by Rylee Swann
Her desperate plea propelled Shawn to stride down the slope to the water’s edge. “This better be good. Because, right now, all I’m thinking is that you’re trying to get me killed. What you might be whispering in your daddy’s ear about me that paints me in a bad light. Something I don’t take kindly to.”
Allie nodded, blinking back tears, and carefully lowered herself into the canoe, steadying herself by holding on to the sides as she kneeled.
Shawn followed her in, facing her as he too kneeled in the opposite end. He reached for the paddle that Allie had already picked up. “I’ll paddle. Your job is to talk.”
“But you don’t know where the pool is.”
Shawn jabbed a finger toward the moving water, and without further argument, she gave the paddle to him.
He threw off the tie holding them to the dock and waited until Allie did the same on her end. Pushing off with the paddle, he steered them down the river, switching sides with the paddle as needed to keep the canoe in a straight line. “Start talking, Allie.”
She averted her gaze to the majestic scenery of tall trees growing on bright green grassy ground that rushed past as Shawn fell into a steady rhythm in his paddling. When she’d stayed silent for too long, he flipped up the paddle to splash water in her face.
She sputtered, meeting his eyes as she wiped away the spray. “I knew you’d find out. I just thought it would take longer. That I’d have more time. I guess that was wishful thinking on my part.”
Shawn urged her to continue with a quietly growled, “Go on.”
“I don’t have any friends.” She raised a hand to prevent Shawn from interrupting. “The women in the settlement are superficial friends. Everyone knows who my father is, so they all treat me differently than they would otherwise. And the boys? Well, I’m the boss’s daughter and he has a very dangerous occupation. They know better than to get too close to me. So, when you got here, I didn’t tell you.”
“Why?” The river opened up, and Shawn rested the paddle on the sides of the canoe, letting the birchbark craft drift.
“You were different. You were already established. You didn’t need my father’s help, and you’re more of an equal to him rather than an employee, or a student as the others are. I thought…” Fresh tears made her eyes glassy, and Shawn waited until she’d gathered herself. “I thought out of everyone, you could be my friend. You wouldn’t be afraid of my father. You wouldn’t treat me differently once you found out. I just wanted you to get to know me first before you had any preconceived ideas.”
Shawn grunted as he took in this information, lifting the paddle to make a minor course correction. Allie must have taken his silence as a sign of disbelief, because she pierced him with a desperate gaze.
“Please believe me. Please. I…I hate my life, don’t you see? But, more than anything, I hate him.” At last, her tears spilled over, cascading down her cheeks. “Oh, damn. I hate him. Hate him with a mad passion! I hate everything he stands for. I hate that he kills people for a living. I hate that he trains others to do the same. That’s why I could never, ever consider you or any of the others as boyfriend material. I can’t abide the killing.”
She buried her face in her hands and sobbed.
Her anger and despair hit Shawn like a tidal wave. Raw and honest, it told the story of an unhappy young woman. He recognized her earlier animosity toward Ramón in this painful admission, and he could empathize. Like most people, he certainly had parental issues of his own. His own father had lavished all his attention on Shawn’s older brother.
“Have you spoken to him about how you feel?” Even as he voiced the question, he knew the answer. He’d never spoken to his own parents about his raw deal when it came to growing up a half-breed on Paros.
Allie shook her head. “He’d disown me,” she said through her tears. “And, then, maybe I’d disappear. Never to be heard from again. He couldn’t have someone he no longer considered his daughter knowing all his secrets.”
Shawn nodded as he dipped the paddle in the water to keep the canoe from running aground. Allie took in a shuddering breath and wiped the tears from her face. They remained in commiserate yet comfortable silence for a few minutes as Shawn thought about the solution he’d used to escape his own turmoil.
“Why don’t you leave?” he asked after long moments had passed. “Don’t talk to him about it. Just go.”
She barked out a laugh. “Where could I go that he couldn’t find me?”
