by Jus Accardo
He wasn’t intimidated by my stare. “Never order food until you’ve taken a look at the menu.” He tapped the elegant looking sheet of paper on the table in front of him. “How do you know soda exists here? Maybe this is Health Food World. Or Orange Juice World.”
“Orange juice world? Seriously?”
He shrugged and leaned back in the chair. They were heavy wooden things decorated with ornate pink tapestries. “I landed in a version of Wells where people only drank variations of seaweed cocktails. Another time it was this stuff they called Ketchy. It was blue and thick and trust me—it smelled like dead rat’s ass.” He flipped open the menu and skimmed it. One page, two… By the time he got to the end, he looked relieved. “All looks fairly normal.”
The waiter came back with our water and took the order. Dylan was kind enough to choose my food for me. I didn’t know if Ava got off on that crap, but me? I wanted to bash him over the head. Of course, I had a feeling he wouldn’t consider that being civil. No, I simply had to suck it up and get through this. For my sake—and G’s.
“So where should we start?” I asked. He was the expert in tracking me down, after all. “How do you normally find me?”
“Depends. It’s different all the time.”
While I didn’t want to talk to him, I’d agreed—and I was actually curious. “What do you say? When you find her? Me?”
He lost his grin and sat up a little straighter. “I tell her the truth—exactly like I did you.”
I snorted. I couldn’t help it. “Well, maybe there’s your problem! What kind of idiot tries to win a girl over by admitting he’s a killer?”
The muscles in his jaw flexed and darkness flashed in his eyes. “I’ve never lied to you. Any of you.” He took a deep breath. His shoulders sagged a little before his entire body went rigid. “I tell you the truth because I know you, of all people, can handle it. You can handle me.”
I leaned forward and set my elbows on the table. “Oh, I can handle the fact that you’re a psychopath—I’d just have no intention of dating you.”
“Marrying,” he said.
“Huh?”
“You—her—we were getting married. I asked her the night before she died.” He pulled something from his right pocket and set it on the table between us. As he drew his hand away, I noticed a subtle shake.
I stared at the ring. A perfect heart-shaped diamond set in what appeared to be white gold with two small emeralds on either side. The band had an engraved swirling design that wrapped around the entire thing. It was breathtaking. “You… Oh. I had no idea.”
“Of course you didn’t.” All traces of anger were gone from his voice. He snatched the ring and tucked it back into the safety of his pocket. “Because you only see me as a monster. You can’t reconcile the fact that I’m a person dealing with the worst thing that ever happened to him. I’m trying to get through each day without breaking.”
“Dylan, everyone on every Earth is breaking at some point or another.” I looked him dead in the eye. “Bad things happen to all of us. Horrible, life-altering things. It’s how we choose to deal with them that defines us.”
“And how should I have dealt with it?” he snapped. “Just let her go without a fight?”
“That’s the only choice you have. She died.”
“But it wasn’t my only choice.” The conviction in his tone told me he believed every single word. “I had an opportunity—a way to be with her again—until my own brother sold me out.”
I’d heard it all before. He’d been part of the early testing for his world’s Infinity project. Dylan had been the first person to travel successfully—and survive. Of course, once he returned home and realized that another Ava might be out there somewhere, he couldn’t let the idea go. He wanted to go back out into the multiverse and find her. His government hadn’t agreed.
“You broke the rules,” I said.
“Everyone breaks the rules at one point or another.” The venom in his voice made me cringe a little. “I would have been long gone before anyone ever noticed if Cade hadn’t run to the general to tattle. I wouldn’t have hurt anyone. I would have found you and lived out the rest of my life the way I was supposed to. With the girl I was supposed to.”
Cade had turned him in, but when they sentenced Dylan to death for treason, Cade had second thoughts and broke him out. It was the biggest mistake of his life. It led to the death of his girlfriend, Kori, and had ultimately created our current situation—not that I should complain. If Cade and his friends hadn’t come along, G and I would probably still be rotting away in Cora’s cells.
