Out of Time (Lovers in Time Series, Book 1): Time Travel Romance

by Marilyn Campbell

  He drove part of the way back toward Atlanta to avoid being seen anywhere near Charming before the sun went down. It was imperative that Ramey believe he, Junior and O'Neill had plenty of time between Hannah's call and his coming to Ginger's rescue.

  The next thing he needed to do was arrange for the cavalry to arrive in the nick of time. He saw a phone booth outside a truck stop and pulled in for lunch, a fill-up and the call that could save Ginger's, Kelly's and his own life.

  He recalled Special Agent Carl Hastings telling him he was part of a secret task force assigned to investigate Ku Klux Klan activities in Georgia. As he had told Kelly, Hastings had asked Jack to notify him if he picked up any solid information on his travels. Jack figured what he had to tell him was solid enough for J. Edgar himself to show up.

  Once Hastings remembered who Jack was, he was all ears.

  "This isn't just a Klan meeting, Carl. It's a sacrificial mass and the Imperial Wizard himself, Beauregard Ramey, will be conducting the services."

  "I don't suppose you'd like to tell me how you got this information."

  "I'm sorry. You know I can't reveal my source. But I will tell you that I found out about it because of one of the stories I've been working on. Have you heard of the Lake Sidney Lanier rapist?"

  "Sure. Odd profile."

  "Wait till you meet the man himself." Jack could almost see the agent straightening up in his chair.

  "You know who it is?"

  "Not only do I know the crackpot's name, I'm going to let you have the honor of catching him with his pants down."

  "Ooh. Sounds like fun but it's not my jurisdiction."

  "Normally that would be true. But you see, his little routine is the opening act for tonight's main event. Festivities are expected to begin at nine o'clock."

  "You're sure this has all been planned in advance?" Hastings asked incredulously.

  "Yep. But that's not as strange as it sounds. You see, the rapist is none other than Junior Ramey, son of the Imperial Wizard."

  "No shit! After months of sitting around with our thumbs up our asses, this is almost too good to be true. Every man in the agency is going to want to be in on it."

  "The more the merrier," Jack assured him. "There's no telling how many white hoods will be present. But keep your men out of sight until you see me walk through the front door."

  "No way!" Hastings ordered firmly. "If this is going down like you say, I can't be responsible for your safety."

  "You have no choice. See, the bastards plan to set me up for the rape and murder that's about to take place. I'm a vital part of the program. Keep your eye on the upstairs windows. It's supposed to happen up there. I'll try to give some kind of signal when everything starts but in case I can't get to a window within, say, five minutes, you'd better just crash the party."

  Jack gave Hastings directions to O'Neill's house and explained that extenuating circumstances prevented the Klan from holding this particular mass outdoors.

  Jack acknowledged that he'd just stretched the truth a bit but there was no other way to get the FBI involved. And they were the only law enforcement agency he could trust not to sweep everything under the carpet.

  The truth was, a meeting would be held tonight but at the lodge, as everyone would later testify in court. What no one would ever say, though, was that three of their members had stepped out for a while.

  Based on what Beau Ramey had said at his attempted hanging, Jack had been honest with Hastings about Junior's part. His father's warped morality had allowed Junior to play his game first, before he and Reid rendered her punishment. She had been found guilty of adultery and consorting with the enemy and had been sentenced to death.

  Jack had also been found guilty of crimes punishable by death. His sentence just took longer to carry out than Ginger's.

  He had only been able to estimate the times based on the facts he had but he was fairly sure he was close enough for everything to work out as he hoped. By nine o'clock, about two hours before he had arrived originally, he was hiding in the overgrown bushes that surrounded O'Neill's property. He saw no evidence of agents but he trusted they were hiding somewhere nearby with a view of the front door. Based on Ramey's revelation, he and O'Neill were already in place when Junior performed, but he had yet to see anyone enter the house.

  As the minutes ticked by, Jack began to worry that Hannah had betrayed him and the whole thing had been postponed for another night, with a different plan. Panic was setting in when he caught sight of Junior sneaking up to the side of the house, which meant Ramey and O'Neill were already there.

