What had he done? God, he didn’t understand a damn thing. “What are you talking about? I don’t understand. I don’t know who you are or why I’m here. If you’re going to kill me, get it the hell over with.”
There was a hollow feeling in the pit of his stomach. That anger had been focused on him. White-hot rage had come off the big guy in waves. The Russian had been trying to protect him. Were they friends? The man he thought was called Nick acted like they were supposed to know each other.
Someone had taken his mother and sister? His head ached as he tried to remember. A mother and a sister? He should know them. Their faces should be right there, but his mind was a blank slate.
Pain flared through his brain.
“Let it go.” Theo stood in front of him. “You’re trying to remember, and it won’t work. All you’ll do is give yourself a massive headache.”
“And the fucker deserves one,” Ian said.
Theo turned on the man named Ian. “Brother, I understand that you’re angry, but walk out right now because I’m not going to let you beat the shit out of a man who has no idea who he is or what he’s done.”
Ian’s eyes narrowed. “You’re a better man than me.”
“Everyone knows that,” Theo said, but there was a chuckle to his tone. He sobered quickly. “I know where he is. I’ve been there, and I assure you there is no revenge like what he’s going through. If I could have spared him this, I would have.”
“And I might have pushed the plunger.” Ian turned on his heels. “I’m going to go find Charlie. I suppose you’re going to make me keep him around.”
“Where else are we supposed to send him?” Nick asked. “He’s got nothing.”
“I have a mother and a sister.” They’d said so. Nick had said they were all he had in the world. Where were they? Were they coming to get him? He couldn’t remember his mother’s face or her name, but a mum took care of her children. A sister would show him kindness. If they were here, maybe they would help him remember what had gone so wrong with his life. “Where are they?”
The room seemed to go completely still, as if the air itself wasn’t moving.
“You said I had a mother and a sister.” He looked to the friendliest guy in the room. The big Russian had a grim look on his face. “Are they here?”
He hesitated. “Owen, I…”
Ian’s jaw squared as though he’d made a decision and he took over. “Your name is Owen Shaw. You work for me and a man named Damon Knight. You are former SAS and for the last several years have served as an operative on many intelligence missions. Nikolai Markovic was your partner. We’ve been working on a case where we were attempting to track down a rogue doctor. Her name was Hope McDonald and she was performing memory experiments on men she then turned into her own personal army. A few days ago, your mother and sister were kidnapped by the doctor in an attempt to get you to turn over my brother, Theo.”
His head hurt worse than ever. “Why would she want him?”
“He was her favorite subject,” Ian continued in his matter-of-fact way. Owen found he preferred it to Nick’s sympathetic hesitancy. “You turned over my brother and his fiancée, a woman named Erin Argent.”
“I betrayed my team?” Even in the fog of pain and panic he was in, he knew that wasn’t a good thing.
“You did,” Ian explained without an ounce of emotion.
“He had his reasons,” Theo argued.
“And Dr. McDonald killed your relatives anyway. She murdered them and dosed you with the same memory-wipe drugs she used on my brother. You had an allergic reaction and the doctors weren’t sure you would pull through. It’ll be a miracle if you come out of this only losing your memory.” Ian’s eyes softened marginally. “I’m sorry. Everyone will say I’m an ass but there’s no other way to tell you. She very likely killed them before she even figured out that you refused to turn over my nephew.”
There had been a kid involved? He felt his head shaking. None of this made a lick of sense. “Why should I believe you? You might have been the person who did this to me. Why can’t I feel my bloody legs?”
“I’ll update Damon,” Ian said with a sigh. “You’re right. He’s a moron, not evil, and I’m still too pissed to make decisions. I’ll let them know you’ll be coming back to The Garden. Keep me updated.”
Theo looked down at him. “I know how scared you are and how angry and confused. I’ll explain everything and Nick here can tell you about your life before today.”
Nick sank down into the chair beside his bed. “I’m your friend, Owen. I’m here for you.”
Theo started to talk, but the words didn’t make sense. Owen closed his eyes and let the desolation wash over him.
He had no family, no home, no past.
No matter what they said, he was alone.
Chapter One
“When I look at him, all I see is unharvested organs,” a sarcastic voice said.
“Could you be serious for two minutes?” another voice asked.
“Oh, oh, oh, I know the answer to that question. I totally know this one.” His brother, Tucker, was likely holding his hand up and waving it, but Owen kept his eyes on the screen.
Same shit. Different day. Now Tucker would say no, Big Tag couldn’t be serious. Sasha would start snoring because he’d been up far too late drinking. Dante would keep quiet as a mouse until he absolutely had to say something. Jax would be texting his wife and completely out of the current loop. He wouldn’t look up from his phone until he heard something that involved him. Ezra and Big Tag would bicker like an old married couple for a few moments and then Robert would try to get them all back on task.
This was the way the last several months of his life had gone. They’d been ready to start the op months before but key elements had fallen through, only coming together in the last few days. They’d scattered around the country, each working a different angle to set this op up, but it was now go time. He wished he could be more excited about it.
“No,” Tucker said and Owen was certain there was a triumphant smile on his face. “Big Tag can’t be serious at all.”
“I assure you I’m entirely serious about carving up Levi Green for parts,” Big Tag replied. “Think about it. All that skin. He’s wasting it and there are lots of people out there who need some. Burn victims totally deserve that skin more than he does, and I bet his liver could go into like three different people.”
“It depends on how big the liver is,” Tucker mused. “But honestly, you can do living liver donations. Of course, it might be way more fun to take the whole thing. I hate that man.”
“And we could do a test to see if Tucker here really was a surgeon,” Tag mused. “This is a win-win.”
Owen let the conversation fade into the background as Sasha started to snore lightly.
Sometimes he was absolutely certain that he’d had no life at all before this one. His days started with some form of slide presentation complete with his boss’s never-ending snark, at some point he sat in front of a computer gathering data, or sat in a car taking pictures, and that was really more like gathering data than it sounded, spent an hour in the gym because the aforementioned boss said he would get pudgy if he didn’t, and then he microwaved something terrible, listened to Tucker bemoan his fate, and finally drank enough whiskey to pass out.
Yet he knew he’d had another life. There was evidence of it, pictures of him smiling with two women he obviously loved—his mum and sister. There were videos of him laughing and talking with them at Christmas. He’d seen photos of himself with Nikolai Markovic, read the emails and joking texts between himself and his one-time partner.
He’d been that partner. Owen Shaw had been in those messages. The man in those texts to Nick had been funny, seemingly loyal, and yet that same man had also betrayed a nice couple, had been willing to send another person into hell to save his own family.
His mother and sister were gone. They were nothing but photographs now, smiling ghosts who tripped through his brain like wispy butterflies he couldn’t quite catch.