by Jill Cooper
Rick raises his eyebrows. “I would stand by you no matter what you told me.”
“There’s nothing to tell. I swear, Rick.” My voice warbles, as if I really care about what he thinks. I guess I do. We’d been friends all my life, grown up down the hall from each other. Is it any wonder that it is so easy to slip back into an old relationship?
Even as my heart pines to be back with Donovan.
A persistent knock at the door draws our attention away. Rick goes to answer it and I stand, not sure what to expect. He checks through the peep hole. “Oh, hell no.”
My heart skips a beat. “Who is it?”
The door slams open and smacks Rick in the nose. I shriek as someone charges in and grabs my shoulders and throws me against the wall.
It happens so fast, that I don’t see his face. He pins his arm under my neck. My airway constricts and I cough. I grab his arms and peer up into Donovan’s angry face.
My heart wretches. Donovan…oh God.
He snarls at me, his eyes angrier than I’ve ever seen. “You think you’ll get away with this that easily, huh?” Donovan snaps me back against the wall. “You won’t walk free for killing my mother, Crane. I don’t care what you think she’s done.”
I’m frozen in heartbreak and unable to move. Rick grabs Donovan by the shoulders and yanks him back. Rick punches him square across the jaw with his left and then jabs him with his right. When Donovan bends over, Rick knees him under the chin, throwing him back against the rear wall.
I should freeze time, or try, but I’m frozen myself from what’s happening. I cover my mouth and a squeal of horror escapes me. I grab Rick’s arm and stop him from advancing.
“You are supposed to stay away from us!” Angrily, Rick growls at Donovan. He tries to advance on him again and it takes all my might to keep him in check. “Our lawyer is going to hear about this, James!”
Donovan throws his arms up as he backs away toward the door. His nose is bleeding and his eye is already swelling shut. “You don’t mess with the James family, you hear me?” Donovan points directly at me and attacks me, his words venomous. “I will destroy you for this, you hear me? There will be nothing left for you two thugs when I’m done with you.”
Rick’s arm tenses in my hand as he rushes forward, but Donovan is gone, running out of the apartment and through the hall. He’s gone as quickly as he’d arrived. Our brief encounter swirls in my head. The intense look of hatred in Donovan’s eyes, the way he had defended his mother. His promises to destroy me.
They are so different from the Donovan I know but it’s something I’ve always known he’d be capable of. I’d just always believed he’d do it for my honor, not the other way around. He’s not my Donovan and while I understand that, my heart crumbles and cracks.
I cover my mouth and I sob. I can’t stop shaking. My legs tremble and as I begin to fall, Rick wraps his arms around me. “I’m sorry, bae,” Rick whispers and strokes my hair, leaning my head down onto his shoulder. “Did he hurt you? Are you okay?”
He hadn’t hurt me, but I can’t find the will to speak. Instead, I cry against Rick’s chest and his embrace shuts all the pain out.
“I’m going to call Montgomery. James violated his restraining order. I don’t care how much money his family has, he can’t get away with that.”
I shake my head and all I can think of is hiding from all of this turmoil. “You hit him. You’ll get in trouble.”
“Don’t worry about that, Lara. He broke in here, put his arms around your neck. There’s no way I’m not calling this in.” Rick leaves me to grab his cellphone and I cling to him. I don’t want him to go. He peels away slow and as he leaves, a memory flashes in my mind. It comes fast, like a whirlwind.
I’m wearing a sweatshirt with a hood and standing in the James’s mansion. I’ve seen it enough times to know where I am. The pearl white tiles, the white bookcases that line the walls, and the deep brown desk in the center of the room, covered in family photos.
This is Patricia’s office and she cowers on the floor, right at my feet. There’s blood on her lip and she raises her hands at me. Her fingers shaking. “Please…whatever it is you think I’ve done…”
I raise the gun and I step forward in my heavy boots. “What you have done you mean. I have the evidence. I have the papers and I’m going to give them all to the police. Everyone is going to know what you did.”
