Out of This World

by Jill Shalvis

Because Curly stood there, gun pointed directly at me.

  “Hands up,” he said, with a nasty smile revealing his distaste of daily hygiene.

  I went from icy fear to furious anger. Gun or no gun, I was getting damn tired of the fear. In fact, I wasn’t going to be afraid again. Unless I saw a spider. “I can’t let go,” I said, gripping the drainpipe.

  “No problem.” He took aim. “I can shoot you from right here.”

  Ah hell. “Okay,” I said. “Maybe I can let go.”

  “Atta girl.”

  With nothing else up my sleeve, I had little choice. I began to slither down the pipe, heart pounding in my throat. “Shooting me would be a bad idea,” I said, just in case he got trigger-happy.

  “Why’s that?”

  “Because I’ve hidden the laptop.”

  He just looked at me.

  “You need it to do the swap of the abilities,” I reminded him.

  “No problem.” Curly smiled evilly. “Because you’re going to tell me all about where you hid it.” His fist closed at my nape, and squeezed. “Start talking.”

  “Um.”

  “Faster, hot stuff.” His breath was rank enough to nearly knock me out. To add insult, he ran the gun up my ribs, over the side of my breast.

  I’ll never know where the move came from—probably from watching too many Jackie Chan movies—but I kicked back and nailed him in the knee.

  “Fuck!” He bent, and somehow I managed to elbow him in the throat.

  He let out a gargling sound and hit the ground.

  Okay, so far so good. I whirled to run, but he recovered quickly, damn pirate, and wrapped his arms around my legs.

  Then tugged.

  Hard.

  And down over the top of him I went. He smelled like week-old garbage, but his body was whipcord hard and sinewy, which did not bode well for me. While I was still in shock, he rolled me beneath him and grinned down at me.

  I kneed him in the balls, hard enough to make him pale, but not hard enough to incapacitate him.

  Bad idea, Rach.

  We rolled around for a minute, me trying to get loose, him trying to cop a feel and control me at the same time, but neither of us getting much of what we wanted.

  Finally I crawled free—

  Only to feel his gun jam into my back.

  “Now, I’ve gotcha,” he said.

  Chapter 22

  Kellan’s view of things

  Y ou know what would be nice? If I could just wake up from this nightmare. Only unfortunately, I’m not dreaming. I really am standing with my hands up, facing a thug who thinks he’s a pirate from an alternate universe.

  And oh yeah, he has a helluva gun.

  All this, with Rach on the drainpipe outside the window. Please let her still be safe on the drainpipe outside the window.

  “Down,” the pirate that Rach had nicknamed Moe said to me.

  I hoped like hell Rach was sliding down that drainpipe and running for her life, and not planning on doing something stupid, like rescuing me.

  Moe pointed his gun to the floor impatiently. “I said down, asshole!”

  Rachel, walk away. Do not take this as a challenge to come save my hide.

  But I could think it all I wanted. I had no telepathy skills, and in any case, Rachel didn’t have such great listening skills. She did what she wanted, when she wanted, which truthfully, was part of what made me love her so damn much.

  “Are you deaf? Get down!”

  I hesitated, thinking if he just came even a little bit closer, I could wring his neck, even if said neck was five times thicker than mine. See, getting superpowers had to be good for something.

  Tired of me, he turned and fired off a round about a foot from William’s head, reminding me that he was dead serious.

  Serena screamed as down I went, first to my knees, then to my hands, thanks to a vicious jab in my ribs from Curly.

  “Flat on your face, asshole.”

  Nice new nickname.

  “Now!”

  So with another bone-crunching jab to yet a different rib, I kissed the ground, thinking maybe I should just be thankful he was more fond of jabbing at me than actually shooting me. Bruises were a helluva lot easier to recover from than gaping holes in the flesh.

  As my cheek pressed into the floor, dust tickled my nose. Seemed Marilee was an even worse maid than a cook, and that was saying something. I sneezed.

  Moe leaned down and peered into my watering eyes. “Shut up.”

  In answer, I sneezed again.

