by Box Set
“Not yet. I’ll let you know when we do.”
“Okay. Thanks.” I disconnected the call, then filled Shelby in on what Turner had told me.
“I hope they catch Baldy soon,” she said.
“I know. I hate the idea that he’s still out there.”
She nodded. “I’m sorry about Tyler. Maybe after the trial’s over you can reconnect with him.”
The idea of moving away and leaving my life behind—all because I’d been at the wrong place at the wrong time—angered and upset me. I went to the window and stared at the street below, watching the cars drive by, wondering what my future held.
“You know what we need to do?” Shelby asked, pulling me out of my thoughts.
I turned and looked at her. “What?”
“We need to call our bosses and let them know we won’t be coming back.”
My head tipped back as I stared at the ceiling and released a sigh, then I met Shelby’s gaze. “I totally forgot about work.” I pulled my phone out of my pocket. “Might as well get it over with.”
Over the next few days, Shelby and I talked to our families and decided we would move to St. George, Utah. When Shelby told her parents what had been going on, they were upset she hadn’t told them sooner, although she made it clear her involvement was minimal and she was probably not in any actual danger. Regardless, they were glad she was moving to a safer location.
Mom was supportive of our decision, but mostly happy that I would be far, far away from Baldy, who had yet to be caught.
When Detective Turner brought my car—with the window repaired—to the hotel, we told him our decision as well.
“I’ve been to St. George,” he said. “It gets pretty hot there in the summer, and the pace is a lot slower than Los Angeles, but I think you’ll like it.”
I was glad to hear his endorsement, since I’d never been there before.
“Let me know once you find an apartment,” he said. “We’ll cover first and last month’s rent, as well as the security deposit. Then we can get you moved there.”
We’d been in the hotel for just a few days, but now that we’d decided where we were going to live, I was ready to get started on my new life. “Sounds good.”
Though we hadn’t found an apartment yet, the next day we decided to head to St. George. We figured it would be easier to find a place to live if we were actually there. Detective Turner approved the idea and arranged for an unmarked car to accompany us as we made the six hour drive from Los Angeles to St. George. Shelby and I drove our own cars, and when we arrived at the hotel where Turner had booked our room, the officer who’d accompanied us bid us good-bye and we were one our own.
“Is it just me?” I asked as I dragged my suitcase into the hotel room, “or does it feel weird to be completely on our own?”
“No, it’s not just you,” Shelby said as she closed and locked the door. “But I feel safe here.”
In complete agreement, I nodded. “Yeah. Me too.” My eyebrows rose in question. “Ready to begin our adventure?”
Her face brightened. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”
I smiled, glad to have my best friend with me as I began my new life.
The second book in the 2-book Witness series will be coming soon. To be notified when it’s available, as well as to receive my two standalone suspense novels for free (valued at $9.98), sign up for my newsletter by clicking HERE. Another benefit of receiving my newsletter (which I send out about once a month) is that you will be notified of the 24-hour discount on new releases that only newsletter subscribers receive.
Visit Christine’s website: christinekersey.com
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About Christine Kersey
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Christine is the bestselling author of the Lily’s Story saga. Christine has always loved to read, but enjoys writing suspenseful novels as well. She has her own eReader and is not embarrassed to admit that she is a book hoarder. One of Christine's favorite activities is to go camping with her family and read, read, read while enjoying the beauty of nature.
COUNTER CLOCKWISE
(The Clockwise Collection #5)
by Elle Strauss
Copyright
COUNTER CLOCKWISE
by Elle Strauss
Copyright © 2015 Elle Strauss
Cover by Steven Novak
ISBN: 9781927547687
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ESB Publishing
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This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient.
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This is a work of fiction and the views expressed herein are the sole responsibility of the author. Likewise, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are represented fictitiously and nay resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual event or locales, is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved.
This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
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Casey and Nate are back!
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High school senior Casey Donovan is in trouble. Again. If only she had trusted in Nate’s loyalty when he traveled to Spain with his college basketball team – despite being accompanied by the cheerleading squad and Fiona the Floozy who'd made it super clear she wanted Nate for herself.
Then she wouldn’t have made that impulsive trip to Hollywood and let Austin do that stupid thing that threatened her relationship with Nate, and triggered a trip into the past. Only something is wildly wrong. She’s not in the 1860s like she should be. It’s 1929. And she didn't come alone.
Chapter One
So what if he was going to Europe with his college basketball team without me? So what if the cheerleading squad and head cheerleader, Fiona Frias the Floozy, was going too? So what???
I stared hard at the text message from Nate Mackenzie, my hot boyfriend of one year, nine months and five days. My college-all-star-athlete-first-string-forward-for-the-Boston-University-Terriers-basketball-team boyfriend.
Nate: It’s official! We’re going to Spain!! It was a close call with some passport issues, but just got word we’re all clear to go!
