by Jill Cooper
Donovan gazes back at me with surprise as a guard points a gun at him. He’s going to kill him and I can’t stomach that. I scream and feel time cascading all around. It ebbs and flows like a wave, my emotion causing my power to come crashing back at full speed.
The guard is moving at half speed, maybe even slower than that. I grab his gun and punch him in the stomach, sending him crashing down to the ground. Donovan throws his arms up at half speed and rears backward.
“Noooo,” Delilah screams and the other guard aims for us. Donovan ducks and I raise my hand to the guard. The bullet comes for me and a whirl of slowed down time, like a tiny whirl pool, catches the bullet and freezes it in mid-air. I flick it down to the ground with my finger and feel a rush of blood pouring from my nose.
The headache is immediate and intense. This body isn’t used to what it is I can do. The air around us is thick as time continues to slow to a screeching halt and I gaze at the cowering Donovan on the floor.
I touch Donovan’s shoulder and he blinks, speeding up in time with me. “We have to go. Do you have a car?”
He gazes around and I give him a shake. He snorts with fright.
“Car,” I say angrily. “Do you have one?”
“Out front.”
Good enough. I grab Donovan’s hand and help him up to his feet. “It’s not safe for you to go home. We have to hide and figure this thing out.”
“You think I’m just going to go with you?” His eyes narrow as he throws angry darts at me.
“They tried to kill you and they would’ve been successful if it wasn’t for me.” I pause and Donovan’s face is unmoving, unconvinced. “You want to drive or should I?”
“No one drives my car but me.”
“Then I guess we better get moving.” I give him a light shove.
Donovan points to a very expensive sport’s car, at least that hadn’t changed. I slide into the passenger seat as he starts the car up. He’ll have to move fast because Delilah’s security team is coming up quickly.
“Hope you can drive fast.”
Donovan grins as the car performs a 160-degree turn, dirt flying up from the tires. “Is this fast enough for you?”
“Just drive,” I use the side mirror to spy on the security detail running from Delilah’s house and gunning for their cars. I guess time had sped up for them after all.
“You a time traveler or something? I thought Rewind hadn’t been successful in someone like you yet.”
“Oh, they succeeded all right. Succeeded in breaking the law with human trials and experimentation too.”
Donovan grips the wheel tight. “I didn’t know my mother was in to all that.”
“And my mother was helping her. Until Patricia had her killed. Look, this conversation is going to get us nowhere fast. We need to find somewhere to lay low and figure out what it is we’re going to do. We can’t drive all night.”
Donovan glances at the rearview mirror and then at me. “I have somewhere we can lay low. You’re going to have to trust me though.”
Could I even begin to do that? Not like life had given me any choice.
Chapter Twenty-Four: Lara Crane
Turns out his place in Somerville is a climate control car garage. There are two rows of muscle cars in vibrant colors and it smells of motor oil. Despite all that, the place is so clean, you could eat off the floor.
We raid the vending machines for candy and soda, sitting on the floor in the back. I stare at Donovan as he fumbles with his candy bar wrapper.
He genuinely seems like shaken up which surprises me. I help him by tearing his candy wrapper. “There you go.”
His hands quiver as he pulls the chocolate out. “I don’t know why I’m so nervous.”
“It happens sometimes when people try to kill you. It just takes a while to hit you. Shock. Survival instinct, I guess.”
Donovan raises his eyebrows. “And you’re so calm about it.”
“I guess I’m just used to it. At this point my entire family is dead.”
Donovan quietly munches on his candy. “Well I’m sorry about that. I didn’t know…I thought you were nuts. I thought you wanted a quick buck like most do. “What do we do now?”
I sigh. “I don’t really know. We can’t hide here forever, that’s for sure.”
“Call your attorney?”
“And how I broke my bail agreement?” I shake my head. “A really bad idea.”
“They did try to kill us. The courts will go easy on you.”
I snort. “Please. I’m not a James, at least…I’m not a James.” I can’t keep the haunting tone out of my voice.
