A Break in Time

by Michelle Miles

  “I presume she’s with you, after all?” he continued.

  “You leave her out of this,” Dane growled.

  “You couldn’t kill her, could you? That’s why you two disappeared. I just hadn’t thought you’d disappear with one of the time benders.”

  One of the time benders? But there was only one that he knew of.

  “You look confused, Mr. Fortune.” He smirked, clearly gloating that he had the upper hand. “Maybe you’d like to tell me what you’re doing here?”

  “I could ask you the same question. Since when did you become a slave trader?”

  “Since Charles Ridgewood and I struck a deal together. He’s quite the savvy businessman, I’ve got to admit. But really none of this matters and it’s time you visited the hold. I can’t have you getting in the way. I just wanted to let you know who had beaten you.”

  As if this man could ever have a shot in hell at beating Dane Fortune. He’d make sure of that.

  Conner stepped around him and flung open the door, motioning for his two guards who stood outside.

  “So that’s it, then? You throw me in the hold? No exacting revenge or anything?” Dane asked.

  “There will be time for that later, after we reach Borneo.”

  “Borneo?”

  Conner gave him a shove out the door. “We’ll sail up the Kapuas River and once we dock, you’ll be left there in the jungle. We’ll see how well you survive on your own.”

  Son of a bitch. They were headed to Borneo, on the other side of the world, for God’s sake. Ridgewood had quite the operation going on here. The guard took Dane by the arm and led him to the hold where he knew the women were. He couldn’t let them set sail or it was all over. He and Skye would be separated indefinitely.

  Dane mulled over the possibilities of what he could do—fight the guards and cause a scene, but where would that get him? He’d still end up in the hold and most likely with shackles on his wrists. He couldn’t chance it. A shout rose up from the starboard side of the ship.

  War cries? He had heard that before, when he and Tia were running from the villagers and the shaman.

  Pausing, they looked up in time to see the village men swarming over the side of the ship. All of them wielding a spear. That wouldn’t do against the rifles the guards had. Taking action, Dane shoved the one on his left and spun to the one on his right, kicking him in the groin. The guard’s rifle clattered to the wooden planks and Dane snatched it up.

  Dane spotted Tia boarding the ship and standing off to the side, out of the way of the melee. The moment of distraction gave the first guard time to recover and he grabbed Dane around the neck. Reacting quickly, Dane used the butt of the gun and plunged it in his gut.

  Releasing him, Dane headed for Tia just as one of Conner’s pirates snatched her. Pausing, he aimed and shot the man right between the eyes. She screamed as he fell to the ground.

  “Tia!” Dane reached her and grabbed her by the arm, dragging her with him to safety. “What the hell are you doing here? I told you to stay put.”

  “I saw the men capture you,” she said above the din of gunshots and war cries. “I brought them to help.”

  “Great.”

  Glancing at the scantily clad villagers, he could see them all locked into a battle with the pirates. He wondered, though, what she said to inspire them to fight when they seemed content to trade their women off before. He’d have to sort that out later. Right now, he had other priorities.

  “I’ve got to get to the hold.” He turned to her, holding her by her arms. “You stay out of sight. You hear?”

  She nodded, though he suspected if she hadn’t listened last time, she probably wouldn’t this time.

  “I mean it, Tia. I don’t have time to come back saving your ass.”

  “I will be fine.” Tilting her head upward, she haughtily looked down her nose at him. “My mother and sister, however, will not.”

  “Right.”

  Leaving Tia, Dane headed for the hold.

  “Drop the sails!”

  Oh, shit. Dane skittered to a halt and saw Conner standing at the helm shouting orders. Those who weren’t locked into hand-to-hand combat bustled around the ship getting it ready to sail. Shit, double shit.

  More village men swarmed on board. How Tia managed that, he hadn’t a clue. His only priority was to get to the hold and stop the ship from sailing. Not necessarily in that order. As he spun on his heel toward the helm, he saw Conner backed against the railing and pirates versus villagers fighting for control of the ship.

