Her heart fluttered, staring into those intense dark eyes. She hadn’t ever stood quite this close to Vin. With each day that had passed in the hospital, he’d become more intimidating. He projected a harshness about him that had to stem from his past. When he’d adamantly insisted that he wanted to leave, the doctor hadn’t argued and signed the release form.
Ashley adjusted her traveling bag on her shoulder, then led Vin into the airport. The bag was stuffed full of her clothes, along with Vin’s things from the past as well as another pair of jeans and a shirt that Moira had provided. He wore a new pair of denims and a blue t-shirt, along with his worn boots.
“Don’t talk to anyone,” she warned as they stood in line to go through security. “Just follow directions and everything will be fine.”
Vin’s head turned to stare after two men who rushed by, one of them with his long hair tied in a bun on top of his head. He chuckled and shook his head, then raked his fingers through his own long hair. The tips of Ashley’s fingers tingled as the sudden urge struck to run her fingers through his hair. She shook her head and kicked herself mentally.
You’re not interested in men right now, and for sure not a time traveler. That attribute is definitely not on your list of what you’re looking for in a man . . . when you’re ready to look again.
Her jaw clenched. Maybe she needed to revise her list.
Ashley‘s heart beat faster as they came closer to going through the security scanners. She set her bag on the conveyor belt and removed her shoes.
“I’ll help you take off your boots,” she whispered.
“What for?”
“It’s required. You’ll get them back. Don’t argue.” Explaining to him about security would take longer than she had time for at the moment.
Vin frowned and cast an annoyed look at her. His healing surgical wounds prevented him from bending over easily, so she bent down to help him out of his boots. Someone bumped her from behind, sending her to her knees.
“Can you hurry it along?”
Ashley cursed under her breath and glanced up at the impatient face of a man in a suit. Vin stepped forward, his face inches from the man.
“I think you owe the lady an apology,” he snarled.
Ashley scrambled to her feet and grabbed for Vin’s arm right before he raised his fist. She shimmied between him and the other guy, and held her hand against Vin’s chest.
“No harm done,” she said, quickly smiling at the jerk in the suit, whose eyes had gone wide. “If we’re holding you up, please go ahead of us.” She cast a look around toward the security guard, who was busy talking to a woman and her screaming toddler and thankfully hadn’t noticed the scuffle.
Her hand was still on Vin’s chest as the guy in the suit scurried past with a look of displeasure on his face. Vin glared after him, his eyes as sharp as an eagle’s.
Ashley raised her eyes to his. There was nothing stopping him from going after the other guy if he wanted. His firm arm muscles relaxed after a few seconds, and he directed his attention to her. Ashley smiled.
“Take it easy. You can’t start fights with people, especially in an airport security line.”
“This sort of thing is acceptable to you?” Vin’s brows furrowed. “A man who pushes a woman deserves a good beating.”
Ashley blinked. Something inside her heated at his words. He wasn’t simply puffing his chest for effect to impress her. He genuinely believed what he’d said.
“It was an accident,” she mumbled.
The beating of his heart against the palm of her hand suddenly became more apparent. Keeping her hand against his chest, she pulled him out of the line to let other people go ahead of them while she finished helping him remove his boots. She tossed them into a bin, which she placed on the conveyor belt to go through the x-ray scanner. Hopefully her own heart would stop racing by the time she passed through the body scanner.
“What are those people doing?”
Vin pointed at the full-body scanner as a woman stepped inside and raised her arms above her head.
“It’s a machine that takes a picture of your insides, sort of like the x-ray machine at the hospital. We all have to go through it before they’ll let us on an airplane. It’s to make sure no one brings any weapons on board.”
Vin observed another person getting scanned, shaking his head. “I wish I had my sidearm,” he mumbled.
Ashley smiled. Good thing Moira hadn’t brought his gun belt back. She breathed easier once they were through the security checks and waiting for their flight. Vin paced in front of the windows in the waiting area, staring with great fascination at the airplanes on the runway, and watching them take off and land.
