by Jill Cooper
“It hurts me, Don. Hurts me that you think I need all this to be happy. I don’t. I’d just take you as you are.”
“Even if it meant living in a box?”
“We wouldn’t be living in a box. But yes, even if it meant living in a rundown apartment. Cutting coupons. Eating canned beans. I’d do it.” I’d done it before, but Don never had. So maybe, it has less to do with me and more to do with him.
His eyes widen and then his face crumples. I’m taken aback by how my words surprise him and how, on some level, he doesn’t believe me. Maybe Mr. Confident isn’t as confident as I have given him credit for. I feel bad for him. Part of me wants to slap him, while the other part wants to take care of him, prove that he can be enough on his own.
The cars, fancy home, and clothes, even the yacht, are just window dressing. That stuff can’t make us the power couple I had thought we were. Money can’t make you laugh at night, or make you pancakes in the morning. But for someone whose whole life is about money, and the lies Patricia James had told, maybe a future isn’t possible if it means being poor.
Maybe if we were to be poor, he couldn’t love me. Couldn’t love himself.
My heart sinks like a stone at my suspicions and I stare at my lap. The talk had started on the right foot but now we’re further apart than ever.
The limo pulls over to the curb and I sit up straighter, gazing past Donovan to the city street. There are cars parked along the sidewalk and people dressed in fancy suits lingering in front of the TTPA’s front door. They must be the press waiting to get inside.
I let out a shaky breath and realize that Donovan is studying me. “Want to tell me what’s making you so nervous?”
“Cameron Kincaid.”
“If anything, he should make me nervous. You’re not the one who made a fool’s bargain.”
No, I wasn’t, but I was the reason he had targeted Donovan in the first place. I want to tell him that so he can let go of some of his guilt. Reaching for his hand, I pause, “Let’s just act natural tonight, okay? I know my future’s with you, Don. We just need to get past this. I’m pretty sure we can.”
He offers me a small smile. “You telling me that because you want to? Or because you want us to get through this night?”
My face falls and a flash of pain enters my chest. I’m sorry he feels the need to ask. I’m sorry he just doesn’t know how much I care for him. The lies, the games, all of it, have been behind us for so long, but still, my past behavior casts a shadow upon us that I can’t shake.
It’s that, or simply walk away.
The limo driver pulls the door open. Once Donovan gets out, he offers me his hand, ever the gentlemen. Standing beside him feels right, but I’m not sure how to express myself as he leads me into the TTPA. Cameras flash at my arrival and I offer them a tepid gaze.
“Ms. Montgomery, you look stunning as ever. Always on time. Am I right?” The giggling journalist, with teeth so white they shine, shoves a microphone in my face.
Time travel jokes never get old.
I brush it off with a laugh. “Always.”
Donovan offers his apologies as we push our way into the TTPA. The way he does it is soft, but stern. I cling to his arm as we spin out the revolving door into the lobby. Tables wear white tablecloths and against the back wall is a podium, where Cameron will take his place. People converge and we push our way to the front.
For a moment, we pause, and Donovan’s hand on my neck is a welcome break from the stress of life. I relax and allow my eyes to close as he massages my skin—rolling it between his fingers. Without even thinking about it, I lean into him and enjoy the warmth of his lips pressed against my forehead.
There’s something magical about the way we come together. Even with the current emotional distance between us, our attachment and love manage to connect us.
“Let’s really talk once this is over, okay?” Donovan whispers against my hair and I’m inclined to say yes on the spot. I’m inclined to wave my hand and just forget anything negative between us ever happened at all.
I don’t get the chance as Marcus steps up beside us, a grave expression on his face. “Lara. Mr. James.”
Donovan nods, and already his hand is shoved into his pocket. Maybe he doesn’t like Marcus. They have their differences, and most of it has to do with me. “Hey, Marcus. Any idea what’s going on tonight?”
Marcus sighs. “Hell if I know. Mr. Kincaid shut me out. After Lara left today, he threw his weight around with a—pardon the expression—a shit-eating grin if I ever saw one. Like he won.”
