Page 98 of Romancing His Heart

“Shit. Loki, are you okay? Help me get him to the chair.” Sloane’s voice mixes with the rush of memories.

Strong hands grip my forearms, and I thrash against the constraints.

“Loki, it’s just us,” Seth states calmly on my left. “Emory said this might happen. We need to take this slow. Just sit down while your body and mind catch up.”

Incapable of speaking at the moment, I nod. My head is on a swivel while I search for Red, and I’m pleased when I find her beside me, throwing Luca a death glare. My girl could make grown men crumble with that look, and I love her for it.

Holy fuck. I love her.

We make eye contact, and her features soften. Giving me a gentle nod, she returns her gaze to Luca. She’s guarding my life again, and I’ve never seen anything so sexy in all my life.

“Loki, I’m sorry for crashing in on you like this. We were afraid if we told you in advance, you wouldn’t meet with him,” Seth admits.

“Of course he wouldn’t, you asshole. What the fuck, Seth? Someone had better start speaking, now, or I will use this.” She slowly raises the gun. “And I am a great freaking shot, so don’t test me.”

“Okay, GI Jane. Take it easy. Do you think I’d bring Luca here if I didn’t know for certain we could trust him?” Ashton rationalizes.

Even in my haze, I can tell Sloane is making him nervous.

Good. Red might be the only one truly on my side right now.

“Nadja,” Luca repeats, crossing the room slowly and taking a seat across from me.

“I swear to Christ, if one of you doesn’t start talking right fucking now, I will shoot someone,” Sloane screeches.

My hearing fades in and out as blood rushes through my ears. Luca tells us what brought him here as memories fighting to take shape flash across my vision like a movie reel. I only hear bits and pieces. He was in Waverley-Cay after my parents died—he met Agent Anderson. He joined the FBI two years after I enlisted with SIA.

“If that’s true, why the hell didn’t Loki know about it?” Sloane demands.

I give her a half-smile through the migraine fog that has settled over me. My girl is asking all the right questions.

“The alphabet agencies don’t like to share information,” Seth growls. “Even when an agent’s life is on the line, apparently.”

“That’s stupid.” Sloane crosses her arms over her chest. With the gun in her right hand tucked under her arm, her left hand squeezes her right elbow. That’s when I see it. Tap-tap-slide.

“Come here, Red.” My voice sounds stronger than I feel, and she does as I ask. After removing the gun from her grasp, I set it on the table behind me then pull her down into my lap. Placing my palm over her tapping fingers, she relaxes.

I see the question in Seth and Ashton’s eyes, but I don’t linger on them. Instead, I use every ounce of energy I have to make sense of the rush of memories filling my conscious. Sloane closes her small hand around mine, and a sense of calm I’ve never known in these situations washes over me.

Is this how Trevor feels with Julia at his side?

“I almost killed you in that warehouse,” I say, glaring at Luca.

“No shit,” he fires back.

Visions of him screaming wildly as I aimed my gun at him come to me.What was he yelling, though?

“Do you remember everything, then?” Sloane whispers.

“No. It-It’s coming, but it’s like I can’t process it all.”

“Would it help if I recounted what happened in the warehouse?” Luca asks. He’s more soft-spoken than I remembered.

Glaring at him, I have a hard time reconciling a lifetime’s worth of hatred with the bits of memory I’m gathering.

“Loki?” Ashton steps forward. “Emory told us you could feel overwhelmed by information. She likened it to having a nasty hangover where bits of your memory come at different times.”

That’s exactly what it feels like, the worst fucking hangover of my life.