by Julie Cross
“You don’t believe me?” I asked, keeping my voice perfectly even.
“That is irrelevant. Facts. Tangible proof. That’s what I rely on.”
Thomas wrapped his arms around her, in a hold too tight for Holly to escape. I could see her face twisting with anger as she attempted to wiggle her way out.
I held on to my cover, waiting to see where Thomas was going with this little diversion.
“I’ve thought a lot about you, Jackson,” Thomas said calmly while Holly tried to break free of his death grip. “I’ve recently learned the expression kill two birds with one stone. We don’t say that where I’m from. There’s a way I can find out if you’re lying about dismissing emotional attachments, and learn just how valuable you may be to my team.”
“What’s that?” I asked, hearing the nerves leak into my voice.
“It’s a well-thought-out plan, and as I said earlier, that’s very important for people like us. The only problem is, if you do, in fact, show incredible talent, it will also prove you’re lying to me. That you’re not capable of dealing with the responsibilities that go along with this power you’ve been handed.” His eyes met mine and I could almost see remorse in them. Or disappointment. “None of us want to hurt you … or stop you from living your life … but we might not have a choice. Not if you’re too much of a risk. We can accept you being on the other side, but not you being flighty and impulsive. We may consider Tempest our opposition, but we don’t dismiss how careful their leader is when dealing with time. Do you understand?”
I could feel the sweat trickling down the back of my neck. My heart thudded like a freight train. He was looking at me and reading it all. “What do you … what are you talking about?”
He pinned Holly’s arms to her sides and walked even closer to the edge. I finally let myself look at her face and I saw the panic creep into her eyes. She guessed the same thing I did.
Thomas moved his arms to her waist and lifted her from the ground, dangling her upper body over the ledge. I sucked in a breath as he leaned farther over the edge.
“Wait! Don’t!” I shouted, but it didn’t matter.
Thomas hoisted her up higher and, with incredible strength, tossed her over the edge. Her scream was deafening and my brain went into machine mode as I jumped. Not through time, but an actual jump.
Off the roof.
The very millisecond I felt some part of Holly between my fingers, I forced my mind to focus as we were free-falling. Think about where you want to be, I told myself. Beautiful. Wonderful. Solid places.
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
A second ago, I had felt Holly’s wrist between my fingers. Now I could feel her weight on top of me. Soft grass around us. Her heart pounding against mine.
“Holly?” I mumbled. My eyes were still squeezed shut.
Both of us were breathing so hard, panic flooding out.
“Oh, God, are we dead?”
I stared into her light blues eyes, seeing the sun reflected in them. Sun, not rain. “No, we’re not dead … damn … I don’t know what I just did.”
She looked at me for one more second and then she was kissing me, hard, tears flooding out of her eyes onto my face. I squeezed my arms around her so tight, I don’t know how she kept breathing.
When I ran out of air, I released her and let my arms flop down into the grass. “Holly?”
“Yeah?”
“Did I really just jump off a freakin’ roof?”
“Yes.” She pressed her face into my shirt and started crying harder.
I rolled us both over sideways so I could see her face better. “It’s okay, Hol. You’re okay.”
She finally lifted her head and wiped the tears from her face. “You can time-travel with regular people?”
“Apparently. But I had no idea. Honestly, the thought never crossed my mind … I saw you falling and it was just … instinct. I didn’t even think.” I touched my forehead to hers and closed my eyes. “I never should have let it get that close. I didn’t know what he had planned, and…”
“It’s okay … I knew you were trying to stall … I would have done the same thing.” She rested her hands on my face and kissed me again. “Is this Central Park?”
I finally looked around for the first time, not even thinking about the fact that we had just magically appeared out of nowhere. Nobody had screamed or anything … definitely a good sign. I recognized the location within a few seconds. It was the Upper East Side of the Great Lawn, near one of the baseball diamonds. Two girls were sunbathing about fifty feet from us. They had shades on and looked oblivious to anyone around. Everyone else was even farther away.
“Yep, Central Park,” I said to Holly before pulling her up off the grass. “The hard part for me is usually not where I am, but when.”
“You don’t know when we are?” Holly asked.
I smiled at the shock on her face. “We just have to find a source.”
Before we started walking, I pulled her into my arms again, reluctant to let go. My face was buried in her hair and I took in a deep breath, trying to compose myself. “Once we figure out what the hell we just did, I may have to drag you to some island a hundred years in the past.”
“And I may have to let you,” she mumbled.
We walked quickly toward a bench where a young woman sat reading the newspaper, while a little boy kicked a soccer ball around in front of her. I walked behind the lady and Holly and I both glanced at the newspaper over her shoulder.
August 12, 2009. “Three days in the past,” I muttered to myself. “But what timeline?”
“What are you talking about?” she asked.
“There he is!” someone shouted.
Both of us spun around at the same time. Raymond and Cassidy, the woman whose DNA was in me, stood about twenty feet away, guns pointed at us. I nearly fell over when I saw who was hiding behind Raymond.
Holly. Another Holly?
Like a different timeline Holly? Shouldn’t my Holly make this Holly disappear?
I didn’t have time to consider this. Not while my 009 Holly was staring at another version of herself.
