by Jill Cooper
Mom hugs me and I pull her closer to the stairs. “Keep it together,” I whisper. “And I promise this is all going to work out.” I kiss her cheek and it lingers. Then I rush up the stairs to tuck the twins into bed.
I sit with Mike and we play an abbreviated version of space man vs. the cowboy. Then I tuck him in and kiss his cheek. “Sleep tight and if you see me in the middle of the night remember we’re just playing a game, okay?”
His eyes widen. “What kind of a game?”
I grin. “You’ll just have to find out. Good night, Mike.” I tussle his hair and then I head across the hall to Molly’s room. I love Mike, but my affection for Molly goes beyond sibling love. In a lot of ways I see myself in her. I see what could have been for me unfolding in front of her and I need to protect that.
Protecting her is a way of protecting myself.
I sit with her and I brush her hair. Then we spend a few minutes dressing Barbie dolls and giving them fancy names for a royal ball. It’s weird to think that I didn’t grow up having a sister because I fall into it easily. It feels natural to take care of the twins. Finally, I help her into her night gown and she sits on my lap. Her fingers stroke over the heart shaped locket I wear around my neck.
“Is it fixed yet?”
“Not yet. But soon. C’mon, get into bed and I’ll tell you a little secret.”
Molly loves secrets so she rushes into her bed and I pull the heavy down comforter around her frame. I smother her in kisses and the locket around my neck dangles. Her fingers caresses it.
“Tonight there’s going to be a game. I need you to be quiet and do your best not to say anything or even look around, okay?”
Molly nods but her expression is more serious than her twin’s. “What kind of game?”
“An adventure.” I fill my voice with wonder to excite her. My eyes widen. “With mom.”
Quietly, her hands clap together. “Like a vacation?”
I nod. “And if everything goes right, I’m going to join you guys, but you have to do everything Mom says. Even if it sounds kind of weird.”
Molly nods that she will. “I love you, Lara.” Her arms go around my neck and she gives me a big squeeze.
I hope what I’m doing is right. I hope that everything goes the way I want it to. But right now all I can worry about is seeing them off safely. Once they’re gone and on the road, I’ll be able to focus on the task at hand.
And now I have to focus on getting the family car. You can’t flee town under cover of darkness at the subway. And the car is kept in a garage twenty minutes from here.
It’s lucky I have an all-expense paid time travel card. Can get you anywhere you want to go in the blink of an eye.
But first, the bags.
****
I toss the bags out my window so they land behind the tree on our front sidewalk. If you didn’t know they were there, you’d never notice them. I tie my hair back into a ponytail and send Mom a text message that I need the car keys and I’ll meet her near the bathroom.
While I wait, I wash my face and brush my teeth. All systems normal in the Montgomery home, except things are far from normal. What I’m about to do…
But I don’t have much choice, do I? I threw away my choice when I went back and changed the past the first time. Now I’m desperate to fix my mistakes without giving up the one thing I’m loathe to.
Mom.
I open the bathroom door and I see her loitering in the hall. “Mom,” I hiss and motion for her to follow. Once inside, I close the bathroom door. “Did you get it?”
She nods and slips me the keys. “I don’t know how you’re going to get the car. It’s going to take you twenty minutes there and back.”
“It’ll take twenty. Not a moment longer. I travel differently than normal people. Just tell Jax I have another headache and I’m going to bed early. By the time he’s ready to check out I’ll have the car around the corner and then we can move the twins quietly.”
“You really think this is going to work?” Mom asks and her face is dire.
“I don’t think we have much of a choice.” I hug her and I don’t let it linger. If I do, I know I might chicken out on what I know needs to happen.
“Be careful,” she whispers in my ear.
With great hesitation, I pull myself away and lock myself in my room. I turn the volume up on my cloud music streamer and angst teen music pumps through the air. It gives me the cover I need to pull up the website for the YMCA website, but there’s no picture. I finally find one thanks to an image search in the web browser.
Here we go.
I focus on the door. My eyes hone in on the door handle and it rushes towards me like a speeding train. The air around me pixilates and soft dewdrops of rain pelt against my hood.
Blinking again, I see I’m standing outside. I pull up my hood and check my watch. It’s fifteen minutes in the past.
Why not? It seems like a good number.
I use my access card to get into the YMCA even though it’s after hours. There’s a bored lady at the receptionist counter. She flicks through the pages of a magazine with a big yawn. Funny, I don’t remember seeing a receptionist the last time I did this.
But I hurry past and my wet sneakers squeak on the tile floor as I turn into the women’s restroom. I go through the double doors and see rows of blue lockers. It feels like I just did this yesterday, but, well, I guess I’m doing it today.
I pull the key from my wallet out and it clicks inside the locker. The duffle bag is still at the bottom and there’s a hoodie hanging on a hook. This time I leave it. I unzip the bag to make sure the evidence and money is still there.
It is.
But the one thing that is missing is the note. There’s no note warning me to hide in the shower. Maybe because there’s no one to send it. Maybe everything I’ve done is enough to change the future, so the woman with the purple hair doesn’t have to exist.
I sure hope so.
