by Jill Cooper
Donovan touches my shoulder. “I’ll get help. I’ll call for help!” He runs out of the garage and he means what he says, but he’ll be too late. Judging from the amount of blood coming from Rick’s wound, he won’t make it.
“Just hang on, okay?” My voice shakes and cracks. I never wanted the events of my life to lead us here.
Rick’s bloody fingers stroke my cheek and it makes me sob. “You never killed Patricia?”
“Just thought I did.” I shake my head but I can’t see him because tears mare my vision. “Hang on, okay? I’ll go back and save you. I’ll go back…” my chin quivers to watch Rick in so much pain and my mind fills with memories from so long ago.
Hanging out with Rick on fire escapes to watch fireworks as kids.
The first kiss at the elementary school basketball game.
When he asked me to go steady with the stupid purple lollipop ring that I wore with pride until it’s covered in dust and lint.
His hand grabs my cheek and leaves behind a cold trail of blood. “Not even you’re that special, Lar. This is it for me.”
No, it isn’t. It can’t be. Maybe Rick is no longer mine, but there are other Laras out there that need him and love him. He’s too nice of a person, too special, to just die here on this floor with no one but me to mourn him.
As he dies, the anger builds inside of me so intense that I scream. Like a tornado of emotion, time ripples out of me, more powerful than ever. Desks and chairs go flying, windows shatter out like a mighty storm rips through the building. A moment later, it all reverses and pulls itself back together as if nothing happened.
It went forward in time and then backward. If I can do that, why can’t I travel back in time?
Why?
I grip my hair and scream, picturing the moment before Jax shot his gun the first time. The vision is crystal clear in my head, slowly I edge toward it, nearly becoming one with the Lara from the past, but I hit a wall. I scream, cry and try again.
And again. Until my nose bleeds.
I force it, willing it to happen, time after time. Until my head feels it will split into two and I can barely here my own tears.
And then it happens. A shimmering portal above me opens and I stare up into the bridge and there’s the face of a surprised man staring at me. His eyes wide, mouth open, a look of untouched innocence about him that I can no longer comprehend. I’ve seen too much and felt too much pain.
I rise up, leaving Rick’s limp body onto the ground alone as his body continues to bleed out. The man on the bridge, whoever he is, he’s the one responsible for all of this and then I realize, I know him.
I’ve seen his face before.
He stuck me with the needle that started all this at my wedding reception, but not only that, I’ve seen his face even before that. He was the police officer that led me into an ambush when Cassidy, the time travel assassin, nearly killed me three years ago.
It’s him. I fear it’s always been him.
His eyes narrow and there’s a manic sort of pain behind them. He lifts his hand and the bridge starts to close. I won’t lose this chance. I whisper good-bye to Rick and a moment later, I bend my knees and shoot through the portal before it gets a chance to close.
I’m ready to end this. I’m ready to go back home.
Chapter Twenty-Six: Cassidy Winters
“Cass? Wake up. You okay?”
My eyes slowly open. I have a heart pulsing headache through my temples and the back of my skull. Taking a moment, I take in where I am and see I’m a patient in a hospital room. Don is sitting beside me with concern on his face, his hand on my arm, lovingly squeezing it.
“What happened?” I push myself up but when I do, I’m taken back by how much my body aches. I cover my mouth, fearing I might be sick.
“Easy, hon, easy.” Donovan holds a cup under my mouth. “Take a sip. You had a real bad blow to the head.”
I did? Why don’t I remember that?
I sip from the straw and then lay back down, close my eyes. I take a few breaths and try to remember where I had been and what I had been doing. My stomach felt so tight and nervous, it had to be something big.
But why couldn’t I remember it?
“What happened?” I ask again. My head spins and I grip the bedframe to right myself. It’s like the nastiest case of vertigo I’ve ever had.
“You had a little accident. Nothing serious, but you’ll recover. I’m just glad you’re awake.” Don smiles at me and takes my hand.