Ashley sat nearby. It was riveting to watch him and to imagine how he must see the world. Everything was new to him. Surely there were hundreds of questions going through his mind. While he gave the outward appearance of being relaxed, she’d been in his company long enough now to recognize that Vin was constantly alert.
He observed other people without them realizing it, and she’d bet that nothing escaped his notice. A man came and sat next to her. He smiled and offered her some chips. Ashley declined, her gaze automatically going to Vin. He came closer without being obvious.
When it was finally time to board, Ashley inhaled a deep breath. She clutched the watch around her neck and glanced at it. The hands whirred around the face, giving no indication that they would slow down anytime soon. All she had to do was get through the next three or so hours of this flight and she would be home.
“Are you absolutely sure you want to do this?” she asked before getting in line behind the other passengers to board.
“I’m sure.” There was no hesitation in his voice.
“Moira told me there isn’t much time when the hands start to slow down. If you decide to go back, you might not be able to if we can’t get back to Heartsbridge in time.”
Vin stepped closer, looking down at her. Ashley swallowed back that familiar lump in her throat that grew each time their eyes met. She tore her gaze away. There was no sense reading anything into it. He probably looked at everyone like that.
He chuckled. “Miss Ashley. If I’m crazy enough to step into one of those flying machines, rest assured that I got no plans to return to my own time.”
Chapter 8
Shots fired in quick succession, followed by a long, drawn-out whistle. A woman screamed, and a man yelled. Hoofbeats thundered through the yard, sending up a cloud of dust as several riders galloped away, hooting and hollering. The woman crumpled to the ground and her limp body fell down the steps of the wooden porch. Her body came to rest next to the body of a man. His hand reached out, and he touched the woman’s face, then he, too, went limp.
Men in white coats hovered over their lifeless bodies, attaching tubes and gadgets to them.
“Mama? Papa?”
The wail of a young boy pierced the air. He scrambled from the house and pushed his way through the wall of white coats. He fell to his knees at his dead mother’s side. Blood oozed through the fabric of her dress until the ground all around was covered in red. The boy scrambled to where his father lay. Bright lights shone down from a white sky.
“Do something!” The boy stared up at the doctors standing over him and the bodies. They looked down at him, smiling but not saying anything. They didn’t move.
“You’re supposed to help them. This is the future. You can save people.”
The boy nudged the lifeless body of his father, and his vision blurred. Reaching for the man’s hand, he brought it back to the woman’s cheek. His parents had loved each other in life, and now they would be together for eternity in death.
Slowly, the boy raised his head. The men and women in white coats vanished. They climbed into a flying machine, which soared into the sky. The boy stood on trembling legs, staring after the airplane as it climbed as high as the clouds.
A woman with chestnut hair waved to him, the smile on her face and her
soft eyes beckoning him to follow. Vin stood and took a step closer, then another, until he was running after the flying machine, but he couldn’t reach it. Hooves thundered in the distance as the men who’d killed his parents galloped away. The boy’s fingers curled into fists at his side, and an icy wall enveloped his heart.
More gunshots fired, followed by laughter. Vin startled awake and bolted upright. A curse escaped his lips as hot pain seared his gut. He clutched at his stomach. Had he been shot, too?
He blinked, opened his eyes, and stared into the darkness. No, it wasn’t completely dark. His hand trembled as he ran his palm over his damp face. Similar dreams had haunted him most of his life. This was the first time images from the future had blended with those of the past. The sound of gunfire had never been so vivid in his mind.
Vin sat up more slowly and kicked his legs over the side of the bed’s mattress, still clutching a hand over the wounds on his belly. Sweat drenched him, but a slight breeze from the open window cooled his heated skin. The wounds were healing, but any abrupt movement still caused him pain. How long had it been? A little more than a week since he’d come to the future. This was the second night at Miss Ashley’s home.
