LITMIR.BIZ

       FIVE

      She barely remembered him. Trig tried to conceal his growing panic beneath another mouthful of food. Lena really did think she was married to him. Because he’d told the hospital staff they were in order to get her the attention she’d needed.

      ‘I’m so sorry,’ she was saying. ‘I’ve really screwed up, haven’t I? I’m a little light on details but I do remember you. You like the ocean too. And we played together as children. You and me and another boy.’

      ‘Jared.’ She couldn’t even remember Jared.

      ‘Yes. Jared. Jared, my...’

      Trig waited. Lena frowned.

      ‘Brother,’ he told her, because he couldn’t stand the confusion in her eyes.

      ‘Right. I’m pretty sure the concussion’s screwing with my head.’

      ‘You think?’ Sarcasm didn’t become him, given the circumstances, but it was that or outright panic. She’d barely touched her food. He’d hardly made a dent in his and he shovelled another load down, because he didn’t rule out another trip to the hospital in the not too distant future.

      ‘You should try and eat something,’ he said gruffly, and she speared a small chunk of baked eggplanty stuff and ate it. Usually if he suggested she eat more, she’d tell him in no uncertain terms that she didn’t tell him what to eat.

      Lena’s memory-lapse problem was worse than he thought.

      He needed to get her upstairs and resting.

      He needed to stop totally freaking out.

      ‘We’re after platinum rings,’ she said suddenly. ‘With a brushed finish.’

      What did he even say to that?

      ‘And carpet. I wanted one of those too.’

      ‘A silk one,’ he said, and condemned himself to hell for his sins.

      ‘Expensive?’

      ‘Oh, yes.’

      ‘And you had a...problem with that?’ she continued tentatively.

      ‘Not at all. I’m thinking we need two.’ And a brain transfusion. For him.

      ‘Are we rich?’ She wasn’t even pretending to remember stuff any more.

      ‘Between us, we have resources.’ He thought that was a relatively fair call. ‘And your father’s a very rich man.’

      ‘I don’t sponge off him, do I?’

      ‘No, but you’re used to a certain way of life. You and your siblings all travel wherever you want, whenever you want to. You have several family houses and apartments at your disposal.’

      ‘But the beach house is ours. I remember the beach house.’

      ‘That’s Damon’s.’

      ‘Oh.’ Lena’s face fell and she blinked back sudden tears. ‘Could have sworn it was ours.’

      ‘We’ve spent a lot of time there lately,’ he offered gruffly. ‘There’s an indoor heated pool there that’s good for rehab. You’ve done a lot of rehab on your leg.’

      ‘Oh,’ she said again.

      Trig set his napkin on the table and pushed away abruptly. ‘C’mon. I’ve had enough and you need to rest.’

      She tried to follow swiftly. She caught her hip on the edge of the table and winced.

      ‘Easy, though. There’s no rush.’

      ‘Nothing works,’ she whispered.

      ‘It works. It just works different from the way you expect it to.’

      She clutched at his arm and together they headed slowly for the lifts. ‘Do I have a crooked wooden walking stick?’

      ‘Yes.’

      ‘Did you give it to me for when you weren’t around?’

      ‘Yes.’

      ‘Thought so.’

      The lift door opened and they stepped in. Lena didn’t release his arm when he thought she would. The old Lena wouldn’t have taken his arm at all. He looked at the picture they made in the mirror, she was looking at the picture they made too, and her eyes were like bruises. He’d wanted this—them—for so long, but not like this. He needed the old Lena back before he pursued this.

      ‘I must have a really excellent personality,’ she said.

      ‘Why’s that?’

      ‘Look at you.’

      He eyed himself warily. Same oversized buffoon who’d failed to protect Lena. Again.

      ‘You look like a Hollywood action hero.’ She frowned when he didn’t reply. ‘You’re not, are you?’

      ‘Pass.’

      ‘Professional athlete?’

      ‘No.’

      ‘Fireman? I hear those boys lift a lot of weights in their spare time?’

      ‘Where’d you hear that?’

      ‘So you are a fireman?’

      ‘No.’

      She stood there in silence, but not for long. ‘So what do you do? A wife should probably know.’

      ‘I work for Australia’s Special Intelligence Service.’

      ‘You’re a spy? Are you serious?’

      ‘You work for them too.’

      The lift doors opened and before Lena could protest, Trig lifted her into his arms and headed for the room. She’d done enough walking for the day and maybe, just maybe, he needed to hold her for a little while and pretend that she was safe.

      ‘Do you carry me often?’ she asked as she wound her arms around his neck and relaxed into his arms.

      ‘As often as I can.’

      And then Lena pressed her face to the hollow of his neck and took a deep breath and her arms tightened around him.

      ‘I remember this,’ she murmured. ‘I remember the way you smell.’

      Trig didn’t need to die and go to hell. Hell had come to him.

      She pressed a tentative kiss to his neck and his arms tightened around her. ‘Why do I call you Trig?’

      ‘Because I tutored you in trigonometry back in high school.’

      ‘So, I needed help. Meaning I’m not exactly a scholar.’

      ‘Depends on the company. You topped your state in mathematics, which for most seventeen-year-old girls is an excellent result. You just happen to have a couple of geeky geniuses in the family. It skews your expectations.’

      ‘I

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