  There’s something you don’t see everyday. Dane took that moment of distraction to get to the women. He hurried into the underbelly of the ship and found, much to his dismay, the last of them shoved inside the cells. They were heavily guarded, too.

  Nothing was ever easy, he thought as he raked his hand through his hair.

  As he paused, pondering his next move, one of the guards spotted him and cocked his gun. Dane reacted faster, though, with his CIA instincts and fired first. Guard #1 crumpled to the deck and Dane suddenly felt like he was about to be in a shoot-out. Doc Holliday he was not.

  And he was out of bullets.

  Guard #2 charged him and Dane used the butt of his rifle to smash it into his head. Then, holding it by the barrel, swung it in a wide arc and smacked Guard #3 who ended up unconscious. Guard #2, though, was a persistent fellow.

  After regaining his composure from the hit he took from Dane’s rifle, he charged. Dane thanked his lucky stars Conner hadn’t bothered to search him. He whipped the dagger from his waistband and with a flick of his wrist, the blade found its way into the abdomen of Guard #2.

  “Sorry, man.” Dane knelt at his side as he gasped his final breath and rifled through his pockets, looking for the keys to the cells.

  He searched Guard #3 and found the keys. Grinning broadly he stood up and came face-to-face with the ladies from the village—who were all staring at him with wide eyes.

  Getting them out of the cell was the easy part. He’d worry about that in a minute as he unlocked each cell. But the women still stood inside staring at him.

  “Well, come on. We don’t have all day!” He waved his hand as if to shoo them out.

  A young girl who couldn’t be more than ten stepped out of the cell and looked up at him with the brightest brown eyes he’d ever seen. The resemblance to Tia was remarkable and he knew she had to be her sister. He just hadn’t expected her to be so young.

  “I’m here to help,” he said. “Is your sister Tia?”

  Recognition flashed through her eyes and it occurred to him she probably didn’t speak English.

  “Tia,” she repeated. “Sent you?”

  Apparently she knew a smattering of English. “Yes, and we have to get off this ship.” He waved his arms as if that would explain what he was trying to convey. “All of us.” Another circle to encompass himself, the girl and the ladies still refusing to budge from the cells.

  The girl turned to the others, spoke rapidly and excitedly in Portuguese to the group. The women poured out of the cells and surrounded Dane, touching him, patting him, hugging him.

  “Ladies, please. One at a time.”

  Despite the flattery, he knew they had to get moving. He reached for Tia’s sister. “Do you speak English?”

  “Some,” she smiled, batting her long dark lashes at him and then pointing to herself. “Sofia.”

  “Dane.” He flashed a grin and wiggled his way from the middle of the circle. “Come with me.”

  Getting out of the hold undetected…was another matter entirely.

  Chapter Ten: Revenge—A Dish Best Served Cold

  “It resets itself?” Ridgewood peered down at the time bender still in his hand. “How so?”

  “I don’t know. That’s what Thomas Hardy told me. It’s the way my father set it up. The bender won’t work for seventy-two hours after the jump.”

  “Interesting. I never had a flaw like that before in mine. If, in fact
, it is a flaw.” He closed his hand around the time bender and slipped it back into his pocket.

  “But yours is flawed,” she said, giving into a small moment of triumph. “You’re here, aren’t you?”

  “Touché, Ms. Ransom.” He bowed to her with a flourish, making her wish he’d just drop dead. “You and this Fortune fellow…you two traveled together with the one bender?”

  “Yes.” It was pointless to lie anymore. He would find out the truth regardless. “Now I want to know how the hell you know my father would sell out to the Chinese.” Skye had nothing to lose anymore. He had her bender and knew how it worked. All that was left was for him to use it and leave her and Dane there.

  “I overheard a conversation between him and someone else in the lab. I can only assume it would be this Thomas Hardy fellow. But it doesn’t matter, does it?” A smile quirked the edge of his mouth. “Because your parents are dead, aren’t they?”

