Twinkle Little Star: A Marlow and Sage Mystery Thriller (A Nursery Rhyme Suspense Book 4)
Page 16
“You’re serious about erasing our memories?” Sage said. “Will we forget everything?”
“You’ll remember the basics, but no details. You won’t remember CISUE or anyone you met there.”
“Even you?”
“You’ll remember me, but only as Marlow’s dad.”
Sage conceded though I could tell by the long sigh and the slump of her shoulders that she was doing it reluctantly. The medics lifted me up the stairs on the stretcher. Images of me sliding off and onto my back on the cellar floor crossed my mind as the angle sharpened, and I was glad I’d been strapped down.
Chapter Forty-Nine
Sage
Marlow sat propped up against his pillow, his long legs stretched out in front of him, one sock hanging loose from a narrow foot and the other encased in a clunky stocking of plaster. His side of the room was marginally cleaner than Zed’s, which almost matched Nora’s F5-category tornado preference.
I knew Zed wouldn’t be here because I’d seen him walking through campus with Dakota on his arm. It was an impulsive decision to come.
My heart did backflips as I stood there, alternately accusing me of being an idiot for risking a valued friendship by speaking the truth out loud and congratulating me for finally having the courage to do it.
I’d surprised him by coming unannounced. “This has been a sucky week for you,” I said. “Broken ankle, broken heart.”
Marlow shifted upright as if to give me his full attention. “I’m not really that heart-broken.”
My gaze locked onto his emerald eyes, so gorgeous to me now. I didn’t want him to wear lenses ever again. “What do you mean?" I needed to know, before I said anything humiliating I couldn’t unsay. I watched Marlow’s expression closely for any sign that he was still in love with Dakota.
He swallowed and said the words that made my heart hope. “She wasn’t the girl for me.”
“Then, who is the girl for you?” My voice was breathy, like I’d just run onto a suspension bridge swinging precariously underneath me. A weighted silence hung between us. My heart beat noisily against my ribs. The next thing Marlow said could change everything. I’d make it safely off the bridge to the other side or I’d fall.
“You?”
He said it so softly I almost didn’t hear it. “What?”
“You.” This time he said it boldly, with confidence. “If it’s what you want.”
I felt a corny smile spread across my face. “I do want.”
Marlow hooted and fist bumped the air. “Yes! There is a God!”
I laughed out loud, feeling warm with relief. Marlow always knew how to make me laugh. He wanted me, I wanted him. It was finally out in the open. “So what do we do now?”
The corner of Marlow’s mouth curved up into a goofy grin. “I don't know. This is new territory for me.”
“For me too,” I said with a wink. “I guess we'll have to explore it together."
He shifted toward the wall and patted the free space beside him. I could barely breathe as I stepped toward him, and sat, the bed sinking under my weight, pushing us closer. He threaded his fingers through mine and studied our entwined hands. His touch was so familiar to me from all the times he’d clutched my hands when we had to run for our lives, but this felt really different.
“We have been known for our adventures,” Marlow said. “I’m ready to explore if you are.” He pulled me closer until our foreheads touched. My lips tickled his as I whispered, "I'm ready, Marlow Henry. I'm ready."
Chapter Fifty
Marlow
Zed grabbed a marker and scribbled on my cast: get better soon you big idiot.
“You really have a way with words,” I said, reading it upside down. “You should work for Hallmark.”
It’d been awkward between us since he started dating Dakota, but I’d also started dating Sage. Almost dying reminds a person what’s important and what’s just… not.
“Hey,” I started as Zed settled back on his bed, “I want you to know, I’m fine with you dating my ex-girlfriend. In fact, I’m happy for you.”
“Is that the painkillers talking?”
“I’m only on Tylenol now.”
Relief washed over Zed’s hairy face. “Thanks for telling me. It means a lot.”
“Sure. Dakota was right when she said we’d do better as friends.”
“So, you won’t be weirded out to see me with her?”
“I mean, yeah, it’s kind of weird, but it’s early. A month from now, I’m sure things will be different.”
