Forgive and Forget(46)

“Oh my God,” Joe gasped.

“Don’t worry,” Agent Geoffrey assured him. “Liam will buy us some time until we get there.”

“Liam? Oh, right.” His name is Liam….

“He’s been in tough spots before.”

Joe ran his fingers through his hair and shook his head. “What if he can’t buy himself time? What if we get there too late and they kill him?” This was so much worse than he thought.

“Really, Mr. Applin. Liam’s highly experienced.”

Joe shook his head. “Liam might be, but what about Tom?”

“I don’t follow.” Agent Geoffrey tapped at his earpiece, speaking to someone on the other end. It looked like they were heading up Henry Hudson Parkway. Didn’t they understand? Didn’t they know?

“The reason Tom—I mean, Liam—didn’t get into contact with you is because he lost his memory.” It was all falling into place. His training, his skills, the precision with which he did things, the way he retained information down to the tiniest details, the events leading up to Joe finding him. At least from what Joe could piece together.

“Come again?”

Yeah, it sounded crazy even to him, and he knew it to be the truth. “When I found him, he couldn’t remember who he was. Not even his name. What if he can’t remember his training?”

Agent Geoffrey was stunned. “Are you telling me Liam has amnesia?”

“I know how it sounds, believe me, but it’s true. I found him in the garden next to my shop. He was bleeding from a blow to the back of the head, but he refused to go to the hospital, begged me to help him, and wouldn’t let me call the cops. Kept saying he’d end up dead.”

“That’s because Liam was working undercover, posing as a hired gunman for a local drug cartel. We’ve been after them for months, but every time we received information on a shipment, we’d find nothing. Someone was tipping them off. They were always a step ahead. Liam was familiar with the territory. So he was sent undercover. The last message we received said he had what we needed, but somewhere en route to drop off the package, he disappeared, fell completely off the grid. We worried he may have been made.”

“McCrea and Romero.”

“I’m sorry?”

“Two detectives who came into the shop looking for Tom. I got a bad feeling about them, so I lied. Told them I hadn’t seen the man they were looking for.” Joe slipped his hand into his pocket and pulled out the SD card. He handed it to Agent Geoffrey. “Their names are on this list.”

Agent Geoffrey took the card from him, his eyes wide. “Where did you get this?”

“Tom—I mean Liam—found it buried in the garden in a potted plant. We think he stashed it there before he was assaulted. It would explain why there was nothing but dirt and flower petals in his pockets when I found him. It’s encrypted, but he knew what to do. He was able to access it. It has a long list of names, numbers, and figures, surveillance photos, invoices, and a bunch of other stuff. Those detectives were on the list, along with a court judge.”

“That’s what Liam found. Dirty officials on the cartel’s payroll. No wonder we kept hitting a wall. Damn it. Someone on that list must have made Liam.”

Joe grabbed a hold of Geoffrey’s arm. “When they find out he doesn’t have it….”

Agent Geoffrey tapped his earpiece. “We need to catch these guys, now.”

Joe looked out his window. Up ahead he could see the exit for Inwood Hill Park. Jesus, they were going to drag Tom into the dark woods. How the hell were they supposed to find him in all those dense trees? The closer they got to the place, the more anxious Joe became. He tried not to think of the poor innocent people who’d been found dead in that park over the years. He dug his fingers into the passenger side door. If anyone could save Tom, it was the FBI, right? They had to be as experienced as Tom. Liam. Dammit. He had to get used to that.

The sirens blared and lights flashed as they sped down the parkway in a convoy of huge black vehicles. Joe had no idea if the men who took Liam were still ahead of them or already in the park. Within minutes, their vehicle came to a stop outside the park. Everyone jumped to action, and Joe silently slid out, aware of the resonating sound of cocking firearms. Agent Geoffrey rounded everyone up and gave instructions.

“Spread out. I want Agent Baker returned alive.”

Alive? Oh God. The gravity of the situation hit Joe hard. What if the men killed Liam? There was so much Joe wanted to say to him. They were so close to the truth. Did Liam remember who he was? Joe stood by, feeling useless, but what could he do? These were professionals. This was what they did. Agent Geoffrey spotted him and hurried over.

“Stay here, Mr. Applin.”

Joe nodded as dozens of agents disappeared into the darkened forest. All Joe could think about was Liam, in there somewhere, against who knew what, in danger.

Please, be okay. You have to be okay.




LIAM remembered everything.

He remembered hitting his head on the radiator when he was a kid after not listening to his mom about jumping on the bed. He had to get stitches and to this day had a faint scar on his left eyebrow. Then there was the time he’d chased his sister into the basement of their neighbor’s house while their mom got a perm and he scraped his head on the unpolished banister. He bled but thankfully no stitches were needed. He really needed to stop hitting his head. Everything was there, everything before today, including the first time he saw Joe’s deep blue-green eyes.