“You—”
“Please, spare us all the speech,” a woman’s voice cooed. An odd cross between lilacs and roses with an underlying hint of lavender filtered through the room. I fought back a gag. I’d know that putrid smell anywhere.
I pushed away from the table and stood so fast that I sent the chair toppling backward. My nightmare version of Cora Anderson stood a few feet away, blocking the only way out.
“And you,” she said, steely gaze focused on me, “spare us the dramatics. Sit.”
I didn’t know why, but I did. I wasn’t locked in her basement anymore, not living under her cruel thumb, yet when she commanded something, my body seemed eager to obey.
“I assume this seat isn’t taken.” She pulled out the chair between Dylan and me, shrugged out of her white coat and gently draped it over the back, then made a show of settling in.
“If you lay a hand on her—”
“Please. I could have her out of that seat and back in my lab before you even blinked if that’s what I wanted. That’s not what I’m here for. I’m actually here to make you an offer,” she said, looking at me.
“An offer?” No way. This was a ploy. A trick to disarm us long enough for Yancy to sweep through the door and steal away what little freedom I’d found. “What could you possibly have to offer?”
She smiled at me, a grin full of barely veiled contempt and fury. “I can offer you a chance at survival.”
The mysterious death sentence. Part of me was ready to jump at whatever it was she had to say. But the more cautious parts, the ones all too familiar with the mind games she liked to play, held back.
Dylan, on the other hand, wasn’t so reserved. “What do we have to do?”
She laughed. “Aren’t we the eager little beaver?”
I sighed. “Just tell us what you want, Cora.” I didn’t believe she was here to offer us some great hope, but it didn’t seem like we had any other choice but to hear her out.
“Ashlyn’s little stunt ensured the Omega project was dead in the water—then she fled beyond my reach.”
I couldn’t help it. I laughed. “You can’t get to her? My day is looking better already.”
Cora glared but maintained her composure. “The information she supplied the authorities spurred President Gotti to order a warrant for my arrest. They came for me—with handcuffs.” Her face was ashen. “I was forced to flee my own world.”
Dylan snorted. “Sounds to me like you got some of what you deserved.”
Cora ignored him. “I’m in need of redemption. I have a plan that will earn back my place at home, but it’s not something I can do alone. That’s where you will come in.”
“Redeem yourself,” Dylan said with a growl. “What the hell do you think I’m gonna do about it? Better yet, why do you think I’d do something about it? You’re catshit crazy, lady.”
“I would complete the task myself, but I’m a bit tied up with something right now.”
I had no idea what she was trying to get at. “Still not seeing what this has to do with me.”
“Us,” Dylan corrected.
“I had a database. It had all my notes, my research, my progress… On it is something I can offer to Gotti that will have him welcoming me back with open arms. Begging, even.”
“Let me guess.” Dylan slapped the table and let out a hoot. “Someone stole it?”
“Karl.”
I hated Dylan. I despised pretty much everything about him, from the way he chortled to the things he’d done. But in that moment, we let out a chorus of laughs that nearly sent us both toppling from our chairs.
I hadn’t gotten a bird’s-eye view of the relationship, but Cora never failed to bring up her perfect husband, Karl. Loving, doting—and apparently, not so loyal.
“When Gotti came after me, Karl skipped out and took all my work with him. He won’t be able to understand what’s in those files, but if I know my husband, he’ll go searching for someone who does. Another version of me, I assume.”
“So track him.” She had a way to track Ash and me. Why not her husband?
“I can’t—but you can.” She narrowed her eyes at Dylan. “The chips Phil MaKaden stole from my office were part of a special set I designed specifically for my family. They would have allowed us to track one another across the multiverse. They were in the last phase of testing when it all fell apart.”
This whole situation just kept getting better and better. “And you want us to use them to, what? Find Karl? Then ask him nicely to hand over your work?”
