Free In Search of a Memory (Truly Yours Digital Editions) by Pamela Griffin Page A

came guarded.
     
    He gave her a sideways glance. “I solemnly swear, on a stack of Bibles if you’d like, that I had nothing to do with this.”
     
    “No need to. This isn’t a courtroom.” She couldn’t help but see the irony, though. No matter which direction she chose to run to rid herself of his company—a closed door, storming away, sneaking off a train—somehow she always ended up back in his path. “But you can’t say the same about finding work here. You meant to choose this place.”
     
    He hesitated. “You’re right. I did.”
     
    “Then you admit it. You
are
following me.” She stopped walking and whirled to face him in accusation.
     
    He gave a gentle tug to her elbow. “Come on. We don’t want to get left behind. They’d never know we were missing.” They resumed their walk, and he released his light hold.
     
    “Well?” she insisted after a few steps.
     
    “What do you want me to say, Angel?” He sounded frustrated. “I wanted to make sure you were safe, especially after seeing those young thugs go after you. I know I said all this before, and call it none of my business, but finding you in my car and alone on the train, somehow that made it my business.”
     
    “I don’t need a bodyguard.”
     
    “I don’t think you know what you need.”
     
    Offended, she glared at him. “That’s an incredibly judgmental statement to make, since you hardly even know me.”
     
    “You’re right. But if we’re going to talk snap judgments, you’ve done your fair share. Don’t judge my character just because of my name, Angel. I’m not the terrible, preying villain you’ve made me out to be.”
     
    “You sure don’t mind throwing your last name around to achieve your purpose!” She felt a little ashamed when she realized he’d done so only to help her, but she couldn’t seem to back down.
     
    He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I’m glad you brought that up. I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t tell anyone who I am. I’m just Roland here.”
     
    “Then you intend to stay?” She couldn’t hide her distress. “There’s really no need. These people are nice. Cassie,
     
    Chester, Mahoney. I don’t think I’ll find trouble among this bunch, so don’t feel obligated to remain on my account.”
     
    “Can we not argue, for once? We were coming close to getting along together on the train. Can we go back to that moment?”
     
    “That was before you made me your personal mission.” And before she learned he was a gangster. “I’m still not entirely sure of your motives.”
     
    “Okay.” He released a weary sigh, throwing his hands up in defeat. “I confess. Joining the carnival did start out as a means to watch out for you, maybe even to get to know you better—”
     
    “I knew it!”
     
    “But that wasn’t the sole reason. There’s more to it than that.”
     
    She regarded him with skepticism. “How so?”
     
    “I did a lot of thinking last night. You didn’t ask what I was doing on the train, and I evaded your cousin’s question about why I was in your hometown. Now I’ll tell you, strictly in confidence, being as how only you know who I am and I’d like it to stay that way. But you must never tell anyone what I’m telling you. Do you understand, Angel? It’s for your own good.”
     
    A sense of excitement mingled with dread at his overtly clandestine attitude made her nod slowly. She half expected a car of gangsters to suddenly careen into view, tommy guns firing.
     
    He remained silent for so long she thought at first he had changed his mind about telling her. Their pace slowed, until they were even farther behind their tour guides and well out of earshot.
     
    When he looked at her again, his expression was somber.
     
    “I went there to visit the family of one of my grandfather’s victims. A man who once worked for him. I went to see his wife.”
     
    Her eyes grew wide. “Who?” She scoured her brain for all those in their