Pregnesia

They fell into line behind a woman who looked as if she’d bought half the store. Jane covered his hand with hers on the handle of the cart. Her hand was warm on his skin as she looked up at him. “I can’t thank you enough,” she said. “I couldn’t face wearing that bloody blouse all day today.”

“We’ll run back to Loretta’s so you can change clothes, then head to the restaurant to see if anybody there knows your name.”

He breathed a sigh of relief as she pulled her hand from his. “Even if somebody just knows my first name, surely hearing that will remind me of who I am.”

He heard the thrum of desperation in her voice. It must be horrifying not to know even the most simple thing about yourself—your name. Until this moment he hadn’t really realized that if she was telling the truth about her amnesia, then she must be absolutely terrified.

All he’d been thinking about was getting her gone as soon as possible, but he didn’t want her to go unless she had her memory back.

Finally it was their turn to be checked out. As Lucas placed the items on the counter he noticed that Jane winced and rubbed her lower back.

“You want to go ahead to the car?” he asked. Maybe if she got off her feet her back would feel better.

“Are you sure you wouldn’t mind?”

He held out the keys as the cashier told him his total. “Go on, I’ll be out in two minutes.”

She smiled gratefully and took the keys from him as he pulled out his wallet to pay the cashier. As she headed toward the exit, he put the bags of his purchases back in the cart.

As he pushed out of the exit door, he saw a van pull up. The back doors opened and two men began grappling with Jane, obviously trying to get her into the back of the van.

“Hey!” he yelled. His heart smashed into his ribs as he abandoned the cart and took off running toward them.

At that moment Jane released a scream that raised the hairs on the back of his neck and drew the attention of everyone in the parking lot. Another shopper, a burly man, began to run toward the van, as well.

Jane screamed again as she struggled to get free. The two men suddenly released her and jumped into the back of the van, which took off with a squeal of tires.

The burly man and Lucas reached Jane at the same time. She launched herself at Lucas, wrapping her arms around his neck and hanging on tight.

“Are you all right?” he asked urgently. “Did they hurt you?”

She shook her head and buried her face against his chest. Despite the fact that she wore his big, down-filled coat, he could feel the trembling of her body against him.

The big man looked at Lucas and pulled a cell phone from his pocket. “Want me to call 911?”

“No!” Jane lifted her head and looked first at the man, then at Lucas. “No, please. Let’s just go home. But thank you for your help.”

The man shrugged and put his cell phone back in his pocket, then headed toward the store entrance.

Another shopper, a young woman, pushed Lucas’s cart to where he and Jane stood. “You aren’t safe anywhere these days,” she said with a worried frown on her face.

With Jane still clinging to him, Lucas pushed the basket to the side of his car. She pulled his keys from her pocket, unlocked the door and helped her into the passenger side.

He threw the bags into the backseat, then walked around to the driver door. It had all happened so damn fast. He hadn’t even gotten a license plate number on the van. All he’d seen was a small symbol of some kind on the back window.

There was no way he believed that this had just been a random act of violence. Those men had been after her. As he slid in behind the steering wheel he turned to look at her. His heart still beat a rapid tattoo of alarm.

“If you have any memories in your head, if you’re holding anything back, you’d better spill it now,” he said as he stabbed the key into the ignition. “Otherwise we’d better figure out who you are and why in the hell those men just tried to kidnap you.”

Jane stared at him as the yawning horror of what had just happened filled her with an icy chill of terror. When the van had pulled up in front of her, she’d thought nothing about it. Then the back doors had swung open and the two men had rushed her.

“I swear I don’t know anything. I don’t know who those men were or what they wanted with me.” Her heart still beat with the frantic rhythm of fear.

A knot of tension throbbed in Lucas’s lean jaw as he pulled out of the parking lot and onto the road.

She continued to look at him, needing the mere sight of him to ground her, to somehow chase away the panic that still clawed at her insides.

“I don’t suppose you recognized those men?” he asked.

She shook her head. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen them before.”

“Did they say anything to you?”

“No, not a word. They just grabbed me and tried to get me into the back of the van.” She shuddered as she relived the moment when they’d grabbed her arms, when they’d begun to force her toward the vehicle.

Lucas didn’t say another word as they drove back to the apartment. As he drove he checked the rearview mirror constantly and she realized he was watching to see if they’d been followed.

He didn’t sign up for this,Jane thought.He didn’t volunteer for whatever was going on in my life. But the idea of not having him next to her terrified her.

When they reached the apartment he grabbed her by the arm and walked her inside the building, his gaze seeming to go in all directions at the same time.

“Why don’t you go and take a shower and change clothes,” he said. “Then we’ll head to that restaurant and see if anyone there can identify you.”

The idea of leaving the safety of the apartment terrified her, but she knew she couldn’t just stay here and hope that her memories might magically return. Maybe being in the familiar surroundings of the restaurant would jog something loose.

She brought the shopping bags into the bedroom where she’d spent the night, then carried the clean clothes and the other items into the bathroom for a quick shower.

As she stood beneath the hot spray of water she thought of the moments when the men had grabbed her. She’d been so stunned that she’d been unable to think, and had reacted only by fighting back. She’d kicked and punched to get away, but they’d seemed determined to get her into the back of the van.

Why? Who were those men?

Don’t let them find you!

The words thundered in her brain and she leaned against the porcelain wall as wave after wave of fear swept through her.

Were those men the “them” that her brain had screamed a warning about? What did they want with her? Who was she? The questions pounded her as the hot water pelted her skin.

What kind of trouble was she in?

When she was finished showering, she dressed in the new clothes, the maternity jeans feeling crisp and clean against her skin and the blue blouse fitting her perfectly. She found Loretta’s blow-dryer beneath the sink and dried her hair, then brushed her teeth and pronounced herself ready for what the rest of the day might bring.

She found Lucas seated at the kitchen table, doodling on a piece of paper. He looked up as she entered, and for an instant she saw the flash of something dark, something hot in his eyes.

She might not know her own name, but she knew desire when she saw it. It stunned her and at the same time sent a shock wave of excitement through her.

There was no question that she was attracted to him, that his lean, dark good looks made her heart beat just a tiny bit faster. But she’d attempted to shove away those crazy feelings. She was carrying somebody’s baby, and for all she knew she was in a happy, committed relationship with another man.

“You look nice,” he said.