The words send a tingle up my leg.
“He was in Delilah’s office for hours having a closed-door meeting that I wasn’t privy to.”
I don’t like the sound of that at all. “Who was he meeting with?”
“Phone call,” Marcus shrugs, “I don’t know, but if you want access to the logs…”
“And have you get caught?” I raise my eyebrows, “If we’re going to outsmart Cameron, I’m going to need you here on the inside.”
“Outsmart him at what?” Donovan asks.
I nod my head toward the podium as Cameron heads out from behind the curtain. “Looks like we’re about to find out.”
Cameron takes the podium. The lights intensify on him, but toward the back, a person stands, hidden in the shadows.
“Thank you.” Cameron lifts his hand in a wave, a simple gesture. Dimples appear on his cheeks when he smiles and it turns me cold because of how familiar it all seems. “Thank you for appearing tonight at such short notice. My dear friend, Ms. Delilah Chase,” Cameron’s face falls in what is supposed to be grief and sadness, but it looks false on him, “My dear friend, Delilah, was brutally murdered a few days ago. She entrusted me with this fine organization, the TTPA, and it’s my job to honor her last wishes.” Cameron reaches into his pocket and pulls out a piece of blue paper. As he unfolds it, I recognize it as a legal brief.
“And I, Delilah Chase, of sound mind and body, wish beyond hope, that the TTPA can be persuaded to loosen Time Travel restrictions.” The crowd gasps and I feel faint. I don’t know where he had gotten that document, but it can’t be real. It just can’t. That’s not what Delilah had wanted. I knew her, loved her…it just wasn’t true.
I step forward without meaning to and Donovan reaches for my hand, but I snarl up at Cameron anyway.
If he sees me, it doesn’t show on his face. He just keeps reading, occasionally gazing up at the crowd.
“It’s been my dream to bring well-regulated, but open, time travel to the nation and to the world. Why keep such a great power for ourselves? If not for some narrow-minded fools in this organization, it’d already be so and I’m afraid…” Cameron takes a long breath, “afraid for my life if I move forward, which is why I am entrusting my vision to Cameron Kincaid and hope the board will keep in line with my wishes. For commerce and the rights of her citizens.”
He can’t do this. He just can’t. The TTPA doesn’t have the power to loosen the laws congress have put into place. Laws put into place to protect people, protect the integrity of time.
My jaw grinds together and pain builds up behind my eyes. I can barely see the crowd, can only focus on Cameron’s face. He’s going to take it all away and I need to stop him. I can’t let him—
Cameron places his hands on the podium. “Tomorrow morning, I’ll be asking the board to remove the biggest roadblocks to Delilah’s wishes. Ms. Miranda Montgomery, Mr. Marcus O’Reily, and Ms. Lara Montgomery. It’s a shame really, Lara is the one who started it all and now…” he shakes his head as if my position is sad.
Like my position…I see red, it crowds my vision and my breath labors. I don’t know if I’ve ever been as angry as I am right now. Light’s flash in my vision and I can’t control it. Can’t stop it. I’m going to time jump and I don’t even want to stop it. I need time to think and I want out of that room. Now.
Marcus touches my arm and whispers. “Without us, the board will n
ever hold strong. He knows this. Somehow, he knows this. Lara…” His voice is edged with fear.
“He’s a time traveler.”
“What?” Marcus gasps. “The system would’ve caught…”
I shake my head. “He has a different system. Based on someone else’s brain pattern. He as much as told me yesterday in the security booth.”
Marcus’s eyes can’t get any wider and his face flushes red. “Who? How?”
I can’t tell him that. Some secrets I just can’t give away.
Cameron nods as people applaud. I must’ve missed something he said. “Thank you. Thank you. Together with my wife, we’ll petition Congress. A slow process for sure, but the future for the TTPA is very bright. Stockholders, investors, we’re all going to make out very, very well.”
He can’t lay it on thicker if he tried.
He extends his hand to someone off stage and I wait to see who this wife is. A beautiful blond in a red dress smiles at him and takes his hand. Even before she gazes out at me, I know who she is. My heart pounds and my skin shivers.