“Dakota’s okay with you being with Sage too. She just wants you to be happy.”
“You’ve landed a very cool girl, my friend,” I said.
He laughed. “I know. I should probably thank you for dating her first. I might not have met her otherwise.”
I checked the time, grabbed my crutch and hopped my way across the room.
“Hot date with Sage?” Zed said, his dark brows jumping as he teased.
“You could say that.”
Sage picked me up in her truck.
“Boy Toy to the rescue,” she said as I climbed in.
“Please, please can you stop calling it that. Normal people don’t name their vehicles.”
She leaned in to kiss me. “You better than anyone should know I’m not normal.”
“True,” I said, keeping my lips on hers. “But if you must name it, can you please pick something else?”
She laughed as she pulled away from me and shifted into gear. “What should I call it then?”
“Bob?”
“Fine.” She ran her hand over the dusty dash. “I now christen you Bob.”
All traces of Harland and his killing spree would soon be erased from our minds. When the tower crashed in the cellar, the teleportation system crashed with it. Harland Payne’s brains were so fried from his repeated use of the technology that he couldn’t remember how to set it up again.
Jack had given us the address of CISUE since we were going to leave without remembering any of it anyway.
Sage drove into the parking area underneath the nondescript building and claimed a spot. I took her hand. “Are you ready for this?”
She shrugged. “It’s not like we haven’t done this before.”
The room Jack took us to was small and windowless, and reminded me of a clinic where you get x-rays, except instead of an x-ray machine there was a chair with a sci-fi looking upside-down bowl with wires hanging from it.
Agent Kato was there, in an even smaller adjoining room that was divided from this one by a Plexiglas wall. She wore a white lab coat and cat-eye glasses, and was tapping something into a machine on the counter.
We’d agreed to play it cool in front of Jack and the CISUE team. We wanted to keep our new relationship safe from scrutiny and judgments.
“Take off your shoes, belts and jewelry,” Agent Kato said when she saw us, obviously a get-things-done type. Who needs social niceties? “Coins too. Anything with metal.”
“I feel like I’m at the airport,” Sage said.
“Do you want to go first?” I asked with a smile. I couldn’t stop myself from bumping up against her arm. “I’ll meet you on the other side.”
She nibbled on her bottom lip, and I worried she might buck my suggestion, but then she agreed. “Okay.”
I gave her hand a quick squeeze before taking a spot beside Jack and Agent Kato in the adjoining room.
Dr. Turner applied wired patches to Sage’s temples and the base of her neck, and secured the bowl onto her head. He looked wistful as he said, “You won’t remember me after this, so I’m going to say my goodbyes now. Goodbye, Sage.”
“Goodbye, Dr. Turner.”
Kato turned on the unit from behind the glass. Sage searched for me and held my gaze for a moment before closing her eyes.
“What’s going on with you two?” Jack said, annoying me with his secret agent perceptiveness skills.
“Nothing.”
“Noth
ing my ass.” He chuckled. “You made a move on her, didn’t you?”
Heat flashed up my neck and I cursed my inability to stay cool like I’d intended.
“Maybe.”
He patted me on the back. “That’s my boy.”
It felt good to be affirmed and admired by my dad. My dad. I rarely referred to him like that, especially to myself.
“How long does it take to complete the memory wipe?”
Agent Kato answered, “Twelve minutes.”
Pretty precise, and how long I had to make my case. I pulled Jack and Dr. Turner to the side.
“I want to renegotiate.”
Dr. Turner raised a graying brow. “What do you mean?”
“I don’t want to have my memories erased.”
Jack clucked. “You agreed, Marlow.”
“I know, but what about the next time something strange happens? And statistically speaking, you have to agree, there will be a next time. I don’t know why Sage and I are always pulled in, but we are. I need to have my wits about me. How can I protect her if I don’t know what’s going on?”
Jack and Dr. Turner shared a look, like they knew the answer to why Sage and I constantly found ourselves in the middle of the unusual, but they weren’t talking. My eyes darted to Sage, her expression peaceful as if sleeping.
