by Jena Leigh
Declan didn’t reply.
The fact that Larry’s employer lived in Seattle couldn’t have been a coincidence.
There had always been something strange about the way Nate treated Alex as though she were made of glass and in need of protection, even before they learned the truth about who and what she was.
Something odd about the way Nate seemed to know things about the girl that he shouldn’t have—couldn’t have—known.
Something unsettling about the way he and Aiden were always exchanging those goddamned looks back and forth as though they knew something important that the rest of the family didn’t.
Declan beat his palm against the wheel and cursed, surprising Trent and causing him to flinch.
“What, Decks?” he asked. “Jesus. You plan on sharing your revelation with the rest of the class? Or are you just going to keep driving like a maniac and beating the shit out of that steering wheel?”
“I should have known,” he said. “I should have figured it out the second I got here.”
“What? What should you have known?”
Declan just shook his head.
Alex hadn’t been looking at Declan when they made their jump to the past. She’d been staring at Nate. Had the shock of seeing him alive been what sent them so far off course?
“Future Alex—my Alex—was looking at Nate when we jumped,” said Declan.
“Okay. And that has what to do with anything?” asked Trent.
“It means that she probably got distracted and lost her concentration. That’s what must have screwed up our jump. Even before I lost my hold on her wrist, I could tell something wasn’t right. The jump was taking way too long.”
“Okay,” said Trent, clearly struggling to parse out the importance of what he’d just learned. “So now you know why you didn’t land where you were supposed to, but what’s that got to do with all the cursing?”
“Because I should have figured it out sooner,” said Declan. “My Alex isn’t in Bay View, Trent. She’s in Seattle with Nate and my cousin Aiden. We’re in the wrong damn city.”
Seventeen
Alex supposed she had faced tougher challenges, but as she stood at the kitchen counter studying Nate she realized that, out of all the people she knew, only Declan was more stubborn. Once either of them became set on something, changing their mind was usually an exercise in futility.
Right now, reading the emotions swirling behind Nate’s stony expression was proving more difficult than reading fine print through a sheet of frosted glass. His face was stripped of all emotion and his body language was unreadable.
Still, an internal struggle obviously raged inside him. That meant she might stand a chance.
Nate left the couch and stepped around Alex to walk into the kitchen and grab an energy drink from the fridge.
Before she could change Nate’s mind, Alex needed to address the underlying problem. The very thing that was preventing him from saying yes to her proposal.
Nate was a closed book. She’d realized early on that the more you pressed him about a topic he didn’t want to discuss, the more shut down and angry he would become.
The best way to get Nate to spill his guts wasn’t to interrogate him, it was to say nothing.
Wait for him to open up.
The trick, she’d learned, was in summoning the patience and restraint required to sit quietly until he couldn’t take the silence anymore.
Nate cracked open the silver can, took a drink, and sent her a sidelong glance before letting the refrigerator door fall closed.
“You’re hovering,” he observed.
“It’s a small apartment,” she countered.
“Fine,” he said. “You’re staring, then.”
Okay. That last part was true.
“I can stare at you, the only other living thing in this room, or I can stare at the wall.” She shrugged. “At least you move around every so often.”
With a sigh, Nate returned to the living room. He snatched a remote from the coffee table and used it to turn on the flat screen mounted above the entertainment center.
It had been left on a sports channel that was now re-broadcasting a baseball game from the previous season. The Red Sox and the Cubs. The Sox were down by two.
Nate didn’t bother to change the channel.
“There.” He sank back into the cushions. “The great American pastime. Stare at that.”
Alex dropped down beside him on the couch and did as she was told. It was the second commercial break before Nate finally spoke again.
“It’s a bad idea, Alex.”
“What is?” she asked, playing dumb in order to keep him talking.
“Going after the Scientist,” he said. “It’s a bad idea. Reckless. Stupid.”
She stayed silent, waiting for him to say more. The anger in his tone was misleading. Alex could read it for what it really was—concern.
He was worried for them.
Nate’s scowl suggested that he had a lot more to say on the subject, but after another long moment he settled instead for grumbling, “You two are going to get yourselves killed.”
“Then come with us.”
Nate shook his head. “I don’t do that kind of work anymore.”
Before Alex and Aiden left the balcony earlier—and before Aiden disappeared on the pretense of grabbing a shower, leaving Alex to convince Nate to come with them—Aiden told her a second story. One almost as tragic as the first.
A story about a small child and a terrible, impossible decision.
A story that had made it crystal clear exactly why Nate didn’t do that sort of work anymore.
“I know,” she said quietly. “And I understand.”
He didn’t reply.
“But there are some things in this life that you can’t run from, Nate,” she said. “Trust me. I’ve tried.”
That earned her a curious glance.
She shrugged. “Whether by fate, dumb luck, or just some sort of evolutionary mistake, we were born different from the norms. Stronger. More… able. We can either use our strength and our abilities to help the norms and the other members of our kind, or we can use it against them—either by intentionally trying to hurt them or by turning a blind eye to the dangers they face.”
The observation elicited a cringe.
