Chapter 4

Trevor woke with no clear idea of where he was; in fact, he woke with no clear idea of who he was. Everything ached, pulled, or stung as if someone had run his body through a blender on puree. With a groan, he tried to sit up, only to have a woman appear, standing over him shaking her head.

“That is not a good idea. You need to stay put.”

He stared up at her, unsure what to say. So, he said the first thing that popped into his head. “Water.”

A smile lifted the corners of her lips. “Of course. Hold on a second.” She disappeared and he heard her moving around somewhere out of his line of sight. But she was replaced by the largest, scariest looking dog he’d ever seen.

The thing stood there staring at him, its tongue lolling out of the side of its mouth. It tilted its head to the side curiously and gave a soft woof at him.

“Slate, move your big butt out of the way. And stop staring at him before you scare the life out of him!”

He felt his lips tilt up into a grin at the way she spoke to the big beast as if it were no more than a tiny little lap dog. Immediately, he regretted the grin as he felt the pull on the many cuts and bruises that seemed to cover his face.

The woman held out a glass of water to him, then frowned, turned and set the glass on a table behind her. “Come on, let’s scooch you up a bit.” She helped him move so that he was sitting more upright and then held the glass out to him.

He took it and drank slowly, taking little sips, not because he didn’t want to gulp the entire thing down greedily, but because his lips were cracked and they hurt. It was easier to sip at the water. When he’d finished, he held the glass out to her with a pleading look.

She shook her head. “Wait a bit and then I’ll give you some more. I don’t know how long it’s been since you’ve had anything in your stomach, I don’t want you tossing it back up on me.”

He gave her a small nod of understanding and shut his eyes wearily. “What happened to me?” he asked her.

“You don’t remember?”

He cracked an eye open. “No. I can’t even remember my name.”

“Damn, that doesn’t help much. You don’t have a wallet.”

He chuckled. “You checked huh?”

Her cheeks turned pink at his words. “Um, yeah I thought it might be wise considering you were a stranger to me.”

A frown creased his brow. “You don’t know me?”

She sat down on the edge of the table and gave her head a shake. “No, you just staggered up to the front of the house all covered in blood. Which begs the question, how the hell you got up the mountain?”

“Mountain?”

“Yes. Mount Charleston, just outside of Las Vegas, Nevada.”

“I have no idea how I got here or even if I’m supposed to be here. Live here or just visiting.” He rubbed a hand over his face and immediately winced at the pain it caused.

“Well, there might be a clue to who you are here.” She pointed at something on the table. “You had it with you when you came staggering into the clearing. I guess it was stuck under your shirt or something; it fell when I was trying to get you into the house. I had Slate fetch it and bring it inside.”

He stared at the device on the table with a frown. There was something familiar about it, but he wasn’t certain what. He held a hand out for it. “Well, let’s see what secrets it holds, shall we?” She didn’t reach for it to hand it to him, instead she nodded to the dog, and he carefully picked it up in his teeth and walked it over to him.

He frowned at the dog and then looked at her, then back at the dog. “Um, thanks.” The dog seemed exceedingly happy with the thanks. He trotted over and plopped down in front of the fireplace. “He likes fetching things huh?”

She looked away from him before answering. “Yeah, sometimes.”

He had a feeling that wasn’t the reason the dog had given him the tablet. He reached out and placed his hand over hers, wanting to touch her, he wasn’t sure why. Only, the second his skin made contact with hers he jerked it away. With a frown, he looked up into her face, his eyes locking with hers. “What the hell?”

They both looked at their hands and then at each other.

She furrowed her brow. “I don’t know. I’ve never had anything like that happen before. It was sorta like a static shock. Like when you shuffle your feet across the carpet and poke someone. Only stronger.”

He shook his head at her. “I don’t know if I’ve ever had that happen before, not the carpet thing, what just happened when I touched you. May I?” He gestured at her hand. When she gave a small nod, he reached out and placed his hand on top of hers again.

Maybe because they were expecting it this time, it didn’t seem as big of a jolt. He looked up at her and she smiled at him. He smiled back just a little. “This is so weird.”

She gave a small laugh. “You’re telling me.” She pulled her hand away and gestured toward the iPad. “How about you see if that thing can tell us anything about you?”

“Oh yeah, right.” He powered it up and looked through the apps and the movies. “Let’s see, apparently I like action movies with lots of things that blow up. Ditto on the game apps. Lots of mystery/thriller novels in here. So I’m guessing death is a big theme here. Is that a good sign or a bad one?” He glanced up at her and she shook her head and rolled her eyes.

He looked back down. “Right, moving on. Let’s check the device settings, shall we?” He hummed a tuneless song as he moved through the useless information. Nothing that was going to help them. “Oh ho, pictures! Well damn … this doesn’t help much.” He scrolled through the pictures. They were all of scenery. They looked like vacation pictures. “Don’t I have any family? What the hell?” There was no one in the pictures at all. Not one person. It was obvious he had taken all the pictures using the iPad, yet no one had been with him to get into the shots.

“This is rather depressing,” he mumbled as he brushed a finger over the screen of the iPad.