Vin leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. His hands came up to rake his fingers through his hair that fell forward over his face. Through the window in the room, a yellow glow came from one of the streetlights. It was never completely dark anymore. Even in the dead of night, there were lights. He raised his head and stood, walking to the window. The faint outlines of several figures running up the street had him instantly alert. Out of habit, his hand immediately went to his hip, but there was no gun belt, and no pistol.
From somewhere up the street, a dog barked, and then someone came out of a nearby house. A burly man with a protruding stomach wearing a white shirt with cut-off sleeves, half-ran, half-limped to the edge of his yard and called obscenities after the figures while waving his hand. After several seconds, he limped back to his house.
Vin’s eyes scanned the street in both directions one more time, then he lumbered back to his bed. Dawn was still hours away. Whoever those men were, they were gone now.
“Stupid punks.”
A woman’s familiar voice drifted from outside the bedroom. Vin raised his head. He changed course and walked around his bed, grabbing for his denims. He pulled them on, then opened the door. The light shining from the kitchen at the end of the hall blinded him momentarily, but he headed for it. If Miss Ashley was awake, he could find out what all the racket had been about. Clearly, she hadn’t been pleased about being woken up, either.
Several unladylike words came from the kitchen as a cabinet slammed, or rather what sounded like the ice box . . . the refrigerator. Despite his agitation at being woken in the middle of the night, and with his nightmare still fresh in his mind, he smiled. He’d never met a woman as feisty or unabashed as Miss Ashley.
She was forward without giving the impression of a woman with low morals. It was simply her nature to be brazen, and she was refreshing. He’d been drawn to her even before he’d regained full consciousness in the hospital, and with each day that had passed, she’d intrigued him more. When she’d said she had to return to her home in California, he’d made the impulsive decision to come with her.
Miss Lockhart had done him a favor when she’d had to leave town unexpectedly. If he had stayed in Heartsbridge, he might never have seen Miss Ashley again. Even when she had told him they would be flying, he’d boldly proclaimed he had no problem with it.
Nothing could have been further from the truth. The idea of flying had been rather preposterous, but after everything else he’d witnessed and experienced so far in the future, he hadn’t doubted that it was possible. When he’d seen those giant flying machines and how they’d soared like great big eagles in the sky, he’d been fascinated.
Sure, he’d been nervous and apprehensive, too, but curiosity had won out and he’d eagerly followed Miss Ashley down the well-lit tunnel leading to the interior of the airplane. Nothing could have prepared him for the sensations of being airborne.
He’d nearly lost his nerve once he’d been strapped in a narrow seat in the bowels of that machine with hundreds of other people. He’d never been in such close proximity with so many folks, and they’d all been locked into that tin can with no means of escape. An overwhelming sense of foreboding had consumed him, and the urge to flee the confining space of the airplane had been as strong as defending himself at all cost.
How had everyone around him remained so calm? Miss Ashley had cast worried glances at him.
Her brows rose, and she’d scrutinized him with knowing eyes. “Are you okay?”
While the ride in the coach – the car – from the hospital had been fast, it had been nothing compared to the speed at which this airplane moved before it left the ground.
He’d nodded his response, and forced a smile through his clenched jaw. Turning tail and running like a coward was the last thing he’d wanted to do in front of her. Giving the impression to Miss Ashley that he was some kind of hero had been the only thing that had kept him in his seat.
His knuckles had turned white when the contraption had taken to the air, and Miss Ashley had assured him that the feeling of fullness in his ears was completely normal.
The odd sensation had gone away within a minute. When he’d gazed out the small window to look down at the land from the sky as the airplane moved through the clouds, a feeling of utter freedom had come over him. He’d glanced at Miss Ashley as she’d sat next to him. An overwhelming sense that he was about to begin a whole new chapter in his life – a chapter that held the promise of a real future – had taken hold in him.
