“Yeah, sure. Anything to help,” Casper announced without hesitation then appeared to consider and fidgeted. “Do you think it’s too late to call Nana?”
Kane considered the question and snorted a soft laugh. “It’s almost one o’clock in the morning,” he remarked bluntly then smirked knowingly. “I’m sure she’s still up cleaning closets or watching some gory horror movie.”
As Casper reached for the phone, Kane smiled. It would be nice to hear her voice again. Would it be wrong to stop in for a slice of pie?
†
It was almost nine o’clock the next morning. The museum had swarms of children on the steps awaiting the official opening. They were excited to be anywhere other than in school. Teachers and chaperones attempted in vain to keep the children rounded up and together. The smaller the mastermind, the easier they would escape. Kane paced the sidewalk while Casper attempted to instruct him. In comparison, Casper’s job today wasn’t much unlike that of the teachers with their young, excitable children.
“You need to relax, dude,” Casper announced. “She hasn’t even met you yet.” He shook his head. “I knew giving you coffee this morning was a bad idea.”
“I can’t relax. This is more stressful than our first date. There’s so much riding on this meeting,” he announced while nervously running his fingers through his dark hair. At this rate, he’d be bald before the museum even opened.
“Maybe, but you have home field advantage,” Casper insisted and gave his shoulder a firm squeeze. “You already know everything about her. You’ll win her over at ‘hello’.”
“I only have one week to convince her to go away with me before Dante’s accident,” Kane announced. “That’s a lot of pressure, considering we dated almost three months before I convinced her to sleep with me.”
“Really?” Casper asked with some surprise and stared longer than he should have. “Wow, that’s just sad.”
Kane glared at him. Casper caught his glare and appeared humored.
“Chill, I’m just messing with you. I need more time to work on your problem,” he announced. “While you cozy up to your girl, I’ll run a few scenarios in my head. Maybe you don’t need to whisk her away for an entire week. Maybe you just need to take her away for one day.” Casper’s enthusiasm took over as if on cue. “I’ll read those articles you brought from the future. There might be something in there we can use. You just find your girl and work your charm on her.”
The museum doors finally opened and the children spilled inside like a massive flood of locust. Kane was even more tense now and alternated pacing and running fingers through his hair. His pounding heart wasn’t helping.
“Relax. You’ll be fine.” Casper caught him by the shoulders and turned him in the direction of the museum door. He then grinned and gave him two thumbs up. “Good luck, dude.”
Kane nervously nodded, took a deep breath, and hurried for the museum entrance behind the children. Casper watched him and shook his head. A frown crossed his face.
“He really needs a chaperone,” he muttered. His cell phone rang. Casper hit a button and placed the cell phone to his ear. “You reached my voicemail. Please leave a message after the beep.” Casper hesitated then made a beeping sound.
“Hey, Casper,” came Kane’s voice. “Where are you?”
Casper suddenly tensed then smiled and laughed. “Kane! What’s up, dude?”
“You were supposed to be here half an hour ago,” Kane said with a tone of irritation from the other end. “My father is on my case already.”
“Uh, yeah, I’m in the car now,” Casper said then grimaced as he hurried for his cherished, black Mustang parked at the curb a few feet away. “I’ll be there in two minutes. I, uh, was just running an errand for, uh, you.”
Kane entered the lobby behind the horde of schoolchildren and their chaperones. The noise within the lobby was almost deafening as children’s chatter and the occasional shrill scream echoed off the high ceilings. Chrissie collected the admission fees for more than one hundred children from their accompanying chaperones. Kane patiently waited his turn to purchase an admission ticket. It seemed odd. This was the first time he’d ever actually had to pay for admission to the museum. He searched the lobby for Selena while he waited. With all the children and adults supervising them, it was difficult to make out any one face. As Kane reached the front desk, most of the children had cleared out into the first exhibit behind one of the tour guides. He paid his fee to Chrissie and stared at her a moment. Seeing her here and now seemed odd. He was almost surprised by how much younger she looked just five years ago. Kane resisted the urge to greet her by name and instead gave a generic smile and nod. Shortly after he passed, Jillian approached the desk, leaned on it, and vented to Chrissie.
