Jim looked around wild-eyed and mumbled under his breath. “This is nuts man. Nuts.”
Landon kicked Jim’s boot. “What’s happening?”
Jim sucked in a tortured breath. “The zombies are contained, but this older looking Vice President Declan showed up with her Complement, Anna—” He pointed to me. “And the kid.” His head lowered in guilt for a moment.
Kaden jerked away from us and lunged at Jim with his arm cocked back. Landon held him off. “Hold on a minute!”
“That son of a bitch was going to shoot my son!”
Sawyer sobbed louder.
“Son?” Elle said from the shadows.
“I swear, I’d never hurt him.” Jim held up his hands.
“Didn’t look like that to me,” Kaden seethed.
“It was just intimidation… to get Abby to talk. We knew you had the cure, so…” Jim shook his head. “I don’t know anymore. None of this makes sense anymore.”
“Where are they holding Anna?” I asked.
Jim’s brows crinkled up. “In the President’s office. She don’t have the cure either, but… she knows who’s got it and won’t tell. She’s done got that Vice President all in a tizzy.”
I sighed. She’d asked me to kill him. Could we have avoided all of this if I had? “Do you know where the office is?”
“Yeah, sure. But why did everythin’ change?” He stood up and scanned the room. “What is this place?”
I clenched my jaw. “Can we just go?”
He ran to me and Kaden moved between us. “Stay back!”
“No, please, miss. You have to take me back there,” he pleaded. “Please, I have a wife and kids.”
“We need to find Declan,” Kaden hissed. “And take care of him. Here.”
“Hey.” I tipped my chin downward and continued to rub Sawyers back as a sign he needed to be more cryptic with our plans. The poor thing had barely stopped crying and I didn’t want him to start up again.
Kaden caught my eye and compassion colored his frown as he stared at Sawyer.
He knew just as well as I did, murdering Declan required us to split up and I wasn’t about to do that, not after we’d finally reunited. Then there was Anna to consider. I could solve that with a quick jump, if I knew exactly where she was, if only I had more energy.
“Please…” Jim pleaded.
I touched his arm to console him when flashes of memories flipped past my eyes of a younger Jim. He was loading a rifle. My hand recoiled and I gasped.
“What is it?” Kaden asked.
“I—I don’t know.” Everyone looked on in concern and I tried to play it off. “It was nothing.”
“Where’s the office?” Landon asked.
“It’s down here… Come on.”
Jim led the way. My legs felt spongy underneath me as I struggled to keep up. Eventually we filed into a room at the end of the hallway in Building One. Luckily, younger doctor Declan and my mom had left the building.
“I think this is it.” Jim moved closer to me. “Alright. I showed ya. Time be a wastin’.”
I looked around the room, feeling out of breath and extremely weak. Sawyer remained glued to my side, his face in my hip the entire time.
“Well, miss? Whatcha waitin’ for?” Jim huffed.
Sawyer hugged onto me tighter.
“I have to warn you, Jim,” I said grimly. “Last time I took someone home…” My eyes fell to Sawyer’s small frame. I couldn’t traumatize him more with the details. “Well, let’s just say it didn’t go smooth.”
Jim frowned. “What do ya mean?”
I squinted. “Remember what happened to Vice President Declan?”
“Well, if you can zip one way, you can turn right around and go back. And you’re gonna take me, ‘cause I can’t stay here.” Jim raised his swollen chin. “Don’t get me wrong. Landon here is one of the best and I’m sure y’all are nice folks, but I can’t live without Lilly and the kids. So… do your magic.”
Sawyer clung tighter to me. Jim eyed the kid with pity. “She’ll be right back, son.”
He let out a sob.
I clenched my jaw tight. “Don’t you dare talk to him.”
Jim’s face darkened. “If you don’t go now, the Vice President will…” He dragged his finger over his throat. “And then you’ll lose everything. You’ll need me on the other side.”
My heart dropped as all eyes fell on me. Kaden slowly nodded in approval. I closed my eyes and sighed. I knew Jim was right, but I didn’t want to leave Sawyer.
