabbed his hand and gave it a squeeze. “I would love that, but you can’t. Donovan would use us against each other. I need to go alone so that he has no leverage other than my memories. Those are something he can’t physically hurt.”

“Jamie—”

I covered his mouth with my hand. “I’ll make you a deal. Give me twenty-four hours. Give me one day to try. Then you and the ACEs come get me, and I’ll let you put your ring back on my finger, whether I’ve got my memories back or not.”

Ryan swallowed again and leaned his head to the side, cracking his neck. “That,” he said slowly, “is a dirty, dirty move, babe.”

The smirk that split my face just then had to rival all of his best ones. What was it he’d said to me? “I have no intention of playing fair, Goldilocks.”

Ryan, though he pursed his lips as if he was fighting a smile, folded his arms across his chest and cocked an eyebrow at me. “Goldilocks? You finally give me a pet name and
that’s
the one you choose?”

I shrugged, but it was hardly nonchalant when my grin had doubled in size. “Sunshine…Goldilocks…they’re both all yellow and shiny. It seemed to fit.”

Ryan finally cracked, bursting into happy laughter, and tugged me back into his arms. “Fine. One day. And then you’re
mine
, Sunshine. No matter what.”

I shuddered from the pure animalistic possessiveness of his statement. What a caveman. Still, dopey lovesick woman that I am, I giggled and said, “Deal.” Then I let him kiss me silly until someone finally cleared their throat to get our attention.

“Sorry, Major.” I wasn’t sorry for the PDA, just that I was about to defy him. “I know you disapprove of me going, but I really do need this. I wouldn’t do it if it was going to hurt your plans, but you have everything you need to stop him without me now. And since Donovan can’t control me, I won’t be a threat to you. And really, it’s my life. It should be my call.”

Major Wilks held a scowl for an eternity, and when I didn’t break beneath it, he finally gave up. Rubbing his eyes with his finger and thumb, he let out an exhausted sigh and said, “You are very inconvenient, Angel.”

The insult made me proud. “I’m aware of that, Major. Sorry.”

Hearing the smile in my voice, he glanced up and pierced me with a no-nonsense stare. But his lips twitched. The old softy couldn’t fool me. “Have a little faith in me, Major. I’ll be fine. It’s only a day, right? I’m trusting in you and your team to come rescue me.”

He sighed again. And I swear he
aged
a good ten years. “Very well, Angel. Since I can’t stop you. You have one day. But tomorrow, once my team has a solid plan in place, we are coming for Donovan no matter if you’ve successfully retrieved your memories or not.”

“I understand. Thank you, sir.”

He nodded. “And thank you, Angel. We couldn’t have found him without you.”

“Oh, that’s not true. You had Ryan. I’m sure he’d have found a way eventually.”

Major Wilks chuckled, but Ryan shook his head. “No, I wouldn’t have. I was never looking for Donovan. I was looking for you. And now that I’ve found you…” He grinned and captured me in his arms yet again. “Marry me, Sunshine.”

I laughed. “Didn’t we just have this conversation?”

I started to pull away, but he wouldn’t let me. “I can’t wait until tomorrow. Promise me now,” he insisted. “Take my ring with you…just in case.”

My heart broke a little. “I won’t forget you again. I
promise
.”

“Fine. Then just wear it for my sake. You’re going to see Teddy, after all.”

Correction: my heart
melted
a little.

He pulled the ring from his pocket—because of course he’d been carrying it around all this time,
just in case
. When he slid it on my finger, even though I hadn’t told him yes yet, I snorted. “Caveman.”

“Say yes, Jamie. Promise you’ll marry me, or I’m not letting you go.”

As if I could resist him? Still, this was me we were talking about, so I had to put up at least a little fight before I gave in to him. “I don’t know,” I teased. “If I give you what you want right now, what incentive will you have to come get me tomorrow?”

His eyes filled with heat and he gripped my waist tightly. “Trust me, babe; I have plenty of incentive.”

The way he squeezed me against him was in no way innocent, and in every way filled with promise. Oh, my holy lightning bolts. Shiver. Me. Timbers. I’d just created a monster.