  Jack's plan was to wait, stay hidden until he was sure Junior was well into his sick fantasy. Junior would threaten Ginger with his knife, make her strip, then gag her mouth and tie her wrists and ankles to her bed with her husband's neckties. He might try to arouse her first but he would definitely rape her. He had heard the same report from several women but it hadn't been personal to him. Now, hiding in the bushes, waiting for something even worse to happen, the images had him fighting to hold down his stomach contents.

  He had to remember that the important thing was that Ginger would survive. He could wait the handful of minutes it would take for Junior to be caught with his pants down, as he had promised Hastings.

  But as he watched Junior pull the ski mask down over his head and climb through the window, Jack was overwhelmed with images of Kelly lying in a pool of blood. This demented animal, now climbing through a window not a hundred feet away from him, had killed Kelly. Or rather, would kill her, in the future.

  If he killed Junior now, this minute, it might not solve everything, but it would certainly prevent Kelly's murder.

  Fury mixed with adrenaline flooded his bloodstream. Even sitting in the jail cell the night before his execution, he had not been so filled with murderous rage.

  Despite logic demanding he had to wait, he rose and headed toward the window Junior had just climbed through.

  He barely got twenty feet when a large, very strong arm circled his neck and the metal barrel of a gun pressed to his temple.

  "Well now, if it ain't the nosy reporter. Ah'm thinkin' y'all are here way before you were expected."

  Jack was fairly sure the powerful arm pressing against his larynx and the broad, muscular chest at his back belonged to future KKK Kludd, Andrew Hartman. It had never occurred to him that they might have arranged for someone to be watching the house, but it made sense.

  The much bigger man dragged Jack to the front door and into the foyer, where they stopped at the foot of a wide staircase. A man's angry voice could be heard clearly coming from the bedroom at the top of the stairs.

  "You said I could do it my way! You ruined it! She was supposed to undress for me! I use the husband's ties to position her! I seal her mouth closed. Then I prepare her for my gift! This is all wrong." The last sentence was more whiny than angry.

  Jack had no doubt the speaker was Junior Ramey and that his father may have strapped Ginger to her bed before Junior got there. "It sounds like we're interrupting," Jack murmured to his captor. "Maybe we should come back later."

  "Shut up or I'll shut you up for good," Hartman warned as he tightened his throat-hold on Jack.

  Before Jack could retort, the upstairs conversation continued.

  "We just needed to hurry things along a bit," a gravelly, quieter voice explained.

  Beau Ramey. And his use of the word "we" suggested O'Neill was there as well.

  "What about that big scarf tied in a bow around her neck? I never did anything like that."

  "We thought it made her look like a present. For you, Junior. This is all for you."

  "But what's wrong with her? Her face looks all swollen. Why are her eyes closed? Why isn't she lookin' at me?"

  "Well, son, we had a bit of trouble gettin' her to cooperate, so we had to knock a little sense inta her pretty head. An' Reid gave her some pills to calm her down. But it won't make no difference. She'll still enjoy what you're doin'
. Go ahead now."

  "You gotta leave first."

  "An' deprive ol' Reid of the satisfaction of watchin' his wife get punished for what she done to him? He needs to stay, son, and you need to do what you've been wantin' ta do for years—fuck Ginger. Come all over the slut. Make her moan for ya. Ya know she wants ya real bad."

  Ah-choo! Jack purposefully sounded. The FBI would be coming through the door any second and he needed to get the linebacker out of their way.

  "Who's there?" Reid O'Neill asked in a frightened voice as he appeared at the top of the stairs, followed immediately by Beau Ramey.

  "It's just me, Mr. O'Neill. Andy. Ah was patrolling the grounds like y'all told me to do. But your guest got here early an' Ah was makin' him wait till it was the time you wanted him to come in."

  "Ya did just fine, Andy. Why don't you bring him on upstairs now." As they reached the top step, Ramey said, "Now give Mr. O'Neill your gun and you go on home. And forget everything you just heard. In fact, you need to forget you were here at all tonight. Go to the lodge and swear you were there all evening. We'll be comin' along in a few minutes. Understood?"