“Holy shit!” the Holly beside me said.
Both Hollys stared at each other, completely shocked.
“Jackson?” the other Holly said.
“We have to go back,” I said to the Holly next to me. “Now.”
“No kidding,” she whispered before burying her face in my shirt.
“I’m aiming for the ground this time,” I mumbled before pulling us back.
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
AUGUST 15, 2009, 5:30 P.M.
Okay, so, maybe I don’t have perfect aim.
“Shit,” Holly said into my ear.
Holly was on top of me and I was sliding down the slanted part of the roof. Again. She grabbed on to the hunk of siding like I had before, then clutched my wrist. I turned over quickly and began climbing up.
“I thought climbing on ladders was bad … but hanging on a slated roof … eight stories high … totally sucks.” I could feel my chest tightening and knew passing out here on the roof was a possibility.
Holly smacked my cheek lightly. “Jackson! Look at me.”
I lifted my head and stared at her through the rain. “I can’t do this. I just need…”
“You can, I know you can.” She put a hand under my arm and tugged until I continued to climb.
“Sorry if I don’t walk across swing sets like you. You’re like a crazy circus performer,” I mumbled, slightly annoyed that I needed her help with this.
“Wait, when did you see me climbing swing sets?”
“The other you. 007 Holly.”
“Oh, of course. Makes perfect sense … Did I even like you in 2007?” she asked.
“No, then yes, then no again, then yes again.”
“So it’s just like this year?” she teased.
“I guess it’s possible we were just looking at that Holly, but older maybe,” I said, still not believing it.
“I’m trying not to think about what we just saw, but I have a feeling therapy is in my near future,” she said.
I realized then that we had reached the top, near the flat part of the roof. Holly had creatively distracted me from the height thing.
“Do you think that evil dude is still up here?” she asked.
“I guess we’re gonna find out.” Right now my anger overpowered fear and I wanted to seriously kick Thomas’s ass.
We climbed over the edge and Thomas was still there. His head snapped in our direction and a grin spread across his face.
“Maybe we should jump off the roof again,” Holly said from behind me.
I shook my head. “He’s not going to touch you. I promise.”
“Amazing! Your abilities exceed ninety-nine percent of the other time travelers,” he said.
There was no sarcasm or anger on his face, just pure amazement. Didn’t mean he wouldn’t kill us.
My fists balled up as I approached him. “I thought you people didn’t believe in careless murder. What if I hadn’t been able to jump?”
“Yes. The poor girl. But she’s disposable. She’ll always be disposable,” Thomas stated in a flat tone.
I ground my teeth together and forced myself to focus. The only thing I really wanted to do was toss this freak off the roof and watch his bones break into a million pieces.
Holly gasped as Thomas drew a pistol and pointed it at us.
“I think it’s too risky for me to let you go anywhere alone. Maybe people like you are the real danger,” I said.
Thomas stared at my face like a curious child eying someone in a wheelchair. Emotions were crippling. That’s what he had to be thinking.
I easily knocked the gun from his hand before he could even react. Adrenaline rushed through my veins after hearing the sound of the weapon hit the hard floor of the rooftop and slide out of reach.
From the corner of my eye, I watched Holly dive behind the pole she had been pressed against earlier.
I grasped the front of his shirt. “You’re not going anywhere without me. Go ahead and try if you want.”
His forearm made contact with my face and I felt a wave of pain rush through me. His fist made a quick jab into my stomach, knocking the wind out of me. The second I doubled over, he was free again. Free to jump to the future and figure out his next move. I sprang forward and wrapped my arms around his legs. It should have thrown him face-first into the ground, but he twisted midair and ended up right back on his feet.
My fingers barely held his wrist. I just had to keep holding on to him, so he couldn’t go without me. I used all my strength to pull on his arm and get him down on the roof in a hold tight enough to keep him from getting out.
I had him pinned to the roof and was staring right at his face, but I had no clue what to do next. Reach for the gun and shoot him? I wasn’t sure I could … but the image of Holly being flung off the roof played in my mind again and my fingers were already reaching for his weapon.
“Fine, we’ll do this your way,” he said with a devious grin. “Hope you don’t mind the intensity my kind of jumping can bring on. Your head will feel like it’s ready to explode, so much that you’ll wish you were dead.”
“Jackson, just let go of him … please,” Holly said from behind me.
I shook my head at her and stared down at Thomas again. “I’m not letting go.”
In one swift motion, he head-butted me. I squeezed my eyes shut as my vision blurred. My fingers loosened from him and he lifted his leg enough to kick me hard in the stomach. Holly screamed as I flew back and hit my head against the metal pole.
Thomas leaned over me and grasped the front of my shirt. “You asked for it,” he said.
I winced, preparing for the pain he had described so vividly.
The confidence in his face faded. “What are you … doing?”
Me? I wasn’t doing anything but waiting for intense pain.
His fingers tightened around my shirt, but he closed his eyes and his whole face scrunched up. It was at that moment that something occurred to me: maybe he couldn’t do it if I didn’t want him to … or if I wanted to be here, now?
I only hesitated for a second before mustering up every ounce of energy to get him down on the roof again.