He’d been given a chance at a completely new beginning, where he could put his old life behind him. His name here didn’t have the same taint as before. Thoughts of thanking the man who’d found him bleeding to death, and who’d taken him to Cissie Durham so she could send him to the future, mixed with the desire to make Jack Kincaid pay for all the anguish he’d caused him and so many other folks.
He could go back if he chose. He could –
The kitchen light turned off, plunging the hallway into darkness. Already in mid-stride, Vin took another step forward. Something, or rather, someone, collided with him. He hissed as the impact sent a wave of pain through his gut. Miss Ashley let out a surprised shriek while her hands came to rest on his chest.
Purely by reflex, and to steady her and himself, one of his hands clamped around her arm . . . her completely bare arm, while the other wrapped around her waist. Something soft as silk brushed up against the skin of his chest as he drew her closer. The subtle rosy scent in her hair only heightened his awareness of her.
“Vin, I’m so sorry.”
Steadying herself, her hand gripped his shoulder while the palm of her other hand continued to brand his chest. Vin sucked in a quick breath. She was as surprised at running into him as he was. Propriety dictated that he should release her immediately. He loosened his grip, but instead of letting go completely, he slid his hand up along the smooth skin of her arm while his other hand lingered at her waist. Nothing had ever felt as good as what he held in his arms.
“Did those punks shooting off fireworks wake you, too?”
There was a distinct hitch in her breathless voice. Her chest heaved against him as she drew in air. Vin swallowed, then forced his hands away from her completely. What the hell was he thinking? Miss Ashley had offered her assistance to get along in this foreign world, and she’d taken him into her home. The last thing she deserved was him taking advantage of her.
He took another step back to create some distance between them. Her hand dropped away from his chest, leaving a tingling sensation along his skin. Her outline became more visible as his eyes adjusted to the darkness, and his heart beat faster. She wasn’t wearing anything but a silk chemise, and letting his eyes drop momentarily, it barely covered the tops of her legs.
Vin fo
rced his mind elsewhere. “Yeah. I thought I was hearing gunshots at first. Why was somebody shooting off fireworks?”
“Who knows?” Miss Ashley’s voice took on her familiar tone again, no doubt relieved that he hadn’t manhandled her.
“Just a bunch of kids out late at night causing trouble. They’ve been coming around forever. It’s got the entire neighborhood mad, but by the time the cops show up, they’re always gone. No one knows where they live.”
“Someone ought to set up watch.”
She scoffed. “I doubt anyone in this neighborhood is going to want to stay up all night, on the lookout for a few bored kids shooting off some firecrackers. Everyone complains about them, but no one will do anything about it.”
Setting up some sentries would be the logical thing to do. If he was going to shoot off explosives, he’d do it to cause a diversion in order to draw folks’ attention elsewhere. What motive did these kids have for causing this sort of racket in this neighborhood?
Miss Ashley moved around him in the narrow hallway. “I’d best get back to bed. I have to get up early for my first day back at work.” The uncertainty in her voice was back. “Good night, Vin.”
“Good night, Miss Ashley.”
Vin stared after her until the door to her room closed behind her. He inhaled deeply, then made his way to the kitchen. There was no need to turn on a light. His eyes had adjusted to the darkness, and the bright light would only blind him. There were enough gadgets in this kitchen that displayed illuminating numbers to keep the room from being completely dark.
Vin glanced at the numbers on one of the gadgets. One, colon, thirty-six. Whatever happened to a regular clock? Telling time by looking at bright green numbers seemed a bit unnatural. He chuckled.
So does everything else around here.
He reached the sink and lifted the small lever that would prime the pump. Actually, it wasn’t even priming it. The water simply started to flow. He cupped his hands beneath the stream, which he then held to his mouth. The water had an odd taste that defied description.
Timeless Hero (Timeless Hearts Book 12) Page 7
