She knew the pulse in her throat throbbed erratically and her blood had slowed to a languid heavy flow. His touch was like a drug, beckoning her toward surrender as his hand moved from her neck to her shoulder.
For the space of a second she wanted to throw her head back, fall into the seduction she knew would momentarily erase her fears, quiet all questions and reduce her to nothing but physical responses. But the moment passed quickly and irritation took the place of temporary insanity.
“Is seducing those you’re sworn to protect part of your job description?” She moved away from him, relieved to put some distance between them. “So basically, what you’re telling me is that I’m supposed to testify at a trial and that’s why somebody is trying to kill me,” she said, attempting to get the subject back on track.
His eyes flashed darkly and he sat back on the bed. “That’s about the size of it.”
“But how can I testify without my memories?”
“There are a lot of people depending on you getting those memories back before the trial.”
“And if I don’t?”
“They’ll hire the best doctors, try drugs and hypnotherapists…whatever it takes to release those memories.”
“My testimony is that important?”
Hank raked a hand through his thick black hair, his eyes narrowed. “We’ve been trying to get Cameron Collier for years, but the man is smart and has managed to distance himself from every vile act he’s instigated. He’s powerful and evil. Your testimony is our best chance of putting him away permanently.”
Colette rubbed two fingers across her forehead, where a headache had begun an insistent pounding. “I can’t believe this is happening.” She rubbed her forehead once again, then looked back at Hank. “What if I refuse to testify? Then Cameron Collier would leave me alone and everything would be fine.”
“Except you’d be in prison for obstructing justice.”
She gasped. “Surely they wouldn’t do that. I have a daughter. They wouldn’t put me in jail.”
Hank laughed. “Don’t make the mistake of thinking anyone cares whether you’re a mother or not. All these people care about is putting Collier away for a long time behind bars. Besides, don’t be naive enough to think Collier will leave you alone. You’re marked for death as far as he’s concerned.”
“But if you let me go, I could disappear. Collier couldn’t find me and neither could the police.”
He sighed and once again raked a hand through his shiny long hair. “I can’t do that. I have a job to do and I intend to deliver you to the authorities in California when it’s time. Besides, do you want to spend the rest of your life looking over your shoulder?”
Colette sighed in frustration. “It sounds like no matter what I choose to do, that will be the outcome. If I testify and Collier is such a powerful man, what’s to keep him from having somebody come after me even if he’s in prison?” She shivered. Until this moment she hadn’t realized how alone she was in all this, what a no-win situation it was for her.
“Colette, I can’t make you testify. I can only tell you that before you developed amnesia, you wanted to, you knew it was the right thing to do.”
“Well, I’ve changed my mind. Just let me go.”
“I told you, I can’t do that. It’s my job to get you to trial, and that’s exactly what I intend to do.”
Over my dead body,Colette thought. She’d rather take her chances against the people in law enforcement than a killer like Collier.
She sank down onto the edge of the bed where Brook lay sleeping. “So before I ran away, your job was to baby-sit me, so to speak?”
“So to speak,” he said dryly. “We were holed up together in a hotel room, mostly getting on each other’s nerves and impatiently biding time.”
Why didn’t she remember any of it? Had the experience of sharing living space with Hank been so unpleasant she’d blocked it out along with the murder? Or was he still telling lies?
She stared at her daughter and realized a very important question had yet to be answered. He’d said this had all begun about seven months before, so she would have already been pregnant when she’d overheard the conversation in Collier’s office. “Do you know who Brook’s father is?” she asked softly.
He stared at her, his eyelids half mast over his dark, glittering eyes. “I don’t know.”
“I didn’t tell you?”
“We shared a room, Colette, we didn’t bare our hearts.” He stood. “I’m going to have to run out and buy some things we’re going to need. Tell me what you need for the kid that won’t wait until morning.”
“Formula, a bottle and diapers,” she said, hoping, praying, he intended to take her with him.
All she needed was one minute of inattention, one second to make a clean escape from him. There was no way she intended to let him get her back to California, no way she intended to risk her life, especially now that she had Brook to consider.