“Then why kill me if you know so much? Why?”
I don’t answer her. Instead, I aim straight at her face as a clock gongs in the distance.
Oh, God I did do it. I did do what everyone says I did. My knees go week as the memory is ripped away and I start to fall, the realization of how guilty I am hitting me hard. Rick grabs my elbow. His face slowly pixelates into frame bit by bit. “Lara, you were screaming. What’s the matter?”
The truth comes tumbling out so fast that I can’t stop it. “I killed her,” I whisper. “I killed Patricia James.”
Chapter Ten: Molly Montgomery
“What?”
I stare at the dumbfounded expressions that Cassidy and Don give me. They know Lara—they must—but to play a sick game on me while I’m lying in a hospital bed isn’t their style. That means something else is going on here…something dangerous.
Where is he? Where is Rex hiding?
“Lara Montgomery,” I say, slow and controlled. “You just married her today.”
Don exchanges a look with Cassidy and I watch them carefully. Cassidy’s lips turn down the way they do when she feels her authority is being questioned, while Donovan shakes his head. “You must really have gotten hurt, honey.” He pats my hand. “You’re just confused, that’s all.”
They don’t remember. They really don’t remember.
All the timelines converge on me at once. I grip my temples and groan as the memories flooding in create a rapid pulse in my head. There’s Lara at the wedding reception. Rex and some man I’ve never seen before are on top of her. She vanishes just as Lara Crane in another timeline stands before a judge to answer for a crime she didn’t commit.
Or did commit? The answer is fuzzy. Both answers are wrong and right at the same time, which means they both happened. Separately, but which one is Lara lost in?
Which one?
A woman in a grey suit enters the room, perfect blond hair styled around her shoulders. I’ve never seen her before but I know who she is from the raging timelines in my head. It’s Patricia James and she’s staring at me, eyes cool, unkind. At her side is Mom, wearing the white lab coat that she hasn’t worn in years. She’d traded it all in for aprons and cookies.
“She’s awake, Mom, and she was talking about some girl named Lara,” Donovan says.
“Funny,” Patricia’s lips curl up on the left side, “I don’t remember anyone by that name.”
She’s lying. Her eyes dance with mischief that admits it she knows what I’m talking about. I curl my knees under me and scoot backwards. “Mom,” I implore, “you must remember, Lara. You must.”
Mom does, the name brings pain to her eyes and she refuses to look at me, only down at her clipboard. But her hands are shaking so bad, the pen rattles on top. Patricia lays her hand on the pen to stop it from making so much noise as everyone just stands there and stares at me.
As though I’m some sort of confused child. But I am neither of those things. I need to help Lara and find a way out of this mess.
“And now she thinks that you’re her mother,” Patricia whispers. “I guess this puts us back to square one. Miranda, make sure this child is sedated and moved to a more secure quarters. We can’t have her trying to escape again.”
My heart skips a beat fast. I’m running through the hospital to escape and being tackled by security officers. Miranda, Jax, John, all their infinite choices intertwined through the timelines. I’m not sure which I’m in and which is the right choice—which is the wrong choice. I must find the answer.
Then it escapes from me before I eve
n realize it. “Where’s Mike? Where’s my brother!” I’m cut off as an orderly squeezes my arm to get me back into the bed, and I scream.
“There, there, Molly,” he says as he pins me down. His accent is thick and when I gaze into Rex’s face, my heart jumps in fear. It’s always him. How is it he always gets the upper hand? I kick my legs and hit out my arms, but Rex keeps me still.
“So that’s her name?” Don asks. “Molly?”
“Otherwise known as Test Subject Number One,” Mom says as she holds a needle in the air and clears the line of air pockets. The sedative leaks out the top. She’s going to do whatever it is Patricia and Rex ask of her. I’m horrified at the notion that she’s forgotten me. How can she just keep doing these things like I don’t matter to her?
“This isn’t real!” I scream. “Don, Cassidy, please! This isn’t how things are supposed to be! You have to remember!”