“The only thing we can’t do, Nate,” she continued, “is run from what we are. You were trained to help people. You’re good at it, and I can tell it’s eating you alive right now, not to be doing exactly that.”
Aiden finally broke the ensuing silence. He stood leaning against the wall at the hallway’s opening, his arms crossed and a grin on his face—a grin that reminded Alex so much of Declan’s, her chest tightened in response.
“So what do you say, Nate?” he asked. “Work with us? Help me keep the kid over there from getting us into any more trouble?”
“Watch it, old man,” said Alex.
She smiled. Nate didn’t. And he didn’t answer Aiden’s question, either.
“Jezza just called,” said Aiden, more seriously this time. “Said that friend of hers at the Agency is willing to talk to us. We’re supposed to meet him in half an hour down at the docks.”
“You trust him?” asked Alex. “I mean, he is an agent, after all.”
Aiden shrugged. “I trust Jezza, and that’s enough to go through with the meeting. Still, I’d feel better if everyone’s favorite grease monkey was the one behind the wheel tonight. Just in case we find ourselves in need of a quick getaway.”
That did the trick.
The hard lines of Nate’s face began to soften. After a moment, he blew out a breath and said, “Fine. Get your coats. I’ll drive tonight. But that’s it. After this, you’re on your own.”
Less than five minutes later, Alex found herself trailing after Aiden and Nate as they worked their way through a nearby parking garage.
She was nervous enough at the thought of hunting down a serial killer, but as they stepp
ed from the garage elevator and out onto the level where Nate had left his car, memories of the first time she’d found herself in a parking garage with Nate began bubbling to the surface.
Her head ached from the memory alone.
Moments later, Alex came to an abrupt halt, twenty feet from Nate’s car and in the exact middle of an aisle.
A red Bronco honked its horn behind her and she started, before hurriedly moving aside so that it could drive past.
“The Charger,” she finally managed, “It’s… It’s…”
Nate hesitated before climbing into the driver’s seat, resting an arm on the roof of the beautiful—and pristine—black muscle car. “It’s what?”
It’s in one piece, she thought. It’s fully restored. Is this even the same car? There’s no way. The Charger Nate’s been working on in my time looks every ounce of its forty-plus years, but this one is in perfect condition. Alex eyed the car with concern. Unless…
Aiden and Nate exchanged a wary glance as Alex scrutinized the car, having come to similar conclusions regarding the Charger’s uncertain future.
“Maybe we should take Norma Jean,” said Aiden.
Either in defiance, or in defense of his automobile, Nate settled determinedly into the black leather seat. “We’re not taking that bucket of bolts when the Charger’s running just fine. Last thing we need is for your truck’s transmission to die in the middle of a hasty getaway.”
“No,” Aiden said, leaning down to look into the car, “the last thing we need is to end up trapped in a crumpled pile of tin in the middle of a hasty getaway. And judging from the look on Trouble’s face just now, that’s exactly what we’re headed for. I knew your reckless driving would bring me bodily harm one day.”
“Did you not just specifically request that I use those ‘reckless driving’ skills as your wheelman tonight?” asked Nate, annoyed.
Alex and Aiden made no move to get into the car.
“Yeah,” said Aiden. “But that was before I learned you were probably going to get us all killed in the process. And dammit, man, I’m simply too pretty to die this young.”
“My driving is fantastic. If something happens to the Charger, it’ll be because I gave your sorry ass the keys. Now get in the car or drive yourselves.”
Sighing, Aiden pulled the passenger seat forward then stepped aside to give Alex room to climb in.
Stifling the voice of her better judgment, Alex crawled into the backseat. She could only hope and pray that this was not the same Charger from her own time. And that it had reliable seat belts.
Aiden righted the seat, slid into the car, and slammed the door.
With the windows rolled down, the sound of the Charger’s engine thundering to life in the enclosed space of the parking garage was almost deafening.
“Alright, Alex,” Nate called over the roar. “We ought to be able to wrap up this case pretty quickly with you tagging along, right? You’re from the future. Who is it that’s killing these people? How was he eventually caught?”
“I can’t remember,” she admitted, shouting to be heard over the echo of the engine as they wound their way down the levels in search of an exit. “I mean, I remember hearing about the murders on TV, but I don’t remember hearing anything about who was committing them. Watching the news wasn’t exactly a priority for me at the time.”
“Oh?” called Aiden. “Then what was?”
Alex blushed as she remembered not what, but whom had been her sole priority as all this was taking place. She and Connor had just started dating and she’d been suffering a rather embarrassing case of tunnel vision during these entire proceedings.
“Other things,” she hedged. “The few details I can remember about the murders won’t be much help in catching the guy. Although, I do know one thing.”
“What’s that?” asked Nate.
“The murders must have stopped sometime around the beginning of December. I never heard about them again, after that.”
The ensuing drive to the docks was, thankfully, uneventful. Nate found a place to park the Charger that was out of the way of any streetlamp, leaving them lost in the shadows of an early Seattle night.
