Fragmented (A Section 8 Novel, Band 3) - Softcover

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Stephanie Tyler is the New York Times bestselling author of two previous military romantic suspense series, as well as the Skulls Creek and Eternal Wolf Clan series. Fragmented is the third novel in the Section 8 series, following Unbreakable and Surrender.

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PRAISE FOR THE SECTION 8 NOVELS

Also by Stephanie Tyler

SIGNET ECLIPSE

Chapter One

“What are you so afraid of, Andrea?” her school counselor probed.

Fifteen-year-old Drea Timmons shifted in her seat, wanting nothing to do with this. But at least the woman sitting across from her with the smooth bob and placid expression hadn’t tried to call her by her nickname. That, Drea reserved only for friends, and these days, that pool was small. “I’m not afraid. Where do you get this shit from?”

That last part was one of Danny’s favorite expressions and was usually a conversation ender with most adults.

Not with this counselor, trying to bore into her brain by pulling the “we’re all very worried about you” card. “Your grandmother is concerned that you’re hanging out with dangerous people. I’ve heard the same thing from your teachers. They’re particularly concerned with your boyfriend . . . I believe his name is Danny Roberts?”

Drea shrugged. It was all the truth, yes, but what was the counselor going to do?

Continue to push, that was what. “Andrea, do you consider the people you’re hanging out with dangerous?”

Drea hadn’t bothered to learn the counselor’s name, because she was simply another in a long line of seemingly well-minded people trying to help. She wanted to ask where they’d been when her mother was doing drugs in front of her, when her mother’s boyfriends touched her in her bed at night, but she’d learned from Danny that showing weakness was to be avoided at all costs. As was the truth. “Why does it matter? I mean, they’re not dangerous to me.”

“Not yet,” the counselor countered. “But eventually, you’ll get caught up in it. There’s no way around that.”

“He’ll keep me safe.”

“Who’s he? Danny?”

Drea clamped her mouth shut—she’d said enough already. Danny didn’t like her talking about him to anyone in authority.

“Andrea, listen to me. I understand how you’re feeling.”

“No you don’t. How could you? You’re not me. You’re not in my mind. You have no idea how I’m feeling,” she challenged. “Danger isn’t always a bad thing. Sometimes his kind of danger makes me feel alive.”

“And the other times? Does it scare you?”

“Sometimes. But being afraid is part of life.”

“Not to the extreme to which you’re taking it, honey.” The counselor shook her head. “To you, danger has somehow come to mean safety, and that’s completely wrong.”

“Who says?” Drea demanded.

Seventeen years later

“You’re angry.”

Drea stared back at Dr. Siegel, the casually dressed older man who sat across from her, alternating his gaze between her and the open laptop in front of him. He and his wife, who was a doctor as well, made a formidable team. Some days they tag-teamed her, but today it was one-on-one. “Wouldn’t you be angry if you were me?”

He wagged a finger at her. “Spoken like a true medical professional. You’ve got to open up to me if you want this to be of any help.”

She threw up her arms. “Hypnosis didn’t even work—so how is just talking going to do it?”

He turned the laptop to face her, and there was a picture of a dark-haired, dark-eyed man wearing a black leather jacket. He’d been caught off guard by the picture, but he still looked easy and relaxed as he stared at her through the screen. “Tell me about him.”

She looked at that picture an awful lot these days, and for a guy she had zero memories of, the man called Jem certainly consumed a lot of her thoughts. But she hated having to admit that, and tried even more not to show it. She forced herself not to grit her teeth as she answered, “I can’t.”

“Tell me what you know. Tell me what you’ve heard. Tell me what you’re feeling when you look at him.”

She frowned and sat back in the chair like a petulant child. “He’s the reason I’m here. He’s part of the reason I don’t have a memory, although he didn’t do anything to me himself. He rescued me.”

“So he’s a white knight?”

Drea snorted softly, blurted out, “I wouldn’t say that,” without thinking.

“So what would you say, Drea?”

She crossed her arms for a second, but once she realized she’d done so, she uncrossed them, going for a more relaxed, neutral position, telling Dr. Siegel in a reasonable tone of voice, “I’m not sure what he is. Maybe it’s not black or white. Because he rescued me, but according to Carolina, he’s also the reason I was in the position to need rescuing in the first place.”

“So this man, he got you into trouble. He put you in danger.”

“From what I’ve been told.” It should’ve been painful to hear about all this, but whenever this topic was broached, a part of her went numb, like her mind was still trying to protect her from whatever horrors she’d endured. Some days she thought that maybe she was better off not remembering the hell she’d gone through. But that would mean not remembering Jem, and she’d been clawing at that memory desperately. “But I wanted to go with him.”

“In spite of the danger?”

“That. And maybe because of it too.”

“Because you didn’t have enough in your life already?”

“I didn’t say it made sense,” she muttered. “You’re very judgmental.”

“It bothers you?”

“I thought you people were supposed to stay neutral.”

He wrote down some notes, then glanced at her casually. “I thought you wanted to figure your missing memories out.”

She sighed, stared around the sitting room in the grand old house that had become her touchstone.

Both Dr. Siegel and his wife had been working with her for just over two months—longer than any of the others, but her tolerance was running low. Especially for him, because he was more fond of telling her what she was doing was wrong instead of waiting her answers out. Probably because he knew he’d get none. “I just want you to realize that you’re repeating old patterns. Over and over again, it appears. And you have a chance to finally break them.”

“How? Because of my amnesia?”

“In spite of that. Because the one thing you didn’t lose is your feeling that somehow danger equals security. And that’s wrong.”

From everything she’d heard about Jem from Carolina, Drea knew this therapist was the one who was wrong and she’d finally found something so right she wasn’t about to let logic ruin it. Jem’s picture did something to her insides, made her stomach flip, and she leaned forward and pushed the laptop screen back toward the therapist so she didn’t have to see Jem staring back at her. “Okay, that’s not exactly true, about the kidnapping-me-the-second-time part. Apparently I volunteered. More than once. He took me up on it both times. The second time is when it went bad.”

“You volunteered to put yourself in danger?”

“Yes.”

“This is the first time you’ve done something like that in...