Cassidy’s eyes cloud with confusion as they meet mine. The needle slips beneath my skin and I only have a few extra seconds to get out what I need to say to her.
“The bridge! Remember the bridge!”
My eyes feel like heavy weights and I can’t keep them open. My vision goes dark as I struggle to take a breath of air. The only thing I am aware of is a hand stroking my hair and that thick, British accent lulling me to sleep. “Boo…” He whispers in my ear and gives me a twisted, knowing smile.
My friends and family might have forgotten, but not Rex. He remembers and he relishes it.
Chapter Eleven: Cassidy Winters
The little girl in the bed goes limp as she drifts off to sleep. It’s something I never get over seeing, no matter how many times I’ve witnessed it before. Something about it doesn’t seem right at all. Experimenting on humans, let alone teens can’t be something that’s accepted by society, can it?
Who else knows what goes on behind the doors of the Rewind Agency and I’m privy to all of it, regardless of the excuses Don makes for his mother and her practices.
“Cassidy, as head of my security, I hold you responsible for the breaches in security today.” Patricia spins on her heel to face me. “Another serious misfire like this and your job, might not be as secure as you think it is. Do I make myself clear?”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
“You know that’s not fair,” Donovan rushes to my defense. “No one realized this kid got free. The test subject wasn’t seen by anyone who will talk to the papers, or to Congress.”
“This time it was luck.” Rex stands between us and Patricia. I don’t like the way he puts his hands in his pockets, or the way he looks at the little girl in the bed, as though she’s nothing more than an end that justifies the means. “Next time we could end up being shut down, and that’d be bad for everyone, wouldn’t it?”
Rex glances at Donovan as he says it. I don’t know what it means, but they have private dealings that I’m never allowed to be part of—something else that never sits right. It bundles like anxiety in my chest, but I don’t ask questions. I need this job and need to get along with the staff.
Miranda gazes up from her clipboard for the first time. “We’re close to being able to fix the mentally unstable, but we’re not there yet. If we can cure Test Subject One of what ails her, we’ll beg for forgiveness.”
It’s for a good cause but to hurt human minors….
She implores me. “Think about what this could mean for everyone, the country. We would be saving millions of dollars and so much heartache if we could simply just take the memories and pain away,”
Patricia and Rex leave and Miranda isn’t far behind. I’m disheartened as I watch them go. I didn’t get into law enforcement to end up head of security for a corporation that can’t follow the rules. If I hadn’t been fired for discharging my weapon into a crowd, I wouldn’t even be here.
Don takes my hand and slowly kisses it. “She’s…ambitious. I’m sorry for that.”
I gaze at him with loving eyes. “You can’t be held responsible for her actions. Any more than I can expect special treatment just because…”
“You’re engaged to her son?” Don grins as he kisses my cheek. “She’ll cool down. She always does. I’ll walk you to the security office while I head to my next meeting. Senator O’Reily is still sniffing around and I need to head him off at the pass.”
Together, we walk down the stark white halls of the secret Rewind Agency wing to which almost no one has access. Everywhere, men and women in white lab coats bustle back and forth between labs and offices. I can’t shake the bad feeling I have and I roll my shoulders back to try to clear some tension.
“You’re not going to be able to let this go, are you? The conversation we had at breakfast…”
“It bothers me. Rex isn’t leveling with me about something and Doctor Crane? How she can treat her test subjects so coolly? It doesn’t make sense. Where are the little girl’s parents? If they agreed to this, they should be here. But they’re nowhere, Don.”
I’ve checked and rechecked.
Don sighs as we get to the security office. A big window looks in on a room full of monitors and staff. “Doctor Crane has reasons for wanting to clear mental illness and the memories associated with it.”
“Everyone has reasons for doing things they shouldn’t. It’s called money. And just because your family has it, doesn’t make it a motivation for others.”
