Release Party Bonus Excerpt !--Remember Me Teaser

Seems the best way to excerpt for our Let's Talk Romance, Romance B(u)y The Blog guests is to link them back here.

So....Here's the first excerpt from my WIP--Book II of Atlanta Heores (to read up on scenes from this month's release, Because of aBoy, scroll back through posts from the last few weeks, or click the excerpt link below). All comments from each of today's posts are in the running for the great XOXO tote!!

We join Alexa Vega (who's been seriously injured) in the OR of Atlanta Memorial Hospital, as she awakes from her nightmare to find she's going into surgery...

*****
...she kept fighting as she was yanked to her feet. She kicked for the nearest groin.

Her arms twisted against her restraints...

Her feet flailed at the hands holding her down to the table...

She fought to be free....
Fought the pain shattering her skull...

The darkness turning to grey. The light overhead drawing closer...

Table?

Light?

"Hold her still," a calm voice said.

The warm hand on her shoulder belonged to the voice, she realized, not the icy cold of her nightmare. It was soft, not cruel, absorbing her shivers. Quieting them.

"It's okay," he whispered closer to her ear. "Try to relax. You're safe now."

She somehow willed her body to still and her eyes to open. To focus. A tall figure towered over her.

Blue, shapeless shirt.

Blue mask.

Bluer eyes.

Honest eyes.

Safe.

Her mind recoiled from the thought. She tried to jerk away from the gentle touch, but he
stopped her. Him and the heaviness stealing through her body.

Their gazes collided. He smiled behind his mask, his expression kind. Caring. She hadn't had either in a long time. She was certain of it, even though nothing else made sense.

"We've given you a sedative," he explained. "You should be starting to feel it. Try to relax. No one's going to hurt you here."

Her instinctive laugh escaped as a moan.

He studied the whirring and beeping monitors she hadn't noticed before, his eyes frowning. His hand moved to the whatever bandage engulfed half her head, pulling it back to check beneath.

"You've got one minute to get her under," he instructed someone she couldn't see.

The blackness reached for her again.

His fingers smoothed down her cheek, easing her panic like magic. She blinked against the shadows, needing to see his eyes a while longer. Their blue was shot through with a steely, determined grey.

"Help me," she begged. "You have to help me get out of here. Get to the street. We need to go..."

"What street?" he asked. "We, who?"

The question strangled her breath in her throat. Adrenaline anchored her more firmly to the present, forcing a horrifying moment of clarity.

Because there was nothing there.

No answers to his questions.

She couldn't remember... Except for the gun pointing at her, and that final scream. A child creaming. She'd been trying to run.

"Run!" She struggled to sit up. She had to get out of there. "I have to go back, before--"

"Go back where?" He held her down until she stopped struggling against the straps securing her arms to the table. She blindly reached for his hand. He started, then squeezed her fingers.

"There's nowhere to go right now. Let me take care of you, then we'll figure out the rest. It's going to be okay."

The sentiment sent her fighting again.

"You've taken quite a blow to your head." He restrained her as gently as before. "You need immediate surgery, but you're safe. You're not alone. I'm not going to let anything happen to you."

A mask was placed over her mouth and nose.

"Breath normally." He nodded to someone behind her, then smiled back down. "Let yourself fall asleep. I promise, I'll be here when you wake up. You can trust me."

She was in bad shape.

She'd seen the truth in his eyes. In the barely controlled urgency behind the orders he'd calmly issued. The right side of her head felt like it was on fire. The nightmare--it had been real. And now she could die. But worse, she'd...

Failed...

She'd failed at something important...again... And now...

Someone she cared about deeply, someone she couldn't remember, was in danger. She was certain of it. But she couldn't remember...

Please, she begged him with her eyes.

Please, she'd begged someone else a long time ago. Stay. Don't go away...

"It will be okay," he promised. "Trust me."

And she did.

She shouldn't. That long-ago voice had promised the same thing, and lied. She hadn't trusted anyone since. But the anesthesia was enticing her to let go, a cloud of security blanketing the fear.

She could finally stop running. From what, she had no idea. But just this once, she could stop running.