  Skye felt all the blood rush out of her head and plunge toward her toes. Her stomach knotted. “How do you know that?”

  “I know,” he said, “because Conner Dade hired a so-called hit man to kill them. I know because I told Conner how to get away from that hit man—who was ordered to kill him, too. Just like I knew you and Dane Fortune were coming.” He gave her a smirk of triumph.

  “That’s impossible!” she exclaimed, her blood boiling in her veins. None of this made sense. “There’s no way you could know any of that.”

  “Believe what you will, but Conner Dade and I have been business partners for quite some time.”

  “But you said earlier—”

  “That Conner didn’t understand the power. He understands it now and he’s alive and well. He’s also a fine ship captain.”

  “I don’t understand any of this.” Skye sank on the edge of the bed, her head pounding. She rubbed her temples. “You’re telling me you and Conner Dade are business partners and he’s the captain of a ship?”

  “My ship…the ship he sails to Borneo and back to trade the village ladies for raw diamonds.”

  She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Had he just admitted to her he was a slave trader and Conner was helping him? “You’re trading these women for diamonds? Why?”

  “It’s a lucrative business deal, my dear, and a little something we call transmigration.”

  “So you’re taking the women from this village across the world for your own sick and twisted purposes?”

  “And diamonds. Lots of them, which I take back to the real world and sell to the highest bidder. It’s made me quite the rich man.”

  “Why the women?”

  “Because I’ve run out of guns and ammunition and other trinkets of value.”

  “You scumbag.” She hissed the words out on a whisper. “You’re more despicable than I thought.”

  “Thank you, my dear, but I do have my priorities. That’s getting back to my time with all the money I can gather.”

  “And how are you going to get to it? It won’t happen with that.” She pointed to his pocket where her time bender resided. “You can’t use it because it’s busted. I told you that already.”

  “Don’t underestimate me. I’m quite sure I can fix it. Now, you be a good girl and don’t try anything funny. I’m going to see what I can do.” He pulled the time bender out once more and wagged it at her.

  “You’re leaving me here?”

  “Locked in, of course, with guards at the door. But fear not. I’ll be back for you.” He cupped her chin in his hand staring down into her eyes. “You are the spitting image of your mother.”

  She jerked her chin away. “And you’re a vile excuse for a human being.”

  He raised his hand as if to strike her once more but paused mid-air when she didn’t flinch. Fixing her with one last lingering glare, he turned on his heel and darted from the room, the door slamming behind him.

  It gave Skye a moment of silence to process everything he had told her. And suddenly it occurred to her—what if Dane didn’t kill her parents in cold blood? Ridgewood had called him a “so-called hit man”. And Dane had told her he worked for the CIA…

  She jumped to her feet and ran to the balcony, looking down. Since Ridgewood wasn’t likely to give back her bender, she had to get to Dane, though she hadn’t a clue where she’d look first. If Conner Dade’s timeline had been altered by Ridgewood then there had to be a way she and Dane could alter the timeline of her parent’s death.

  Adrenaline surging, she looked left and right, trying to find some way to get down. It wasn’t that far of a drop. They were only on the second story, after all, and she could just jump. Then again…she never was a daredevil and having these lashes on her back already made it less than ideal. She could always do the cliché tie the sheets together and try to climb down but she really didn’t have time for that.

  She had a sense of urgency and she had to get out of there now before Ridgewood came back.

  And then she spotted it—a trellis running the length of the building at the end of the balcony. She could climb up on the balcony edge, grab on and climb down. Piece of cake.

  Smiling broadly, she did just that. Scooting along the edge of the balcony—and glancing fearfully down every few seconds—she made her way to the trellis. And put one foot on the first lattice…and immediately felt the flimsy plant support begin to give way.

  Unfortunately, there was no turning back. Fortunately, there were plenty of bushes she landed in with a yelp.