Ryan crashed his mouth on mine and gave me a toe-curling kiss that had me ready to cause a nuclear meltdown. “Say you’ll marry me,” he growled when he managed to break our mouths apart.

“I will,” I gasped. “I so, so, so will.”

It was nearing 9:00 p.m.
, but I didn’t waste any time waiting till morning to contact Donovan. I was sure Major Wilks would come crash the party as soon as he had his attack planned. The ACEs were very efficient. I’d be lucky if I even got a whole day.

I made the call from a payphone in Florida, so it could have been anyone, but the voice on the other end of the line still knew it was me before I said anything. “Hello, Miss Baker. I’m glad you finally called.”

This was not the voice of the man I’d met in Boston. This man sounded slightly older, and more regal. Or maybe
pompous
was a more accurate term. “Donovan?”

“Very good, Miss Baker.” There was a smile in his reply. “It’s good to hear from you. It’s been a while.”

“If you say so.”

He chuckled. “I take it the serum worked?”

Donovan was all polite and friendly, but short and curt was all I could manage in reply. “I dreamed.”

“That’s wonderful. So, you believe that I can help you now?”

“You know I do, or I wouldn’t have called.”

He sighed over the receiver, as if disappointed by my lack of friendliness. “I’m not an evil man, you know.”

I snorted. “Skip the platitudes, doc. You know I want my memories, and I know you won’t give them to me unless I come to you alone, so just tell me where to go.”

He sighed again. “Very well. Are you familiar with the Santa Monica Pier in California?”

I’d never been, but I’d at least heard of it. “I’ll find it.”

“Good. Walk to the very end of the pier and take a seat. My retrieval team will find you once they’ve deemed you are truly alone.”

I was relieved that he’d picked a public place to meet. Still, I shivered, remembering my last encounter with his superthugs. “Is this retrieval team going to try to kill me like that last one you sent? Because that would be very unfortunate. For your men, I mean.”

“Yes, I suppose it would be unfortunate, considering my last team has failed to check in since I sent them to collect you…?”

He was fishing for information on his team. May as well give it to him. “Kind of hard to call the boss when they’re dead.”

Okay, so only one of his soldiers was dead, and it hadn’t been my doing, but he didn’t need to know that.

Donovan’s reaction was exactly what I’d hoped for
. “Dead?”

I smiled at the shock in his tone. “Unfortunately. Obviously I didn’t mean for things to get so out of hand—I’m not a murderer—but accidents do happen, doc. I’m not always one hundred percent in control of my power, especially when I’m upset, and I don’t take kindly to people trying to kill me.”

There was a pause, and then Donovan slowly said, “No. I imagine not.” The cheerful politeness in his voice was gone. I took a sick amount of pleasure in the fact that I’d upset him. Lorenz had to be one of his favorite minions. He had to be feeling that loss.

When he spoke again, he voice was smoothed out, but I heard his teeth grind together for those few seconds it took him to gain composure. “There will be no need for violence this time. I assure you, you will not be harmed. Unfortunately, I can’t promise the same for any of your friends, should you try to bring them with you. And my men will have to scan you for any tracking devices. You understand.”

“Of course.” I dropped the sickly sweet act and let all of my danger creep back into my voice. “So long as
you
understand that I’m coming willingly. I don’t need to be
dragged
in. If any of your men so much as touch me, I can’t promise they won’t end up as fried as your last crew. I come in as a
guest
, not a prisoner or a lab rat. Or I come in as an enemy. If anyone tries to lock me up or knock me out, we’ll have another Las Vegas on our hands. Get what I’m saying?”

“I understand.”

I snickered when I heard a faint hint of his pulse. For me to hear it over the phones like that, it had to be thumping in his ears. Pissing him off felt so good I was almost looking forward to the next twenty-four hours. “Great. Then I’ll see you soon.”

I hung up the phone without waiting for a reply, cherishing the thought that he was annoyed to be hung up on. He probably wasn’t the kind of man who got that very often.

Before I headed for California, I pulled my Me Notebook from my purse. I had a new word I needed to add to my personalities list:
aggravating
. I grinned as I scribbled the trait beneath all of Ryan’s add-ins. He would probably see this last one as another pessimistic quality, but I couldn’t help feeling my ability to be annoying was one of my greatest talents.

