Lost and Found (Masters & Mercenaries: The Forgotten #2)(91)

It took her a moment to realize he wasn’t hugging her back. She clung to him and he was simply standing there, his arms at his sides.

She looked up, and his face was an icy mask. “Owen?”

“Dr. Walsh, if you’ll take your seat we can continue.”

She stepped back, feeling the tears coursing down her cheeks. “I don’t understand what’s happening.”

His voice was as cold as the look in his eyes. “I didn’t want to give up my cover, but it’s obvious to me you won’t cooperate until you realize no one is coming for you. I know you won’t believe me, but we saved you earlier today. You might deserve prison, but we won’t be the ones to put you there. You have information we need. Cooperate and this will be over soon.”

“I don’t understand.” She didn’t seem capable of moving past those words.

He took a seat beside Erin. Like the redhead, he held a file in one hand. He placed it on the table in front of him. “Sit down, please. You won’t be allowed to leave. I’m with a group investigating Dr. Hope McDonald.”

“You said you were with a security company.” The words felt dull in her mouth. She had to force herself to say them. Her whole body felt numb in a way that had nothing to do with the sedative she’d been given.

“I am,” he admitted. “And I’ve certainly done bodyguard work before. However, that wasn’t the focus of this job.”

It was beginning to penetrate her brain. “No, I was the focus.”

“Yes,” he agreed as though he’d never touched her, never put his mouth on her, never held her all through the night.

He’d done all those things, but now she understood that she’d been a job to him. Nothing more.

She was still sleeping. That was it. This was a dream and she would wake up and Owen would be beside her in bed. She would tell him about the dream and they would laugh. He would make love to her again and she wouldn’t go to Casa Loma. She would stay with him.

She would wake up soon.

“Dr. Walsh? Becca?”

She turned to him and sat down. It was okay because this was all a dream and she had to get through it. “Why are you here?”

“Because you worked with a woman named Hope McDonald. Because she was working on a drug that erased memory and acted as a time dilation mechanism. Because Hope McDonald tortured at least fifteen men, ripping their memories and lives from them, and I think you helped her do it.”

“Time dilation?” It was a theory, that drugs could trick the brain into thinking more time had passed than had in reality.

If someone was administered a time dilation drug, he or she could be tricked into feeling as though days had passed in a moment’s time. Whatever was being done to them under the influence of the drug would seem to go on forever.

Like what had happened to her.

She couldn’t stop it now. She wasn’t dreaming and she hadn’t been back then. It had all been real. What she’d gone through had been real.

Pain flared through her as she hit the floor hard. She crawled to the trash bin in the corner and emptied her stomach.

“Fuck,” Erin said before the door opened and slammed closed again.

“Becca? Becca, let me help you.” Owen was on his knees beside her.

But she wouldn’t accept his help. She wouldn’t accept anything from him again.

She was alone, and she had no idea what he was going to do to her.

Becca held on to the trash bin and prayed she made it through the next couple of hours.





Owen had never felt so helpless. He tried to touch Becca, wanted to help her, but she shrank back from him.

She’d gone so pale. What had he said that made her go so pale?

You told her everything was a lie, arsehole. You ripped the rug from under her feet and you’re surprised she fell?

She looked up at him. “Get out. I don’t want you here.”

He stared down at her. “Rebecca, you’re sick. It could be a reaction to the sedative. I’m sorry about that. He wasn’t supposed to do that unless it was absolutely necessary.”

“It’s not the sedative,” she said, her skin pale. “It’s being kidnapped. It’s finding out you’re an asshole. Go away.”

“I’ll get you a cold rag.” Wasn’t that what she needed? Nick’s wife Hayley was pregnant and he always got her a cold rag when she was feeling sick to her stomach.

He turned and walked out the door, careful to lock it. She was sick, but she was strong, too, and he wouldn’t put it past her to try to run.

“I need Tucker,” he said. Becca was sick. She needed a doctor and they were three hours away from Toronto. Tucker would have to do.

“He’s about fifteen minutes out. I just got off the phone with Sasha and he said there’s something wrong with Tucker.” Jax glanced up from his laptop. He’d set up in record time. The living area of the cabin they’d rented was covered in high-tech stuff. The minute they’d gotten here, they’d set up security equipment and then the interrogation room where Becca was currently shaking.

He’d made her sick. He’d seen the minute she’d realized he hadn’t come for her, that he was the enemy. A light had died in her eyes.

Ezra strode in from the kitchen carrying a can of soda. “Erin wasn’t lying about the sympathetic nausea thing. Theo’s locked up in the bathroom with her. Where is everyone?”