"What happened to your actual family?" Erin asks. "Parents, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters…"
"None of your business. Kill me, or let me go."
"If Aldith really did send you here, maybe you should do what she wanted. Work with us, instead of against us."
Gabriel shakes his head slightly. "Aldith wasn't that specific."
I step up beside Erin. "Why don't we try this my way? Bullying him doesn't work."
"What is your way, sweetie?" Erin asks. "No offense, but you don't have the skills to handle a jerk like him."
"You guys aren't having any luck. But Gabriel will talk to me. Alone." I glance at his tattered shirt and pants. "But let's get him some new clothes first. As a show of good faith."
Grant shrugs. "She's right. We need to trust Sarah's instincts on this. And we'll get him new duds."
Our guest huffs. "Let me guess. You'll give me girlie clothes."
I lean in until my face is inches from his. "Say thank you, Gabriel."
His lips kink into the faintest smirk. "Thank you, Lady Godiva."
"No, thank my friends. They're donating the clothes for you."
Gabriel glances at the others. "They haven't given me anything yet, so I don't need to be grateful to them."
He is the stubbornest man I've ever met. Of course, I only remember the past two months.
The others leave to find clothes for Gabriel and to do whatever else they need to do. I'm alone again with the man who grabbed me on the beach, but I don't feel anxious about that. I think underneath all the bluster and snarling, he's just as scared as anyone else.
"How long have you lived here?" Gabriel asks.
"Two months. I washed up on the beach with amnesia."
"It's awfully convenient," he says, "that you have no memory of anything before two months ago. You can't tell me anything useful."
"You're here to share information with us, not the other way around." I sit down on the cot. "But no, it isn't convenient. Maybe I have parents or a husband somewhere. They might be looking for me, but I couldn't find them even if I wanted to."
"Okay, maybe it's not so convenient."
"Thank you."
"For what?"
I give him a tight smile. "For acknowledging the truth."
He shrugs. "Whatever."
Getting through to Gabriel seems like an insurmountable task, but I feel that I need to do it. Can't explain why. On the beach, he'd behaved like a cretin. He'd threatened to fuck me on the beach, or at least I'd interpreted it as a threat. But then he let me go. And he'd mentioned he hadn't been with a woman in a long time. Living among Echo creatures for months couldn't have been easy.
I shouldn't cut him any slack. But I feel like I can trust him. Maybe amnesia has made me insane.
"Why did you let me go?" I ask.
He scrunches up his eyebrows. "What?"
"On the beach. Why did you let me go? If you really wanted to assault me, you should have held on to me. You were in control then."
"Maybe." He eyes me up and down, though it doesn't seem like sexual interest. "Why aren't you afraid of me?"