“Your nose is bleeding. Are you okay? Did I hurt you?” he asks with furrowed brows as he helps me sit up.
I rub under my nose and glance at the blood on my finger. My vision blurs as I visualize my hand covered in blood after the accident. It isn’t until I blink a few times that everything around me becomes clear again and the whispers of the past retreat to a deafening silence once more.
“No. I’m fine. Promise. Were we going somewhere, or did you just want to seduce me with your car as your wingman?” I ask, trying to change the subject.
He hands me my clothes and watches as I dress. A small smirk tips up one side of his lips.
“Why do you always try to make me laugh when something serious is happening?” he asks.
“It must be one of my Valkyrie superpowers,” I say but regret it once it leaves my lips. It’s something I think I’ve said before.
The smile fades and his pupils get a bit bigger.
“You have all the power over me, Lennon. You always have.”
I bite the inside of my cheek to keep from crying and falling apart in his arms.
I really am Lennon. Lennon Shay Tyler. At least I think I am. Unless my twin sister and I did something unthinkable and fooled our boyfriends by switching places on them. Is that why I know I’m in love with Dash, yet my body seems to respond to Hendrix too?
I feel sick at my stomach and pray I’m reaching and being paranoid. There’s no way we’d do that to them or each other. Hendrix is just connecting with the part of me which is connected to London.
I refuse to believe anything else. What I remembered is Lennon’s memory with Dash. No one else. But it still doesn’t explain how I’d end up in the driver’s seat when anyone who saw us that night and knew what was going on said London was driving while wearing the very same clothes I was wearing. What happened that night? Why haven’t I remembered by now?
My head is starting to pound, and I know it’s because I’ve got to be getting closer to unlocking every memory and secret my heart has kept.
From this moment on, I know the world will start to come into a bittersweet, heartbreaking focus.
19
Dash is driving us to a street race on the outskirts of town and I’m still reeling from what I remembered. I know Dash suspects something, but I can’t let him or anyone else know things are starting to click. Not yet.
Dash stays quiet too, but he glances my way every time he shifts gears. When we come to a stop outside what looks like an abandoned factory, there’s a password Dash gives to a big, muscly security-type guy before the gates open, allowing us entry.
“Are you racing?” I ask as I see cars parked behind this building. They’re all lined up as if creating a track. There are what must be several abandoned buildings back here making way for a winding racetrack when used for this purpose. Security lights still adorn the old tin walls of the buildings and light posts illuminate the area just enough to see what you’re doing.
I pull my jacket a little tighter around me as I study the crowd while waiting for Dash’s answer.
“Nah. Just came to watch, but if you want to take a crack at it, then it can be arranged,” he says with a sparkle in his eye.
I wrinkle my nose a bit without meaning to. If I race with all these people watching, it’ll spark rumors that’ll spread like wildfire. Rumors about London being as good as me, or about me being alive. Either way, I don’t need more eyes on me than I already have.
Besides, what if I fail miserably and make myself doubt what I remembered again? No, I can’t keep doing that to myself. I’ve got to learn to trust my heart until my mind comes back into focus.
“I’m good,” I tell him as I reach for the handle to get out.
I start to walk toward the front of the car and feel Dash fall in step beside me. As we make our way through the crowd, lots of people are doing double takes when they see me coming, which has me wanting to hide, but I can’t.
A few people slow us down by stopping to talk to Dash while trying to figure out what’s going on. I’m sure they all want to know why he’d be here with my sister since it’s the only plausible explanation. Lennon Tyler is supposed to be dead, yet here I am, walking amongst them while they think I’m my twin sister.
My nostrils flare, and as I breathe in the damp night air, I’m not listening to any of the conversation around me, though I can hear my name being whispered through the crowd.
The hair on the back of my neck stands up and I know someone is watching me, but not just anyone. Someone who wants to hurt me.He’s here somewhere.
I spin around and look but come up empty when a redhead stops in front of me. She has hazel eyes, and her boobs are trying to escape the low-cut top she’s wearing. She grins at me, but there is nothing nice about it. I may be a whole lot fuzzy right now, but there’s no mistaking a two-faced snake in the grass like the woman standing before me.
Her hands are jammed in the pockets of a cropped denim jacket, and she studies me while she smacks on her gum.
“I guess Dash really has a type, huh? Not just dark hair and green eyes. He had to go and pick the twin sister,” she says.
