CHAPTER 4

Leo

It was as good a place as any to drink since I had no other plans. There were rooms upstairs, according to the sign attached to the clapboard outside, and the inside had only a sprinkling of patrons, none of whom paid me any mind. So far, it was the most promising place I’d been since arriving in Nampa City.

“How much Wi-Fi are you gonna use?” the bartender asked when I requested a room.

“How much what?”

“Wi-Fi. Internet. You're gonna stream or play games or what?”

I stared at him blankly.

“Oh, good lords, you one of them dweller types, ain’t you?” he sniffed. “You from Forny?”

My expression must have once more displayed my complete lack of understanding because he slapped a single key on the counter, the plastic attachment displaying the number three upon it.

“Seventy-five for the night. If you rent porno, you pay in advance. That means, you come down here and pay at the counter, in advance. You hear?”

I snorted. “I’m not renting porn.”

“Uh-huh. That’s what they all say until they trot down here with their dicks in their hands at 3 a.m., begging for me to take the lock off the TV.”

I grimaced at the mental picture and wished I’d considered my lodgings with a little more decorum.

“Up the stairs on the right,” the bartender told me, but I didn’t move.

I was in no rush to explore the linens up there now.

“Give me a beer,” I told him, settling into one of the barstools.

I was in no hurry to stare at the four walls of my empty hotel room. And this guy was chatty enough. Maybe I’d get some answers from him.

Without a word, he placed a frothy pint glass in front of me and extended his palm for payment.

“Not a very trusting man, are you?” I mused, withdrawing my wallet from my back pocket.

“I don’t know you, friend,” he replied curtly.

“Are you sure about that?”

The barkeep jerked his head back, eyes narrowing slightly, and my chest tightened as I caught a glint of recognition in his eye. I’d gambled with my coy response, but had I gotten a hit?

“You do look a little familiar…” he agreed. “What did you say your name was?”

“He didn’t.”

The stool next to mine slid out with a terrible screech, turning my attention toward her, but I knew who it was even before I set eyes on her gorgeous face.

The tightness in my crotch had been a giveaway without my mind realizing it. That spoke nothing to the burning in my chest that instantly set my entire upper body on fire.

The bartender grunted appreciatively and shuffled away, leaving me in the company of the woman who had left me at the diner hours earlier.

She was incredible up close, the smell of her hair firing pistons through every vein in my arm like shots of stow.

“Well,” I laughed, elated to see her, the pulsating burn searing at my breastbone again. “Fancy meeting you here.”

She didn’t smile, her aqua eyes glimmering, but I found myself looking over the magnificent surge of her breasts against her tank top. She was wearing the same outfit she’d had on earlier, and I wanted to rip off that flimsy shirt with my teeth.

“Really?” she demanded flatly, but I refused to be put off by her curtness.

She had come looking for me this time, and I wasn’t letting her out of my sight.

“Can I buy you a drink this time?” I asked, reaching for my beer before I could succumb to my urge to bend her over the bar. “Or are you going to storm off again?”

“Cut the bullshit, Leo. What are you doing here?”

My grin evaporated, and I peered at her, my flirtation dying.

“You know me?” I asked, stunned.

Earlier, I had mistaken her animosity for simple aggression, a dislike of the clear attraction between us.

Strong women didn’t like being put off their game, but that was not what this was at all. She genuinely did not like me for reasons I didn’t know. She knew something about the past that evaded me entirely.

“How? How do you know me?”

Her aqua eyes narrowed, and she leaned close, her nose almost against mine, a strand of strawberry hair touching my cheek.

“I’m not buying this act,” she hissed, but I caught the gleam of wary curiosity in her eyes as if she wasn’t entirely sure what to believe. “I know you better than anyone—even if you don’t want to admit that.”

I drew in a breath, catching her meaning.

We were together? Hot damn, I did hit the jackpot with this one. What did I do to get her so mad?

I reached for her hand before I could think it through, grabbing her toward me.

“How?” I demanded. “When—”

Baffled, she pulled back, falling out of the chair, her pupils dilating.

“I don’t know what you think you’re doing, but I’m not falling for it!” she cried, her voice rising an octave.

Now it was me who didn’t believe her.

“No, wait! Please!” I insisted, also standing. “Don’t go!”

“Is he bothering you, Luna?” The bartender reappeared, his face twisted.

Luna scowled at him. Anger replaced her confusion, eyes narrowing dangerously.

“Do I look like I need to be rescued, Wade?” she snapped. “Mind your goddamn business and stop eavesdropping.”

Wade held up his hands and backed away immediately, causing my eyebrows to rise. She was a force to be reckoned with—especially for a female. Maybe I was out of the loop in these parts, but her display of power was grandiose and hot. And somehow, I’d gotten on her bad side without even trying.

Ensuring that the bartender was out of earshot, she closed the space between us again and lowered her voice, her lips twisting.

“Don’t go?” she sneered. “Really? That’s rich coming from you.”

I tensed defenselessly. “I wish I could understand why,” I replied. “But I’ve got nothing.”

