If you can’t fall asleep on your own, I give you enough to take the edge off so you can.” The nurse was negotiating the pain medication with Olivia.
“I’m fine.”
“Your vital signs say differently. Sleep is the best thing for you, and you can’t sleep if the pain is too intense.”
“I don’t want the fog.”
“Small amount . . . I promise. You’ll wake up in the morning feeling so much better.”
Silence made Leo wonder what was happening behind the curtain.
When the nurse left the room, she stopped long enough to mutter, “That’s one stubborn woman.”
Rick chuckled.
Leo walked in.
The coughing had taxed her. Those eyes lost some of their luster, her skin had paled.
“Better?” he asked when their eyes caught.
Her smile was fleeting and not convincing at all.
“Why not let the nurse give you something?”
She shook her head.
“Do it for me.”
“The guy I flirted with is asking for a favor?”
“I see the tired in your eyes, a little will help you sleep.” For a second he thought she was wavering. “You have a lot of people looking out for you here.”
That wavering drifted away. “Like the man outside. The guard.”
Leo looked over his shoulder at the empty doorway.
“The doctor told me I’d remember day-to-day things. Like driving a car or how to use a computer, just not the details like passwords or addresses . . . or who I am. And one thing I know is that man out there is here to either protect me or protect people from me. And since no one has said I’m in police custody, I’m going to assume the former. In which case, I know something . . . that I’ve obviously forgotten . . . and that information needs protection.”
Leo blinked several times. Holy shit.
“And I see by the expression on your face I’ve concluded correctly.”
Leo sunk into the chair at her side. “I have to add smart and beautiful to your list of attributes.”
“You’re flirting again . . .”
He lifted both hands in the air, felt heat in his cheeks. “Guilty. And inappropriate in light of everything.”
“It’s okay. Refreshing, actually. But for all I know, I’m married.” Her face rejected the thought. “If someone was missing me, they would have come looking by now, wouldn’t they?”
Leo thought of Neil and everyone involved with him, all working together for her at that moment. But how they couldn’t say a thing to her. Not yet. “You could have come to Vegas for a quick weekend.”
“Alone?”
“Maybe for work. And maybe you’re not due home for a few days?”
She chewed on that for a full minute. “Dr. Everett said I have dissociative amnesia. He thinks because of the shooting. That my mind can’t process the assault, and it’s protecting itself by hiding the memory and those around it.”
“Did the doctor say how long it would last?”
“Hours, days, weeks, months . . . He said my memory could come back quickly or in slow chunks. But sometimes people like me will never remember the events leading up to the shooting, or the shooting itself.”
Leo pulled in a deep breath. “You were facing the street. My back was to the shooter. You saw something, because you reached for me and told me to get down.” He nodded toward the door. “The security is for you. We don’t have an ID on the shooter, and there is always a possibility that the people involved will . . .”
“Want to eliminate an eyewitness.” As she said the words, a glaze settled over her eyes.
“I don’t want you to worry about that.”
“You don’t have control over my emotions or thoughts.” All humor was gone from her face.
Leo sighed. “We are going to protect you. Get you through this and make sure you’re safe.”
“Someone was shooting at you,” she concluded.
“Most likely,” he admitted.
“And I got in the way. That’s why you’re guarding me. A random person on the street in a shooting would be left on their own. But a federal agent . . .”
Very smart and beautiful.
“Why are you in Vegas?” she asked.
“A case.” Her silent stare prompted him to continue. “Somebody did some bad stuff and my partner and I were here for the trial.” And since the reason Leo was in Vegas was the same reason Olivia was in Vegas, he couldn’t help but wonder if the conversation would prompt a memory.
Instead, she had the same blank look on her face when someone asked her what her name was.