I sit up in bed, my brow furrowing. “What kind of accident? What happened? Was it work related—was someone hurt?”
“Other than you, no. Of course not.” His smile is smooth and too calm, almost as if he’s trying to make sure nothing upsets me.
“What do you…” I turn my head and can see outside the window of my door that there’s a man standing there in a policeman’s cap. “Why are the police outside my door?” I pull back my covers so I can take a look and realize my hand is handcuffed to the bed railing.
“Don?” I’m breathless with fear as I yank my wrist far as it will go. “What is this?”
“For your own protection. I promise I’m going to stand by you on this. No matter how long it takes to clear the air.”
Clear the air? “You’re scaring me. Just tell me what’s going on.”
Donovan’s face is so neutral and his voice so even, it scares me. “You were in Miranda’s office upstairs. Delilah got help because she your voice was getting loud and threatening.” Don sighs and stares off in the distance as if something is bothering him. He can’t say the words, whatever comes next has him tied up into knots.
“What happened? You have to tell me.”
“We don’t know for sure but it looks like you shot her. You were holding the gun and Miranda…” Don shook his head and can’t look at me.
My mouth falls open and I whisper. “Dead?”
Don rubs his face and won’t say it which means it’s true. I can’t fathom what he’s saying, but he wouldn’t lie. He loves me. “If I shot someone, I wouldn’t forget. If I killed her, I’d remember. There’s no reason why I’d hurt Dr. Crane!”
“Are you sure?” Don’s eyebrows crinkle. “There was nothing between you two?”
“No---I.” Suddenly, I’m not so sure as waves of memories hit me. “We met at a diner a few days ago to talk about things.” What Miranda said was fuzzy, but I remembered how her words had scared me and spurred me on to look into things I normally wouldn’t look into.
Don studies me intently. “If there’s something you know that can help your case…”
“She…” I remember as my memories lock into place. “She thought her daughter was killed to keep her working at Rewind. She thought that Rewind was involved in illegal activity, experiments. If any thing I was helping her. I wasn’t going to hurt her, Don.”
It was his mother. His mother that was going to hurt Miranda, not me. Could I share that with Don? Would he believe a word of it?
He lets out a long sigh, his hands in his pockets. “Rewind is on the cutting edge, I’ll give you that much, but illegal?” Don pulls away from me as if he doesn’t trust me.
“So, you’d trust Rewind before you trust me?”
“You were found with the gun, Cass. What am I supposed to think?”
“Did you see me with the gun or are you believing just what they tell you? Is this what your mother wants you to think?”
Don legs out a bitter laugh. “I don’t see what my mother has to do with anything. You know as well as I do, she’s been Miranda’s friend since college. We’re talking two decades. She’d have no reason to hurt her. So—.”
The door opens and Patricia enters with a soft smile on her face, but it’s one that doesn’t reach her chilly eyes. “Enough, Don. You’re going to upset the patient if you keep this up. You need to leave us so we can have a woman to woman chat. All right?”
I pull on my restraints; the last thing I want is to be left i
n the room with this woman. She killed a girl who was nothing more than a child, she murdered Miranda somehow and pinned it on me. Everything I know and am beginning to question starts and ends with this woman.
Don’s reluctant to leave. He gazes back at me and I beg him with my eyes for him to stay. His eyes might be filled with grief and apology, but he still leaves—closing the door behind him.
I blow out a deep breath and heart Patricia sit, sliding her chair toward me. “Now,” her lip curls on one side, “where should we begin, Ms. Winters?”
My heart pounds irregularly. There’s no kindness or compassion on her face as she slips a pair of latex gloves on. Whoever Patricia James really is, she’s cruel and keeps it hidden from her son. I want no part in her games or her company, but being handcuffed to a bed certainly doesn’t help the situation.
“If you’re going to consider jumping back or forward in time, we fit you with a restraint device,” Patricia warns me quietly. There’s a calming madness in the way she speaks and smiles like a mother would to a misbehaving child. “I must say, we were shocked when you exhibited time travel nuances. We weren’t aware you had been able to do that in other timelines, but it taught us a lot.”