  Whimpering, and the lashes on her back now causing her excruciating pain, she rolled to her side, managing to get her feet under her and standing up. Her dive hadn’t gone unnoticed because the field workers headed in her direction.

  Oh, shit.

  It was the last thing she needed, but perhaps she could use this to her advantage. Ridgewood did say he had plans to sell the village ladies into slavery. She held her hands up as in surrender. The first man—a tall thin man with long black hair stuck to his head with sweat—paused in front of her.

  “Hi.” She put on her best smile, trying to win them over. “I bet you’re wondering what I’m doing in the bushes, huh?”

  No response. Not that she really expected one. He probably didn’t speak English.

  “I was, uh, up there—” she pointed above her head, “—when the funniest thing happened. It seems, well, I fell.” She started to laugh; a nervous laugh and she knew she babbled.

  “Deusa de fogo.” The man pointed at her. Then he turned to the gathering crowd of men behind him and shouted it. “Deusa de fogo!”

  “Yeah, um, goddess of fire. That’s funny. But, you know, we really need to talk about that because…”

  Her words trailed off when he put his palms together and actually bowed to her. Skye took that as a very good sign. She grinned, her mind spinning as she formed a plan to use it to her advantage.

  “I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”

  * * *

  Dane was tied to the main mast. Things were not looking good at all, especially since Conner and his pirates had recaptured the ladies—and were not the nicest fellows either—and shoved them all back into the hold.

  “I have to hand it to you, Fortune. You’re resourceful.” Conner stood in front of him again, the boat gently rocking to and fro.

  Dane had tried to get the ladies to safety, but they couldn’t make it off the ship undetected. And now Tia was their prisoner as well. There was only so much one man could do. He needed a backup plan. Hell, he needed a fricking army if he was going to succeed in this insane task. He wasn’t Indiana Jones, dammit.

  If he had his gun, Conner would already be dead.

  “But not resourceful enough,” Conner said.

  “You’re right. I’m not.” Dane forced a smile. This man was really starting to get on his nerves.

  Not only did Conner not have a shred of conscience about selling the women into slavery, but he’d managed to kill or seriously wound the few male villagers Tia had
rallied. What the hell was he going to do now?

  Not a goddamn thing. Especially not tied to this mast. His arms were pulled back around the thing and there was no way in holy hell he was getting out of this mess.

  Where was a real pirate when you needed one?

  He had a sudden craving for a cigarette, something he’d not had in a long while.

  “Aaaeeeeeeiiiiii!”

  The shout rose up from the surrounding jungle, making all the hairs on his arms stand at attention. It sounded like a very similar war cry to the one he had heard earlier when he was being chased by the villagers and then later when the handful of men stormed the decks of the ship. But there was something different about this one. Something that signaled all hell was about to break loose.

  Conner spun and dashed for the railing, as did his men.

  “Aaaeeeeeeiiiiii!”

  “Captain?”

  “I don’t see them,” Conner said.

  Dane could hear something whistling through the air and his instinct told him to duck. No such chance of that happening. He scanned the late afternoon sky, looking for the something—anything—that could make that sound. He saw it then—the arrow arching in the air and headed straight for—

  Thunk.

  It found its way into the neck of one of Conner’s pirates. He fell backward to the deck, blood streaming from the wound.

  “Raise the anchor!” Conner shouted. “Get us out of here now.”

  But it was too late. A rain of arrows pelted the ship. A few brave men stood at the railing, firing their flintlock pistols into the jungle, only hoping to hit their targets.

  “Jackson, take several men and go below. Fire the cannons!”

  “Aye, sir!”

  Confusion and mass hysteria. If that’s what whoever was in the jungle was going for, they got it. Conner ran toward the helm, shouting orders to lower the sails.

  Why couldn’t he get an arrow in the head? Dane watched the madman, thinking what a coward he was.

  Rising up on tiptoe, he hoped to stretch tall enough to see what was happening. Suddenly the men at the railing scattered as more arrows rained down and one happened to find a place in the main mast just above Dane’s head.