AllFreeNovel
Share Us
After all, she was the Cuban Godfather's daughter.
THE DIZZINESS RECEDED. The pictures faded to nothingness. Images had branded themselves on his brain and then dissipated, no longer necessary.
A cool, light touch fluttered at his brow. He wanted to be in the present. He dragged himself back, forcing his eyes open.
Lola's dark green eyes, wide with worry, met his blurry gaze. "Lola."
"How do you feel?" She thrust a bottle of water at him. "Have some water."
He rubbed his eyes. "It's better. Each time it gets easier and easier. Less pain."
"Less to remember." She twisted off the cap of the water bottle. "Drink."
He wet his lips with the warm water and powered down the window. "Don't you want to hear what I remembered?"
She studied his face, one side of her mouth curving into a half smile. "You remembered everything?"
"Pretty much. I know where I left Gabe."
Lola clapped her hands together and brought them to her chin as if in prayer. "Is he safe? Why hasn't he contacted me? Where is he?"
"He's safe. After I rescued him from the hovel where his captors had imprisoned him, we set off on foot to another village. I left him with a family. He'd treated their youngest son...and I gave them some money."
"He's still there?"
"I hope he's still there. I told him to stay put until I gave him the all-clear."
Lola bunched her right fist and pounded the console between them. "Why hasn't he contacted me?"
"Umm, there's no telephone there. No internet."
"Then how are you supposed to send him a message?"
"Through his Doctors Without Borders team."
"You did it." Lola leaned over and gave him an awkward, one-armed hug. "You were successful before you even knew you were successful."
Her hair tickled his chin, its strands clinging to his stubble. To hand Lola this treasure made everything worthwhile. He'd been a burden on her since stumbling into her life...and he'd just made up for it all.
It almost made the shock and pain of what else he'd remembered bearable.
She drew back, her hand resting on his chest, over his heart. "There's something else, isn't there?"
"My recovered memories confirmed my suspicions about Colonel Scripps." Jack took another swig of water as if it were a shot of something stronger. "He betrayed me. He betrayed all of us. He betrayed his country."
"I'm sorry." Lola's fingers curled into the cotton material of his shirt. "What did you remember?"
"It's why I went back after seeing your brother to safety. Gabe told me a few things that had my head spinning. I had to discover for myself if they were true." He tongue flicked against his dry lips. "They were. The Colonel had been running some interference for Farouk. It's hard to believe even now."
She flattened her hand against his chest. "He's going to make it hard for you, isn't he? He's going to sabotage your chances for coming in and for getting anyone to believe in you."
"It's not going to work." And for the first time that day, hope coursed through his veins, energizing every cell in his body. "I'm going to call on Prospero...and they'll come."
"How are you going to reach them? You don't have their phone numbers imprinted on your brain, do you?"
"Nope." He drummed his fingers on the dashboard. Too bad they weren't in L.A. where he could stop by his house and have access to all his files and numbers. "I've been trying to think...Buzz is a commercial airline pilot now, but the airline is not going to hand over the phone number of one of its pilots."
"Not likely." Lola screwed up her eyes, as if squinting at something in the distance. "What do the others do?"
"Riley's a beach bum down in Cabo. Not likely I'm going to find him."
"And the third member, Ian?"
"God, Ian's probably off mountain-climbing somewhere." He snapped his fingers. "I can probably get to Ian or Buzz through their exes."
"Their ex-wives?"
"Ex-wife in Ian's case, ex-fiancee in Buzz's."
"You guys sure leave a lot of exes in your wake."
He wedged a finger beneath her chin and skimmed her lips with his. "Not me--not a girlfriend or wife in my memory banks, not even an ex."