Kane walked across the lobby and paused near a rack of brochures. He knew Chrissie and Jillian were notorious gossips. It seemed feasible to assume they may know where Selena was at that moment, so he decided to hang around and listen. He and Selena spent many Friday nights with those two at the local bar and the city comedy club. Chrissie was actually Selena’s maid-of-honor. They’d gotten into a small tiff about bridesmaids’ dresses a few months ago. If Chrissie had her way, the bridesmaids would all look like streetwalkers. Sometimes Selena was too much of a good girl and it got on Chrissie’s nerves. Selena also wasn’t very happy with him for gawking at the dresses with a grin chiseled on his face. He was usually a gentleman, but there were times it felt good being a bad boy. Deep down, he was sure Selena understood the ‘boys will be boys’ mentality. Considering how much she liked Casper, she had to understand.
“I can’t believe we’re going to be stuck here while the so called important people are running off to some romantic bed and breakfast for another field trip,” Chrissie remarked.
“Yeah, seriously? How many of them does it take to check out an unconfirmed find?” Jillian announced with the disgust evident in her tone.
“It’s just not fair,” Chrissie whined. “I should have had that promotion years ago. Instead I’m stuck at the desk and running errands for Collin.”
Kane suddenly became interested. If he could locate Collin, he’d almost certainly find Selena. He looked at the brochure in his hand and frowned. He probably stared at that brochure long enough. It seemed as if the museum was having a fundraiser on Friday night. He swore they were always having a fundraiser. Selena complained about them often. It always meant more work for her. Noble Winston was in charge of their fundraisers. Apparently, he wasn’t exactly efficient in his job. Selena was always complaining that she often needed to fix his mistakes. Randy, a man in a maintenance uniform, approached the desk. Kane had never seen him before. He must have quit before Kane started dating Selena and got to know the museum employees. Randy stopped before the two women and appeared particularly impatient.
“Have either of you seen Selena?” he asked. “This work requisition makes no sense.”
Kane listened more closely at the mention of Selena’s name. Chrissie took the work request from him and looked at it. She groaned and rolled her eyes.
“Selena needs to work on her penmanship,” Chrissie informed him. “She needs scaffolding in the Egyptian exhibit.”
Randy took the paper from her, made a face, and studied it. “How do you get that from this?” he asked.
Both women laughed softly. Kane wasn’t getting anywhere standing around the lobby. The Egyptian exhibit seemed a better place to start. He returned his brochures and headed for the next exhibit over.
Chapter Eight
It was almost an hour later. Kane returned to the dinosaur exhibit, looked around with little interest, and glanced at his watch several times. He’d been in the museum over an hour and there was still no sign of Selena. He couldn’t believe how anxious he was about running into her. They technically wouldn’t even meet for another three years. He was having some concerns about forcing an accidental meeting. It seemed risky, but the way he saw it, there really was li
ttle alternative. When they first met, Selena was instantly taken with him. She was a bright moment in a dark time for him. It was only a few months after his grandmother had died that they’d first started dating. Selena made falling in love with her an effortless task. He knew she was the woman he’d marry after only a few short weeks of dating. Selena claimed she knew it by the end of their first date. He didn’t believe in love at first sight. Maybe that was just because it had never happened to him. Whatever it was Selena felt after their first date, it proved women held some divine inspiration regarding relationships. He envied women for that. Small children ran around and caused a commotion while tour guides and teachers attempted to rein them in. Kane snapped out of his daze and watched the children buzzing past him. God, he wanted children of his own. The dream seemed so far away now. He suddenly collided with someone.
“I’m so sorry--” Kane began and then looked at the man standing before him.
Hayes Dante shook spilled coffee from his hand and managed a soft chuckle despite the hot sting. “I prefer to drink my coffee to wake up,” he teased.
