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shakily.
    He
ignored me. “John! Get in here. What’s going on?”
    “Rome,
you’re scaring me.” Even when he’d planned to neutralize me, he hadn’t spoken
so coldly.
    His
irritated gaze swung back to me. “Is this a joke? Who the hell are you?”
    “I’m
Belle.” My chin quivered, the words emerging as a horrified whisper. “Your
Belle.”
    “You
aren’t my anything.”
    He
meant it. More than his voice, there was a coldness in his eyes I’d never seen
before. Well, not directed at me. Scrims, yes, but never me.
    Icy
tears ran down my face. “How can you not know who I am? We’re getting married!”
    He
stared over at me, the coldness finally melting—only to spark into anger. “The
joke is now officially old. You can leave.”
    At
last, John entered the room, an annoyingly triumphant Lexis beside him. “You
rang?” he asked drily. “Must say, I’m glad to see you’re awake, but your timing
stinks. I was in the middle of an interrogation.”
    “Why
is this—” When Rome noticed Lexis, he smiled slowly, happily, his question
clearly forgotten. It was the kind of smile I’d dreamed of receiving.
“There you are,” he said. He even held out his arm for her, and she rushed over
to twine their fingers. “I’ve been worried about you.”
    Nausea
churned in my stomach as they cooed at each other, doing all the things Rome
and I should be doing. What was happening? I almost couldn’t process it.
    “You
were worried about Lexis?” John asked, as confused as I was.
    “Of
course.” Rome’s gaze never left his ex as they continued to coo.
    John
cleared his throat. “Okay, you two. That’s enough. Do you know who you are,
Rome?”
    “Telling
him his name kind of defeats the question,” I muttered. I wasn’t in a good
mood.
    “Of
course I do.” He cast a pointed make-her-leave glance at me. “And I’d like to
talk to you. Privately.”
    Me,
leave? I wanted to die.
    “She’s
one of us.” John pursed his lips. “She stays. Now tell us who you think you
are.”
    “It’s
okay, darling,” Lexis said, petting his bare shoulder. “You can speak freely.”
    I
wanted to kill.
    Rome
nodded stiffly. “Who am I, you asked. I’m Agent Rome Masters, PSI elite.”
    “Excellent.”
John clasped his hands behind his back. “And you remember Lexis.”
    That
earned another earth-shattering, “Of course,” which caused Lexis to exhale with
relief. And smug satisfaction, if I wasn’t mistaken.
    “But
you don’t remember Belle?”
    “Who?”
    Oh,
God, oh, God, oh, God.
    “I’ll
explain later. First tell me if you remember Tanner Bradshaw,” John said.
    Again,
“Who?”
    Clearly
not.
    As
John continued to question Rome, it became all too apparent that the only
things he’d forgotten were me and all things pertaining to me. It was as if I’d
never entered his life. As if he’d never loved me.
    Why?
It made no sense.
    John
propped his elbows on his desk, the ensuing thud jolting me from my
terrible thoughts. He rested his chin in his flattened palms. He had thinning
gray hair, wore thick bifocals when he forgot to apply his contacts and had a
slightly rotund belly. Despite all of that, he managed to radiate intense
power.
    He
probably had a superpower, but I didn’t know what it was. And yeah, I’d
pestered him for the info about a million times, but he was the most secretive
man I’d ever met. Which was smart, I guess. If you didn’t know what he could
do, you couldn’t guard yourself against it.
    “I’ve
talked to Rome some more, explained who you are to him,” John said. “At first
he thought I was doing some sort of test, trying to gauge his reactions. But
there at the end he accepted what I was saying as truth. That didn’t change his
mind about you, though. You’re a stranger to him. A…nothing, much as I hate to
say it. I’d lock you guys in a room, force you to talk it out, but a simple
conversation or even a knock-down-drag-out fight isn’t going to fix this.