Carol Ericson - Circumstantial Memories

Julia swallowed hard. The man was ruthless. Would Ryder be able to find them in this maze of caves? She had to distract him somehow, get him to take the gun off Shelby to give Ryder a chance to come at him. She hoped Ryder wouldn’t come in with his gun blazing. The stranger just might get a shot off first.

“Who are you? What do you want from me?”

“I want you, Julia. You belong to me. I’ll take you away from here, and then we’ll call Ryder and tell him to pick up his brat.”

She gasped. How did he know so much about them?

The man laughed. “Of course, knowing Ryder, he’s probably already here somewhere, but if he tries something, his daughter dies.”

“Y-you know Ryder, too?”

“Of course I know him. I worked with him.”

Julia drew her brows together. “At the agency? With Black Cobra?”

“So you remember that. Ryder would’ve never told you about Black Cobra. He’s such a loyal spy. Not so loyal to his friends, though.” The man unbuttoned the cuff of his long-sleeve shirt with his teeth and pulled the sleeve up to his elbow. He thrust his arm in front of him. “Here’s the proof.”

She pushed off the ground to get a better look at his forearm. He shifted forward so that the circle of light from the kerosene lamp illuminated his arm and the tattoo of the black snake.

Clutching her stomach, Julia stumbled backward. “Jeremy!”

ADRENALINE PUMPED through Ryder’s body. Julia knew now. She knew she faced her ex-husband and he was the enemy.

She tilted her head up to gaze into Jeremy’s dark sunglasses. He shoved the glasses on top of his head, and she shrank back, pressing her hand over her mouth.

Something close to pity stirred in Ryder’s gut. Jeremy’s face stretched tightly across his cheekbones, his eyes unnaturally wide and unblinking.

“Not as handsome as I used to be, huh, Julia? But then I guess you don’t remember what I looked like anyway.”

“You died in the bomb blast. I remember. I remember the house blowing up. I remember the flames.”

“Yeah, that fire did a number to my face and my upper body, but I crawled away…no thanks to you. You sped off in that car I stole, taking all my money with you.”

“How’d you find me? How long have you been watching me?”

“I heard through my sources that Ryder was finally coming home on leave. I landed in Silverhill before he did and learned all about the mysterious woman with amnesia and a three-year-old daughter.” He waved the gun at Shelby ’s sleeping form. “We can play catch-up later. We need to get going.”

Ryder tensed his muscles. He’d have to drop on top of Jeremy before he could get a shot off…before he took Julia away. He drew his knees to his chest and then stopped when he heard Jeremy’s voice.

“Wake up, kid.”

Ryder bunched his hands into fists. He couldn’t attack Jeremy if he had Shelby in his arms.

Pointing the gun at Shelby, Jeremy prodded her with his foot.

“What are you doing?” Julia reached out toward Jeremy, grasping his arm.

He shook her off. “She’s coming out with us. Do you think I’m going to walk out of these caves into an ambush without my insurance? Ryder will never come at me as long as I have his daughter.”

Ryder wiped a trickle of sweat from his brow. For once in his miserable life, Jeremy was right. Ryder couldn’t tackle him if he had Shelby at gunpoint.

Tossing back her hair, Julia let out a throaty purr. “Let’s leave her for Ryder, Jeremy. I want to come with you. Why didn’t you just come forward when you found me?”

Ryder’s heart pounded against his ribcage. Was Julia making her move? Could she see him up here?

“Don’t play me, Julia. The last time we saw each other, I’d forced you to come to Arizona to save your boyfriend and discovered you were pregnant with his baby. It ended…badly.”

“You never gave me a chance to explain. Finding you with that other woman in Paris devastated me, and Ryder took advantage of the situation. He told me you’d been with a lot of women. He persuaded me to leave you.” Her voice hitched in her throat. “I never wanted to leave you, Jeremy.”

A muscle ticked in Ryder’s jaw. Damn that woman was a good actress…or at least she better be acting.

Jeremy snorted. “So you slept with Ryder because you didn’t want to leave me?”

“It was revenge sex.” She threw out her hands and Jeremy stepped back, away from Shelby. “I wanted to hurt you, to get back at you. But it was too late. You resigned from the agency and left Paris. When you called me about the computer disc, I jumped at the chance to see you again.”

“And then left me to fry in a burning house.”

“I was terrified. I thought you were dead and I thought whoever killed you would come after me.” She moved closer to Jeremy and ran her hand along his back. “C’mon, baby. You know me better than anyone. You know I never wanted kids. Now that Ryder’s back and he knows he’s Shelby ’s father, he can take care of her. And I can take care of you.”

Jeremy caught Julia’s hand and brought it to his lips. “I have to hand it to you. You’re good, but you’re going to take care of me whether you want to or not. Now wake her up, so we can get out of here.”

Julia kneeled beside Shelby, hunching over her body, shielding her from Jeremy’s gun.

Ryder seized the opportunity with both hands and hurled himself over the edge. He dropped on top of Jeremy.

Jeremy grunted and squeezed off a shot, the bullet leaving a trail of heat as it zinged past Ryder’s thigh. As he planted a knee on Jeremy’s chest, Ryder yelled at Julia, “Get Shelby out of here.”

Julia gathered Shelby in her arms, her eyes never leaving the two men grappling on the floor of the cave. She didn’t want to leave Ryder with this madman, but she had to find a safe place for Shelby first. She’d come back to help Ryder.

As Julia stumbled through the cave, heading toward the light, Shelby stirred and yawned. Another shot rang out and she sobbed and tripped. A voice echoed in the cave behind her, “Julia.”

A chill flashed up her spine. The same voice that haunted her dreams. The same voice that spun out from the leaping flames in Arizona.

Gripping Shelby tighter, Julia burst from the cave and fell to the ground, a sharp pain lancing her ankle. Seconds later, Jeremy stumbled out after her, the gun dangling from his fingers.

Panic, like a wildfire, raced through her body, leaving her light-headed. Ryder. Jeremy shot Ryder in the cave. She howled, the sound gathering in her belly and filling the mountain air with its raw anguish.

Jeremy stopped in his tracks, his lips curling into a smile. He raised both arms to her, the snake on his forearm flexing grotesquely.

Ryder charged out of the mouth of the cave, running straight at Jeremy. Ryder tackled him and they skidded across the dirt, rolling to the edge of the cliff. The force of the hit had jarred the gun from Jeremy’s hand and it flew to the side of the grappling bodies.

“Stay here. Don’t move.” Julia tucked a wide-eyed Shelby into a cubby hole at the cave’s entrance. Then she retrieved the gun. With trembling hands, she pointed the weapon at Ryder and Jeremy locked in a life-and-death struggle at the edge of the precipice.

“Jeremy, I have your gun.”

Both men looked up in mid-punch and then Ryder shoved away from Jeremy, wiping the back of his hand across his bleeding mouth. “Looks like the game is over, Jeremy. You lose.”

“You know how much I hate losing, Ryder.” Jeremy cracked a smile then rolled off the edge of the cliff.

Julia traced her fingertip along Jeremy’s face, safely captured in a photo and neatly tucked behind the clear plastic sheet in the photo album. Handsome, charming, adventurous-just the tonic she’d needed after Dad’s death.