  “I mean it. Shut up.”

  Pissed off, I lay there, inhaling dust, trying not to sneeze, and contemplated my choices.

  And it occurred to me for not the first time that the extra strength wasn’t nearly as convenient as Rach’s new vision, or, say, the ability to read the minds of these jerks. Unable to hold it back, I sneezed again, and a new pain radiated through my head. As my vision faded to black, I had to sigh. Yeah. Definitely, I’d rather have had a mind-reading ability, as then I’d have been able to anticipate that blow to the head…

  I woke up with a headache from hell and the taste of blood in my mouth. But I had all my teeth and appeared to have all of the rest of me as well, though every single inch hurt like a son-of-a-bitch.

  I was sitting, my back to a beam in the center of the room.

  Moe was tying me up, my hands behind me, my feet straight out in front of me. He yanked the ropes far tighter than he needed to, cutting into my skin. When I winced, he slid his eyes to mine and made sure to back up to a safe distance, holding his gun on me. “I did you a favor tying you up in front of the chick.” He jerked his head toward Serena. “You can see right through her clothes, right?” He chortled. “Lucky dog. Enjoy it, because soon we’re going to drag you out to the woods and do the swap, and then I’ll get to look through her clothes all I want.”

  His thinking I had Rach’s ability was probably the only thing that had kept him from seriously incapacitating me. If he’d known I had the strength, he’d have had to be much more thorough in hurting me so that I couldn’t hurt him back.

  I glanced at Serena, still tied to her chair. She’d been crying, and she had a bloody lip. But as she glanced at the rope they were using on me, her lips quirked with genuine wry humor. We both knew I could break the rope with one flex of a muscle.

  William was tied at her back, facing away from me, and he murmured something to her, and she nodded.

  Moe moved to a corner of the room, sitting on the bed to talk into a radio he held.

  Serena met my gaze. “It’s nearly sunrise,” she said softly.

  The dot on Gertrude’s calendar weighed heavily on my mind, as did the gut-tightening fear over Rachel and where she was right at this moment. “What happens at sunrise?”

  “The reverse swap. We need the laptop,” she whispered. “It puts us in control. And—”

  “Jesus. There’s more?”

  “It affords us a certain protection. Without it…things could go bad.”

  As opposed to how great things were now, I supposed. “Where is it?”

  “I left it in the kitchen, which is where they nabbed us. It’s in the pantry. I’m so sorry,” she whispered, her eyes filling. “I’m so sorry this is happening to you and Rachel.”

  Moe glanced over at them, his gun at the ready, but went back to talking on his radio.

  “Can Rachel get the laptop?” Serena whispered.

  “I don’t know.” I tried not to think about all that could be happening to her right now.

  “This shouldn’t have gone down like this,” William said over Serena’s shoulder. “You and Rachel should have gone home tomorrow and never have known about any of this.”

  “That would have worked for me. Maybe you people should move your vacation spot to a different location. Say Siberia. Or better yet, stop vacationing all together.”

  “I know it seems strange to you,” Serena said, “but our abilities get heavy. When we come here, w
e can drop them for the weekend, and rest.”

  “Not drop,” I said. “Swap.”

  Guilt flashed across her face. “Well yes. Swap.”

  “You gave them to unsuspectings. That’s against the rules.”

  “Ah.” Serena nodded. “You’ve read the rules.”

  “They were in the Blackberry.”

  “The blackberry!” Serena whispered, relief flashing over her face. “That’ll work. Do you have that?”

  Moe glanced over at us, and we went quiet. When the pirate went back to his conversation via radio, I looked at Serena. “Tell me what happens after the swap.”

  “Normally? We just go home.”

  “How?”

  “It’s a sort of molecular rearranging. You’ve heard the boom.”

  “The lightning.”

  “Not really lightning, but yes, that’s the noise it makes. We do it here because no one hears it.”

  “Yeah, we used to do it in Nevada,” William said. “But the noise eventually drew too much attention. People thought we were aliens from another planet. It got messy.”

