Free Undercover Memories by Alice Sharpe Page B

handle. Damn.”
    “I should notify my family I’m okay.”
    “And Brian, too.”
    “Brian can tell the police whatever he wants. I am not getting involved with him again. Period. By the way, what do you think they meant when they said there was a macabre find in the freezer? I might have left some ice cream behind....”
    “It wasn’t you,” John said, casting her a quick glance. “I actually stuck Korenev’s finger up there.”
    “You what?”
    “His severed finger. It’ll have a print that might match some in the car, right?”
    She stared at him for a second, then put her attention back on the road, but a second later, she started laughing and couldn’t seem to quit.
    She pulled over as soon as she could and called her mother, who wasn’t home. No doubt she was at the gym where she taught yoga classes. Paige didn’t want to call the gym. She left a message assuring her mother she was fine and would talk to her soon.
    “If the police think you’re missing, they may be waiting at your apartment,” John said as they drove into Parker. He darted glances out the windows, probably looking for the cops.
    “I guess. I don’t know how that works, although from what I’ve read in the newspaper, I don’t think the police department can afford stakeouts. For all they know, Brian and I drove off to California or for that matter, if they’ve found out that we didn’t get married, they’ll probably assume I drove off to pout.”
    “Yeah,” he said. “Maybe.”
    The drive ended at Paige’s apartment building, or what she hoped would still be her apartment building. John caught her wrist as she turned off the ignition, releasing it immediately.
    “I want to apologize,” he said.
    “Don’t worry about it.”
    “No, Paige, don’t brush me off, please.”
    She stared at him for a few seconds. His bruises had gone from black-and-blue to a shade of green she knew her own would soon achieve. The cuts were mending. The bandage on his chin had fallen off. Dressed in the cowboy duds, he looked like a bank robber who had ridden all night to escape a lynching posse, which, come to think of it, pretty much described the situation. The frightening look of before was gone. His eyes were calm now, his features less sharp.
    Despite everything, her heart went out to him.
    Man, she was a sucker.
    She ran her hands over her eyes. They burned with fatigue. “Okay.”
    “I think I had a kind of hangover from the nightmare.”
    “Explain.”
    He swallowed and rubbed the back of his neck. “I dreamed about owls. And screaming children.”
    “What do you mean screaming children?”
    “I couldn’t see them. There were just these voices and terrible cries.... After I…after I kissed you I realized the screams were accusations directed at me. I was on fire, like I was in hell. That’s what it felt like: hell. The only escape seemed to be you.”
    He stopped talking abruptly and took a deep breath. Paige flashed on the old burn scars on his back and legs.
    “I awoke feeling like I’d had the dream before, maybe many times,” he added. “I’m a killer, Paige. I’m sure of it.”
    He swallowed again and Paige winced at the pain on his face. “Maybe it means you were a soldier in a war,” she said. “Or that you were a firefighter and couldn’t save a child.”
    “Or maybe I’m just plain out nuts. If the police arrest me now, I’ll end up in some kind of mental institution.”
    They could get adjoining rooms…
    “So go home, John, before the police or Anatola Korenev find you. Go home and see if walking in your own space jars you back to yourself. Find out about your past—it will explain all this.”
    “I hope you’re right.”
    She stared at him a second, then shook her head and stared down at her hands. “You weren’t the only one to blame,” she said softly. “About the kiss, I mean. I knew you were acting all spacey. And it’s not like it wasn’t a hell of a kiss.”
    He smiled. “I think