Nikos’s mind reeled. “You… talked to this girl—this Brie—the one that was at the compound eight years ago? She was what—fourteen, as well?”
“Sixteen,” Kiki corrected.
Markos nodded. “I’ve been searching for her for years. One of my searches alerted her that I was looking.”
Kiki turned, eyes wide with concern. “That’s why they’re targeting you now. They must have been monitoring you as well.”
Markos sighed and looked down at his clasped hands.
Nikos sat down slowly. “Jesus. I never knew—you never mentioned anything. If I had known, I could have helped.”
Markos grimaced and gave him a sheepish smile. “Why do you think I was so gung ho about going in with you and Theo when you mentioned starting the security firm after we got out of the service?”
“Why? Why would you spend eight years searching for a teenager?” Nikos asked.
Markos scowled and stood, shoving his hands into his pockets. “She’s not a teenager now.”
“That still doesn’t explain why you’re obsessed with this Brie,” Nikos snapped back, trying to understand.
“Because she saved his life. She’s special, too,”Kiki said.
She moved to stand near him. Not touching, but close enough that he could feel her warmth.
He turned to her. “What do you mean by special?”
Kiki groaned in frustration. “I want to explain everything, but we really need to go. Not only could those men show up any minute—if Markos was monitored, then you were likely, too. That will lead them to me—plus Markos is parked in a no-parking zone. We’re going to need it to get out of here. I also have to erase Jim and Harvey’s memories of me, you, everything!”
“What do you mean erase our memories? Why do you have to do that?” Jim protested.
Kiki gave Jim and Harvey an apologetic look. “If they even suspect that you know anything about me, they’ll hurt you. They’ll use you to get to me and hurt you to get the other to talk. If I take your memory, it will help protect you.”
“Can you, I don’t know… add a timer or expiration date, so we remember you again?” Harvey asked hopefully.
Kiki’s eyes shimmered with tears. “No.”
“But—Nikos’s memory came back,” Jim said with a frown, looking at him.
Kiki looked at him as well. “I was in a hurry and didn’t have time to erase it properly. I will with you. It’s the only way I can keep you safe.”
He suspected her excuse covered something much deeper. Fear twisted in his gut at the thought that she could have erased their date completely from his mind. He lifted a hand and rubbed it against his chest, over his heart, when a feeling of emptiness and grief swept through him.
“How long have you been running like this?” he asked in a quiet voice.
“Eight years. Brie and I escaped at the same time as Markos,” she whispered.
“Thank you, by the way. They were going to kill me,” Markos said.
“Don’t thank me. It was Brie… and another friend,” she said, turning to Jim. “Jim, I need anything that may have my name on it, including your phones.” She turned to Nikos and Markos. “Can you two please erase my contact information and any calls from their phones?”
Nikos nodded. “I’ll also contact Andri and have him do a deep clean of any phone and leasing records.”
She nodded her thanks.
Nikos reached out and clasped her hand. She didn’t pull away. He felt a shift inside him when he touched her. As if a missing part of him had been found.
He wasn’t going to let her run anymore. Not alone.
“It’s time to stop running, Kiki,” he said, his voice like steel. “We take the fight to them.”
