Sudden Recall. Lisa Phillips
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Parker ignored his. “What happened to her?”
“You mean why did my best asset wind up in a coma for a year before she woke up with no memory of who and what she is?” Karen tutted. “She was supposed to retrieve some merchandise and switch it out with a fake so that the seller didn’t pass on anything sensitive when he made the sale. We think she made the switch, realized she was in danger and hid the original. Somehow the seller found out he had a fake and gave Sienna to the buyer so he could get the location out of her.”
A second of silence was the only indication Karen felt anything for Sienna’s well-being. “The extraction team found her unconscious in a bathtub of water. She told you the rest.”
Parker’s mouth went dry. He tried to swallow. “Is this the reason she didn’t meet me?”
Karen shook her head like it was a dumb question, but Parker didn’t regret asking. She said, “It was weeks between you and this mission. The two are unrelated.”
“And yet Sienna, and you, are here. In my town. Why is that?”
“It’s because of her.”
Parker didn’t say anything. How had she known to come here?
“She was convinced this was where she lived. For whatever reason—” Karen eyed him, like it was his fault “—she had some kind of tie to this place. I found her staring at a map online, trying to see if anything looked familiar. This is where she picked.” Karen paused. “Out of the entirety of the continental United States, Sienna picked the tiny town where you live. I could hardly tell her she was wrong when she was so convinced she should come here.”
Parker didn’t want to gloat, but it was hard to hold it back. He’d told her at length about his hometown. As a woman with little to no geographical ties, she’d soaked it up.
“I see.”
Karen glared.
“I’m sorry about your injuries.”
She sniffed. “It’s not as bad as it looks, but it did serve a purpose. Sienna has had plenty of time to remember who she was.”
“But she hasn’t, and now someone tried to kidnap her. You think it’s the buyer or the seller?”
Karen shrugged.
“Who are they?”
“We’re not sure. Sienna knew. We’re blind on this one until they make enough of a move that we can find out who they are. We’re tracking the chopper, but the two dead and the one in your custody had no IDs and no cell phones on them. One had a British military insignia tattoo, but aside from that we have no clue as to their identities.”
Parker wasn’t even going to ask how the CIA knew anything about the men from the scene. Whatever his team learned from the man in custody, the CIA had discovered minutes later. But if it protected Sienna, who was he to complain?
“So what did Sienna intercept? What was this ‘seller’ trying to pass off?”
“That’s classified information, and until I get a reply as to your security clearance, I can’t tell you much more than I have. Suffice it to say, what she hid was highly sensitive. It cannot fall into the wrong hands.”
“You realize I won’t leave this alone.”
Karen sighed. “I was afraid of that.”
“I was there. I saw the danger she was in, and they knew me. I’m convinced they did. Likely now they’ll think Sienna and I are working together. It may even be why they moved in.”
“They moved in because they found her.”
“Then she needs to be relocated. Immediately.” Parker would book vacation days and sign up for that detail first thing tomorrow...from a highway two states away, if that’s what it took to keep Sienna safe.
His heart was tied up in this. It was impossible to deny that fact. When Sienna remembered who she was and who they were to each other, then he’d know where he stood. Until then, there was nothing he could do about that. But he could keep her safe.
Karen sent him her stern schoolmarm look again. “The CIA are the ones calling the shots in this, Jackson Parker. Not you.”
The gasp was audible. Parker turned and saw Sienna in the hallway, her eyes wide.
“The CIA?”
Sienna stood frozen in the kitchen doorway. Why hadn’t she just gone to her bedroom—to the shoebox under her bed that Nina had told her about? She should be in the shower. Anywhere, doing anything other than being slammed with information.
Something in that shoebox was important enough that Nina thought it would help Sienna figure this out or at least provide answers on something. But she wasn’t in her room, looking through it. No, Sienna had given in to the curiosity of knowing whether Parker was still here.
“The CIA?”
Karen didn’t move.
“Am I really supposed to believe the CIA has something to do with me?”
Karen’s face was flat. Like always. “You are supposed to remember on your own. The doctor said...”
“That you can’t just tell me. I know.” Sienna bit down hard. “I guess now I know why.” She turned to leave the room while her thoughts spun like some amusement park ride. But there was nothing fun about this.
“Sienna, don’t walk away!”
She turned back to her aunt, who was now red faced. She probably shouldn’t be getting worked up. Sienna doubted that was good for her health. But she didn’t know, because Karen never talked about it.
She lifted her hands and let them fall to her sides. “Am I supposed to be, what...freaked out? Because I am. Seriously? The CIA? I’m very curious why you think the Central Intelligence Agency is relevant here. Because as far as I can see, I have nothing to do with spies or any of that.”
Karen didn’t say anything.
“That’s it? You drop a bomb and you have nothing to say?” Sienna waited, but her aunt still didn’t offer up anything. “Not even to confirm or deny?”
Even Parker said nothing, intently watching the interplay between Sienna and her aunt.
This whole night had been like the bad dreams she had. Dreams where she fought against an unknown attacker who was bigger and stronger. She always woke drenched in sweat and out of breath—like she’d been fighting for her life. But the question lingered. Had it been real, a memory or simply a dream?
The CIA and a fight to the death?
“Now I know why you didn’t want to tell me.”
Karen flinched. “I wasn’t allowed.”
“Someone tried to kidnap me tonight. If the CIA is part of it I’m obviously in danger. And you thought the best course of action was to keep this information from me? When knowing would have kept me safe, instead of putting me in danger.”
“Deputy Marshal Parker was there.”
“He was shot.” Sienna felt hot tears gather in her eyes. “If he hadn’t been wearing his vest, he would be dead right now.”
Sienna took a step back. Not a retreat, more of a calculated move to give her time to reformulate her plan. Everything had changed tonight. Her. Nina. Parker. Karen. The foundation of her life had shifted, leaving her adrift and trying to grasp something steady to hold on to.
She slipped her fingers in her front pocket to grasp the folded paper that she’d kept there every day since she left the hospital. She’d never told anyone about the verse she had found in her own handwriting