“Like?” I’m not sure what she’s talking about. I’m pretty sure I’ve never traveled in time before.
“To always prepare for the unexpected, of course. Which is partially why we’re here. I need to know what Miranda told you and what she could prove?”
“I…I don’t know anything.”
“True, at least for now. We gave you something to impair your short-term memory, your memories of the last day are forgotten, but not gone. Now we’re going to extract them from you. So, we can see who else needs to be dealt with before all my plans go up in smoke.”
How would she do that? I freeze into place as the door opens and Rex enters. He’s wheeling a stainless-steel tray that’s covered in needles. When he picks one up, I wince and try to get free.
“It’s useless to try,” Rex says dispassionately as he expels liquid from the needle.
“It’ll only hurt a short while,” Patricia stands so Rex can slide in closer. My mind reels in all directions. I don’t want this. Where is Donovan and why is he letting them do this? I thought he cared. I thought we were forever.
“Please…” I back away as far as I can but Patricia uses both her hands to steady my head. Slowly she turns it to the side.
“In a few moments, you won’t be able to feel or move, but you will be aware at what we’re seeing. And you’ll be experience it as if it’s happening to you for the first time all over again.” Rex smiles and it terrifies me.
My teeth gnash and I scream. My fists clench and my back goes rigid, but none of it matters as the thick needle pushes between my vertebrae. I’m overcome with a sense of ice rushing up and down my brain stem. My mouth freezes in that scream unable to change, unable to move.
My feet twitch and I’m unable to stop or control it.
“You can let her go now,” Rex says as he wheels the cart away. Through the door he calls for some equipment and Patricia lets my head go.
She bends down to gaze into my unblinking eyes and snaps her fingers. “She didn’t even blink.”
“She can’t, darling, but trust me, she sees you. She’ll remember all of this. At least until we take her memories away.”
Rex laughs gently and Patricia joins him. My heart wants to slap them, it seeks revenge but it also seeks Donovan. Where is he and how could he let this happen? My knight in shining armor is not knight at all. Instead his armour’s dull and has begun to tarnish.
Chapter Twenty-Seven: Future Mike Montgomery
“She knows. She’s pieced it all together.” Rex sighs and throws himself down into his office chair behind his desk. The blinds are drawn tight so no one can see us in his private office and he It swivels toward his computer monitor and he rubs his temples as if a great headache is coming on. I’ve seen him do it before.
I open the bottle of aspirin sitting on his desk and fling two pills at him. He opens his han to catch them and I slow time down, spin the pills, so they’ll land softly into his open palm. Ads he grabs the glass of water beside him, he smirks.
“Always such a showoff, Mike.”
Shrugging, I loosen the collar of my suit and sit on the edge of his desk. “The girls think they’re the only ones that are special, that’ll be their undoing in the end, Uncle.”
“Perhaps, but now that we’ve outted you to them, they’ll grow more careful. More suspicious. Are you sure that’s really what you wanted?”
“He needs them to know, that fifteen-year-old version of me that’s in pain, that feels cut off from his family and friends. He knows they keep secrets from him and want to hurt them as much as they’ve hurt him. It’s the only way we can get him to turn into me,” I smirk and it might be as devilish as my uncle’s.
“And what do you need? Twenty-three-year-old Mike Montgomery?”
“Power. The power to crush them and take what they leave behind.”
Rex flicks his pencil onto the desktop. “The young you is vulnerable. Cassidy and especially Molly, could turn him with a few kind words. His twin has a way with him and always had. If you hadn’t been lurking around to keep them apart here…”
“Keep them both away and that pesky half-sister of mine, Lara?”
“She’ll never escape out of the timeline she’s been trapped in. Not if you’re as powerful as I think you are.”