She snorted. “How fucking convenient for you, Leo.”

At least I know that’s my name, I mused without amusement.

“Look, I don’t know what to tell you,” I growled. “If you don’t want to help me, I can’t force you, but I have no idea who you are.”

“How?” she barked. “How can you say that?”

The hurt pierced me, and I stared at her, wishing I could give her another answer.

Maybe I could lie to her, I thought, wanting to say something, anything, to alleviate her clear anguish. But I wouldn’t even know where to start. I didn’t know who I was. How could I put her mind at ease?

“Where did you come from, Leo?” she demanded. “Where have you been since the war?”

“The war?” I echoed, slowly falling back to sit on my stool. “What war would that be?”

I wracked my mind for any history I’d picked up in Seven Rock over the past two hundred years, but my education beyond botany had been slim. My focus had been on agriculture, not history. I’d been so sure I was better off not knowing. I’d grown complacent being a shadow.

Maybe she mixed me up with someone else?

That didn’t make sense, either—unless this someone else was named Leo and looked like me, too. My head was starting to pound with all the overthinking. I asked her point blank to spell it all out for me.

“Who am I to you?”

She appeared taken aback by the question and scoffed again.

“Who do you think?” she challenged, her luminous eyes trailing down along the front of my plaid button down, toward my collarbone. They rested directly on the throbbing place over my pecs, and I followed her gaze uncomprehendingly.

A glow radiated beneath the fabric of my t-shirt, and my mouth gaped open at the sight of it.

“What the hell…?” I leaped out of my seat again and patted my chest, feeling the warmth of the glow against my skin. It was strange and pleasant.

“Holy shit!” Luna whispered, the anger dissipating as she lowered herself to my eye level. “You don’t remember, do you?”

I raised my chin and began to chuckle, my eyes locking with hers. Again, a familiar blaze rocked through my chest, and a tug crisscrossed over my heart.

“That’s kind of what I’ve been saying,” I replied dryly, but I was still entranced by the eerie arch over my heart. “What is this?”

She bit down hard on her lower lip, and I was jealous of her teeth. I wondered if she tasted like those hints of vanilla I kept catching. Her gestures were so animated for someone who tried so hard not to display her emotions.

Several times, I forced myself back on my barstool, my torso leaning into her as if I was possessed.

But if she noticed, she did not comment, shaking her head.

“I don’t understand,” she grumbled, sounding dejected. “How did this happen? How do you just ‘forget’ who you are for two hundred years?”

“Your guess is as good as mine,” I said, reaching for my beer nonchalantly. “I’ve been asking myself the same thing.”

Staring at me, she shook her head.

“No, Leo, you’re the one who has to do it. not the other way around. You just walked back in here, alone, claiming amnesia…”

She paused, perplexed.

“I still can’t believe that the Leo Webb I know would do that.”

I gently set my glass back on the bar and stared at her.

“I’d like to know more about him,” I urged her. “Tell me all about him.”

She hesitated, but before she could fully lower her guard, Luna squinted again.

“How did you come to be here if you don’t remember?” she insisted. “I don’t believe you just happened to come back here after two hundred years, Leo.”

The suspicion in her voice was understandable, but I felt like I had just as much right to be skeptical of her. She had a history with me—or whoever I’d been before. And she didn’t seem to want me here.

But at the same time, the attraction was magnetic, forceful. She had come looking for me and sought me out. She wanted to be close to me, but she was pushing me away simultaneously. Nothing about this lined up.

“I lived here two hundred years ago?” I asked directly, thinking that perhaps more pointed questions might lead to firmer responses.

She scoffed again, her eyes darting over the bar nervously.

Why did she keep looking around like that? I decided to ask.

“You worried your boyfriend is going to catch us together?” I joked, but even uttering the word “boyfriend” about this magnificent creature, who had captured the very essence of my soul, burned a hole in my stomach.

The edges of her mouth twitched, and she locked her gaze with mine again.

“You are an asshole, you know that?” she spat.

I chuckled indifferently. “I’ve been called worse.”

“And you are worse, too,” she agreed, standing as if she’d decided. “Come on. You can’t stay here.”

My eyebrows rose slightly, but I didn’t follow her lead. Instead, I lazily reached for my beer once more and took a long, leisurely sip.

“No. I don’t think I’m going anywhere without some answers from you,” I replied.

Her mouth parted in shock. “What?”

“I’ve already paid for my room, and I get the sense that you’re not offering a nightcap at your place… are you?”

I winked teasingly, enjoying her rising ire.

Luna’s eyes became slits of fury, and she grabbed my arm, pressing her nose almost into mine. Her nearness excited me, the urge to snatch her by the waist insurmountable. I clutched at the pint glass with such force, the mug cracked in my strong hands.

I wanted to bite down on that full, furious lower lip so badly, but with every ounce of willpower in the universe, I managed to contain myself, returning her stare with a steadfastness of my own.

“If you don’t remember, and you value your safety, Leo, you’ll come with me,” she hissed. “Now.”