Kane stared at Hayes longer than he should have. It was almost eerie looking at a man about whose death he had just read. He was suddenly chilled. His smiling picture from the lengthy obituary was burned into Kane’s mind. Kane shook the image of Hayes’ obituary photo and fumbled slightly.
“Let me buy you another coffee,” he announced while continuing to stare.
“No, it’s okay, really.” Hayes apparently realized Kane was staring at him and seemed bothered by the attention. “Is something wrong?”
“Uh, no,” Kane said while fidgeting then quickly covered as best he could and managed a smile. “Aren’t you Hayes Dante, the museum curator?”
“Yes, have we met before?”
Not if he didn’t count his obituary photo. Kane again shook the image from his head and maintained his tense smile. “No, but I believe I saw you at a benefit a while back,” Kane announced with more conviction. Selena slipped into his thoughts, allowing him to smile more naturally. “You were, uh, with a very attractive young woman, if I’m not mistaken.”
Hayes’ smile brightened considerably. “Oh, you noticed her, did you?” he asked with a soft chuckle and seemed pleased. “That would be my lovely assistant. Keeping her close is the only way I get noticed at those benefits.”
“She’s certainly distracting,” Kane remarked. Selena had that effect on most men. He felt himself drifting back to thoughts of the woman he loved. In particular, he reminisced about the morning on the day she died. Kane wished he’d put more of an effort into keeping her in bed and desperately wished they’d made love that morning. He shook himself back into reality and smiled at Hayes. “Again, I’m really sorry about the coffee.”
“I think I’ll live.”
Tucker, the security guard, approached Hayes while appearing all official. Kane marveled at how much younger Tucker looked than he remembered. He was a little beefier five years in the past. Apparently, Tucker worked out more when he was younger. Kane wished he took time to work out himself. Not that he was a slouch; he just wasn’t muscular like Tucker was.
“Sorry to bother you, Hayes,” Tucker announced with a tone of annoyance in his voice. “One of the little rug rats refunded on Homo erectus.”
Hayes groaned and rolled his eyes. “It’s going to be one of those mornings,” he grumbled. “Find Selena. She’ll be thrilled to hear the good news.”
Kane tensed to hearing mention of Selena’s name. His heart immediately pounded with anticipation. As Tucker walked away, Kane knew he had to follow him if he intended accidentally to run into her.
Hayes grinned while glancing back at Kane. “As you can see, having coffee spilled on me is quite a pleasant change of pace around here,” he teased. “Enjoy your visit.”
Hayes walked past Kane and continued on his journey. Kane quickly turned and followed Tucker from a safe distance. Tucker entered the lobby and approached the much younger, twenty-five-year-old Selena near the front desk. Kane stopped to stare at her as his heart pounded with excitement and tears welled in his eyes. Seeing her alive was all that suddenly mattered. He couldn’t believe how good she looked, even if she did look younger than he remembered. As he stared at her, his entire body seemed to react to the sight of the woman he loved. He just wanted to pull her into his arms and never let her go. Thoughts of their last sexual encounter filled his head. He quickly pushed those thoughts aside. Tucker spoke to her from behind. Selena turned to face Tucker, smiled, and jumped into his arms. They kissed passionately. Kane suddenly froze as alarm swept through his entire body. It was something he hadn’t taken into consideration when he traveled back in time to save Selena from being murdered in the future. She already had a boyfriend! Kane could barely watch Selena kissing another man without his body twitching with jealousy and possibly anger. When had she dated Tucker? She pulled away and smiled lustfully at the handsome, muscular man. Kane turned and hurried from the lobby. He walked briskly through the dinosaur exhibit and didn’t slow until he entered the mummy exhibit. He finally stopped and collapsed on a secluded bench. He fought his tears while holding his head. His emotions were on a roller coaster, and he wasn’t sure how much more he could physically take.
“Are you okay?” a woman’s voice was heard from over him.
