The Romance Revival(21)

“Memory is complex,” Annie says, and I’m delighted when Luca gives her a yeah, no shit look. It’s a look I’ve seen him make a hundred times… usually when he’s teasing Crash or calling me out for an extra dice roll while we’re playing Yahtzee. It’s so Luca, even if he doesn’t know it.

Annie explains the different types of memory and how, neurologically speaking, memories of life experiences are different than memories of names of objects or how to use them. And both of these types of memory are distinct from motor-related ones like riding a bike or driving. So it’s common in head injuries to see one but not another affected.

“Does that make sense?” she asks when she’s finished.

Luca tilts his head from side to side. “More or less.” He frowns. “How long is this going to last?”

I glance over at Annie, wincing. I hate it when she’s right. “We don’t know. I wish I could tell you that it will resolve. I think it will. But so far, we’ve only ever used the protocol on, um, on…”

When I trail off, Luca simply stares at me, waiting. Finally, he prompts: “You’ve only ever used it on what? Volunteers?”

“In a sense, yes,” I hedge.

“She’s trying to tell you that we’ve only ever done this to save dogs and cats that have been in fatal accidents,” Annie says finally.

Luca’s expression blanks. “Dogs and cats.”

“Yup,” Annie says, clearly enjoying that I’m about to get my ass handed to me. “That’s why we said it was experimental.”

“You’ve only ever done this on dogs and cats, and then you…” He frowns, trying to find the words for something that even I can admit is a pretty rough path, logically speaking. “You gave me, your husband, an experimental compound and put me in this machine as your first human test subject?”

“We brought you here—”

“She,” Annie corrects, pointing at me. “She brought you here.”

“Because it was the only way to save you.”

Luca’s eyes narrow again. “And you’re saying you don’t know who hit me?”

“No.” My heart sinks at his confused expression, wishing I had just one good thing to tell him. But then his expression shifts… turning wary. Like he’s scared of us, and it breaks my heart to see my sunshine love looking at me with fear.

And then I understand what occurred to him. “Wait.” I hold up my hands. “Luca. You don’t think that I—”

He looks away, pulling the blanket protectively up over his chest.

“Luca, I didn’t run you over so I could bring you back to life!”

“That much is true at least,” Annie says. “Someone hit you. I guess it could have been intentional, but like Emery said, it was dark, and you were crossing the street. My guess is whoever it was freaked out and fled. And listen, while I have some serious reservations”—she slides her gaze in my direction—“I agree that if Emery hadn’t initiated the reanimation protocol, you would have died. Or… stayed dead.”

Luca nods, no longer looking at us, and Annie and I exchange a worried look. She tilts her head, silently telling me to give him a second to process it all. We walk toward the freezer bank, out of view of where he’s sitting, unmoving, on the BioVIVE platform.

“Girl,” Annie says, “we need to get him home ASAP. Robert Pattinson has probably logged his vitals and it’s already in the system.”

“Great idea,” I say, motioning to the other side of the room. “I mean, clearly Luca’s dying to leave with me.”

Annie barks out a laugh, clapping her hand over her mouth. “Sorry,” she says through her fingers.

“Don’t be,” I say, groaning. “I heard it, too. Not my best phrasing.”

“Let’s get him dressed—”

“In what, exactly? His blood-soaked clothes?”

“I need you to calm down. If you’re freaking out, Luca will freak out. We can put him in scrubs, dumbass, we have an entire closet full of them.”

“Yeah, I’ll just drive him along the street that’s probably still covered in a giant pool of his own blood. I’m sure he won’t notice.” At her raised brow I pause for a beat, pulling in a calming breath before continuing in a whisper. “Seriously, it looks like a crime scene. And if someone sees it when the sun comes up, they’ll realize it is a crime scene and probably call the police. If they haven’t already.”

“Now you think of the consequences?” Shaking her head, she digs in her pocket for her phone while mumbling about pouring stupid gasoline on crazy fire. “Just relax. I’ll get someone to come clean it up.”

I look at my watch. “Annie, it’s 1:18 a.m.”

“Don’t worry about that. I know a guy.”

“You know a guy.”

She continues to type, not glancing up from the screen. “Yes. He was my neighbor growing up. Single guy, kind of odd. My mom brought over food to him all the time. He loves me and has a little cleaning business, if you get my drift. He’ll take care of everything, including your car.”

Frowning, I lean in. “There are people who do that?”

She turns the phone toward me. “This is the intersection, right?”