“Apprehend him.” She slid a small slip of paper with a number written on it—6256—across the table. “With this code, you can access a secret menu. You can track him, and I can track you, as well as show you how to summon me. I will come and collect him.”
Dylan snorted. “So, we do your dirty work and you keep tabs on us? What the hell do we get out of it?”
“For starters, I will call off Yancy.” She gave a not-so-subtle glance over her shoulder. The monster must be waiting somewhere just outside the building. Wherever Cora went, he was never far behind. “I’ll also stop the deterioration.”
Dylan looked from Cora to me. “Deterioration?”
She laughed and kept her attention focused on me. “Tell me you don’t feel it, Ava—Sera—whatever you’d like to call yourself these days. Maybe it’s still subtle. A lost moment here, a second or two of confusion there. The neuroimplant I used to aid the serum in suppressing your memories is failing. In time, it will essentially lobotomize you—unless it’s disabled.”
“And let me guess. You can do that, right?” I hadn’t felt any of the things she’d mentioned, but that didn’t mean it wouldn’t happen. Would it be a slow slide into oblivion, or would it happen before I knew what was going on? Boom. Here and functioning one minute, a nonresponsive vegetable the next? The air turned icy, and I swallowed back a sudden lump in my throat.
No. I couldn’t go out like that. Not now. Not before finding G. Not before finding my home…
“I can, and I will—if you find Karl.”
“Too easy,” I said. This was Cora Anderson, the queen of manipulation. She couldn’t be trusted. This was a trick and nothing more. “How can I possibly trust you?”
“That implant—”
“I’ve got no doubt the implant is messed up. What I don’t believe is that you’ll fix it. And what about chasing me? I’m supposed to believe you’ll give that up, too?”
Cora shrugged. “Dear, right now there are bigger things at stake than my plans for you.”
I glared at Dylan, who was seated across from me. “Even if you did keep your word—which I don’t believe—I’m still stuck with him. He won’t let me go.”
“But what if he would?”
Dylan laughed. “I just found her. I’m fairly confident that I can make her see that she loves me.”
Apparently he’d already forgotten about the deal we’d made to find another Ava.
Cora laughed. “That is the same on every world. That signature Dylan Granger confidence.” She waggled a perfectly painted finger between us. “She doesn’t want you. Chances are she won’t ever want you. But what would you say if I could promise you something better than her?”
She had his attention. “You can’t buy me with money or power. I just want Ava back. That’s not something you can give me.”
“And what if I said it was? That you have the means to get her back. To get your Ava back?” She tapped her own wrist and grinned.
“I’d say you smoked a bad batch. Dead is dead. I’m not stupid enough to buy a spiel about you finding a way to bring back the dead.” He stood and hitched his thumb toward the door. “Let’s go.”
For once he and I were on the same page. I made a move to stand, but Cora grabbed Dylan’s arm and dragged him back to his seat. “Of course you can’t bring her back from the dead. But as I said, those chips Phil stole were special. Very special. With the master code, they can do much more than their predecessors.”
Now she really had his attention. He sank back into the chair. There was hope in his eyes—hope and desperation. I might not remember my name or where I was from, but I knew damn well desperate people were easier to manipulate. “How much more?”
Cora knew she had him. With a wicked gleam in her eyes, she leaned forward and propped herself against the tabletop. “If you agree to help me, then I will give you Ava back. I will give you a code that will allow you to go back to your world—before the accident happened.”
“I don’t believe you,” Dylan said. He leaned back in the chair and folded his arms, resembling a five-year-old who refused to eat his broccoli.