. . . . .

The pickup at the pier went smoother than I’d expected. As promised, Donovan’s men hadn’t tried to manhandle me at all. They’d even come in regular street clothes—no Jamie-proof electricity suits this time. They used some kind of device they stole from a
Star Trek
episode to determine that there wasn’t any kind of tracking device anywhere on my person and then simply asked me to come with them. It was kind of boring, actually—not that I was complaining about a lack of them trying to kill me.

We ran so far north that, despite the superspeed, I was nearly frostbitten by the time we reached the small group of buildings making up the research compound. We were in Canada. That was all I knew. Unless we’d gone
past
Canada and were officially in Santa Claus’s territory. Seriously, it was a possibility.

On the bright side, I was expected, and they knew I’d be freaking freezing. I was greeted with a blanket, a cup of hot tea—not Magic Tea, but I wasn’t going to be picky—and a chair by a roaring fire.

It wasn’t until I’d stopped shivering that I took notice of my surroundings. There had been a group of cement buildings that looked like exactly what you’d expect of an arctic research station in the middle of freaking nowhere. I’d expected the inside to remind me a lot of the boring white walls of NORAD. But, minus an obvious lack of windows, the building we were in felt more like a fancy ski lodge.

I was sitting in a high wingback chair perched on a plush polar bear skin rug—hopefully faux, but I couldn’t tell—in front of a roaring fire that had a large moose head hanging above it. There was a small end table to my right, where my tea and a small tray of snacks had been set, and then another chair to match the one I sat in. I still felt the chill from my run through the far North, but the teacup in my hand and the heat of the fire were thawing me nicely. The lighting was dim, and the room was fairly quiet save a few people shuffling about and the wind howling outside.

When Donovan approached, I knew it was him by the soft off-kilter click that preceded each step he took. I didn’t remember the man, but I knew he walked with a cane. He took a seat in the chair opposite me and waited. I felt the weight of his stare, knew he was waiting for me to acknowledge him, but I couldn’t pull my gaze away from the fire to greet him.

This place, with the fire and the rug and the snow, reminded me of a memory. One that wasn’t mine. One that should have been mine, but was gone. The description Ryan had given me of our first time together. From the moment I sat down, my heart had begun to ache. It made me
desperate
to remember. Donovan couldn’t have known, but if he wanted me to play along with his games, this was the perfect first strike.

“Why so sad, Angel?”

The ACEs called me Angel. In a way, it was my name. But the way Donovan said it just then sounded more like a term of endearment. He’d spoken softly, but had lacked empathy. He hadn’t asked out of concern; he’d asked out of curiosity. He didn’t deserve an answer, but I gave him one anyway.

“Memories are more than people realize,” I said, looking into the dancing flames of the fire. “They’re knowledge. They’re power. They’re motivation. Identity. They’re the very essence of who we are.”

Donovan took his time responding. “I believe you’re speaking more of experiences, Miss Baker. Not the mere memories of them.”

I finally slid my gaze to him. He was every bit the man I expected a narcissistic billionaire to be. He was in his sixties and very nice-looking for someone of his age. He was slender, with silver-gray hair and a charming smile.

He had an air of confidence and self-importance, yet he gave me every single ounce of his attention. He was sitting in his chair, but turned toward me and leaned forward as if waiting with bated breath for my next response, as if he planned to hang on my every word. His eyes were alight with intelligence and fascination.

“Maybe,” I said. “But what are experiences without the memory of them?”

Donovan’s brows raised slightly and his smile fell from the phony polite one he’d been wearing into something softer, more genuine. “That’s very insightful, Miss Baker. I’m impressed.”

I couldn’t care less about his opinion of me. “It’s not rocket science. If I can’t remember my past, it does me no good to have lived it. The knowledge and power I gained from my experiences are gone. Without my memory, my experiences aren’t even mine anymore. They’re just stories people tell me about someone else. About a girl they knew once. A girl that’s no longer me. I have no memory. Therefore, those experiences are not mine. I’ve lost them.”

“That must be difficult.”