All those exclamation marks were like stakes in my heart. Spikes to my feet. I felt frozen on the spot in the middle of a busy hallway in Cambridge High. Bodies brushed by wafting stale air and teen sweat, but it wasn’t enough to propel me. My heart weighed heavy like an anchor and a scratchy lump formed in my throat.
Nate had promised me all my firsts, but the one first he could never give me was international travel. I couldn’t fly. There was always the possibility that I could trip—swirl back in time—and it was best if my feet were firmly planted on the ground when that happened.
So he was going to Europe without me. Big deal. If I wanted Nate in my life (and I did!), I had to make some concessions. I couldn’t tie him down, guilt him into not doing things just because I couldn’t.
I forced myself to text him back.
Casey: That’s great. The Terriers are great. You’ll do great.
Nate: I’m glad you think it’s GREAT.
Casey: Are the cheerleaders going too?
I winced as I pressed send, immediately wishing I could take it back. This was the crux of my issue with Nate going to Spain and we both knew it. Fiona Frias, college girl, long-legged, green-eyed, Latin beauty was in love with my boyfriend and she didn’t try to keep it a secret. At all.
Despite Nate’s reassurances, I felt completely insecure. Here I was, still in high school, while Nate was halfway through his degree. Of course other girls would notice him. Of course other girls would chase him. Girls who were more mature and experienced than I was. Un
scrupulous girls.
Girl. It wasn’t fair to group all girls together. Just one girl. Just one unscrupulous girl.
It only took one.
Nate didn’t text back right away and I knew I upset him with the question. For him it was an issue of trust, and all my overt and obvious inquiries about Fiona made him believe I didn’t trust him.
I did trust him. It was her I didn’t trust.
My phone finally pinged with his response.
Nate: Yes.
Only one word. Only one word! Gah! That was all he had to say? Nothing to comfort me and calm my worries?
Casey: That’s Great!
The bell rang and snapped me back to reality. Lucinda, my best friend who seriously deserved a medal for willingly wearing that moniker, poked my arm. “You’re going to be late.” Then, seeing my face, she asked, “What’s wrong?”
“Nate’s going to Spain. With her.”
We started walking down the hall toward my creative writing class. Lucinda’s history class was across the hall. She knew all about my worries over Fiona Frias and the impending team trip to Spain. She shot me a look of concern—or maybe it was pity—before saying, “I think you’re boiling things down a little too low.”
“Am I? Nate will need the self-control of a saint to resist her over there,” I said. “For one thing, the drinking age is lower and well, a guy’s power of resistance goes down with each drink, and it’s a million miles and several time zones away. Fiona…”
“Casey!” Lucinda grabbed my arm and forced me to look down into her dark, worried gaze. “Nate loves you. He’s not going to do anything with Fiona. You have to trust him.”
“I know. You’re right.” I felt like an idiot. When did I turn into this crazy, jealous maniac?
I made it to my seat in Mr. Ryerson’s creative writing class just as the bell rang. I folded my long limbs under the desk, brushed dark runaway curls off my face and took a deep breath. Lucinda was right. I was overreacting. I hid my phone under the desk and texted quickly before Mr. R confiscated my phone.
Casey: I really am happy for you. Promise to send me lots of pics.
Nate: Of course. I don’t leave until next week. I’ll see you tomorrow night.
Tomorrow was Friday, and Nate had promised to come to Cambridge until he had to leave for practice on Saturday afternoon. It wasn’t a lot of time but it was better than nothing.
Casey: love you
Nate: ly2
I let out a breath of relief. We were okay.
Nate would be gone for two weeks. It wasn’t like we saw a lot of each other now anyway. We both had school and homework and jobs. With texting and Facebook, it would be like he wasn’t even gone.
Mr. Ryerson petted his thick graying mustache as he called the class to order. I loved this class. Writing was something I could do as a time traveler without too much worry. For the most part it was a job of solitude. I didn’t have to worry about touching someone, skin-to-skin, and accidentally taking them back in time. Only four people knew about my “gift.” Lucinda, who was the first unlucky person to go back with me and also how I learned about the skin to skin thing; Nate, who wasn’t my boyfriend at the time and my brother Timothy, both of whom were also accidental traveling guests; and Samuel, a fellow traveler. The only other one I knew.
No, that wasn’t true. There was that blond girl I met in the convenience store one time. Adeline? I wondered what happened to her and if she had a good-looking boyfriend who was being chased by another older, prettier girl.
I wasn’t sure what kind of living I could make as a writer, but this class offered unit studies in several fields: journalism, poetry, short stories, novels, memoirs (mine would sound like fiction!) and scriptwriting.
“The deadline for your deposit on the Hollywood trip is today,” Mr. Ryerson said, eyeing me specifically. I’d signed up back in November with no intention of actually following through. I only wanted to avoid the inevitable questions as to why I didn’t want to go. I did want to go, but the class was flying. What if I tripped while in midair? It would be disastrous.
