you?" crack. Lexis had already taken off to find John, so it was just the two of us. We should have been making out by then.
"I don't want to hurt you, lady, but if you don't move away from me I'm going to snap you in half." He'd ripped free of my grip and gritted out, "John." He looked past me to the door, searching for any sign of our commander.
"Rome," I'd said shakily.
He ignored me. "John! Get in here. What's going on?"
"Rome, you're scaring me." Even when he'd planned to neutralize me, he hadn't spoken so coldly.
His irritated gaze swung back to me. "Is this a joke? Who the hell are you?"
"I'm Belle." My chin quivered, the words emerging as a horrified whisper. "Your Belle."
"You aren't my anything."
He meant it. More than his voice, there was a coldness in his eyes I'd never seen before. Well, not directed at me. Scrims, yes, but never me.
Icy tears ran down my face. "How can you not know who I am? We're getting married!" He stared over at me, the coldness finally melting - only to spark into anger. "The joke is now officially old. You can leave."
At last, John entered the room, an annoyingly triumphant Lexis beside him. "You rang?" he asked drily.
"Must say, I'm glad to see you're awake, but your timing stinks. I was in the middle of an interrogation."
"Why is this - " When Rome noticed Lexis, he smiled slowly, happily, his question clearly forgotten. It was the kind of smile I'd dreamed of receiving. "There you are," he said. He even held out his arm for her, and she rushed over to twine their fingers. "I've been worried about you." Nausea churned in my stomach as they cooed at each other, doing all the things Rome and I should be doing. What was happening? I almost couldn't process it.
"You were worried about Lexis?" John asked, as confused as I was.
"Of course." Rome's gaze never left his ex as they continued to coo.
John cleared his throat. "Okay, you two. That's enough. Do you know who you are, Rome?"
"Telling him his name kind of defeats the question," I muttered. I wasn't in a good mood.
"Of course I do." He cast a pointed make-her-leave glance at me. "And I'd like to talk to you.
Privately."
Me, leave? I wanted to die.
"She's one of us." John pursed his lips. "She stays. Now tell us who you think you are."
"It's okay, darling," Lexis said, petting his bare shoulder. "You can speak freely." I wanted to kill.
Rome nodded stiffly. "Who am I, you asked. I'm Agent Rome Masters, PSI elite."
"Excellent." John clasped his hands behind his back. "And you remember Lexis." That earned another earth-shattering, "Of course," which caused Lexis to exhale with relief. And smug satisfaction, if I wasn't mistaken.
"But you don't remember Belle?"
"Who?"
Oh, God, oh, God, oh, God.
"I'll explain later. First tell me if you remember Tanner Bradshaw," John said.
Again, "Who?"
Clearly not.
As John continued to question Rome, it became all too apparent that the only things he'd forgotten were me and all things pertaining to me. It was as if I'd never entered his life. As if he'd never loved me.
Why? It made no sense.
John propped his elbows on his desk, the ensuing thud jolting me from my terrible thoughts. He rested his chin in his flattened palms. He had thinning gray hair, wore thick bifocals when he forgot to apply his contacts and had a slightly rotund belly. Despite all of that, he managed to radiate intense power.
He probably had a superpower, but I didn't know what it was. And yeah, I'd pestered him for the info about a million times, but he was the most secretive man I'd ever met. Which was smart, I guess. If you didn't know what he could do, you couldn't guard yourself against it.
"I've talked to Rome some more, explained who you are to him," John said. "At first he thought I was doing some sort of test, trying to gauge his reactions. But there at the end he accepted what I was saying as truth. That didn't change his mind about you, though. You're a stranger to him. A...nothing, much as I hate to say it. I'd lock you guys in a room, force you to talk it out, but a simple conversation or even a knock-down-drag-out fight isn't going to fix this. His memory of you is gone, which means his feelings for you are, too."
I nodded for him to continue, though I hated