Sudden Recall by Lisa Phillips Read Free Book Online

right.”
    Karen gasped. “You absolutely cannot leave.”
    Sienna set her hands on her hips. “I’m not a prisoner. So far as I know. That means I can leave if I want to, which I hadn’t actually decided on yet.”
    Karen shot her a look. “You’ve stayed alive all the time you’ve been here, haven’t you? Why leave now?”
    â€œThings have changed.”
    Sienna strode out of the kitchen. Parker waved off Karen and followed her out. He caught her at the bottom of the stairs, stalling her with his hand around her wrist. He could snap her bones if he gripped too tight. Sienna was delicate, but she was also strong.
    She looked at his hand, then up at his face. “Aren’t you leaving?”
    â€œI do have to get back to work. There’s paperwork that needs to be done on the guy we arrested.”
    She didn’t say anything. Her eyes surveyed his face, but aside from that she was completely still.
    â€œWill you at least call me if you decide to leave?” She had to know he cared about her.
    â€œI’ll put your number in my phone. Call me, Sienna, so I have yours.” Hopefully he didn’t sound desperate, but Parker wanted to be able to contact her.
    Her lips curled up in a small smile. “You have to let me go now, Parker.”
    His fingers loosened, but he shook his head. She had to know he wasn’t going to just walk away when she was in danger. There may not be anything between them, given her memory loss and the unanswered question of why she’d never met him at the airport. But that didn’t mean he was willing to risk not being around if she needed him.
    * * *
    Sienna knelt and pulled the shoebox from under the bed. Outside, she heard Parker’s truck start and the engine rev as he drove away.
    A cold settled in her stomach as she realized she was here without him. Some part of her seemed to recognize him, as much as she didn’t want that to be the case. The last thing she needed was a man she had no memory of expecting her to say a particular thing or act a particular way.
    That kind of pressure—wondering if she was still the woman he’d known and who that was—would drive her crazy. Sienna felt crazed enough already. The CIA? It was enough to send her running out the door. With no memory, she was more than in over her head; she was drowning. Those men had tried to kidnap her, and she’d had no way to fight them off beyond the basic self-defense techniques she’d learned at the gym.
    Sienna removed the rubber bands that secured the box and sat back on her heels. She flipped the lid onto the floor to reveal the contents.
    A collection of photos with curled edges had been fastened with a rusty paper clip. The one on top was a country house and barn. Underneath the stack was an old movie ticket stub, two postcards from European cities that were blank on the back and enough space for the Bible Sienna had removed when she’d woken from her coma.
    Nothing new. Nothing that made her remember what she was supposed to be doing. Or anything about who she was.
    Did Nina really think Sienna hadn’t looked in the shoebox before? And what in here made Nina believe Sienna would leave her aunt?
    The Bible had been a solace to her in the months she’d tried to get her memory back. Sienna had scoured its pages, reading and rereading passages she had highlighted in her forgotten past. Notes she had made in the margins where it had spoken to her in one way or another. But none of that meant anything to her now—she had no frame of reference for it. She had read it as though for the very first time, soaked up the hope and peace found in those pages when so much of her life was upside down.
    Sienna flicked through the photos, but there wasn’t anything tucked between them. She only saw images of people she didn’t recognize in places she’d never been.
    With a cry of frustration she dumped the