  “So you came to Alaska.”

  “Right. But it’s problematic here, too. It’s butt-ass cold here for one, and also getting too well known. Like I mentioned, we’re building a new place in the Bahamas. Warm and isolated. Do you have the Blackberry or not?”

  Moe slipped his radio into his pocket and eyeballed us in a way that put my back up all over again. I certainly didn’t answer William. I was thinking about how to get the pirate close enough so that I could break free of my bonds and get his gun.

  Before he used it.

  “Hey,” I called out to him. “Did you hear that?”

  Moe frowned. “What?”

  I jerked my head toward the door. “Right out there.” Come on, asshole, walk right by me to get to the door.

  Instead, Moe aimed the gun at the door and blasted eight holes in it. The sound was deafening, and made him grin. “Hope that wasn’t your hot stuff. Be a shame to hurt her before I get her ability. That strength, it’s going to come in handy.” He waved his gun, taunting me. “So big guy, how many bullets do I have left, hmm?” He aimed right between Serena’s eyes.

  She cringed back against William.

  Moe laughed. “Do I have one left to nail her or not?”

  “Leave her—”

  The doors, filled with holes, burst open, and Curly stood there, a gun around his neck, another in one hand, and in his other…I couldn’t see past the doorjamb. He looked right at me, smiled malevolently and tugged.

  Rachel fell against him.

  “Says she doesn’t have the laptop,” Curly announced.

  “She doesn’t!” Serena cried. “I do.”

  Rach was looking a little worse for wear, sporting an already blackening eye, a cut lip and a torn camisole. “I’m sorry,” she gasped. “Oh, Kel. I’m sorry.”

  “No.” An unholy fury went through me, but I forced myself to concentrate on the obvious. “Don’t be sorry, Rach.” She was alive, and alive was good.

  Curly shoved Rachel, and she hit her knees hard. Then, with his really big gun in our faces, he gestured for Moe to untie Serena and William. He nudged them to the door. “We’re going to get the laptop. Don’t either of you two move,” he said to me and Rach. “We’ll just take care of this little matter first, then be back for you.”

  “You need them alive,” I said. “Don’t kill them.”

  Curly shook his head. “Nope, it’s you two we need alive.”

  “Oh, please don’t kill them!” Rach cried, hopping back up to her feet.

  Curly came close to her. Then, because he was clearly just a little afraid, he jabbed at her with the tip of his gun for sport.

  “Leave her alone,” I said.

  But Curly, miscreant that he was, had just discovered something. By running the gun down Rach’s throat and tucking it beneath the material of her camisole, he could pull the top out and look inside.

  Rachel slapped away his gun, and in return, he slapped her—hard.

  Again she hit her knees. She lifted her head and glared at him. “I’m guessing you don’t have a girlfriend.”

  “You’re my new girlfriend, hot stuff.”

  I tried to keep breathing rather than dive at him, because all that would do was get me killed and leave Rachel alone to face this mess.

  Curly jabbed his gun at Serena and Will, heading with them to the door, but Rach called out, “I’m warning you. Don’t kill them. If you do, the crack between the alternate planes will close up, and you won’t be able to get home.”

  Curly’s mouth gaped open. “What?”

  Moe scratched his head at that one, and dust rose from his dreadlocks.

  Serena nodded so hard, her hair fell into her face. “It’s true. Our deaths would upset the balance.”

  Curly shoved her out, and nodded to Moe, who turned back to us, cradling his gun. Our guard, apparently.

  And then, from above us, came another mysterious thud.

  “Shit,” Moe muttered. “Now what?”

  “Don’t worry, it’s probably just the other guests,” Rach offered.

  “There aren’t any other—”

  “You sure?” she asked him.

  Moe growled. “Damn it.” He pointed his gun at her. “I swear to God, if you move while I’m gone, I’ll kill you both. Got it?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  He slammed out, leaving us alone. I had no idea how long that was going to last, so I ripped out of my bonds and hauled Rach up against me, never being so happy to hold her in my entire life. “Are you okay?” I demanded, at the same time that she caught my face in her hands and demanded the same thing.