He let out a cry of pain even though I wasn’t doing anything but pinning him down.
I sat right on top of him as he lay on his side, gasping for air. The barrel of the gun was now pressed to his temple.
“Wait! Don’t shoot,” he said with a strained voice.
I pushed the gun harder into his skin, feeling my anger thicken. “Why shouldn’t I?”
Dad burst through the roof-access door, breathless. “Jackson, thank God!”
I turned my head for a split second and Thomas reached up and yanked out a chunk of my hair. I jerked away from his hand. “Seriously? I have a gun to your head and you pull my hair?”
“This is plan B.” A slow, careful grin spread across his face as I stared at the chunk of brown hair in his fingers.
Fuck. DNA.
Dad’s footsteps barely distracted me from piecing together a load of clues acquired in the last twenty-four hours.
“Jackson, get up. I’ll do this,” Dad said.
“You know, don’t you?” Thomas said to me, lifting one eyebrow.
“Jackson! Get up!” Dad said again.
But all I could do was stare at my hair in this horrible man’s fist. They weren’t trying to make me. They wanted to make something completely different. Something even better. Everything they could ever want.
Emily.
Sweat trickled from my palm to my index finger, causing it to slide a little on the trigger. I couldn’t kill him. He couldn’t die. Or she wouldn’t exist. Emily’s words came back to me then.
Trust yourself to make the right choice. It’s not as hard as it seems.
And I knew then that I had already made the decision because she had come to me. She existed. Whether it was right or wrong, I could never erase that child or prevent her life from forming.
I stood up from my seat on top of Thomas, but stepped hard on his stomach in the process, feeling a small amount of satisfaction from his loud groan. Dad looked at me questioningly as I stood in front of him, blocking his shot.
He didn’t get a chance to ask me anything because Raymond, the shoe-print guy who had killed Eileen, appeared on the ledge right behind him, gun pointed at his back.
“Dad! Look out!” I dove forward and knocked Dad to the side just as the man on the ledge fired. I barely felt the sting as the bullet hit my arm. I watched the man fall from the ledge after getting hit with Dad’s perfectly aimed shot. Seconds later, the thud of Raymond’s body slamming into the ground reached us through the rain.
Dad immediately spun around, looking for Thomas, who now stood on the ledge like the other man had.
“We’ll see each other again, Jackson.”
Then, just like that, Thomas turned and jumped, milliseconds before Dad took another shot. No thud followed his jump and I knew he had vanished long before his body hit the ground. He was free of my hold and his powers were intact again.
Dad swore under his breath, then rushed over to me, forcing me to sit. “Damn it, Jackson! Do you ever listen to me?”
I smiled a little and leaned my head against the wall. “At least we got three of them. Progress is progress, right?”
Holly crawled out from her hiding place and ran over to us. “Oh, my God … Someone shot you!”
She dropped in front of me and started unbuttoning my shirt.
“He’ll be fine. I promise,” Dad said.
“Who shot the blond chick from the ground?” I asked Dad.
“Agent Freeman.”
“He got away, didn’t he?” Holly asked while gently pulling my arm out of my sleeve. “The evil dude?”
I nodded and closed my eyes as the stabbing pain ran down my arm. I rested my good hand against Holly’s
cheek. Her eyes met mine and I impulsively whispered, “I’m sorry, Hol … I’m so sorry. This never should have—”
Her fingertips touched my lips and she shook her head. “Stop … you do not get to apologize for saving my life. That’s completely twisted. I still don’t know how the hell you did that roof-jumping, time-jumping thing…”
She choked up a little at the end of her sarcastic response and then leaned closer and rested her cheek against mine.
I kissed the side of her neck and said, “Amor vincit omnia.”
“Latin?” Holly asked, touching her forehead to mine. “What does it mean?”
“Love conquers all,” Dad answered as he pressed a torn piece of my shirt against the bleeding wound.
Holly brushed her mouth across my forehead. “I can definitely live with that.”
A few minutes later, Adam and Melvin came bursting through the roof door.
Another sigh of relief. But part of me knew Dad never would have let anything happen to Adam, not on his watch. Holly jumped up and hugged him.
He grabbed her shoulders. “Why did I see you jumping off the roof? Do you realize I actually went into cardiac arrest?”
She leaned against him and I could tell the day had caught up to her, and she looked like she might pass out. Adam set her down on the roof next to me and she curled up against my good side, shivering like it was twenty degrees outside instead of eighty.
Melvin turned his eyes on me, speaking quickly in Farsi. “You jumped with her?”
“You saw?” I asked, glancing at Dr. Melvin, then at Dad. They both nodded. “I didn’t even know that was possible.”
“We call it Displacement.” Melvin leaned closer, and the intensity on his face scared me. “Listen to me. Yes, you can take someone, if you’re skilled enough. But the part of the brain you use to jump isn’t even accessible to a normal person. If you jumped with her again, right now, there’s an eighty percent chance it would kill her. A third jump after that would have a hundred percent chance of death.”
I swallowed hard, wishing I had known, but knowing it wouldn’t have changed what I had done. I still would have tried to save her, no matter what.