Elle moved alongside me. “Hey, Sawyer?” She knelt down and proffered her hand. “I’m scared. Can you hold my hand?”
Sawyer sniffled and looked up, and then his eyes twinkled. “Auntie Elle. What are you doing here?”
Elle’s gaze darted to mine in a panic and I nodded for her to go with it.
“Hey, kid.” She smiled.
He lunged for her, encircling his arms around her neck. “I’m so glad you’re here. Where’s Lizzy?”
Elle tried to keep a straight face, but I knew she didn’t know what to say.
“Lizzy?” I asked.
“Yeah, Auntie’s daughter.” He laughed and shook his tiny head. “She’s going to be so jealous I jumped through time.”
Elle’s face blanched as her eyes glistened. “I’m sure she will…”
I smiled, my chest swelling with pride and I remembered the journal. In the future where the EA didn’t mess with things, everything was beautiful. We had kids together. We lived our dreams.
I knelt down and tried not to burst into tears. “Sawyer, listen to me, buddy. I need you to be brave. Can you do that for me?”
He nodded and remained attached to Elle’s neck.
“I promise, I’ll be back. I need to warn your mommy so we can all go home. Will you take care of Auntie Elle for me while I’m gone?”
“You can’t take me with you?” Sawyer frowned.
I licked my lips. “I just need make sure it’s safe first. Then I’ll come get you, okay?”
His eyes lit up. “Okay.”
The group collectively sighed and Elle gave me a sweet look of hope before she moved closer to Landon. Jim, though, crossed his arms and huffed impatiently. I did my best to ignore him and stood, zeroing in on Kaden. He covered the distance in long smooth strides.
I gulped down my tears as he smoothed my hair.
“I’ll be right back.” I cringed at my promise, worried that I might not be able to keep it. I didn’t think I had the strength to return right away.
“I know you will.” His lip quirked up in a smile. “I’m so proud of you.”
“But if I don’t—”
“You’ll be back.”
My heart rate tripled. We needed a contingency plan in case this didn’t work.
“But—”
He put his finger to my lips and I felt like my chest would explode. “You can do this.”
My breathing sped up. There were things I needed to know before I jumped and we had very little time. “I wish things turned out different… that I hadn’t told Memphis our plans. I didn’t know he’d tell your father. I’m sorry.”
“No, I’m sorry, too.” He looked away for a moment, ashamed. “I shouldn’t have left like that. I know you were just worried about me. Memphis has a way of interfering.”
I sucked in a breath, remembering I’d left him in Brighton. “Oh, crap. He’s still there.”
Kaden’s face hardened. “No, he’s not. Jewels took care of him.”
“Is he okay?”
“Yes, like always, the asshole.”
My eyebrows pinched together.
“He’s the reason I was captured in the first place… I swear.” He sighed and refocused on me. “We can talk about that later.” His hands cupped both sides of my cheeks and he rubbed away a clinging tear with his thumb. “I know you can do this.”
My shoulders sagged. I didn’t want to take Jim. I wanted Kaden.
“But…”
“Shhh…” He tilted my face upward and kissed me, deeply. The room evaporated away and all that was left was us and this kiss.
He touched his forehead to mine. “I know you can do this. And if for some reason things don’t go as planned… just find Jeb. He’ll know what to do.”
“Why?” I asked through his feather soft kisses.
“Just find him.”
I sucked in a breath. I didn’t want to leave.
“Come on,” Jim interrupted. “You’re gonna be right back.”
“I know,” I snapped. “Give us a minute.”
Kaden pulled me into his arms. “Ignore him. I need to tell you this.” It was as if he knew, too, that something bad was about to happen. “This is why I brought the note. I knew the moment I saw your older self, that I couldn’t let anything happen to you… that you were special, and beautiful, and strong, and courageous, and delicate. And I’ve been in love with you ever since you fell at my feet.” His lips found mine again and his confession pulled me under.
A sob lodged in my throat. “I love you, too.”