Alex leaned forward between the two front seats and stared out the windshield, scanning what little she could see of the coastline from where they had parked. Jezza’s source had given them an address, but Alex wasn’t sure it could actually be glimpsed from where they were situated.
All she could see were a couple of sheet-metal lined waterfront buildings and the top halves of a dozen ship-to-shore container cranes looming in the distance.
“So?” she asked, when no one made a move to exit the car. “What’s the plan? How do we do this?’
Nate sent her an incredulous glare. “We aren’t doing anything,” he said. “Aiden and I are going over there to check things out and you are going to sit right here like a good little girl and wait for us to get back.”
Excuse me?
“Oh, like hell,” she said. “In case you hadn’t noticed, Nate, this isn’t the 1950s. I’m not going to sit here on my ass while the big strong men take care of business. If we’re doing this, then we are doing this. You two aren’t leaving me in the car like the family’s German shepherd.”
A muscle in Nate’s jaw twitched.
“Besides,” she added, smiling. “Can’t let you boys have all the fun.”
Aiden grinned and reached for the door handle. “I’m starting to see why we like this girl.”
With a slow shake of his head, Nate dragged himself out of the driver’s seat and slammed the door, leaving it to Aiden to once again slide his seat forward and provide Alex with an exit.
The seat control didn’t seem to want to give. A solid twenty seconds passed before he finally flipped the bucket seat forward.
Alex tried not to let that undermine her air of confidence as she climbed awkwardly out of the vehicle and joined them in the empty roadway.
“What’s this guy’s name again?” she whispered to Aiden.
“Linus something-or-other,” he said.
Their mysterious Agency source was named Linus?
Alex actually stopped walking for a moment, surprised, before jogging to catch up with her companion’s long-legged gait.
“Which one of you is O’Connell?” a voice stage-whispered from behind them, back at the other end of the alley.
Startled, Alex spun on her heel to face the new arrival. Instead, she found nothing but a maze of shadows and an army of empty brick pavers.
In a few quick strides, Nate backtracked just far enough to position himself between Alex and the voice from the shadows. Annoyed that he’d just blocked her view of the mysterious Linus, Alex blatantly sidestepped him—earning herself an angry glare in the process—and tried again to get a better look.
Squinting into the darkness, she could just make out a silhouette hovering near the far side of the alley.
“I am,” Aiden replied. “You’re Jezza’s friend?”
Aiden was slower to catch up to them, and eventually came to a stop beside Alex instead of in front of her—earning himself some major brownie points in the process.
Linus pushed off the wall and took a hesitant step forward, moving into a patch of light. He nodded in reply to Aiden’s question.
Alex arched a brow. She wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting when they first set out for a late night audience with an Agency employee, but this definitely wasn’t the man she’d pictured in her imagination.
Linus was surprisingly cute, a bit on the short side, with boyish features, dark skin, a head full of unkempt hair, and an exceedingly nervous disposition.
Though, she supposed, the nerves probably had something to do with the incredible personal risk he was taking in meeting with them that night.
She wondered how Jezza had talked him into going through with it. It was obvious from his fidgeting fingertips and the darting glances that he’d rather be anywhere else, right about now.
&
nbsp; “Thanks for meeting with us,” said Nate.
Linus took another hesitant step, got a closer look at Nathaniel, and let out a small sound of surprise. “She wasn’t lying, then,” he muttered to himself. “Palladino did move to Seattle. Man, I’m sure John Grayson freaking loved that decision.”
Nathaniel’s glare shut Linus up before he could add any additional commentary.
Aiden cleared his throat. “Jezza said you could help us fill in some blanks about the Scientist murders.”
Linus nodded again and held out a USB drive in his gloved right hand. He caught her eye and added, “Please, I’m… I’m only doing this because the guy needs to be stopped. The Agents on the case have been hitting nothing but dead ends and, well, they need the help. But if I get pinched for sharing classified documents—even with the Graysons—I’m beyond freaking screwed. So you didn’t get any of this from me, understood?”
She reached out to accept the thumb drive he offered. “Of course. Thank—” Somewhere closer to the water’s edge, a car driving down a nearby road backfired. The startling report bounced off the walls of the alleyway and caused Alex to wince. By the time she had turned back to Linus, he’d already vanished. “—you,” Alex finished.
She hurriedly scanned the alley and spotted Linus jogging toward a car parked further up the street.
Nathaniel took the thumb drive out of her hand, shoved it in his jacket pocket, and started back toward the Charger.
“Well, that was anti-climactic,” Aiden mumbled to Alex. “I was hoping for a bit more cloak and dagger. Poor little man looked like he was about to piss himself the entire time.”
Alex tried to stifle her grin. “Are you kidding?” she whispered back. “Any more drama and I think our wheelman over there would have had a stroke. He looked about ready to murder someone when that car backfired.”
Aiden smiled. “I’m just glad you were able to talk him into coming with us tonight. You know, I think you’re starting to grow on him.”
Her smile turned incredulous. “If by that, you mean he’s stopped glaring at me like he’s fighting back an urge to drive me to the nearest bus station and leave me there, then, yeah, I suppose I’m making headway.”