Cora smiled. “I assure you, it’s true. I’ll make this simple for you—you have two paths to take. On one, you track down Karl and recover my research. I get what I want, and you get what you want. On the other, I stand and walk out that door. Yancy and my men come in. They take Ava, and you’re left with nothing once again.” She leaned back and lifted a hand, waggling her ring and middle fingers. “Seems like a no brainer to me…”
Seconds ticked by. Any minute he’d stand. Maybe flip her off and try to drag me from the building. Call her an array of colorful words and spout a handful of threats. But instead, he sighed. “Even if I wanted to, my brother and that lab rat of yours are always nipping at my heels. I don’t have time to stop long enough to breathe, much less run your errands.”
“What if I could offer a partial solution to that?”
My pulse spiked, and Dylan’s attention perked. “Oh?”
She fished into her pocket and placed a small black box in the center of the table. “Your brother is your baggage, but this might help with G.”
I had no idea what it was, but I tried to grab it first—and failed. Dylan shot me a look of pure contempt and rolled the thing around in his palm. “What is it?”
“Like Sera, G was another rarity. The perfect addition to a pet project of mine.” She chuckled and kind of rolled her eyes. “We overloaded him on shock therapy and serum to a point where it nearly shut down his brain. Granted, it has a few unwanted side effects on the limbic system—but all worth it in the name of research. However, the nature of the project demands measures be taken to ensure control over the test subjects.” She tapped the small box three times. “Measures such as that. With the press of a button, it will begin the disintegration of an implanted pod in G’s chest. The contents of that pod are toxic. They’ll kill him.”
“Bitch!” I lashed out and smacked her hard across the face. I would have hit her again if Dylan hadn’t jumped out of his seat and tackled me to the ground. I wondered for a minute where the staff was, then remembered this was Cora we were dealing with. She probably had them out of here before she’d even walked into the building.
Cora laughed at my reaction and said, “To prove to you that I’m not heartless, I’ll also give you this.”
Dylan helped me off the floor but held tight to my arm. With his free hand, he grabbed the new item. “What is it?”
“It’s the antidote for the poison inside the pod. Do with the device what you wish. If you choose to use it, it can take a few days to work. No way to know an exact time, but, you’ll probably take comfort in knowing it will be a miserable few days.” She laughed. “Consider it my gift to you. A down payment on finding Karl, perhaps…?”
“Fine,�
�� he said. He let go of my arm and pocketed the device. Every muscle in my body screamed for me to take it. Pin him down, claw, scratch, pull his hair—anything to wrestle that thing from his grubby digits. It was bad enough my life was currently in his hands, but G’s? I couldn’t live with that. Unfortunately, my chances were slim with Cora here. I’d have to bide my time. Plan and pick my moment carefully. “I’ll look for Karl, but if I find out you’re lying—”
She waved him off and stood. “I’m not.” Without another word, she swept up her coat and breezed through the door, leaving us alone.
Dylan patted his pocket absently. “Let’s go.”
I stared at him. “Just like that? Are you serious?”
He spun in a circle, arms extended, and laughed. “No one here to pay the bill.”
“I wasn’t talking about that.” Though, I had a bad feeling in my gut as to the fate of the staff. “I mean Cora. You can’t really buy what she was selling.”
He narrowed his eyes and nudged me toward the door. “She wouldn’t dare lie to me.”
How could he possibly think that? Had he been paying attention at all? Cora Anderson thought herself to be above everything. Everything and everyone. But the thing I’d learned in my short—but agonizing—time with Dylan was that reason was impossible. Instead, I decided to ask him something equally impossible.
“If you care about me—any version of me—you’ll hand over that device.”
He did a double take, obviously thinking I was joking, then laughed and pushed through the front door.
I followed, doing my best to tamp down the anger boiling up inside. “G won’t bother you. I’ll make sure of it.”
Dylan grinned—the kind of smile that would have made the Cheshire Cat proud. “S’okay.” He waved the small device in the air before pocketing it. “I think I’ve got it covered.”
Chapter Six
G
With a final, brutal yank, I managed to free Cade from the bars a half second before the vehicle plowed past us. For the longest time, we both lay there trying to catch our breath.