The wagons are circling. I’m trapped, like an animal.
Cassidy presents her cheek to Cameron and he kisses it daintily. Well, how nice. How quaint.
***
She’s the answer. She’s the problem. The solution is easy, but I don’t know if I can bring myself to do what needs to be done. She needs to be stopped, but I remember such a different person. I remember when she had been my friend.
I can’t breathe and the ground rushes up to greet me. More than one person screams my name, but it’s Donovan who grabs my arm. “Lara!” he holds the back of my head as he lays me down, “Hang in there, Lara. Hang in there,” he touches my cheeks and growls to Marcus, “Get her some water.”
I blink. With each blink, the room changes. Florescent lights replace the chandeliers overhead. The regal ceiling is replaced with glass panes. Everyone in the room disappears. The colors flow together, flying and reforming in front of me.
Blinking one more time, I roll over and gaze out of a plexiglass wall.
I’m in a cage. I’m in that damn cage.
Chapter Fourteen
It can’t be real. I touch the plate of plexiglass with my fingers. Sure enough, it’s smooth and cold against my fingers.
I’ve gotten out before, I can get out again. I glance down at myself and see my party dress is gone. I’m dressed in white scrubs and matching sneakers. My limbs shake as I rise to my feet, but I can’t go far because the cable attached to the back of my neck keeps me tethered to a machine on the opposite side of the cage.
With a grunt, I grab it and try to pull it free, but pain assaults my brain and a flash of colors blurs my vision. I can’t get it out. I’m stuck.
“Oh, Lara. When will you ever learn….”
The voice jars me and I take a step back. It’s Rex with his deep, posh British accent. He’s back. The monster I had killed long ago. A light turns on outside of my cage and he’s standing in his fine-pressed suit, but it’s not Rex at all.
It’s Cameron, but his smile is as smug as it’s ever been. No one may have believed me when I’d said they are the same person, but I had known and now I’m vindicated.
Cameron steps forward and puts his hand on the glass. “Dear Lara, it’s such a pleasure to have you back where you belong.”
My insides heave with so much anger; I’m not sure where to direct it. “How’d you change your face?”
Cameron waves his finger back and forth. “A magician never reveals his secrets. Let’s just say, there are infinite choices when you have an infinite amount of timelines at your disposal. New technologies. New surgeries on a micro level. I was able to…cultivate what I wanted from each place. The future is as miraculous as one can imagine.”
Cameron paces in front of the cage but never takes his eyes off me. “And then I went back in time. As far back as I could, to leave a trail for Cameron Kincaid to pick up. Money. Power. Everything I learned in the future, I used to amass wealth,” he grins at me, “And sell to your boyfriend. A willing, but an ignorant pawn.”
He won’t get away with this. I will stop him. I will find a way.
“I must confess; I was surprised at how fast you were onto Cameron. Onto me. It was genius though, wasn’t it? The look on your face when you first heard my voice at that initial meeting,” Cameron steps forward and puts his hand on the glass, “Perfection.”
Full of himself as usual. “How did you travel in time? You’ve never been able to travel in time. I killed you.”
Cameron shrugs as if it doesn’t matter. “There were a hundred different timelines. Different choices. Different reactions. There were timelines in which you still live in a cage.”
I refuse to believe it. “I closed the timelines. I looped them all back into one.”
“To stop Xavier Daniels?” Cameron’s eyebrows rise at the look of shock on my face. How could he know that? “Ahh…from here I can watch everything. I can see all the choices and changes you made. And dear Lara, my unlucky niece, you did everything you claim, except you didn’t take care of me. I’m the anomaly.”
The anomaly? I don’t understand what he means and I’m desperate to hear him out. “Rex….”
“We’ve talked long enough for now.” Cameron smirks as he steps away from the cage. He snaps his fingers and a moment later, light’s flick on in a row in the outer room. One after another, the lights illuminate one glass cage after another, after another.
In each cage, an unconscious person lies, hooked up to a monitor just like me—except I’m awake.