  We looked at each other, then bear-hugged again.

  “God, Kel, I was so scared for you—”

  “I was hoping you’d gotten away—”

  “I heard the gunshots—”

  I squeezed her tighter. “I’m okay.”

  “But Serena and William—”

  “Can you see them?”

  She looked down at the floor. Biting her lip, she narrowed her gaze, searching. “Oh!”

  “What?”

  “Curly has them.” She frowned. “That’s weird.”

  “What? Where are they?”

  “In Gertrude’s office.” She shook her head in surprise. “Why—”

  “She led them there for the laptop.”

  “Which is no longer there,” she said slowly, “and she knows it. Oh God. She’s stalling. For us!” Her eyes went wide and wild with panic. “Do you think he’ll kill them?”

  “Not until they get what they want. They’re not that stupid. Look again, Rach,” he instructed. “Where’s Moe, and what is he doing?”

  She focused. “He’s upstairs, walking down the hallway. We have a minute.” Gripping me, she looked right into my eyes. “Back there, on the drainpipe, when you went in for William and Serena, I thought I’d never see you again, that we’d die before—”

  I put my finger over her lips. “Let’s just get out of here.”

  “But—”

  Click.

  We both looked at the bullet-torn door—specifically, at the handle, which was slowly turning.

  Chapter 23

  D on’t scream, Rachel, don’t scream. This is what I repeated to myself over and over as I tried to focus.

  Kel pulled me behind him, around the side of a tallboy, his hand on my hip, gently squeezing, whether to hold me in place or try to soothe me, I had no idea. Whatever the reason, it caused a lump the size of a regulation football to form in my throat. Of course, it might just have been due to old-fashioned fear, because any second now, we were going to die.

  I’d never in my life been on edge so much for so long. If I ever got out of here and back to the real world—was there even a real world?—I was going to embrace my quiet, lovely life.

  But the person who pushed open the door wasn’t a pirate with a gun. It was Marilee. At t
he sight of us, she let out a cry of relief, and slipped inside. “Okay, listen. We can still get you out of here. All you have to do is—”

  “Axel is looking for you,” I said. “He’s frantic—”

  “I found her.” Axel came in behind Marilee. He had smeared lipstick on his lips. Marilee followed my shocked look and let out a rough laugh as she reached up and gently swiped a thumb over his lips. “My bad.”

  Axel smiled down at her. “It’s okay. I like wearing you.”

  “Oh, Axel.” She put her head down on his shoulder, and the man pulled her in close, squeezing her tight, closing his eyes, as he sighed her name.

  Marilee pulled back and looked into his face. “You meant it, right?”

  “Meant what?” I asked.

  Marilee smiled dreamily, something that softened her features and made her even more beautiful, if that were possible. “He said he loved me, that he would always love me. That even without my abilities, he wanted to be with me until the end of time.”

  I blinked. “Without your abilities?”

  Marilee’s glowing smile slowly faded. “Um, did I neglect to tell you about our abilities?”

  “Yes,” Kellan said. “You could say you forgot to tell us that. You could also say you forgot to tell us just about every damn thing.”

  Axel unstrapped one of the two guns around his chest and handed it to Kel. “This might ease some of the pain.”

  Kel took the gun, inspected the chamber, or whatever it was called. I had no idea how he knew to do such a thing, or why he looked so big, bad and tough as he then pulled the strap over his own shoulder. He lifted his head, his eyes sharp and focused, without an ounce of fun, easygoing guy in sight. “So you two are from…”

  “An alternate plane, yes,” Marilee admitted quietly, slipping her hand in Axel’s. “Our abilities were stolen a few years back and never recovered. It happened in Gert’s place.” She paused, and brought shaky fingers up to her mouth.

  “That’s why she still gets uncomfortable in there,” Axel said, and slipped an arm around her. “It was awful for her.”

  “What happened after your powers were gone?” I asked. “You went home?”

  “Not without our abilities. Can’t. So we stayed. Gertrude hired us.”