I broke eye contact with Mr. Ryerson and stared resolutely at my desk. Mr. Ryerson continued, “We’re joining a script-writing class with students from Hollywood High and we’ll visit all the tourist traps. Bring your laptops. Leave your winter coats.”
A cheer went up in the room. I slunk lower into my seat, once again awash with discouragement.
“Casey?” Mr. Ryerson called my name and I snapped to attention. He stood at my shoulder and I looked up, past his bushy mustache and into his squinty, concerned eyes. He leaned in and lowered his voice. “Are you having trouble coming up with the deposit?”
It was like I suddenly had bionic hearing and caught the sounds of the other twenty-eight students quieting and cocking their heads toward me. “Yeah,” I whispered back. “I don’t think I can go.”
“It’s possible the school could come up with a subsidy.”
It was so quiet in the classroom, Mr. Ryerson’s words echoed off the wall. My cheeks flushed with embarrassment. Now everyone thought my family had money problems. I squeaked out, “No, that’s fine.”
“You’re a good writer, Casey.” He dropped a paper on my desk with a big red A+ on the top. “I’d hate to see you miss out.”
I spent the class period working on a short film script about a stupid contemporary boy who gets stuck in the civil war era and joins the Union Army (write what you know!). I couldn’t resist checking my phone when the lunch bell rang. I got a new Instagram pic from FabulousFiona! It was a selfie. Her abundant bosom peeked out of her cheerleader uniform (some things just aren’t handed out fairly!) A couple basketball players chatted in the background. I recognized one of the guys as Nate.
Her comment: “Too bad you can’t come.”
I gasped. Fiona Frias just made this personal! My thumbs went into high speed and I immediately forwarded the image to Nate.
Casey: This!!!
He didn’t text back. Of course, he was busy playing basketball while Fiona jumped up and down on the sidelines in a short skirt and there was nothing, NOTHING, I could do about it.
The thought of her traveling to Spain with Nate (I know, it was with the basketball team, but SHE thought it was with Nate) made my blood boil. I had to be careful or I was going to stress myself back to 1863 and I really didn’t feel like dealing with that right now. I stopped at the fountain and sipped cool water, long and hard.
Breathe, Casey.
Once my heartbeat was under control I leaned against the wall and wiped my face with my sleeve.
Maybe I couldn’t go to Spain with Nate and maybe I couldn’t stop Fiona from going with him, but I could control some things in my life. I walked resolutely back to my creative writing class. I had a checking account and an unused crumpled check in my purse. I’d written only a couple checks in my life, but I remembered how. I gripped my pen tightly as I wrote the date, the amount required for the deposit and then scribbled my signature at the bottom with a flourish. I swallowed hard. I was going to Hollywood.
Chapter Two
I didn’t tell Lucinda. This should’ve been a big red flashing warning sign that I was about to do something colossally stupid because I told her everything, but the ball was rolling now and I couldn’t stop it. Not true. I could go back to Ryerson tomorrow and ask for my deposit back, but I didn’t want to, so the more accurate thing to say was the ball was rolling now and I didn’t want to stop it.
Lucinda was my taxi driver when I couldn’t get Tim or Nate to do it, because I couldn’t drive. Just another thing on the increasingly long list of things I couldn’t do.
Lucinda shot me a quick sideways glance. “What’s wrong?”
I answered a little too quickly. “Nothing.”
A pwa sound escaped her lips. “Casey, I can practically see the dark cloud cartoon stationed over your head. You’re not still stewing about Nate and Fiona?”
“No! I’m not stewing abo
ut Nate and Fiona because there is no Nate and Fiona! They’re not a couple! We’re a couple. It’s Nate and Casey!”
“Whoa girl.” Lucinda frowned and signaled before pulling over to the curb. I caught a glimpse of my reflection in the side-view mirror. My long dark curls were in need of a split-end exorcism, and my cheeks were red from my emotional and embarrassing irrational outburst.
Lucinda turned down the music pumping from her dashboard speakers and shook her straight dark fringe from her eyes. “What’s really going on?”
“I’m going to Hollywood.”
She scowled. “I thought you were only letting people believe you were going to Hollywood.”
“Yeah, well now I’m really going. I paid my deposit today.”
Lucinda’s mouth dropped and her hands flew to her forehead. “You really are losing it.”
“I’m not losing it, Lucinda. I’m finally seeing clearly.”
“Clearly? You know they’re flying, right?”
“I know.”
“Thirty thousand feet is a long way to fall.”
“I’m not going to fall. I’m going to sleep.” I’d been thinking about this option for quite a while. Weeks really. “I never trip while sleeping. I just have to make sure I fall sound asleep on the plane.”
Lucinda crossed her arms. “You’ve got it all worked out do you?”
I gave her a half-shrug. “Mom has sleeping pills left over from last summer when Tim was missing…”
“I still don’t get why,” Lucinda said.
“Yes you do.”
“Because of Nate and Floosy? Really?”
“No.” Sort of. “Because of me. I need my own life.”