Dad. Molly. Jax.
And the one closest to me stills my breath. Rick. It’s Rick. When was the last time I had thought of him, when was the last time I had seen him?
I gaze out at them and I want to doubt what I know, what I’ve seen. But I don’t. I know what’s real. Cameron can’t take that from me. Whatever is going on here, it’s a nightmare. A bad dream. It can’t be real. It can’t be…
“See to it she lies back down and gets back to sleep.”
“Yes, Mr. Montgomery.”
The sound of Mom’s voice jars me. I back away from the door as she enters. “Mom?” But she doesn’t respond, she only puts her clipboard down and picks up a syringe.
“Hold still, Ms. Crane. It’ll only take a minute.” Her eyes have a dull sheen to them. She’s drugged, under Rex’s control. She doesn’t remember me, just like…
It can’t be the truth.
“Mom!” I beg her and grab her arm as she comes at me. She pushes and I sit down on the bed, unable to keep my numb legs working. “Mom, please!”
She only smiles as she slips the needle beneath my skin. “I don’t know why she always calls me that.”
My head feels heavy and it falls onto the pillow. Everything’s going dark. My lids can’t stay open anymore and I wonder what’s real. What’s true.
Will my life ever really be mine?
Chapter Fifteen
“She’s waking up.”
Marcus says the words, but it’s someone else’s hand that grips me. When my eyes finally snap open, I recognize the sofa I’m lying on. The leather is soft and there’s a hand-crocheted blanket thrown over my lap.
This is Marcus’s office. Beside me, Donovan perches on the edge of the coffee table. The look on his face is weary as he leans over me. “Thank God, you’re okay. When you went under—.”
“It’s the stress.” Marcus sighs as he paces the expanse of the wide office. He stops at the rear wall of bookcases only to turn around and start over again. “Everything Cameron Kincaid gave a speech about…”
Cameron. The cage.
I bolt up, into a sitting position and I’m struck by a wave of nausea. Groaning, I grip my forehead. It feels as if a freight train had slammed into me, but I ignore it and search out the hands on the ticking clock. They’re going the right way, but what if I can’t trust that, anymore?
What if I can’t trust me, anymor
e?
“Lara.” Donovan slides beside me onto the couch, “What’s the matter?” His hand on my knee is supposed to calm me, but instead it only makes me jitter more.
“The cage.” I pull my hair out of my face and realize that I’m back in my dress. My shoes lie on the plush carpet beside the sofa and my ring sparkles on my finger again. “I was back in the cage. I never got out.”
Donovan’s face relaxes. “It was just a dream.”
“A bad one.” Marcus agrees.
“Cameron was there,” I swallow hard, “my family, everyone—they were all in cages,” my mouth falls open, “You were dead, Don. Dead.”
“I’m not dead,” he touches my face with both his hands and I can’t deny the warmth that passes between us, “I’m right here, Lara. Right here.”
I pull myself away from him and stomp off to the bookcase. Grabbing a random book, I flip through looking for a blank page, but words fill it cover to cover. Every single one. Frustrated, I throw it on the ground and go after another book and then another.
Their stares beat down on my back, but I have to be sure. I can’t live a lie. What if I’ve been living one for over six years? What if nothing has changed. It’s always been my greatest fear.
“Cameron’s gotten inside your head,” Marcus says, “that’s all it is, Lara.” He places a hand on my shoulder and I throw a glance at him. Something about his steady gaze reaches me. Like an anchor, it slows me down.
Then I stare at Donovan and see he nods too.
My back is up against the bookcase and I feel the walls closing in. “How can I know for sure? How can I know?”
They can’t answer me because there isn’t a way to be sure. If they’re real, they’re just as perplexed as I am and if they’re not real—if this is just some sort of game inside a virtual system—they’ll never tell me the truth anyway.
“Come on.” Donovan takes my hand and I want to be led away by him. I want nothing more than to get away from the TTPA—pretend it never even existed—but I have something to uphold. I have a personal responsibility to Delilah and everything we built. I cannot let all of that just go.