“Why would he want to find you?” He raised a hand at her eye roll. “I’m not trying to be difficult. It’s an honest question. Are you forced to stay by his side? Can’t you leave? Go to the U.S. or France, Brazil...anywhere. The world is open to you. You could start over.”
Fresh tears blossomed anew in her eyes. “That’s a terrifying thought. This place...it’s all I know.”
Shawn opened his mouth to speak, to tell her she could do it. That she was intelligent and had the courage of ten men. But he decided against it. She sobbed into her hands again and this time he let her cry, didn’t try to solve her problems. Maybe she just needed a friend to listen, to be there for her.
“I’m sorry you’re going through this,” he said quietly.
She raised her head and smiled through her tears. “Thank you.”
She crawled to him, inching forward, careful to not tip over the canoe. When she reached him, she curled into his lap and cried, resting her cheek on his broad chest. Shawn hesitated, his hands hovering over her shaking body before he wrapped his arms around her.
Allie cried for a long time, until Shawn thought she couldn’t possibly have any tears left. She must not have ever allowed herself this much needed release. He said nothing, holding her as the canoe drifted along the Yukon.
At last, her sobs slowed, and she heaved in a long steadying breath. Blinking up at him, fresh fear and pain radiated from her eyes. “Are we okay? Umm, I mean...still friends?”
Shawn’s heart twisted as he thought of Rayna. How she had opened a valve in him that allowed his emotions to tumble out whenever they pleased. He found the sensation uncomfortable and awkward.
He wanted, needed better control of himself. However, instead of closing himself off, he smiled down at Allie. “Yes, of course we’re still friends.”
She let out a whoosh of air and settled back against his chest.
Now, he had an additional problem. He had a mission to complete, but how could he kill Allie’s father? How could he do that to her? No matter how much Allie claimed to hate her father, he was still her father. She’d feel his loss.
He’d never before known much about the lives of his targets. Such details had always been irrelevant. Now he understood the logic in being detached from those he had been paid to kill. His heart twisted in a new agonizing way, and he bit back a groan.
He had to get back to Rayna.
And the only way to do that would destroy Allie, this woman he so unexpectedly cared for too.
19
A few days after the emotional meeting with Allie, Shawn found himself with an afternoon off. He walked along the river pondering what to do with his unexpected free time. A tune rolled in his head and he started to hum it, enjoying the carefree moment.
The displacement of air rolled toward him like an ocean wave. He took deep breaths to calm his suddenly galloping heartbeat and planted his feet to brace for the impact. No one from the settlement noticed as they went about their business doing chores and entertaining the tourists. Only Shawn could feel the force of it, or knew that the disturbance existed at all as it moved down the path like some shimmering creature.
Someone had time travelled.
He hoped it was his brother, Kyle, or this would become a situation much more urgent than eliminating Ramón. He and Kyle were the only two time travelers he knew of.
By the time the unnatural breeze reached Shawn, the worst of the displacement had died off. Only a slight gust rustled his hair. The brisk November wind chilled hi
m. He shivered despite wearing extra layers now that Mother Nature had chosen to ignore the calendar and cloaked Canada in her wintry embrace.
Checking to make sure his knife was securely fastened to his breechcloth, he veered off the path that ran next to his communal longhouse. He jogged down the wooded trail past the heart of the settlement where he thought the time traveler had arrived based on what he’d seen and felt. On high alert, he scanned the woods, but nothing stood out as a potential threat.
A rustle in the undergrowth drew his attention. A form barreled out of the brush, slamming into him. Knocked to the ground, he grunted as a rush of air escaped his lungs. He strained against the hold on him, his heels digging a shallow trench in the hard-packed earth. The attacker bore down, keeping Shawn pinned to the earth with a firm grip on his forearms.
“Give up?” a familiar male voice asked. Shawn didn’t reply, concentrating only on breaking free as his foe laughed. “C’mon, I gotcha dead to rights.”