Swinging the duffle bag over my shoulder, I hurry for the door. Pushing through, I see the receptionist is standing from her seat. As I get closer, my eyes fall on the men she’s talking to and my heart stills. My breath catches in my throat and fear rivets through my bones.
It’s the men from the mall. The thugs that work for Patricia James.
My eyes lock with one of them and his brow furrows. The creases around his eye pinch together as he raises a finger and points at me.
Crap.
I’m frozen as they push the receptionist to the ground and charge towards me. I pivot and run back into the locker room. But this time I can’t hide in the shower because they know I’m here. They know where I am and now I’m a sitting duck without a leg to stand on. I make sure the duffle bag doesn’t slip off of my shoulder as my feet slide.
I crash down to my knees on the wet tile as I round against the locker and a shot is fired. It grazes past my hair and I crawl through the swinging door into the shower stalls.
“She’s trapped. Someone go get her.”
“James is going to reward us pretty handsomely for this trouble maker.”
Crap. I’m in the thick of it now.
My eyes gaze around and my breath echoes in my ears as I look for a better vantage point but there isn’t one. I’m surrounded by shower stalls. There are thin, blue shower curtains hanging on hooks, but that’s about it.
I jump into one of the stalls and pull the shower curtain to block out their view. I have my duffle bag, the evidence I need, so there’s no reason to be there anymore. I can just time travel five minutes in the past to across the street and then I can be on my way.
If I can slow my heart beat down. If I can catch my breath. I’m so nervous I can’t focus. Everything is away from me. Everything is no longer in my control and I hate it.
I’ve never jumped in time under stress and now I wish I had paid closer attention to Rex and all his damn breathing exercises. My hands balls into fists and I slam them against the tile backsplash of
the shower.
I rest my forehead against it and focus my mind.
But the approaching footsteps pull me into the present and the moment is lost. My mind is swirling with panic. I can’t time travel in the midst of a storm. I need quiet. Concentration. Without that I’m lost in the swirling present.
I have no chance to formulate a plan.
The footsteps draw closer and I can see the reflection of feet beneath the shower curtain. They shuffle, one by one, and I can see the large man’s silhouette turn toward the shower curtain. I’m in it now, the do or die moment where I either get out of this or I’m dead.
Back in the lab.
Anger fuels my moment as my mind spirals back into my cell. I remember the fighting exercises Rex forced me to go through and the drills on stances and equipment. Everything he wanted to train me on so I would become his perfect little assassin in a black dress.
Now it’s do or die and, without planning, I push the shower curtain into the thug’s face and coil my arms around his throat. He screams and his mouth sucks in a bit of the plastic as I spin him around into the stall. His nose slams into the tile with a telltale CRACK sound and I let his body go. He falls to his stomach, twisted in the shower curtain, and I grab the gun tucked into his belt.
Guns. I hate them.
I don’t want to use it on anyone, but I’m not comfortable with the idea of him keeping it either.
“Grab her!” someone screams and two men charge me.
I jump up and grab the shower curtain rod. It wobbles under my weight as I swing back and my legs splay wide so I can catch them both center mass.
One foot connects and it sends my assailant backwards. He trips over a bench and falls to his back, but my other assailant is fast. He catches my leg and tugs it to the right.
Losing my grip on the shower rod, I corkscrew toward the ground and right beneath my arms I’m hooked by the first thug with the mustache. He glares at me with a jagged cut on his nose. “You are more trouble than you look like, Montgomery,” he sneers at me.
I kick my legs and flail my arms. I won’t be taken back to Patricia or Rex. I won’t go quietly into a cage where I will be studied, prodded and turned into a science experiment.
But their grip is too strong and I can’t break free. A hand clamps over my face and I know I’m about to be chloroformed. They’re going to take me out of there and there’s nothing I can do about it except to fight.
I arch my back and I scream.
The panic turns my face red and the scream comes from somewhere visceral. Somewhere deep inside me where my most primal emotions live. We are approaching the emergency exit and then everything freezes.
Not Elsa freezes, but like time itself has stopped.
I pull my legs free from two assailants and I fall to the ground right out of the thugs’ arms. I scamper far enough away to study their faces. My heart is pounding and my lips tremble as I try to catch my breath.
I didn’t time travel, but somehow I’ve stopped time.
I’ve done it before, but usually it has been during a phase of time, when I changed a location or went back. I have never frozen people in the here and now.
This could be a good development. A really good one. If I could learn to control it. Or learn how I even did it.
It is tied to emotions, it has to be, but I don’t have time to figure it out.
I heft my duffle bag up and gingerly I pull one of the thug’s jackets up. I take his gun and his cell phone. I’m afraid at any moment they will snap back into the here and now, but I move on to the next guy and take his gun and find his cell phone too.
I throw them all into my duffle bag and then my legs are pumping and I’m off and running again, right through the emergency exit. When I get outside, the cars are frozen in mid-drive like a movie is paused. I take a moment to catch my breath and gaze up at the stars. Even they are no longer blinking.
I check my watch and pick a place and time. I think of a parking garage. My hair swirls as the scene around me comes to life. Before the thugs can even think of what might have happened to me, I’m transported to the third story level of a parking garage. It’s dark. Empty. A dangerous place to be for a damsel in distress.