“You have no idea,” I muttered, bitterness creeping into my voice. My gaze returned to the fire. “Everyone thinks they understand. They try to be supportive, try to be encouraging, but they don’t really
know.
They
can’t
know what it’s like to truly have nothing. To
be
nothing. No one.” I gulped, swallowing back the overwhelming urge to cry. “I’ve lost everything, Mr. Donovan. I’ve lost
myself.
”

Donovan sat back in his chair and was silent for a minute. “I see,” he whispered, winning my attention again.

“See what?”

“Why you’ve come.”

He was just now figuring that out? Was the man an idiot?

The question must have read on my face, because he smiled and gave his head a small shake. “When my men confirmed that you were truly alone and had no tracking device, I was suspicious. It was out of character—for you and for Wilks. I thought for sure you would try to come up with some sort of plan. Use the opportunity Chen gave you to try to find me. To stop me.”

We did have a plan, but it was better for him to think we didn’t, and easy enough for me to fake it when I could give him plenty of truth mixed in with my act. “Believe me, we tried. I wanted to. I disagree with what you’re doing here, and if I could stop you, I would.” He frowned, but didn’t look surprised. “The simple fact of the matter is you have me in a corner. I’ve tried everything else humanly possible to try and get my memory back, but you’re the only man on Earth who can do it.”

His frown was replaced with a proud smile. He sat up straighter in his chair and puffed up his chest a little. It took everything in me not to roll my eyes.

“You’re my only option, and I’m
that
desperate to get my memories back. As much as I wanted to work with the ACEs to take you down, I knew if I did, you wouldn’t give me what I want. What I
need
. Sadly, my selfishness won out over the good of humanity this time, and now here I am. Major Wilks couldn’t stop me from leaving, and trust me, he was raging mad.”

Donovan chuckled. “I believe it.”

I yawned. It was unavoidable. The fire had warmed me, the tea had relaxed me, and I’d just run from Colorado, to Florida, to California, to the North freaking Pole after being in a fight with a superthug. I was exhausted. Not to mention sore, with a pounding headache.

“It’s late.” Donovan rose to his feet. “I can show you to a room if you’d like, or am I correct in assuming you’d prefer to begin the process of retrieving your memories right away? We will need to first do some preliminary testing to see how much of an effect the serum Chen gave you had and make sure it didn’t cause any unexpected side effects. After that, if everything looks good, we can give you more serum, and you can get a good night’s rest while it works its magic. You’ll be a new woman by morning.”

And there were the warning bells I’d been waiting for since I’d arrived. I shot him a sharp glance. “Just like that? You’re just going to start the process of healing me? No making me wait, trying to negotiate for something in return, making me do a bunch of Jamie’s-a-super-freak tests first?”

Donovan chewed on my suspicion for a moment. The wheels in his mind spun as he tried to decide how to handle me. I was dangerous, volatile, and unpredictable, after all. Was that not the report he fed his superthugs?

The longer he waited to give me an answer, the more I was certain he was trying to spin a story I would accept. “Don’t do that,” I warned him. “Don’t feed me a bunch of bull. As much as I love a great pastry, I don’t like things sugarcoated. I was straight up with you. I don’t like you, and I don’t trust you. You have something I need, and that’s the only reason I’m not roasting you right now.”

When his eyes flashed with anger, I huffed and climbed to my feet. “Oh, don’t act all offended. You don’t like or trust me, either. You don’t even see me as a person. I’m a test subject to you. You’re only playing my game right now because I’m too powerful. You can’t control me. I’m well aware this is going to cost me, so at least have the decency to drop the act and be honest.”

Donovan’s face fell flat. “Very well. If you insist on bleeding the civility out of everything.”

“There’s civility in stealing people and caging them up like animals for human testing?”

Donovan flushed an angry red and gripped the top of his cane so hard I half expected him to try and whack me with it. “You are missing the point entirely.”

He didn’t wait for an answer before storming across the room to a set of double doors. He pressed his thumb to a scanner that unlocked the doors and held one open for me, glaring as he ushered me into a new hallway.

“Everything I do is for the greater good. My advancements in the medical field are revolutionary, life changing.”

When we reached the end of the hall, he held another door open for me. The room behind it was much more like a hospital room. My stomach flipped, but I squared my shoulders and marched inside.