  As Andy nodded and quickly handed O'Neill his gun, Jack's stomach roiled. A gun was never part of the plan. He sent a mental S.O.S. to Hastings.

  "Point the gun at him, Reid, not mah knee."

  "Oh, sorry." He aimed at Jack's stomach with an unsteady hand.

  "Get ahold o' yerself!" Ramey scolded with a smack to Reid's shoulder. "This here's the man who's been cuckoldin' you for months. The son-of-a-bitch who's been stealin' your property. You said you wanted to see him punished. Has that changed?"

  Reid straightened his back and adjusted his grip on the gun. "No. But we had a plan—"

  "The plan went to hell two minutes ago. We got a new plan now. Yer goin' ta shoot the man you catch murderin' your wife."

  Jack noticed Reid's expression tighten a second before he raised the gun toward his head. Where the hell are you, Hastings?

  Ramey placed his hand over O'Neill's gun hand and lowered it. "It needs to be in the back, like he's on top of her or maybe runnin' away. Ah'll tell ya when. But first comes the rape. Ah think it will add a little more to Junior's fun to have Ginger's lover join the audience."

  Ramey grabbed Jack's arm and pushed him into the bedroom. He could run to the window to signal Hastings, but O'Neill might actually shoot him in the back prematurely, so he abruptly stopped when Ramey did.

  As he'd seen in his mind's eye, Ginger was nude, tied to the posts of the bed with her face and body marked with darkening bruises.

  What he hadn't imagined was a naked Junior on his knees between her widespread legs, his bare ass in the air and his head moving frantically against her crotch.

  A faint thud downstairs stopped the men from commenting on what they'd walked in on.

  "Andy?" Ramey called without taking his eyes off his son's ass. "Don't come up here."

  In the blink of an eye, two federal agents burst into the room with guns drawn. Four more quickly joined them and had Ramey, O'Neill and a very confused, fully aroused Junior disarmed and handcuffed in seconds.

  Hastings entered the room last and walked over to Jack. "You okay?"

  "Yeah. But I almost wasn't. What took you so long?"

  "You said five minutes. But right when we were about to move the big guy came out the front door and we couldn't afford to risk his alerting anyone inside."

  Jack wasn't completely satisfied with that excuse but his attention was caught by one of the agents leaning over Ginger. Her bonds had already been removed and her body covered by a sheet.

  "I heard Ramey tell Junior they drugged her," Jack told Hastings. "Is she going to be okay?"

  The agent glanced over his shoulder and shook his head. Hastings and Jack quickly stepped to the bedside where the agent pointed to the bruising all around her throat then brought the sheet up to cover her head as well. "The scarf was covering the evidence. She was strangled, maybe an hour ago, based on the coloring."

  "Strangled?" Junior screeched and launched himself at his father despite his wrists being cuffed behind his back. "You set me up to fuck a dead body?" Two agents swiftly regained control of him. "You sick, fuckin' son-of-a-bitch. You didn't have to kill her!" He slipped to the floor, sobbing uncontrollably.

  "He made me do it!" O'Neill blurted out, bobbing his head toward the Imperial Wizard.

  "Shut up, Reid. They can't do anything to us."

  But O'Neill wasn't listening. "He held my hands around her throat and squeezed and squeezed until she stopped breathing. It was all his idea! I didn't want any part of it. But I had no choice. He would have ruined me!"

  Hastings quickly signaled the agent next to O'Neill using a series of hand gestures and that agent escorted his prisoner from the room. He gave the same signals to the two agents holding Junior and one of them grabbed his discarded clothing as they headed out. Beau Ramey was taken away with no more than a nod from Hastings.

  To Jack he explained, "We'll get nothing from Ramey without some serious... persuasion. But the agents will have signed statements from the other two while they're still anxious to turn on each other. I'll need to get one from you as well. Even if you can't reveal your source, we all saw you being dragged in at gunpoint. Do you know the big guy's name?"

  "Andrew Hartman. But I don't think he knew what they were up to. It seemed like he was just a lookout."

