Everyone turned toward Everett, who pulled out a small notebook as he looked at Britt. “I know you think you’ve only been gone for a year, but that’s not true.”
“What do you mean? That’s the one thing I know for certain. The knapsacks with my daily provisions always had a date on them. I remember the first one was dated a little over a year ago,” Britt insisted.
“You didn’t tell her about the car bomb?” Bobby raised an eyebrow at me.
“Car bomb!” Britt shrieked.
“No,” Lachlan responded through gritted teeth. He could feel Britt’s angry stare against the side of his face. “Fallon said any attempts to tell Britt about her past could make things worse. Britt agreed not to do any internet research on her old life, and I wasn’t supposed to take Britt down memory lane?—”
Britt reached for his arm. “Tell me about the car bomb. Please.”
Lachlan turned toward her. “I’m not going to say or do anything that could compromise you remembering your life, Britt.”
“I don’t care about Dr. Abrams’s warnings,” Britt said, gripping Lachlan’s forearms. “I need to understand what happened to her … to me … you know what I mean.”
In times like these, the warning bells to do what was right for Britt got run over by his inability to tell her no. How could he not give her some details while she looked at him with confusion and fear? Especially when just a few key details could help soothe her panic. Lachlan slid his hands over her arms, caressing them gently as he said, “It happened after we moved from the house on Nova Lane to Dove Island when the island feds?—”
“When you were a few months from giving birth to Paloma. Two years later, a bomb was planted in your car, but the police never figured out who had done it,” Everett interrupted, giving Lachlan a steely stare. “That was three years ago.”
Lachlan exhaled. He’d almost said too much.
Britt’s hands flew to her mouth as she blinked back tears. “Three … years? I’ve lost three years of my life?”
“Two of those years, you were in a medically induced coma at the Rakestraw Blake Center,” Everett said, speaking slowly to gauge Britt’s reaction. “That’s why you have micro scars on your scalp, neck, and back. Fallon’s team detected them during their physical examination of you.”
Britt pulled away from Lachlan, absently rubbing a spot behind her ear. “So, I was injured in the car bomb, and they made sure I got treatment for those injuries?”
“Not just any treatment,” Everett said. “Cutting-edge plastic surgery.”
Sebastian asked, “What did you get from the RBC that proved Britt was there?”
“An anonymous burn victim meeting her description was checked into their facility the night of the car bomb. This is common practice for high-profile, wealthy patients,” Everett explained.
“They also do it for Quattro and the PC-5 when they need their services,” Bobby added.
“I got copies of the records,” Everett said, then raised a hand. “Don’t ask how. But I sent them to Fallon’s team. Their mapping of your scars is consistent with the surgical details from those records.”
“Who paid my medical bills?” Britt asked.
Lachlan wanted the answer to that question, too. A money trail could lead them to Alejandro.
Everett closed his notebook. “The Rakestraw Blake Center has extensive encrypted protection on the identity of the financial backers for treatment that far exceeds their protection of the patients. Go figure.”
Britt threw her hands in the air. “Another dead end.”
“Don’t give up just yet,” Bobby said, tossing his pen in the air and catching it. “I haven’t given my update.”
“Spill it,” Lachlan said, in no mood for a dramatic reveal. He reached for Britt’s hand, lacing his fingers between hers.
“Hunter Quaid has agreed to a meeting,” Bobby said.
Britt shifted in her chair, her hand stiffened for a heartbeat within his, then relaxed. A ghost of something unreadable crossed her features before disappearing behind a carefully constructed facade—the same one she’d always worn when holding her cards close.
“Who is that?” Lachlan asked.
Bobby slid a thumb drive across the table toward Lachlan. “Titus Freeman’s bodyguard. He’s been kicked out of Quattro forfailing to protect Titus from being murdered. But they didn’t kill him out of respect for Titus’s close relationship with the guy.”
Lachlan picked up the thumb drive. “You think Hunter Quaid can help us get to Alejandro?”
