Lisa Phillips - Sudden Recall

“What did Sienna forget that is so important?”

* * *

Sienna grabbed the phone off the desk. “Hello?”

The landline was down the hall in the office, where Aunt Karen holed up most of the day working on what she called her “correspondence.” Sienna figured she just read romance novels, given how many paperback books regularly showed up in the mail.

A sigh of relief was the first thing she heard. “Are you okay?”

“Uh...yes.” Sienna didn’t question the need; she simply strode to the door and clicked it shut without any sound.

“I can’t believe you’re actually okay.”

Who was this woman?

Sienna let the towel drop to the desk. “Why do I want to cry right now?”

“Because I’m the person who you love more than anything in the world, and we haven’t talked to each other in nearly two years.”

Sienna was sort of over other people knowing who she was. “Why would I love you? What’s so special about you?”

The woman on the phone laughed, took a long inhale and then laughed some more.

Sienna set her hand on her hip. “Seriously, I want to know.”

She chuckled, wheezing for breath. “That’s my girl. Don’t believe anything they tell you. At best, it’s nothing but a bunch of half-truths.”

“And at worst?”

“You’re not ready for that.”

“Is Sienna Cartwright even my real name?”

The woman was silent for a minute. “It was your birth name, but you’ve had so many aliases I can imagine it sounds weird.”

“And what did I call you?”

“Oh, right. Amnesia.” She chuckled again. Did people really laugh that much? “I’m Nina. Nina Holmes, your best friend since third grade.”

It couldn’t be a coincidence. Sienna had been living here months, and tonight she’d almost been kidnapped. Now this woman was on the phone, claiming to be her friend? Did this “Nina” think that she would buy it?

“Prove it. Because if you were my best friend, you wouldn’t have waited two years to contact me,” Sienna said.

“I was instructed not to. And there isn’t much I’m allowed to tell you—even if I seriously disagree with the reason. But...you take honey in your coffee.”

“What else?”

Nina was quiet for a second. “Oh, I have a good one. Your favorite dessert.”

It had taken Sienna two months of experimenting with different varieties to figure out the answer to that one for herself. For some reason it had been important to get it right. “If you think you can answer.”

“A scoop of strawberry ice cream and a scoop of chocolate—which is gross when you stir them together, by the way—with broken-up pieces of peanut-butter cups you hide in the freezer.”

Okay, so that was pretty specific. “And on top...?”

“A cherry. Obviously. No whipped cream. Which is also bizarre.”

Sienna smiled. More than anyone she’d met since she woke up from the coma, Sienna believed this woman actually knew her. Not that she thought Karen or Parker were lying, but deep affection welled up in her at hearing this woman’s voice. She knew she could reach out to Nina, but she still had to be cautious.

“Will they try to kidnap me again?”

It was a test, but she had to know what Nina knew.

“My guess, yes. They were hired, and since the first team failed, he’s likely going to hire another team to try again.”

So many questions popped into Sienna’s head, but she focused on the most pressing. “He?”

“I don’t know his name,” Nina said. “You’re the only one who did.”

“What does this man want with me?”

Nina was quiet for a moment. “He wants you to remember.”

“Does he think I don’t want the same thing? It’s all I’ve wanted for a year now. It’s all anyone wants.” Sienna squeezed her eyes shut. “Why is this such a big deal?”

“You’re not ready for that, either.”

“Well, you have to give me something, because I feel like I’m going crazy!”

Sienna took a breath to pray Aunt Karen and Jackson Parker hadn’t heard her. The last thing she needed was for them to look at her like she was something to be pitied. That wasn’t who she was. She was a fighter. How else would she have lasted living this long in a cloud of confusion with no way out and not go crazy?

“I can give you a way out of that house, but that’s all I can do. Karen was right about one thing, you do have to remember on your own.”

“How do you know she told me that?”

“It was the plan.” Nina paused. “Do you want an out or not? Because I’m in your neighborhood, so if you want space to figure this out I can help you. I’ll pick you up.”

Sienna wanted to say yes. She wanted to jump at the chance to see this woman she was clearly deeply connected to, if the way her chest was twisting was any indication. Did people really feel like that about those they were closest to? She might have that with Parker, if she allowed herself to find out how deep the well of her feelings for him went. And if they really did know each other like he claimed.

But something about Nina told her their bond had been forged through weathering hard times together. The kind of connection lifelong friends have. A bond that surpassed a blank memory. Her heart knew this woman, just like her heart knew Parker. But which one did she choose?

“This offer has a time limit. I’m not supposed to be here, but I received word from a contact that something was going down tonight. By the time I got to the scene, I heard the suspects were either dead or had already been arrested and you’d escaped. So I came to see if you needed anything.”

“I appreciate that.”

“But you don’t want to come?”

“I need answers. Coming with you isn’t going to give them to me any more than staying here will.”

Nina said, “Then I suggest you take another look at that shoebox you have under your bed.”

* * *

Karen calmly took a sip of her coffee. “Sienna hid something.”

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.