Lost and Found (Masters & Mercenaries: The Forgotten #2)(84)

He turned on his heels and walked away.

What the hell had just happened?

She forced herself to take a deep breath. She wasn’t going to talk to Owen about this. It was lucky that he hadn’t seen Carter here. He already didn’t like the man, and she wasn’t going to give him an excuse to go after him. Owen could get in trouble if they got into a fight.

Then there was the fact that she didn’t want to ever talk to Owen about what a coward she’d been. He never had to know. It was one of the great things about dating a man who wasn’t in the business. He wouldn’t know to ask why she’d left such a prestigious position.

He didn’t have to know that she’d run and never looked back until yesterday.

Except Carter seemed to know something. Who had he talked to? There were plenty of people who knew about the project, but not many who’d known what McDonald had called it. She’d been a bit paranoid about her research. She’d thought someone was watching and waiting to steal it. It was over the top, but Becca had written it off as the doctor had been in the corporate jungle for far too long.

Tomas. Guilt rose hard and overwhelming when she thought about the man. He’d needed her help and she’d failed him. She’d thought she might be getting somewhere with him when the incident had happened and she’d left. She’d left him behind. He was alive out there somewhere, but why would he talk to Carter about her? Could he even have remembered her? His retrograde memory loss was one of the worst she’d ever seen. Tomas could forget the previous day.

She would never forget the hollow look in his eyes, like he knew his whole world was right there but he couldn’t touch it. McDonald have been so devoted to helping him. She’d brought him into the lab many times, escorting him herself.

Did Tomas miss Hope McDonald? Or had he utterly forgotten the doctor who’d tried to help him.

She should have looked him up. She shouldn’t have let fear lead her when a patient might need her. Who had taken over his care after McDonald died?

She stood there because she wasn’t sure how she would react when Owen questioned her. And he would question her.

What had happened to all of McDonald’s patients?

Bile rose in her throat. She’d wanted to never have to think about that summer again, but it looked like she couldn’t help it.

She had to figure out what Carter thought he had on her. What unethical thing had she done? And how did this have anything at all to do with the missing money?

“Rebecca?”

She turned and Owen was standing there. It took everything she had not to walk into his arms. Owen looked big and safe and she wanted him to hug her, but there was something about his stance that made her hold off. He seemed to be in full-on bodyguard mode, and it put a coldness in his eyes. “Yes?”

“It’s been longer than we agreed on,” he said, glancing around as though looking for a threat.

She’d already met the threat and it was time to go and figure out what the hell was going on. “I’m sorry I wasted your time.”

She couldn’t tell him about Carter. Not yet. She needed more information. But she also needed him. Her hand was shaking so she held it out.

He stared down at it for a moment and she had the most horrible fear that he wouldn’t take it.

The expression on his face cleared and his hand encompassed hers. “I’ll take you back to work.”

She wanted to ask him what had put that dark look on his face, but it might open up questions she didn’t want to answer right now.

“I think I should probably work late tonight.” She needed to do some research. It might be time to face those months of her life and what had happened during them. But she couldn’t do that with a building filled with curious doctors. Gossip had already bitten her in the ass once today.

She expected an argument from him. Earlier, she’d promised him she would be home for dinner every night so they could spend sweet time together. He’d made it plain that he wanted attention, and she had been more than willing to give it to him.

“I think I need to work late myself,” was all he said.

They walked down the stairs, utterly silent.





Chapter Fifteen





Owen sat in Ezra’s bare bones apartment and tried to let everything that had happened sink in.

Tomas. She’d not only known that name, she’d admitted to treating him. He’d known she’d been there at the same lab as McDonald. He’d even sort of known they’d likely collaborated, but he finally understood she’d been working on the same project. Rebecca Walsh had aided in developing the drug that had wiped out his memory. The one that had turned him into a blank slate.

Tabula Rasa.

“I don’t remember her, but that’s not shocking.” Theo Taggart was staring down at the photograph they had of her. At both of them. The doctor and the woman who played superhero for little kids. Both photos showed a gorgeous woman. He wished they had a picture of the woman who lied, who worked with monsters.

Erin stood beside her husband, a hand on his back as she looked to Ezra. “You’re saying Dr. Walsh treated Theo? Why would McDonald have brought him out into the open like that? Why would she risk it?”

“Theo was the anomaly,” Robert replied. “The drug didn’t work on him the way it did the rest of us. He was always able to fight it better than anyone else. She might have been trying to figure out what went wrong. Dr. Walsh was known for being able to figure out the complexities of drug interactions, especially when it came to memory function.”