She didn’t answer, just kept messing with her shoelaces like they contained the answer to every mystery in the universe, although she still hadn’t tied them.
He turned back to the medic.
“Evidently it took concerted effort to get you from the frozen river, back to the cabin. Ms. Anderson didn’t have the strength to get you there on her own, so she used momentum and gravity to move you forward. Unfortunately that meant throwing herself onto the ground over and over. So...extensive bruising.”
Ren ran a hand over his face. “Thank you.”
He moved to crouch down in front of Natalie, who was still messing with her shoelaces. Gently brushing her fingers aside, he tied her shoes for her, then placed his hands on her ankles until she finally looked at him.
What rested behind those blue eyes was just as bruised as her back and hips, if not more so. He had known it wouldn’t be easy to explain what he’d done, why they needed her help to catch her ex.
But he never dreamed it would put this look in her eyes. Haunted. Empty.
Bruised.
“Peaches...”
She shook her head. “No.” Her voice was hoarse as if she’d screamed until it had broken. “Don’t you dare call me that.”
Ren turned back to look at the medic. “Are you done here? Can she and I talk alone?”
The man nodded and walked out. Ren stepped back and leaned against the table.
“I work for—”
“Omega Sector. Yeah, I figured that part out already.”
“How?”
She looked at him before turning to study the wall. “I saw that couple, Brandon and Andrea, who were at the Santa Barbara house last week, during the press conference. I saw the guy who hit on me on the train there, too, so I’m assuming it was all a setup. No real train accident.”
He nodded. “Yes, that’s correct.”
“I suppose I should be glad nobody died. Although I’ve been so caught up getting laid that it wasn’t like I really cared, anyway.”
Ren gripped the table forcefully. “Don’t you dare talk about yourself—what we shared—that way. You thought you weresurviving. There was no shame in what you did or how you reacted.”
“I’m sure you see it that way,” she whispered, looking away.
“I mean it. You want to be mad at me for what I did, how I deceived you, that’s fine. You have every right. But you did nothing wrong.”
He wished she would get mad at him. Anything would be better than this blankness. A shell of the woman he knew.
I completely lost myself. I was the perfect shell.
Tendrils of memories flowed through his mind. Words she’d said while he was in and out of the fever.
“Natalie, Omega Sector is a powerful law enforcement agency. The best of the very best. We’re going to protect you.”
She just shook her head.
“Three weeks ago your ex-husband was part of a plan that would’ve killed tens of thousands of people if Omega hadn’t stopped him. Freihof has also been responsible for the killing or wounding of multiple agents and civilians over the last few months. When we discovered you were alive we thought we might be able to obtain a clue about his whereabouts.”
Now she looked at him. “I don’t know where he is. I’ve spent the last six years hiding from him in case he figured out I was alive.”
“I know that now, but I didn’t at the time. You were staying in a million-dollar beach house, going to work in fancy office buildings each day. It looked like maybe you were either working with Freihof or providing for him in some way.”
“I wasn’t,” she whispered.