It was a familiar voice he knew he’d heard before. Kane wiped his eyes, composed himself, and looked up. The younger, non-scarred version of Riley stood over him. Shock and horror swept over him as he stared at the woman who five years from now murders his girlfriend. She was something he hadn’t considered. He never considered the possibility of running into her. Then it dawned on him. Riley was the assistant Hayes spoke of so fondly! How could he forget something that important? His body twitched as every emotion he’d ever had exploded inside him. Rage from the night she murdered Selena began to surface.
“I, uh, yeah.”
“This is usually when I ask if you need help finding your teacher,” she teased with a grin, “but you seem a bit older than the usual lost child.”
Kane stared at her and couldn’t look away, although it wasn’t her beauty that commanded his attention. All he saw was the monster who murdered Selena. He knew his expression was revealing too much. All the hurt and anger rushed to the surface in an uncontrollable tidal wave of emotion. He had to escape before he reacted in the worst possible way. He had to get away from her before his hands found their way to her throat.
“I, uh, excuse me.”
Kane hurried for the nearest men’s room and quickly entered. His heart raced and his entire body twitched as he paced the length of the restroom like a caged animal. He suddenly turned with rage and punched the mirror. It shattered across the sink and floor. Kane shook his hand with surprise and discomfort. Surprisingly, he hadn’t cut himself. He wanted to scream out every expletive with fury, but he held them back. Kane didn’t know how he was going to make this work. He couldn’t charm Selena away from her boyfriend, Tucker of all people, while knowing Riley was in the same building. He wanted to kill Riley! Suppressing those feelings wasn’t going to be easy. He considered his options as he stared at his reflection in the broken mirror. Oddly enough, he didn’t recognize his own reflection.
†
Kane quietly slinked through the Egyptian exhibit half an hour later and kept close watch for Riley. Several children screamed at one another while running amuck. He paused near one of the exhibits and looked across the room. There she was! Riley stood on the newly erected scaffolding and worked on one of the taller exhibits. He watched her and felt his blood boiling. He was standing in the same room where she later killed Selena. He looked at the exact spot on the floor and could almost see Selena dying in his arms. He looked back at Riley as she climbed the scaffolding to its highest point near the tall ceiling. For a brief moment, he considered the pleasure he would receive from knocking her off the scaffold and watching her to plummet to her death on the cold, marble
floor. As more children ran past the conned off area, one of the heavier exhibits toppled from its base and struck the bottom scaffold leg. The scaffold rocked harshly, creaked, and broke apart. Kane jumped with surprise and alarm as the scaffold toppled with Riley on top. As the scaffold crashed to the floor with a thunderous clatter, Riley somersaulted through the air, seemingly haphazard. She landed almost gracefully in a half-crouched position like a panther falling from a tree. Kane stared at Riley’s amazing, flying dismount while completely awestruck. The scaffold crashed across the marble floor. Riley uncertainly straightened as a crowd quickly gathered around her. Randy stopped before the pile of scaffolding and stared at it with shock. Hayes suddenly appeared and saw Riley near the disaster while brushing dirt from her pants. He ran to her and immediately checked her for injuries.
“Are you okay?” he asked with concern while barely giving her time to respond. “Where are you hurt?”
“I’m fine,” Riley announced and appeared oddly unshaken by the entire incident.
“I don’t know what--” Randy began.
Hayes immediately spun toward Randy with a look in his eyes that was indescribable. “What did you do?”
“I didn’t do anything,” Randy protested. “Everything was in perfect working order when I left it.”
“Perfect working order?” Hayes proclaimed and pointed at the mess of metal and wood piled on the floor. “Does that look like it’s in perfect working order to you? There are children running everywhere. One of them could have been under that when it collapsed. It nearly killed Riley!”
“But it didn’t,” Riley informed Hayes in a failed attempt to calm him.
“That’s not the point!”
Everyone was now staring at Hayes with surprise. Riley looked sheepishly away then gently nudged Hayes, breaking his death stare on Randy. Hayes twitched slightly and appeared to calm on command to her touch.
Death Displacement: A time travel romantic thriller Page 4
