Dangerous Memories Read Online Free

his weapon as he swung around. He didn’t draw it, but her eyes were focused on his sidearm.
    “Later. We’ve got to get moving.”
    “You’re assuming that I’m coming with you.”
    “Yes, Iam.”
    “I wasn’t in the toy box, was I?” She sounded sad and defeated.
    Had she accepted things weren’t as they seemed? He wanted to reach out and lend her some courage. More so than in the car. He couldn’t. Instead he walked toward the rental, asking a question he knew she had only one response to.
    “Coming?”
    * * *
    J OLENE PEERED AT the last-minute passengers boarding thetrain. She was careful to stay out of a direct view through the window, looking through the opening in the drawn curtains. Her escort had pulled them closed but she felt so confined she needed to see a larger space, an open area. She’d separated them a couple of inches.
    She needed the train to move. Leaving Levi’s protection wasn’t an option at the moment. She’d been taught there were certainprecautions to take when you disappeared. The first and foremost was to use cash for everything. Her emergency stash was in a safe in her apartment. All she had was a credit card and driver’s license unless they made a withdrawal from her inheritance money.
    Another reason to stay was to find answers. After being lied to for the past four years, she still believed Levi even though she couldn’tremember hearing a gunshot this morning. Something pulled at her mind, a dark place that shouted, “Danger! Danger!” She didn’t want to return, but somehow that place was the key to having any type of a normal life.
    Her father had never visited in the two years since she’d left home. Each time she’d asked, he’d had an excuse. The flu, car trouble, papers at his job, home repairs...all soundedlike legitimate reasons. His favorite excuse was that old habits were hard to break. Day trips were all they’d managed—never far from Boulder.
    So she’d gone home, met at the Denver airport both times by Levi. Driven in his black SUV, obviously an “office” vehicle. He’d taken precautions and she’d been blind. It was easy to believe the past no longer had control over her life.
    Fantasyis easy.
    Reality is not.
    Where did that leave her? Part of a fictional life as a business assistant or the reality of a witness with no memory? Thinking about it made her head spin.
    Seemingly ordinary travelers wandered the platform. A woman in a large hat caught her attention. Sleek, heels, beautiful, no luggage. Did that stranger have a mundane life? It had been extremely easyto fall into a false security of “normal” while living on her own.
    Every person who boarded the train could be the one hired to kill her. No age or gender restrictions. Nothing could be taken for granted. She longed to throw the curtains wide and see if anyone cared.
    Anyone other than Levi.
    Oh, goodness. She knew that answer. A relationship wasn’t possible. He was keeping a promiseto her father. Protecting others was his job and he felt responsible. His concern wasn’t on anything else.
    Just thinking about being in the small rail compartment with him had her pulse racing. And if she weren’t careful, she’d be salivating before he returned. So don’t think of Levi. She could add that to her growing Don’t List.
    Impossible.
    Especially overnight for the next fifteenhours.
    The idea of sharing a close space with the most gorgeous man she’d ever known had been completely out of her realm of imagination. But Levi Cooper hadn’t been far from her thoughts since they’d met. She’d been comparing men to him for four years.
    Somehow they were never as tall. Never as tan or much too thin. Their eyes were too close. Their noses didn’t have the cute straightnessthat worked so well with the rest of his curved jaw. His dark hair was cute curled on his forehead, where on other men it was silly-looking. And none of them could wear a wet dress shirt like he could.
    When he’d