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in a ponytail and only enough makeup to help conceal some of the bruising on her face. Alistair couldn’t help but smile. She looked seventeen. This was most definitely not the woman he was used to.
                  “I think I packed everything you’ll need,” he said, as his driver took off out of the hospital.
                  “Where are we going?” She picked at the seat, nervously.
                  “It’s a surprise.” Then he thought maybe the past week had brought her enough surprises. “Unless you’d rather know?”
                  He realized as she debated that what he had really asked, without actually asking, was if she trusted him. That was a lot to ask of someone who didn’t remember you. “Cozumel,” he blurted, telling her for his own relief as much as hers. He couldn’t take it if she didn’t trust him, but at the same time, he didn’t expect her to.
                  “Mexico? Do I have a passport?”
                  “Yes. Everything’s taken care of.”
                  “And we’ve been there before.”
                  A pang jolted through his chest. He ignored it. “We’ve been there before.”
                  One of the best times—if not the best time—of his life, and she didn’t remember. Not their private cabana on the beach. Not spending the majority of the time naked. Not making love in the surf.
                  Nothing.
                  Bethany was a blank slate when it came to him.
                  “Cozumel,” she murmured, as if feeling the shape of the word on her tongue might spark a recollection.
                  “You love it there,” he said.
                  She turned her head and gazed out the window.
                  What if she didn’t love it there? What if that Bethany— his Bethany—no longer existed? What if this Bethany from the past couldn’t fall in love with him? Was she still in love with her ex?
                  The thought exploded inside his brain. If she was living ten years in the past, she would have emotions from ten years ago, wouldn’t she? But, how could she possibly love someone who abused her like her ex had?
                  There was no way to know without asking, but he’d be damned if he was bringing up her bloody ex-husband. He’d be damned if he let that man anywhere near Bethany again for as long as she lived.
                  His eyes followed the line of her neck, down across her shoulder. What if he didn’t have a choice? What if Bethany didn’t remember and never fell in love with him again?
                   
     
                   
     
                   
     
                  NINE
     
                   
                  Bethany stared out the window at the passing cars on the highway and told herself not to panic.
                  She didn’t know Alistair Ingram. She could only take his word that he had her best interest at heart. He was taking her out of the country and she was going along with it. Should she be going along with it?
                  The home she remembered was in Florida with Trent. Had he done this to her? Beaten the pulp out of her in Los Angeles and left her?
                  There didn’t seem to be any other explanation. He hadn’t come to the hospital. The gossip newspaper she read confirmed that she was with Alistair. She only wished she could wrap her head around all of it.
                  Ten years gone— just like that.
                  In those years, she’d been a woman she couldn’t even comprehend being. If she wasn’t that woman now, would Alistair even want her? What would happen to her if he didn’t? She had no one else in the