Dylan (Bowen Boys, #3)(10)
“You’re in my brother-in-law’s house. That’s all you need to know for now. Do you remember your name?”
“Dylan told me it was Jack Crosby. I have no idea why he’d lie to me, so I believe him. What I don’t believe is how he knows. He said that I had some identification on me. I have no idea why, but that doesn’t sound right.” She shifted her legs in the bed and tried to straighten up. “I hurt in more places than I think there are names for, so if I offend you in any way, you’ll have to forgive me.”
She felt tears on her cheeks as she let go a string of the most vile curse words she could imagine. Pain made her sick, and she was moving to throw up when she felt a hand on her head. She looked up briefly to see Dylan there. He said something, and she felt herself fade away with the pain.
The next time she woke, the room was dark. There was a small light nearby, but not enough for her to see much. She could barely make out the form of a figure in the darkness. “Who-who’s there?”
“It’s me, Dylan.” He moved closer and sat on the edge of the bed with her. “You hurt still? Walker, my brother, is a doctor, and he said he could give you something more for pain if you wanted it.”
She wanted everything he had for pain but knew that getting doped up was not going to get her out of there. She shook her head once then said no.
“I need for you to listen to me. You know as well as I do that there is no way I fell down a flight of stairs, or whatever, to get in this condition. I have to leave here as soon as….” She felt the tears again and hated herself for them. “I don’t even know where the f*ck I am.”
“You’re in my house in Ohio. I don’t know much about you to let you know how far you are from your own home, but you showed up here two weeks ago, bleeding on my deck. Walker operated on you here. No one other than my family knows you’re here. And you’re safe.” He reached down and handed her a newspaper. “This came out a few days ago. That’s how I knew your name. It says here that you killed an entire family, including a little girl. The man that you supposedly killed is—”
“I didn’t do this. I don’t know how I know that, but I don’t kill children.” She wasn’t as sure about the adults, but she knew that she’d not killed a child. “You’re in danger. I can’t focus on this much, but just from what you said, I’m being hunted, and if they find me here, you’ll be in just as much trouble.”
He looked away, then back at her. He was in the shadows, but she knew that he was good looking from when he’d been with her the first time. She wondered how a man with a wife—because there was no way that this man could have remained unmarried—could want someone like her in his bedroom.
“It’s not my bedroom, but the spare. I’m just down the hall.” She looked at him. “Yes, I can read your mind. It’s an ability I’ve had since childhood.”
She tried to think. He could read her mind. What the f*ck was that all about? He could read her mind. Jack looked up at him.
“Do you know who I really am?” He shook his head. “So I could be that person in the paper and you’d know it?”
“No. Whatever is wrong with your mind, I can’t touch it. It’s been locked up tight. If I tried to access it, I’d run the risk of hurting you. I’m going to let it go. But I can see the memories and see your thoughts of things that are going through your mind since you came to on my deck.”
She lay back and closed her eyes. “That man and woman from before…do they know who I am?”
“Yes, but only what they got from someone else. And Caitlynne, the woman, said that she’s having doubts of what he said to her. She said that she doesn’t trust what he’s saying to be true about the whole thing.”
Something popped into her head suddenly. “There was blood on the stairs. I…I reached out to touch it, and it smeared. But I hadn’t…I hadn’t done anything yet.”
He stood up and went to the door. When he stepped out, she decided that whatever she’d remembered hadn’t been good. Tossing back the blanket, she tried to sit up and get out of the bed, but he came back in with the woman again. She tisked at her, and told her to get back in the bed.
“You’re a bossy thing, aren’t you?” Jack moved to stand, and sweat popped out all over her skin. “I don’t know what you think you know about me, but I have to get the f*ck out of here. I have to save you if you don’t want to save yourself.”
“I’m Caitlynne Bowen.” Jack looked at her, shocked. “I can tell by your face that you know who I am, and what I am. So let’s get things straight between us. You, for whatever reason, are in serious trouble. Trouble that I may be able to help you out of. As of right now, you’re under arrest and in my custody. And, as of right now, I will have you cuffed to that bed or have Dylan hold you there until such time that I can determine what involvement you had in the deaths of that family.”
“I didn’t kill the little girl. I don’t know about the adults, but not the kid. I don’t do kids.” Caitlynne nodded. “I don’t know…. You’re with the CIA, and that means something to me. Something I should know.”
Her head began to pound again, and she let herself drop back on the pillows. She looked up when another man came toward her. She remembered him as Walker, Dylan’s brother, the doctor. When he pulled her arm toward him, he told her that he was giving her something for pain.