“What?” Donovan asks and his eyes narrow.
“What what?”
He cocks his head to the side and stares at me. “Your voice…the way you look at me…well, I feel like you know me better than I know you.”
“I’m just nervous because you threatened to destroy me and Rick’s future.” I crumble my candy wrapper in my hand and refuse to look at him.
But I can hear him shifting beside me. “Say that’s what it is all you want, but I know that’s not it, Crane. It’s something else.” His tone of voice is so similar to my Donovan, that I smile through my tears.
“At least some things stay the same.”
“Pardon?” Donovan straightens up tall.
“Nothing.” Bitterly, I wipe my eyes clear. “Give me some time and then I’ll call Jax. I promise.”
“Until then, we what? Just sit here? The longer we wait, the guiltier you look. Why would you bother to wait? They could be hunting for us right now.”
I don’t doubt it but I lift my hand and attempt to open the portal to the bridge again. My hand crackles and a small hole opens but as if someone is on the other side fighting me, it closes rapidly.
I’m unable to keep it open.
Donovan’s mouth falls open at the display and his glasses slip to the tip of his nose. “What is that?”
“The answer to getting out of this, if I can get it open.”
“Is there anything I can do to help?”
“Privacy, just for a little while.” I’m not sure I can stand to look at him much longer without my heart breaking into two. “Maybe keep a watch out the window. If you see anyone coming, it might be a good idea to let me know.”
****
I spend most of the night trying to open the bridge and I’ve gotten it so it’s almost big enough to crawl through, but not quite. This time I can’t hold it open at all, it grows and shuts like it has a mind of its own. My vision splits from exhaustion and there’s a pile of bloody tissues beside me from the nose bleeds of pushing myself too hard.
“You can’t keep this up.” Donovan stands over by the window as I hold a fresh tissue to my nose. “It might kill you.”
I can’t stop. Somehow I have to find the answer. “Someone or something doesn’t want me to figure out this thing. I have to get home.”
Donovan sits beside me. “Home?”
I shouldn’t keep talking, but I do. I’m desperate to connect with someone in this timeline. Someone I can talk to, but it scares me that of everyone I’ve met here, I pick him. Maybe it’s because I’m tired and can’t think straight. Maybe it’s because he looks like the man I married. “I’m not from this timeline. I’m from one of the thousands, maybe millions, other options. Where each choice we take, splinters into alternate universe.”
“A multiverse?” Donovan shrugs and his eyes shift around. “I read comics as a kid. Who didn’t, right?”
I nod. “Just like that. In my timeline, I’ve been fighting Rewind for so long, I barely remember anything else. My life is crazy but I have a fresh husband, the love of my life. In that crazy world, the only thing that matters, is you.” Subconsciousness, I rub the back of my head.
Donovan stares at me but doesn’t move. I’m surprised he doesn’t pull away from me but instead he slips his hand on top of mine. I don’t pull away no matter how shocked I am. Instead, I squeeze
his fingers with mine.
“I knew something was going on when I….attacked you in your apartment. The way you looked at me. The heartbreak on your face. It just made me angrier. I can be a real asshole sometimes.”
More than that, at least here, but I can’t separate him from my Donovan. “I just want to be happy. I just want to go home.”
“And that thing you’re trying to do? Where does it lead?” He asks.
“Place called the bridge. It lives outside of time and all the timelines. If we can get there, I can return home and out of this place forever. Maybe I can use it’s tech to find out who really killed Patricia James and free this Lara’s name. I just want her to be happy.”
“What about me? Delilah set me up to be killed up there and I don’t know why.”
“I don’t know. I’m being selfish…”
Donovan shakes his head. “I wish I knew this other version of me. He must be a stand up guy.”
I nod, smiling through my tears. “He’s the best. He never lets me down even when I think I don’t deserve his support, he’s always there.”
“Well, if you can’t get back, maybe you and I….”
