Blitzed(160)

Her face pinched, and she blinked her eyes, waking up to see me looking up at her. “Good morning, Felix. Did you sleep well?”

“Much better after you joined me,” I acknowledged, taking her hand in mine and stroking the back of it. “But you must be in pain with the way you’re sitting.”

“Don't mention it, and I hope that some morning stretches will work out the worst of it,” she said with a light groan. I lifted my head from her lap, our fingers lingering on each other as she pulled her legs the rest of the way up onto the soft surface of the bed and bent forward, stretching her low back and hamstrings slowly. I was mesmerized by her fluid movements and wondered if the flexibility had always been there, or if it was the product of the long hours of training I heard she'd done to prepare for the mission. After a moment, Jordan looked over, a smile on her lips. “You're staring.”

“Uhm, I think I should get a shower,” I said, letting go of her hand and getting up. I stopped at the door, turning back and trying probably unsuccessfully to hide the growing desire building inside me. “Jordan, it's not that I don't find you beautiful. It's that . . . well, I guess you deserve the truth. I still haven't remembered our relationship. I get little feelings around you, but for now, that’s all I can remember.”

Jordan blinked, then nodded, smiling. “Thank you for your honesty. Go get your shower, I'll make sure our breakfast is ready. We have a long drive, and your mothers are eager to see you again.”





Chapter 40





Jordan





The drive was long and hard, but Felix was a total gentleman the entire time, insisting that I take the more comfortable shotgun seat of the car and that he drive. “You comforted me last night and are probably feeling it right about now,” he said when I protested at first. “You let me get a solid chunk of sleep. Now it's your turn to relax and rest some. If there's a problem, I can swap out with one of the other guys.”

The other guys were riding in their own car, a van with an ice chest that held Francois's body, and as our little two-vehicle motorcade wormed its way back to Albania, I dozed, unconsciously glad that Felix had let me rest. I awoke in time for lunch and our first refueling stop, where Felix did a few minutes of jumping jacks to loosen himself back up and to re-energize while I just relaxed on the grass and watched while eating something that kind of resembled a corn dog, but had a gamier, richer flavor.

“You keep doing that, and the car's going to smell like a locker room,” I joked, sipping at my bottle of Coke. Regardless of where you go in the world, you can find Coke, and you at least were assured that it was safer than the water in a lot of places. My intestinal track had beefed itself up some in the months I was with the Hardys, but I still wasn't quite ready to trust my gut to anything but Coke or Evian, and I hadn't seen Evian in the little gas station store we stopped at. “Not that I mind too much, of course.”

“I'd have thought you'd be doing them with me,” Felix replied. “You’re in amazing shape.”

“Thank you,” I demurred in reply, “but that is a completely short term thing. I’m quite happy being in shape but not an athlete, and plan on spending the next week at least as far from anything approaching physical exercise as I can without looking like a total sluggard.”

“I bet you'll still look beautiful,” Felix said, then stopped his exercise, a confused look on his face. “Sorry.”

“Don't be,” I said, touched but also hurt. He'd never had to apologize for complimenting me before, after all. To hide my hurt I stood up, brushing off my pants and balling up my trash. “Come on, I'll drive the next hour or two until we need to take a pee break.”

We reached the Hardy farm just as the moon was clearing the horizon and the Adriatic was turned into a milky white sheet of glass from the reflected light. I was glad too, because in addition to being exhausted, I was feeling depressed. Despite the fact that Felix was continuing to remember more and more as we drove, for some reason he wasn't recalling anything about me or our relationship. I could tell he found me attractive, but the thought of losing all that we’d been through together drove splinters of fear into my heart. I was glad when we pulled up in front of the house, as riding with Felix had turned from an opportunity to find further ways to unlock his memory, to a ride through my own insecurities and concerns. I needed support, and I needed to think.

Syeira was standing next to Charani as we pulled up. Charani had known since the day we extracted Felix that her son was dead, although she didn't know the details. I hadn't been able to tell her over the phone but promised her the full recollection when we got back.

Getting out of the car, I came to her, and her eyes were already brimming with tears as she looked at the now silent van that had pulled up behind me. “Francois?”

“He's in the van,” I said, pulling her into a hug. We embraced, not crying but just sharing strength for a moment, before turning to see the scene that added a measure of happiness to our sadness, as Syeira held her son in her arms again. Felix was stiff at first before his mind opened the locks inside and he embraced his mother, his memories of her starting to return. “He still has a long way to go.”

“We’ll be his strength,” Charani whispered. “Jordan, tell me, at least now before I see his body, did Francois die well?”