Good thing I don’t know any of those.
I take the car keys out of my pocket and hit the lock button. Over to the left and up the ramp five hundred feet, the black family Lexus beeps. Its break lights glow red and I trot over to it. I throw everything in the passenger seat and get in.
Before doing anything I lock the doors and start the car up. Headlights glowing, I place my arm across the headrest of the passenger seat, and turn my body. I backup and crank the wheel so the car is facing the right direction and race toward the exit.
Gripping the steering wheel, I use my mirrors to check for other cars and signs of being followed. As far as I can tell, the coast is clear. My lungs fill with air as I take a long, deep relaxing breath.
It clears my head and my muscles are no longer tense.
So far so good.
Chapter Fifteen
When I approach our brownstone, I slow down and cut the headlights. I park across the street and a few houses down. My bags are still behind the bush under my window. I grab them and toss them in the trunk. I make sure everything is secure inside.
Then I scale the tree at the side of the house and shimmy in through my window. My fingers outstretch to my bed and I pull myself over. Curling my legs, I plop down on my bed without even making a squeak. If it wasn’t for the training exercises that Rex put me through on a regular basis this sort of thing wouldn’t even be possible.
Have to give him some props. I am going to be able to defeat him now and it is all going to be his own fault.
You have to appreciate that kind of irony.
I take the money from my duffle bag and hide it inside the locked box under my bed. I make sure the lacy dust ruffle keeps it from view and then I slide the duffle bag into my closet. I close the door and check my reflection in the mirror. I look more windblown than as if I’ve been studying for the last thirty minutes. I smooth my hair back and unzip my hoodie part of the way. Edging it down, my hand goes over the gun I have stashed in my back pocket.
Just having it gives me a bad feeling, but I need to defend myself. I can’t go into this blind. Anything could happen now. I took the thugs’ phones, but it’s only a matter of time before they find a phone and report in.
When that happens, we could be in a heap of trouble.
On the way downstairs I check on the twins. Relief washes over me when I see their sleeping faces. Molly looks like a cherub and I want to do nothing but protect that innocence. If we manage to be successful at this, I’ll be shocked. I just might use up what good luck I have left.
If I ever had any to begin with.
Angry voices are coming from the living room as I trot down the stairs. Mom’s voice reaches my ears first and she’s near shrill. Panic. It sets my heartbeat on fire. “He can’t be here!”
Jax, for his part, is as stressed out as I’ve ever seen him. He runs his hands through his hair and there are worry lines on his face. “What do you want me to do? Throw him out?”
“Yes!” Mom’s eyes are wide with fright. “Get him out of here!”
“What’s going on?” When my feet hit the soft carpet a familiar, eerie feeling washes over me. Mom grabs my arm. “I was trying to call you.”
“I was … wrapped up. What’s the matter?”
“You have a house guest.” That familiar voice, the one laced with the charming British accident, says and when I turn I’m not surprised to see him stepping out from the kitchen.
But my palms are sweaty and the quickening of my heart is fast enough to starve my body of oxygen. I can’t keep my eyes from narrowing or the distain from my voice. “Rex.”
“I’ve come to visit my dear step-niece. Hello again, Lara.” Rex laughs and his finger coins into my hair. “Nice curls. And from that look in your eyes I s
ay you know me far better than I know you.”
“You could say that.”
“Last time we met, you couldn’t remember me at all. Do you remember? Or are you really two separate versions of the same person? We would love to know.”
“We’re not going to play twenty questions.” My eyes level out into a stare.
Jax is left confused. He scratches his head. “Anyone want to tell me what’s going on?”
“Time travel, dear brother. The rules have changed. And this one is coming on a little ride with me.”
“No!” Mom screams.
I reach for my back pocket and my hand grips the pistol. I pull it out hard and fast, training the gun on Rex. I place my other hand over my wrist to stabilize my aim and step back so he’s further than an arm’s reach away from me. “If you think I’m going anywhere with you, well, we have a problem.”
“Oh my God, Lara!” Jax scolds and he moves to step in front of me. “You don’t want to do this. I promise you.”
Mom’s hands cover her mouth. “Please, Lara.”
I wave Jax off with a flash of my eyes. “Back off, Jax! I know exactly what I want. And you know why I need to do this.” For a split second, my eyes flash to Jax and I see horror and recognition. His eyes turn to Mom and his face goes green with the realization she knows. We all know. It’s finally all out in the open.
Family secrets are about to be spilled.
“Mom, get him out of here.”
I see it play out with a sideways glance. Mom wrapping her arms around Jax, trying to pull him away. He shrugs her off and gestures to his brother. His brother who, up until now, has kept Jax under his thumb, but that’s about to change.
It’s all about to change.
Rex gives me an amused smirk as his arms go up, bent at the elbow. He gingerly takes a step forward. “Well, I’d say you know me even better than I thought. How far into the future have you been?”
“Two years and if you take one more step toward me, I’ll blow your head off.”
“You wouldn’t,” Rex sneers. “A sweet little thing like you.”
