Page 115 of Cruel Debts
"Keehn?"
"Shut the fuck up," fist man said with a snarl, "there's no fucking way, Trinity?—"
"I know you," I mumbled, my hand reaching up to cup the side of her jaw. "You're her. The girl in my dreams." I shook my head, frowning as my jumbled thoughts righted themselves. Things slowly trickled in, things I didn't remember until now. A hammer to the side of my head for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. A headache that felt like it went on forever until finally, it stopped. As did the memories. A police precinct and a badge with the name McCoy on it.Myname.
Keehn McCoy.
"Tee," I whispered, staring into the eyes of my sister. My fucking baby sister, who'd followed me everywhere. "What are you doing here?—"
I glanced around, and that's when the rest of the pieces fell into place.
Standing around us were none other than my three closest friends, brothers out of blood, the guys from the unit I'd served in the military. The three guys from my memories, my dreams. The men I'd made swear a blood oath to protect my sister if I ever couldn't do the job.
". Sentry. Ghost."
"Tank," one of them whispered, and that felt familiar, too. It felt right.
It would take some getting used to, this new set of memories, because until now, all I knew was the life of Johnny. I didn't know this Keehn person, and I was afraid I wouldn't be the same person I used to be.
They didn't seem to care, though.
Trinity threw her arms around me and sobbed while the others watched in awe. Her shoulders shook with a force I'd never thought possible from her tiny body, and as more and more memories fell into place in my mind, I held her close to me, relishing the feeling of something familiar, somethingmine,finally where it belonged.
I had a past. I had a life before this blankness in my head. And here it was, the most important part of it, on her knees in a dingy alleyway as she sobbed into my shoulder.
"I knew you were still out there," she mumbled into my shirt, her words garbled but no less meaningful. "I knew you were still alive."
"You looked for me?" I glance around the group of men I called brothers, their looks of matching reluctance, embarrassment, and regret a confusing thing to bear. "What?—"
"Maybe we should take this reunion somewhere a little safer and private," Asher said with a frown. "There's some things you need to know."
"And some thingsweneed to know, too," Hawke said as he tugged Trinity to her feet.
Years of military training took over. "Lead the way."
"When you saidprivate and safe, I didn't expect you to take us to a police station." It wasn't a problem, per se, because I felt at home here. At one point in my life, I was one of these men and women, cleaning up the streets for regular citizens. But now? It felt off. Like I didn't belong here anymore. Like there was something I regretted about the place and its limitations.
An animosity for the structure and red tape surrounding this building, and all of those who worked in it.
"Well, there's someone here that we're gonna need to talk to, about you," Liam hedged, his eyes glued to my sister. I'd deal with that later. I didn't like the way he looked at her. Howanyof them looked at her. But at least they'd been protecting her, so there was that.
I hadn't been able to, especially not after being almost murdered and then losing my memories.
Trinity sat beside me, her hands on mine between us, her eyes soft as she asked small, easy questions. Where had I been? Why did I leave town? What happened to keep me from coming back? How did I recognize her? Where had I been living?
It was my squadmates who asked the difficult questions.
What were you doing in Port Wylde?
Who did you cross that you shouldn't have?
Why didn't you ever reach out to us for help?
What were you working on that got you involved in this whole thing?
Hawke sat across from me and frowned. That scowl was beginning to look like a permanent part of his anatomy. "I managed to track down your last few open cases, and I put together what led you here." He set his hands on the table and shoved a phone across the surface at me.
I took it hesitantly, staring at the screen as shock registered on my face.