Something rattled in the building and shouts followed. The hairs on my neck stiffened.
Jim cussed and moved closer to me.
“We need to hide.” Landon gathered his sister and a wide-eyed Sawyer.
“I’ll be back,” I promised him.
They disappeared through a door at the opposite end of the room.
Kaden kissed me one last time and I held onto him hard. “You can do this,” he whispered.
Fantasies of jumping now hit me. I could take Kaden with me and we could return home. My promise to Sawyer, though, stopped me.
He nodded and I watched him disappear through the door, my chest filling with dread.
“Come on.” Jim moved closer to me. “Do we need to hold hands or something?”
The shouts grew louder and everything inside me wanted to run, to follow Kaden.
Jim took ahold of me and shook my shoulder. “Hey. You made a promise.”
“Yes,” I said breathless as the footfalls flooded past the opened door.
One of them stopped and smacked the door open wider. It was the guy from my vision—the younger Jim.
“Good lord,” he breathed behind me. “What is this?”
The younger Jim moved closer, gun trained on us. “Who are you?”
Though Jim annoyed me, I didn’t want a repeat of last time.
“Stay back,” I held up my hand.
“What in devil’s tarnation are you?” Younger Jim kept advancing, tilting his head to the side.
“All be…” Older Jim clicked his tongue. “I’m one handsome stallion.” He tried to move around me, but I clutched his hand.
“I’m warning you.” Jump. Jump, dammit. Nothing happened.
“You need to come with me.” Younger Jim eyed us and flicked the tip of his gun.
“Now you just mind your P’s and Q’s, Jim.”
The younger of the two gasped.
“That’s right. I’m your older self from the future. You grab that Lilly and rock her world, you hear me? And she really likes it when you…” he coughed, his cheeks burning red. “Just, don’t be a dick and bring her flowers more often.”
Jim’s eyes bulged. “How’d you know about her?”
“Sometimes, I’m daft,” Jim drawled in my ear, then he dropped my hand.
“No, Jim.” I lunged for his hand unable to grab it, feeling extra lethargic.
They both turned, then older Jim smiled and lifted his hand to put around younger Jim’s shoulders. “I just be given myself a pep talk, here. No harm. I gave you a second with yer guy. That’s fair.”
He lowered his arm and I screamed. It was too late. With a suction sound, older Jim’s body stretched and faded from sight with a pop. Then sparkles rained down on younger Jim.
“Oh, no,” I said.
And only then did I feel the familiar tug and my limbs went limp.
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
Time stretched longer than I’d remembered in past jumps and for the first time, I dreaded returning home. How quickly would it take for Jim to turn into a zombie? I could only hope the room didn’t hold a locked cage. Then this would all be for nothing.
After the pop, I tried to open my eyes. My arms felt pinned to the floor, or whatever I was laying on. Heavy, everything was so heavy.
“Open your eyes, Abby.”
The sweet voice filtered from heaven and I wanted to obey. Keeping them closed was easier, though.
“She alright?” Jim’s voice cut through my exhaustion. He’d lived? Or was I dreaming?
“Yeah, just go,” she murmured to someone.
“Alright, ma’am.”
I awoke, pulling in a huge lungful of air. My Complement looked on in worry. I blinked a few times to clear my head and tried to sit up. She lunged forward, then stopped herself. “I can’t touch you, I’m sorry.”
I grunted and pushed myself up on weakened arms. She sat across from me on the floor, cross-legged. Instead of a smile, a tight grimace formed on my lips.
She clutched her neckline and fingered a golden chain. “You must have so many questions.”
My breath remained trapped behind the lump growing in my throat. I couldn’t believe after everything, I finally arrived at this moment: my advice meeting. A tear trickled down my cheek.
Her features relaxed as her lips pulled into a beautiful smile. “Oh, Abby. I want to hug you so bad.”
I sniffled. “Me, too.”
She shook her head. “I so wish this was under different circumstances. I wanted our reunion to be sweet and…” she let out a sigh. “I don’t even have my journal to hand on.”
