Page 75 of Montana Memory

I’d been hoping for something—a journal, a dream board, hell, even a Post-it note. Something that could give Jada a piece of herself back. But there was nothing. Like she’d scrubbed her existence clean even before she lost it.

I found her plants last. A sad little lineup on the windowsill. Most were drooping, under-watered, but stubbornly clinging to life. I grabbed those too. Jada tried to care for something once. That meant something.

It didn’t take long to load up the car. I wished there were more I could bring with me that she might care about. But hopefully this would be enough for her to feel she wasn’t starting from zero. But maybe completely fresh was a better way to go. She hadn’t been talking about taking the antidote again, so maybe she could build her life from the ground up.

I wanted to be with her every step of the way.

The other reason I was in Denver was still ahead of me, waiting behind concrete walls and security gates. Jada had asked me to see Caleb.

“Tell him I’m sorry,” she’d said, curled up on the couch with little black Moose pressed against her ribs. “Tell him I made a lot of mistakes, but he’s not one of them. And if he still wants me in his life…I’ll be there. As soon as it’s safe.”

She’d looked me straight in the eye when she said it. No hesitation. No shame, even though she carried plenty of that around.

It didn’t take me long to get back to visit him, Jace’s burner ID in my pocket, my name and past scrubbed clean for the day. Once again, the guards barely glanced at the paperwork.

Caleb was already seated when I got to the visitation booth. Same lean build. Same sharp eyes. He picked up the phone without waiting for me to sit.

I picked up the phone on my side.

“You again.”

“Me again.”

“Didn’t think you’d come back.” His eyes narrowed. “Is Jada okay?”

“Yeah.” I leaned in slightly. “Still no memory. She wanted me to tell you…she’s sorry. For not coming to visit. She’s figuring things out, but she hasn’t forgotten you.”

His expression shifted. He looked away, jaw tightening. “Hell,” he muttered. “That girl. Always thinking she’s the one who needs to apologize.”

“She wanted you to know she hasn’t written you off. She just…” I hesitated. “She’s got a lot going on.”

He met my gaze again, sharp now. “Is she safe?”

“Yeah. I’ve got her somewhere out of reach. We’re taking it one day at a time. I’m back in town packing her stuff up, so wewon’t be back here for a while. She’s got to figure out how she wants to move forward in her life.”

He studied me. “You in this for the long haul, or just until it gets messy?”

“It’s already messy.” I didn’t flinch. “But I’m in.”

That seemed to earn me something. Maybe not trust, but respect. He looked down at the scratched surface between us, rubbed the back of his neck. “Tell her I want to see her. Eventually. Just not now. Not with the heat around here. Cops’ve been sniffing around ever since Alan got shanked.”

I stiffened. “What kind of heat?”

“Some cops came to talk to me. Twice.”

That got my full attention. “About what?”

“At first, I thought it would be about Alan. But most of the questions were about Jada. What kind of person she was. If I knew where she’d gone. If she’d be willing to talk.”

My fingers tightened on the phone. “Cops? Why do they want her? There’s no warrant out.”

“I don’t know, but they were sniffing. Told me I should call her. Said maybe if she came in for a visit, they could stop by at the same time and clear a few things up.”

“And you told them…?”

“I told them I hadn’t heard from her in a long time. That we weren’t talking. I wasn’t about to put a target on her back.”

I nodded. “Thanks. You did the right thing.”

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