She laid a hand on his shoulder and again he felt that small fissure of electricity. “No, it’s not. Sometimes, alone is just better.”

He had a feeling she knew exactly what alone felt like. He eyes went from the screen to where her hand rested on his shoulder, eyes traveling from there up her arm to her face. He realized with a small start that she was really very pretty, now that his mind wasn’t occupied with waking up and all the aches he was feeling.

Her hair hung in soft mahogany waves to her shoulders, he had an irrational urge to sink his fingers into her hair and tangle them there while he kissed her until they were both senseless. He suddenly realized that he was staring at her lips and he looked away, back down at the tablet in his lap. He could drown in the soft chocolate brown of her eyes if he let himself stare up at her too long.

Clearing his throat, he shut the iPad off. “Well, I guess we’ll never know who I am. Unless I remember, that is.”

The dog leaned on his arm and touched his nose to the iPad with a small whine. She laughed. “You really want to play with it, don’t you Slate?”

He grinned and stroked the dog’s head. “Sorry boy but I don’t think you’d find it very entertaining.” Slate nudged the device again more insistently, grabbing the edge of the case and tugging at it.

She frowned at him and batted him on the nose. “No, you can’t play with it!”

He chuckled at the dog. “Maybe he wants a new chew toy.”

“No, he can’t have it. If I’m not mistaken those things cost a lot of money.”

He looked up at her as he popped the case off. “You don’t have one?” For some reason he thought everyone should own one nowadays. It seemed like one of those things that everyone had in one form or another, though he wasn’t sure how he knew that.

She shook her head and looked away from him as if she were uncomfortable. “No not much use for one up here.”

He gave a nod and held the case out to the dog. Slate sniffed at it and then licked it, before looking at the iPad once again, then up at him. “Okay, now he’s just being weird.”

“No, that’s pretty normal for him,” she said with a laugh and the dog sent her a reproachful look before looking back at the tablet.

“I swear if he could roll his eyes at me he would,” he told her while eying the dog. Slate gave a small woof, leaned forward, and carefully wrapped his mouth around the iPad, pulling it from his grasp, and tilted his head to the side as far as he could.

“What are you doing, Slate?” she said with a giggle.

“Hold on a second.” He took the device from the dog and flipped it over. On the back, near the bottom, was a piece of masking tape. “Well I’ll be dammed.” He grinned at the dog, reached out, and scratched him between the ears. “How’d you know that was there boy?”

Slate licked his hand, gave a little woof, and trotted off to go lay in front of the fire.

He ran his finger over the tape and read what was printed on it. “If lost return to: Trevor Madison.” He grinned up at her after he’d read off the address and phone number. “Trevor. You think that’s really me?”

“It doesn’t ring a bell?” she asked him.

He crunched up his face and thought about it a moment. “It … feels right, but I can’t say as it sounds familiar.”

She thrust out a hand. “Well Trevor, it’s nice to meet you. I’m Chloe. You’ve already met Slate.” She jerked a thumb toward the now sleeping dog.

He gave her hand a shake, feeling that now familiar jolt when he touched her.

“So, how about a little food?” She pulled her hand from his and moved away.

Trevor watched her over the back of the couch as she moved into the small kitchen. He continued to watch as she moved around the tiny kitchen and put together a tray of food for him. While she prepared the food, he took the opportunity to study the tiny cabin. One room, one small room. It was obvious that besides the dog she lived here alone.

He was guessing that her bedroom was behind the curtain that hung in the corner. Beside the kitchen, a door stood open and he could see a bathroom. At least she had running water up here, he could be grateful for that one modern convenience at least, since he didn’t see any lights, and her stove appeared to be of the wood burning variety.

“Here we go,” she said as she settled a tray across his legs.

“Not much here. Come on I’m starving.” He looked up into those chocolate colored eyes of hers.

“Too bad, just like with the water I do not want you puking on me. I have no idea how long it’s been since you last ate. So we are taking it slowly. Now eat.” She left him to his food.

Just as he lifted the first spoonful of the delicious looking stew toward his mouth, Slate appeared by his side that tongue of his lolling out. “No way buddy. If you want some then go ask Chloe, this is all mine.”

Her laughter came at him from the kitchen. A light sound, filled with joy. “Slate, leave Trevor alone and let him eat! He needs the food more than you do you great big moose!”

The dog gave him an exceedingly sad look before he dragged back over to the rug before the fire. Trevor shook his head, grinned, and ate his food as he considered what he was going to do.

He was in the house of a woman he didn’t know and who admitted she didn’t know him. He had no memories beyond waking up this morning; his past was a total blank. Setting the spoon down he stared into the bowel of stew, somehow he had this nagging feeling there was something vitally important that he really should be remembering right now.

Maybe, as he healed he’d remember. He glanced briefly, to where Chloe was in the kitchen before looking back down at his food.  For now, he had to hope that whatever he was forgetting would hold, he was in the middle of nowhere, up on a mountain, with a woman who obviously lived alone and liked it that way for a reason.

Did that mean he was safe from whatever memory was sitting back, hiding away in his brain nagging to be remembered? Or was it simply waiting to pounce on him when he least expected it?