I studied her, concerned. “A journal?” I choked out.
Her eyes darkened. “Declan has it now. But I need to get it back. It has everything in it.”
I licked my lips and worked to collect my thoughts. “Is it locked, by chance?”
Her eyes widened. “Yes.”
“I saw it.” I blinked at her. “It’s in his office.”
Her hand blanched as she clutched the chain and I thought she might rip it from her neck. “We need that. You need it.”
“I do?”
She unclasped the chain and dangled it before me. “You need to guard this with your life,” she whispered. “It’s the key.”
Arm shaking, I reached out. The chain fell into my palm with a soft shush. A small gold key was pressed into the heart.
“The key?”
“To the journal. It’s an account of all the time jumpers before you.” Her eyes pinched shut for a second. “You need that journal. Promise me you will do whatever it takes to find it.”
I nodded.
“Okay,” she said breathless. “Now where’s Sawyer?”
My mouth parched as I stared into her fretful eyes. “He’s with Kaden, in… the past timeline.”
She sucked in a strangled gasp.
“I know…” my voice trembled. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t have a choice. Declan was threatening him. It was the only way to save him.” Tears filled my eyes again. “And now you’ll never see him again and I’m so so sorry.” I let out a sob.
“What? Why not?”
“Because…” I remembered Jim and looked beyond the President’s ostentatious office furniture for him. Did he not come with me? “I kill people when I jump.”
Her eyes blinked slowly. “What? I don’t understand.”
I stared at the rug we sat on to collect my thoughts. “Declan forced me to jump, to find you, and he wouldn’t accept no for an answer. He handcuffed us together. And right after we jumped, we ran into his younger self and they touched. A rift opened in the air and I was pulled inside with him.” My lip trembled. “His arm came off in the process.”
Anna gasped, then her lips tightened into a thin line. “Serves him right for breaking the rules.”
“Rules?” My gaze wandered away, unfocused
She leaned
over to gain my eye contact. “The future and the past are unstable, and if you touch yourself, it’s a one way ticket to the correct timeline. A safeguard, really, and Declan knows that. But he forgot we only travel back in time twenty years. But the handcuffs—yeah—that wasn’t smart.”
“So I’m not going to hurt anyone if I bring them home?”
“No.” She chuckled softly and reached forward like a mother reaching for her child. I ached for her touch, for her reassurance. Then she froze midway and clasped her hands together. “It means I can’t touch you either, or I’ll jump home.”
Sadness welled inside me. Home. I didn’t even know what that meant anymore. “I don’t understand why you didn’t come to me originally? Why did you send Kaden instead?”
“Oh, no, Abby.” She pinched her eyes shut for a moment and sighed. “Appearing in your world meant I’d need to leave the safety of my people and go to Brighton physically, which I couldn’t do. Kaden was the only one I could trust.”
I held in a sob, realizing how much she’d cared. How much she’d wanted to be there for me. How stupid to not assume there’d be a good reason.
Sadness clouded her eyes. “I would have come, though. You don’t know how hard this has been, trying to manage this from afar.”
I could only imagine. She looked on lovingly while I stared at her openly for a minute. Not only was she beautiful, she was so warm and loving. She exuded confidence and strength, qualities that I coveted—qualities I wanted now. The tears continued to fall down my cheeks.
“I have to tell you,” she said quickly, “that I’m so proud of you. I didn’t know how you’d handle living without your DOD or what would happen once you learned about our abilities, and you accepted it all so quickly.”
I closed my eyes as the guilt washed over me. “But I didn’t get rid of Declan, like you asked.” Did she know that I was contagious? That I’d brought zombies to this timeline, too? “I’ve messed everything up.”
Her brows pinched together. “No. You didn’t. I shouldn’t have asked you to do that. I was desperate.” She stopped abruptly. “Wait. Did you say Declan died?”
I swallowed down my fear. “Not, entirely. H-he’s a zombie now.”
Anna’s face grew pale. “So it is true.”
“And it’s my fault.”
Glitch Page 26