“He has a point,” Dr. Turner finally said. “Sage’s safety is paramount.”
“I’m partial to Marlow staying alive too,” Jack said.
“Of course,” Dr. Turner said. “But doesn’t it make sense that he would be better equipped to do that if he were on watch?”
There was a quiet series of pings, like the microwave telling you your food is ready. Agent Kato approached Sage and began to remove the cap and wires.
“You’ll have to act like you know nothing about CISUE,” Jack said, “or the details of this last incident.”
“I will,” I said.
Dr. Turner nodded in agreement, then slipped outside before Sage woke up.
Jack gave me a look: part “be careful” and part “be careful with her.”
Agent Kato led Sage out to a recovery room and I waited a few minutes before joining her. “Are you ready to go?”
“What are we doing here, Marlow?” she asked. “No one will tell me anything.”
“Jack brought us here, but now we have to leave.”
“But why?”
“I’m not sure. Jack said he’d tell us later.”
It was a good thing that Sage trusted Jack. It felt wrong to mislead her like this, but it was for her own safety. I wondered what Jack would’ve told me if I’d gone through with it? Made up some plausible reason, likely.
Sage appeared lightheaded, and I hoped she hadn’t forgotten everything. I’d kill Jack if she didn’t remember the “us” that had begun only twenty-four hours earlier. She walked with me as I hobbled on my crutch to the black sedan that waited to take us back to campus, and I ushered her into the back seat.
Once the doors were closed and our driver had us on our way, she turned to me and smiled, a flirtatious glint in her eyes. I exhaled and a load of worry dropped off my shoulders.
I cupped her head pulling her close and whispered in her ear, “Now where were we?”
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Watch for MARY QUITE CONTRARY in 2017
Sage finds an old medallion that slips her back in time to 1863.
The reason, she believes, is to save Mary Villeneuve, an underground railroad champion.
Meanwhile a drama student is killed by a seemingly unintentional hanging during a live production at the university theater. Marlow and Jack discover that the death wasn’t accidental but murder: Firewall, the city’s biggest crime boss, has taken responsibility. Not only that, but Firewall plans to drop a bomb on Detroit unless Jack and Marlow hand over Sage Farrell.
These two seemingly unrelated events are connected in a way Sage and Marlow could never image. But time is running out. The clues are there and they need to put the pieces together fast if they hope to save the city and Sage’s life along with it.
Books by Lee Strauss
On AMAZON
The Perception Series (dystopian/sci-fi/romance)
Ambition (short story prequel)
Perception (book 1)
Volition (book 2)
Contrition (book 3)
Playing with Matches (WW2 history/romance)
Playing with Matches
A Piece of Blue String (companion short story)
A Nursery Rhyme Suspense (mystery/thriller)
Gingerbread Man
I Spy with My Little Eye
(short story)
Life is but a Dream
Hickory Dickory Dock
Twinkle Little Star
About the Author
Lee Strauss is the author of A Nursery Rhyme Suspense (mystery thriller), The Perception Series (young adult dystopian), and young adult historical fiction. She is the married mother of four children and divides her time between British Columbia, Canada and Germany. When she's not writing or reading she likes to cycle and hike. She enjoys traveling (but not jet lag :0), cashew lattes, red wine and dark chocolate.
Lee also writes younger YA fantasy as Elle Strauss and inspirational romance as Hope Franke.
@leestraussbooks
AuthorLeeStrauss
www.leestraussbooks.com
leestraussbooks@gmail.com
Acknowledgments
A big thank you to the fans of A NURSERY RHYME SUSPENSE series! You are the best.
I have to shout out to my editor Angelika Offenwanger for always keeping me on course, to Steven Novak for another great cover, and to my early readers and review team - Thank you!
Twinkle Little Star
A Nursery Rhyme Suspense
By Lee Strauss
Mystery Suspense
Cover by Steven Novak Illustrations
Copyright © 2016 by Lee Strauss
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
ISBN: 978-1-927547-99-1