The idea is abhorrent that I would settle for this Donovan because I can’t have mine. They are so different and this one is power hungry. He’s so different, he might as well be another person.
“It’s time for us to get you protection. I’m ready to call my defense attorney.” If I can’t get to the bridge, I’m going to need to secure my future here, but I’m not ready to give up hope.
I cup my hand and it crackles, the opening is no bigger than a golf ball. I stare into the bridge, at least the small parts I can see; the tile floor, the leg of a desk.
Does anyone miss me back home? Are they looking for me? Because I want to be back with them so badly, it hurts.
****
Cassidy hasn’t come and neither has Molly. Instinctually, I fear that something has happened to them that I won’t be able to fix until I get home. If I ever get home. I bounce with nerves as Donovan and I head downstairs to meet Jax. It’s two in the morning, but he’s agreed to meet us right away so he can square things away with the police.
We stand at the loading dock at the rear of the factory and my stomach tightens as a black sedan with headlights make its way toward us. “Here we go. You ready for this?” Donovan asks.
My eyes crinkle as I think about it but I brush it aside as Jax and Rick get out of the car.
I’m surprised as Rick crushes me in a hug. “Are you all right, bae? Jax told me what happened at Delilah’s place. I can’t believe you got out of there without getting hurt.”
I open my mouth to speak as Jax shakes hands with his brother. My attorney gazes at the building and takes it all in. “Let’s get inside so we can go over this in private. Highly irregular for you to be here,” Jax says to Donovan with a glare.
“His life is in danger too. I needed him to come with me. I couldn’t just leave him there, Ja—Mr. Montgomery.”
Jax motions to the door. “Let’s head inside and discuss this inside.”
Donovan pulls the door open and holds it for us to get inside.
Rick takes my hand and gives it a squeeze but he doesn’t take his eyes off Donovan.. We follow Jax and Donovan back into the garage we had been spent the last twelve hours in. Jax goes to the other side of a table and puts his briefcase up. “I’m going to need you to tell me everything from the beginning. Do you think you can do that, Lara?”
I nod. “Sure. I don’t think it’ll take very long.”
“I’m just glad you’re safe,” Rick says. He nuzzles the side of my head and I close my eyes, enjoy the bit of affection that I’m given.
I recant my story for Jax but leave out the time travel bits and the multiverse. Donovan gives me eyes as if to say, tell him everything, but I don’t.
“Sounds like a hard day. I’m sorry, Lara,” Jax says. “You didn’t call anyone else, did you? Does anyone else know that you’re here?”
“Only you.”
“I’m going to get to the bottom of this, but first I’m going to need you to hand over the gun you took from the Chase mansion.”
“Right, sorry.” I pull the gun out of the back of my jeans and hand it to him. As I do, ours fingers overlap and I’m jolted with a powerful memory that sends shockwaves of pain rippling through my brain. I’m back at the James mansion the night Patricia died and shecowers on the floor while I lord over her.
“Please!” She begs and holds up her hands. I rise my gun and take center aim. “I have a son and a family. You might not agree with what I’ve done, but take mercy on me. Your mother wouldn’t want this for you.”
So, she’d speak for my dead mother now? “Admit it. You had her killed. Admit it!”
“Yes!” Patricia screams and her hands shake. “I did it now please, do what you want with my confession, but please let me go.”
In my other hand is a voice recorder that I hadn’t seen before. Smiling, I hit the stop button. “I’ll do what I set out to do,” I lower the gun to my side. “I’ll turn this over to the cops and you. You’re finished.” My words are laced with venom and hate.
Patricia squeezes her eyes and sobs on the floor. Happy tears because I spared her life or tears of sadness because I’m going to ruin her, I can’t be sure which. I don’t really care either. All I feel is justified satisfaction and boy, does it feel good.
Until two gunshots rip through Patricia’s skull. Her head falls back, she’s instantly dead, and I’m left standing over her body with a gun in my hand.
But I never pulled the trigger.
I turn around. The shooter is still there in his fine pressed suit and black thick glasses, but it isn’t Rex.
