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“I can’t let you go back to that apartment. I won’t,” he says. “I’m sorry, but you almost died—"
“Where’s my bedroom?” I ask.
“You need to understand—"
I cut him off. Yawn into my hand. “If I can’t go to Adira’s I want to take a nap.”
“Fine.” He presses his lips together as he leads the way to a huge room with a massive bed. “This is the room we share.”
“I don’t recognize it.” Of course I don’t. This isn’t my life. This is someone else’s life. Someone like me, only different. Someone who liked the man that she shared this space with.
Matching night stands host identical lamps. On one side is an alarm clock. A pack of cigarettes. A bottle with only a ring of amber liquid in the bottom. On the other are my reading glasses and several pieces of jewelry that I assume are mine.
I yawn again. It’s as real as it is fake. I’m exhausted from the painkillers and the meds that I’m on. My ribs hurt with the rise and fall of my chest. My wrists ache and itch and sting. But mostly I want to be alone.
“I’ll move into one of the other rooms for now.” He draws the covers off the bed for me. “I think it might be best to give you space to get comfortable again.”
“That may never happen.” Considering the forced nature of our cohabitation it’s more than probable.
He eyes the hoodie I’m wearing. “Do you need any help?”
My fingers pluck at the zipper. I would rather wear the hoodie to bed than have him help me. “I want to sleep.”
“All right.” He steps back, his face a mask of indifference. Except for the storminess in those blue orbs. “If you need anything…”
“I need you to let me go to Adira’s.”
“No.” He bunches his fists and tries to hide them in his arm pits.
“Then I need you to leave me alone.” I lie down and drag the sheet up over me. My eyes are gummy and hot and I close them to block him out and keep all my fears in.
“Ivy.” He says my name, but must decide better than to try and drag out this conversation. Instead his lips press to my temple. “Rest, baby. We’ll talk later. Things will get better, I promise.”
His footsteps are muffled by the carpet as he leaves and the door clicks when it shuts. The first tear rolls down my cheek.
What do I do now?
Chapter Eleven
Rogue
Itakeaswallowfrom the whisky in my tumbler as I stare out over the city. Smoke curls from the cigarette between my fingers. I was going to quit. I am going to quit.
I thought I’d go to the hospital today and bring Ivy home. And that would be as complicated it as it would get. I assumed she’d not only know why I didn’t want her to go back to the apartment she shares with Adira, but she’d be okay with it. She’d understand why I hired her a bodyguard. And why not being in her vicinity at all times would make me crazy.
God, she almost died. How can I not be terrified to let her out of my sight?
But this… that she doesn’t remember us at all… Oh, I was not prepared for this at all.
When the doctors told us that she’d lost a part of her memory due to the trauma I figured they were talking about anything directly tied to what happened that night. Not months of our life together. Not every moment we shared… gone like it never existed.
I reacted badly. The way she shut down made that clear. But I’m out here in the middle of the ocean with no life jacket and no clue how to drag us back to shore. How do I protect her when she doesn’t remember that I’m on her side? How do I convince her that going back to Adira’s is a bad idea that might trigger her? It sure as hell triggers me.
“Hey.” Adira steps out onto the cold balcony behind me.
“You didn’t show.” I butt out the half smoked cigarette. He’d come to the courthouse this morning to be a character witness. We’d walked out together with plans to go back to his apartment and pick up a few of Ivy’s things before we went to the hospital, but he’d gotten a phone call and raced off.
“The cops raided my shop.” He joins me at the railing. “Can you believe it? Someone tipped them off to the possibility that women were being held there. Obviously they scoped the shop out and figured it wasn’t the truth, but still had to do due diligence.”