  "Still, we'll keep his name on file. What else—"

  "Would you mind finishing that question outside?"

  Hastings followed his gaze to the covered body on the bed. "Oh, sorry." As they headed out of the bedroom, he asked, "Did you know her?"

  "Not as well as I thought," Jack replied.

  For the next half hour, Hastings asked questions, Jack answered what he could truthfully and told believable lies when the truth was incredible. Hastings handwrote his statement and Jack signed it.

  "I'll call you if I think of anything else," Hastings warned him with a grin. "And, just so you know, you'll probably be subpoenaed during the trial, so if you move or change your name, just let me know."

  "Of course," Jack replied with a nod. "But you should know, the Klan condemned me to death. I don't think what happened tonight will change their minds about that. I could be grabbed out of my bed tonight and burned on a cross. In other words, don't be surprised if I suddenly disappear."

  "In that case, don't be afraid to come to me for help. The FBI has been known to provide new identities for witnesses against the Klan for a very long time."

  "I'll keep that in mind," Jack promised, hoping his departure from this time was well before he needed that help.

  They shook hands, Hastings rejoined his men and Jack headed toward his car.

  Within seconds of being alone on the dark sidewalk, the long, anxiety-filled day merged with the insanity of the last hour. Surviving a second electrocution probably should be counted as a major stress factor as well. He was absolutely exhausted and his legs felt like they weighed a ton each. He hadn't realized how far away he had parked.

  A rumble of thunder sounded in the distance and he shook his head. That's just what he needed now—to have to drive all the way back to Atlanta in a thunderstorm. Better yet, maybe the cloudburst would open up over his head and soak him to the skin even before he got to his car.

  That thought didn't make him move any faster, however.

  Despite his best efforts, Ginger had still been murdered. According to the agent's estimate, he'd only been an hour or two too late. The disgusting account Beau Ramey had given him at his hanging turned out to be mostly a lie meant to torment him.

  He forced himself to think of something positive. The ones responsible for Ginger's death were in custody. Kelly was no longer in danger.

  A streak of lightning lit up the sidewalk in front of him and he stopped in his tracks. Of course! Why hadn't he realized it? Kelly had been right about that also. He couldn't save them both because they were the same
person... sort of. Ginger had to die in order to be reborn as Kelly. His Kelly. His perfect partner.

  Only one problem existed with that analysis. He was here, in 1965, and she was there, in 2016. Regardless of what she had said about waiting for him for as long as it took and not caring if he was an old man the next time she saw him, he couldn't believe he had been put through all this, only to have to wait fifty-one years to see her again.

  Another streak of lightning cut through the sky and hit a tree in the yard across the street. That one was close, he thought and found the energy to walk a bit faster. But as he hurried along, he recalled Kelly saying something about lightning and being out in the open...

  At the same instant as he realized what it meant, the third bolt struck him dead-on.

  * * *

  "Foul!" Jezebel cried. "That was interference."

  "Nonsense," Gabriel replied. "I didn't do a thing. After two electrocutions, he's a walking lightning rod. It was bound to happen."

  She grumbled unintelligibly for a moment then reminded him, "You haven't won yet. He may have risked death to save her but he failed to tell her he loves her."

  "I'm well aware of that but as I've said before, there's still plenty of time."

  "In case you've missed count, ten of his twenty-one days are now gone. I would hardly call eleven days plenty of time, especially when he'll have to win her all over again under a new set of circumstances."

  Gabriel laughed off her needless reminder but he was secretly worried. Knowing what he did about Jack and Kelly, eleven days' time might not be enough. It was going to take a miracle to pull this one out of the fire and the promise that neither he nor his would interfere was really starting to chafe.

  What he needed now was a little unsolicited help... directly from Him.

  Chapter 20

  Jack had been positive he'd been struck by lightning but he was still standing in the same spot, on the same street, in the same clothes. The other two times he'd been electrocuted, he not only traveled in time but place as well. And ended up naked. Yet he had felt the searing pain hit his chest and shoot through his limbs. He had seen the glowing aura appear around him.