Shawn managed to pop one arm free. He grabbed his assailant’s arm and wrenched him off-balance. Free of the weight atop him, Shawn brought his knees up, planting his feet in the man’s abdomen, and flipped him over his head.
Shawn spun over onto his stomach and gazed up into the smiling face of his brother.
“Kyle,” Shawn said as he jumped to his feet. “Every time, Kyle. Don’t you get tired of this?”
“Yeah, nice to see you too, little brother.” Kyle smirked, a mischievous twinkle in his amber eyes as he stood and brushed dirt from his clothes. He wore a pair of Levi jeans and a black button-down shirt under a denim jacket. He had Shawn’s face, and except for his bright blond hair no one would be able to tell them apart.
Shawn met Kyle’s eyes and stared at him for a moment, the silence lengthening until at last a broad smile covered his face.
No words were necessary. Shawn grabbed his brother into a hug, the sensation of completeness enveloping him as Kyle wrapped his arms around him in a tight embrace.
“You don’t call, you don’t write,” Kyle said in a teasing tone as he slapped Shawn a couple of times on the back before releasing him. He took a good look at Shawn, and his face twisted into an expression of confusion before he asked in a quick whisper, “Why are you dressed like that? Where are we? What year is this?”
Shawn had opted for a fringed deerskin shirt, and instead of a breechcloth, leather leggings. Moccasins tied up to his knees further protected him from the elements. If not for the warm sun beating down, he’d have on layers of furs too, a wintertime annoyance that interfered with ease of movement.
He laughed at his brother’s disorientation. Whenever he or Kyle time traveled to visit each other, they focused solely on the person and not the time or place. Shawn always figured it was the extra brotherly connection they shared that allowed them to home in on each other. Kyle had no way of knowing where he had landed.
“Relax. It’s 1983, where you know I’ve been living. This is a reenactment settlement for tourists.”
Kyle frowned, a hint of anger flashing in eyes. “So, let me get this straight. You’d rather play pretend Indian village than travel back and stay with me?”
Shawn let out a frustrated sigh. “That’s not what my being in this village is about. I’m glad you’re here, and I have a lot to tell you. But for now, wanna go swimming?”
Annoyance still creased Kyle’s forehead, but he nodded. “When have I ever turned down a swim? Lead the way.”
Shawn dashed through the brush, making his own path until he met up with the trail he sought, Kyle fast on his heels. Breaking into a run, he stayed a step or two ahead of his brother. Even as errant tree branches smacked his face and arms on the thin trail, he smiled into the wind, reminded of many such runs to the nearest source of water with his brother. Most of them had occurred when Kyle had been dressed just as Shawn was now, back when he visited his brother in the 1700s, at the village that Kyle called home.
Arriving above the water’s edge at a rocky embankment, Shawn stopped to disrobe. Kyle took Shawn’s lead and did the same. Naked and too excited to shiver in the brisk air, they poised with their feet curled over the edge and dove in. As they stayed under, Shawn sensed Kyle’s Parosian echolocation, used to determine what was around him in the murky unfamiliar water. Shawn knew the area well and led Kyle farther down and away from the shore, far into open water and away from any possible prying eyes or ears.
There they played the games of their childhood and swam lazily, breaking into underwater races. Kyle tended to get the upper hand a little more than Shawn liked but he held no resentment for his older brother.
Shawn could have stayed under for hours more, relishing his time with Kyle, but they needed to talk. Finally, with reluctance, Shawn gave a thumbs-up signal and raced his brother to the surface. Like mirror images, they pushed hair from their eyes and tread water with barely perceptible movement.
“I need a favor,” Shawn said.
“Of course you do,” Kyle said with more than a hint of sarcasm. “But first…”
“I’m going to explain everything?”
“No, not that. Who shot you?”
Shawn slapped the water with one hand and splashed his brother with the other. “You felt my pain but didn’t come running?”