It’s Jax. Jax Montgomery killed Patricia James.
Chapter Twenty-Five: Lara Crane
My hands shake as I lift my gun and aim it at him. This Lara has no idea who he is, but I do. Inside all she feels is intense fear, like she’s bitten off more than she can chew. Lara is drowning in fear and guilt that she somehow set this all-in motion. If only I could tell her it was set in motion long ago.
“You’re out of your depths, Lara Crane.” Jax’s voice is void of emotion. With a quick movement, he snatches the gun out of my hand, pocket’s it, and grabs my arm. He whips me around, pulling my arm behind my back painfully and holds a white cloth over my face.
The fumes make my eyes water and he rips the voice recorder out of my hand.
“Don’t worry,” Jax whispers against my ear, “you won’t remember any of this when you wake up, darling Lara…”
Darling Lara. Funny, that’s what Rex always calls me. That’s when I realized that the brothers here, had switched places. In this time things are strangely reversed and flipped on its head. Nothing is as it seems. So how can that get me back home?
****
Jax takes the gun from me and places it inside of a white handkerchief. Carefully, he wraps it up. “Thank you, Lara. Now we can really get to work on your defense, now that you have a witness.” He heads back to the other side of the table to open his briefcase.
I stare at him and position myself in front of Rick and Rex. Rick scowls at me and I put my finger to my lips to tell him to be quiet. I remind myself that Jax isn’t my stepfather here, he’s just a version of who Jax could be, same as Rick, and Donovan.
“What happens now?” Donovan asks.
“That’s up to the three of you, really.” Jax unsnaps his briefcase.
“Why did you really meet with us? Why bring Rick?” I ask.
Jax smirks at me and it’s a smirk that is so familiar, so haunting, that it hurts me to see it on his face and not his brother’s. “It’s clear you already know the answer to that question, darling Lara.” He pulls a gun from his briefcase and aims it at me. “So, I can get rid of all the witnesses at once. And you’ve given me the perfect motive and opportunity.”
Rick stiffens and grabs my arm to yank me back, b
ut I hold strong. My hands ball into tight fists as Donovan closes in on the other side of me. They both want to protect me but they’re wrong. I’m the one who needs to protect them.
“You and Rick came to talk to Donovan. He shot you both and you shot him.”
Donovan shakes is head. “It’ll never work.”
“No?” Jax snorts. “It’s been working for years, foolish boy. You’re mother set it all up and she died by her own game. Seems only fitting that we’ll keep it going. If you had managed to fall in line…”
Donovan charges forward, but my arm keeps him back. “C’mon, Jax. You’re nothing more than a hired gun. You think we don’t see that? Delilah wanted Rewind for herself and you helped her. How much is she paying you to wipe us out?”
“More than double what Patricia paid me to kill your mother.” Jax laughs and pulls the trigger.
The nerves in my belly pulse out and I stomp my foot onto the tile. The tiles repture with time and spin upward like debris and I push my hands out creating a barrier around me, Rick, and Donovan. It glows gold as the bullet slowly bounces off and heads right back toward Jax. I speed time up and glance back at Rick and Donovan.
“Run!”
The tiles cascade back down to the ground like an ocean wave. Neither Donovan or Rick move like I’ve told them to. Before the stray bullet collides with Jax’s chest he fires off two more shots.
Both Rick and Donovan are in the path. I react on a split second and push Donovan out of the way. The bullet will collide with me, but it’s the choice I’ve made. I can survive being shot. I’ve done it before.
“No!” Rick screams and pushes me out of the way. He didn’t have to do that. I would’ve been fine! I could deal with a little thing like a bullet. How could he—I skid along the floor and only stop when I slam into the wall. When I gaze up, Jax is on his back and across from him so is Rick.
I scamper over to him. “Rick!”
There’s blood everywhere coming from the center of his chest. “Just hold on, okay?” My hand shakes as I push it against his hoodie and watch the blood seeping out like a broken river dam.
