Best not to blurt out any details that Caroline didn’t know or hadn’t remembered. That was what the doctors had told him to do anyway. Keep the interaction between them to a minimum so there’d be no risk of planting memories in her head. That way, when she did recall something, it would be because it was a genuine memory. It was another reason he’d need to let her doctors know about this conversation.
When Caroline didn’t answer, he looked at her. He saw maybe a flicker of recognition, or something, before she turned away. As she’d done earlier, she waved that off.
Jack would have pressed her for more info, pushing just a little, but his phone dinged, and he saw the file his partner, Teagan, had sent. Lucille must have heard the sound, too, because she hurried back into the kitchen.
“Any problem?” Lucille asked.
“Video from the security cameras.” He motioned for her to come closer so she could take a look. When Caroline moved in, too, Jack had to consider which would upset her more: if she saw a would-be killer or if he kept her from seeing one.
He decided to let her watch.
It put them in close contact, with Lucille on one side of him and Caroline on the other. Caroline still didn’t touch him, even though her arm was less than an inch from his.
Jack sped up the feed, going through minutes of what the cameras had recorded. Minutes of nothing.
And then there was something.
He slowed down the speed and then paused it when the man came into view. The guy was just as Lucille had described him—dark hair and jeans, and he was indeed by the pond. Too bad the guy was turned away from the camera so that only the side of his face was visible.
The man didn’t have a drawn weapon, but Jack didn’t like the way he was just standing there. If this was someone who’d just wandered onto the property, he should have been firing glances all around. Or leaving.
Jack touched the screen, moving it frame by frame until he finally got a shot he wanted. The guy turned to face the camera. Jack paused it again, enlarging it so he could run it through facial recognition software.
Caroline gasped. “Oh, God. Jack, I know him.”
Shaking her head, she stepped back and pressed her fingers to her mouth. But only for a moment. Caroline’s eyes widened when she saw that she’d gotten his complete attention. He could also see that she quickly tried to shut back down to that flat expression she’d worn for the past three months. But it was too late for that.
For that mask.
Because Jack had seen the recognition in her eyes. Better yet, he’d heard it in her voice.
Jack.
“You remembered something?” Lucille quickly asked, maybe not picking up on the sudden slash of tension between her patient and Jack. “Do you really know who that man is?”
Caroline didn’t even look at the nurse. She kept her gaze fastened on Jack. Recognition, definitely. And some defiance. She hiked up her chin, and her mouth went into a flat line.
“Yes, I know that man,” Caroline said, her stare drilling into Jack. “And I knowyou.”
Chapter Two
Caroline’s heart had gone to her knees at the exact moment she’d said Jack’s name. Mercy, what had she done?
She wanted to take back the last handful of seconds, wanted to fix her expression so that Jack wouldn’t see right through her. But she couldn’t. The lid was off Pandora’s box, and it wasn’t going back on. And if that wasn’t bad enough, now she had that face on the security video to worry about.
Caroline swallowed hard and looked at Lucille, who immediately took hold of her arm. “You need to sit down,” Lucille instructed. “You look like you’re about to pass out.” She tried to lead Caroline back into the living room, but she held her ground. “Did your memory really come back?” Lucille asked.
“Yes,” Caroline managed to say.
Lucille let out a huge breath of relief. Of course, the nurse didn’t know how dangerous the man she’d recognized was. She also didn’t know something Jack had already figured out.
That she’d regained her memory days ago.
As if celebrating and relieved by the progress, Lucille hugged her. “I’ll need to call your doctor. Maybe we can drive out to see him?”
Even though Caroline liked her doctors and she’d had no trouble on the previous trips to San Antonio for her exams, she definitely didn’t want a doctor right now.
“No. Could you give me a moment alone with Marshal Slater?” Caroline asked. It probably seemed petty or insulting to Jackthat she’d call him by his surname now, but sayingJackseemed too, well, intimate.