Kyle lifted a shoulder. “If I came running every time you got wounded, I’d always be here. Answer the question.”
“Ass,” Shawn muttered loud enough for Kyle to hear. “To answer your question, I don’t know.”
“Huh. That’s concerning. What are you doing about it?”
Shawn half shrugged. “Nothing for now. No leads. I’ll figure it out once this job is done. Can I get back to my favor?”
Kyle eased onto his back in the water, keeping his gaze on Shawn as he nodded.
“I’m on an assignment.”
“Oh?” Kyle said with an air of indifference.
“To kill someone.”
“So I gathered.”
“For the government.”
At last, Shawn had his brother’s full attention. Kyle twisted onto his stomach and came upright as if standing in the water that went well past their heads. “You’re working for the government? Why?”
Kyle had no love for the white man’s government. He saw no reason to forgive them for the atrocities they’d committed against their native people, massacring them and stealing their land, only to be given back later in tiny parcels called reservations.
“I uh...met someone who suggested—”
“A woman? You met a woman?” Kyle said, his eyes widening.
Shawn nodded, slapping the water as much to shut his brother up as to hide his own embarrassment. “Will you just let me tell you?”
Kyle laughed and spread his arms wide. “Please do.”
“Anyway, she thought that instead of running from the government, I might try working for them. A way to use my skills without breaking the law—”
“What’s her name?” Kyle asked, a pleased gleam in his eyes.
“Rayna.”
“Nice. Go on.”
“So, that’s why I’m here. An assassin they’ve been after for a while uses this place as a front, funneling his money into the tourist village. We’re in Canada, by the way. The Yukon.”
Kyle nodded, dipping his head under the water but keeping his eyes on Shawn. Coming back up, he said, “So, you’re working for the Mounties?”
“No, a covert branch of the United States. CIA.”
“Alright, so what do you need me for? It sounds like an easy in and out for you. Unless...you like it here. Is that it?”
Kyle knew his brother all too well, and Shawn slapped the water again in frustration. “I’ve made friends here. I don’t want them to be hurt, and I haven’t been able to get the target alone. He’s always surrounded by people I...like.”
“People you like? When did that happen?” Kyle asked with a raised brow, making Shawn even more self-conscious about the changes he’d been experie
ncing of late.
“Shut up. I need you to tell the people I’m working for what’s going on here. I’m sure they expected me back before now. I’ve been gone too long. Tell them what the problem is. Let them know I’m working on it.”
Kyle laughed, tilting his head to the side as he considered the situation. “Because if they think you’ve gone rogue, you’ll lose the girl?”
Shawn nodded, all but red in the face over the conversation.
“You really care for her that much?”
Again, Shawn nodded. He understood Kyle’s hesitation in believing him. Typically, Shawn wasn’t much of a social creature. Never had friends or a steady girlfriend, much less anyone he cared about. What he’d told his brother sounded unbelievable to his own ears, but it was the truth. “You’re going to help me, so stop being an ass about it.”
Kyle hid a smile, slapping the water hard enough to splash Shawn in the face. “Mind your manners, little brother.”
“Screw you, ass.” Shawn dove deep, propelling himself with the slightest movement of his feet. Kyle followed and caught up with him, and they wrestled beneath the surface like a couple of children, sending up air bubbles as they laughed.
When they finally broke the surface again, Kyle said, “Tell me all the details and I’ll let these clowns know what’s going on here.”
“Rayna’s not a clown.”
Kyle gave a half shrug of his broad shoulders. “That’s open for debate until I meet her myself.”
This led to another underwater wrestling match, which lasted until they were so tired they were barely able to drag themselves up onto land.
They laid in the sun for a time to dry off as Shawn told his brother everything he needed to know to pass on to Alec. Shivers finally forced them back into their clothing, and Kyle helped Shawn gather fallen tree limbs and branches until they had enough for a much welcomed roaring fire.