He holds up his hand and leans in closer. “I shouldn’t be telling you but since I can trust you not to talk about this with anyone, I will. Dr. Crane had a daughter. Years ago, she was murdered in a robbery at home. She got up at the wrong time and…” Don’s sentence trails off, not able to bring himself to say the rest.
“That’s horrible.” My face scrunches up when I consider it.
“The trauma of finding her daughter tore her marriage apart. Mom’s been worried about Miranda as far back as I can remember. So, if you can just hang in there a little bit longer…”
I sigh and gaze back at the security office. I’d known when I’d taken the job it had been offered to me because of my colorful past in law enforcement. Patricia had wanted someone who wasn’t credible, someone she could control. I’d taken the job because I’d needed the money, but human test subjects isn’t what I’d thought I’d been signing up for.
That was over a year ago. Now, I’m in up to my eyeballs just like everyone else who works for Rewind’s secret wing.
“All right.” Not like I have any choice. I might love Don James, but I certainly don’t love his mother. The sooner I can get him away from his place, the better. But first, I’ll need to convince him of that.
He rubs my arms and leans in for a slow, drawn-out kiss, the kind we shouldn’t be doing in front of the security office. “Dinner tonight. I’ll catch up with you.”
“Sounds great.” I wave good-bye to him as he heads down the hall. A moment later, I walk into the security office and ask for a status report. The guards are watching the front of the building, the rear, and side entrances. I sip the cold coffee on my desk and am hit by a jarring memory.
I’m standing in a building filled with computers and technicians. My arm is around a girl’s neck and she is stretching out her arms to someone standing in front of me. The woman before me has long curly brown hair. Her jaw is set tight and her eyes sparkle with determination in a way I’ve never seen before.
Even though she wears simple jeans and Converse sneakers, she’s a force to be reckoned with.
The little girl yells. “Lara!”
That name again. My heart skips a beat as I reply. “Come with me and Molly doesn’t have to get hurt.”
As the memory fades, the coffee cup slips from my hand and smashes at my feet. I’m jarred by what I’d thought I’d known. This memory spits in the face of all that. Molly—the girl in the bed—did know me, but the circumstances were completely different. What the hell is going on?
****
The first steps I need to take are to find out who Molly really is, wher
e she comes from, and what connection she has to this Lara who no one seems to remember. The test subject files are all kept in Miranda’s office so I head up to go through them while she’s in a meeting with Patricia and their team of scientists.
Her receptionist, Delilah Chase, is at her desk right outside the cushy office. She’s a real looker for an older woman, with her firetruck red hair and her trendy clothes from Boston’s finest boutiques. “Ms. Winters, can I help you with something?”
I couldn’t lead with ‘I want to go through Miranda’s files’. “I’m looking for Dr. Crane. Is she in?”
“I’m afraid she’s in a meeting, but she’ll be back in thirty minutes—more or less. Can you try coming back?”
Hmm. “I don’t mind waiting. Would it be all right if…” I gesture to the door.
She grimaces apologetically. “I’m afraid not.” Tap, tap, goes her pencil on the top of her desk as she answers me, a nervous twinge to her voice. “Miranda has strict orders that no one is allowed in her office while she’s away this week.”
“Ohh…well…I’ve waited for her inside before.”
“Tensions are running high with the scientists right now. I’m afraid the answer is still no. Terribly sorry about this.”
“No, it’s okay.” I wipe my hands on my pants as I step back down the hall. “I’ll come back tomorrow. Tell Dr. Crane good night from me and I’ll see her later.”
Delilah says she will, and I do an about-face and head toward the elevator. And come face to face with Rex Montgomery. His smile is smooth as butter and looks nearly as expensive as his fine Italian suit. “Can I help you with something, Cass?” He says my name casually, the way a friend would, and a chill runs up my spine.
I don’t know why. We are friends, or at the very least work acquaintances.
“No. I’m fine, Mr. Montgomery, but thank you.” When I try to side step, he mirrors my steps with a smirk.
“Dinner then, sometime? I’m being forward, but we rarely get a chance to see each other in our comings and goings.”