There’s a knock at the door and I stand to face it. On the other side, another version of Rex escorts the younger version of me we’ve been talking about. He’s as proper as I remember him being in his polo shirt and slacks. His hair is well combed to one side and there’s so much of our mother in his face, that it makes my stomach churn with acid.
He looks at me with that small turn up of his lips, the tilt of his head, his button nose so perfect you almost want to punch him. “The game’s been fun,” he says calmly, “but I’m ready now to go home. I’m ready to show Molly, Lara, everyone that I can do the things they can do. I’m ready for you to bring my mom back.”
Both Rexes stiffen. The one behind the desk dismisses the one by teenage Mike. I glance back at my Uncle before bending down in front of Mike. “You’re family isn’t ready yet. They don’t understand our brilliance yet, Mike. If you want to grow up and become me, we need a little more. Cassidy and Molly will try to undo everything that we’ve done. They’ll want to study you. Maybe even lock you up on the bridge for all that you can do.”
Mike backs up a step and looks at me and Rex with fright in his eyes. “What do you mean?”
“You don’t just travel in time like the girls. You’re more powerful,” Rex smiles.
I watch Mike’s face as he falls under Rex’s spell. Time after time, it’s always fascinating to watch him work and watch him create followers.
“You can change circumstances, bend time, even steal it on a whim. They won’t be able to just let you go. Sure, they’ll say you’re a danger to the universe, the earth, bending time is bad for humanity, etc etc. In reality what they’re saying is, they don’t want to be one upped by the likes of you. The little brother. The boy. It’s always been an exclusive girls’ club, hasn’t it?”
Slowly Mike nods. “I don’t want them to get hurt.”
“They won’t be hurt,” Rex says. “Lara is perfectly safe. When it’s time, you’ll all be reunited, but first we need things here to cement a bit longer. We need to make sure Molly won’t interfere in what is about to happen.”
“What is going to happen?”
“Patricia will secure the vote so that all time travel restrictions are removed. That’ll give us the ability to practice on her behalf and the memory swiping program will move forward at an unpresented level.”
“Do they know?” Mike scowls. “What we can do?” He looks to me.
I smile. “If people realized I have learned to replace memories on a broad s
cale, change the circumstances and events of this timeline without creating a new one, no one would let me live, Mike. Remember that our futures are linked. If you go, I cease to exist, and if I go, you have no future.”
Mike nods and swallows hard. It’s a lot of information to take in all at once so I pat his shoulder. “Why don’t I take you out for ice cream. Just you and me? I’ll make sure all your fears are put aside.”
“Yes,” Rex says with a lick of his upper lip. “Why don’t you do that? Mike here can erase all your fears, I’m sure of it.”
As was I. It was like taking candy from a baby.
Chapter Twenty-Eight: Lara James
I charge up onto the bridge, shooting up through it with so much momentum, I almost bounce off the ceiling. Landing on the ground with a thud, I come face to face with Mike. Not the brother I remember, but an older version who resembles more Rex than Jax with his brown hair and devilish smirk.
He’s taken after his uncle and not his father. That realization turns and twists in my gut until it makes me sick.
He’s been concentrating too long on keeping me out of the bridge. His contorted face shows signs of cracking and perspiration. He wipes at the trail of blood from his nose. “Well, I guess there’s no keeping the infamous Lara Montgomery down, is there?”
His words are the closest to hurting me he could’ve gotten with the amount of anger I’m feeling. “I shouldn’t be infamous to you, Mike. You’re my little brother. I don’t know how we got here, but think of Molly. Think of—.”
Mike steps forward and won’t let me continue. “How it happened? How about you, the great Lara Crane, couldn’t stop messing with time. You stole everything from me that should’ve been mine. Mom, Dad, even Molly…no one even noticed me. I couldn’t have paid for the type of attention that people can’t stop giving you even though you’re the screw up. ”
“If I hadn’t changed time, you never would’ve been born. I know I complicated things. I’ve made mistakes and I pay for them every day but without those mistakes, Mom would still be dead. How you can side with Rex when—.”