face. Her lips pressed to his unresponsive ones. And if he pushed back to the very edge of the haze, where his memories hit a wall, the very first thing he remembered was her voice. “Will! Please . Don’t leave me. I love you.”
He clung to her words as they parted his delirium and proved he was still sane. He didn’t love a stranger or a ghost. She was real and she loved him too.
But when the chaos in his memories erupted, another man stayed with Emma through it all, trying to lead her to safety. For the most part she’d ignored him, focusing on getting Will out of the woods, but there was no denying the hungry look in the other man’s eyes.
He wanted her.
And there wasn’t a damn thing Will could do about it.
When Will slept, he dreamed of her. There were no images, yet he knew it was her. She cried for hours, her sobs taunting his need to protect her. She often called his name along with Jake. The interrogator said Jake was her son. Did Kramer have him too?
Her despair mixed with his, pulling him deeper into his madness, the weight so heavy he thought he might sink through the rickety mattress and down into the earth until it sucked the life out of him.
In moments of lunacy, he tried to reach her, her presence hovering just out of reach. When he first heard her, he called to her, telling her that he was there. He eventually stopped because it seemed to upset her even more.
And that’s how he knew he’d really gone mental. People couldn’t talk to each other in dreams.
That and the other voice in his head.
The voice he’d heard during the interrogation was still there, offering encouragement.
“ Don’t give up, Will. He’s coming .”
At first Will tried to figure out who was coming, then gave up. There was no voice. No one was coming. His subconscious had kicked into self-preservation mode.
In his rare saner moments, he tried to make sense of where he was and why he was here. He knew it involved Senator Warren and Kramer, and somehow Emma fit into it all. Kramer and his interrogator claimed that Emma had powers, whatever that meant. What he most wanted to know at the moment was how he lost a month and a half of memories. And why.
When the door to his cell opened, he was sure he was hallucinating. He turned to the light, but before his hand shielded his eyes, he was sure he’d seen James. His eyes burned, tears streaming down his face.
“ Will ?”
Will shook his head slowly. Now he heard James’s voice too.
Maybe he was dead.
Will tried to open his eyes, but the room had flooded with light.
“Son of a bitch, what the fuck have they done to you?” Someone squatted next to his cot and set something on the floor.
“ James ?” Will’s tongue was heavy and slow to move. Squinting, he caught a glimpse of James’s horror-stricken face. Will sank into the mattress. “What…I don’t know…How did you get here?” His voice was raspy. He had to be hallucinating.
James’s head leaned forward, examining Will’s face. “They captured me and threw me into this cell. What did they do to you?”
“Interrogation.”
“Interrogation? Naked ?” James sat back on his heels. “That’s why they gave me this bundle of clothes. Come on, let’s get you dressed.”
Will had been curled up so long that his arms and legs protested when he stretched them out.
“Shit.” James grasped Will’s arms to help him up.
“I know I look like hell, but if you try to take advantage of me right now, I can still kick your ass.”
James swung Will’s legs over the side of the bed and pulled him upright. “You fuckhead.” He pulled the shirt over Will’s head and helped him put his arms through the holes. “I’m too good for you.”
Will’s mouth lifted into a smirk. “You wish.” Will stood on shaky legs while James helped him put his pants on.
James helped Will sit on the cot, grim determination on his face. “We have to get out of here.”
Exhausted, Will leaned over his legs. “I
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