He shook his head and hesitated. “It’s just that … When I dove onto the tracks, I wasn’t trying to save you. I didn’t think there was any chance. I just ... I couldn’t watch. I couldn’t let you …” He paused again, and hugged me tightly to him. He didn’t need to finish. I reached up to kiss him.
“So this is where you two got to,” my dad’s voice interrupted.
I shot Greg a sheepish grin as I stepped away from him.
“You’ll have his car back to him, in Indiana, tomorrow, right?” my dad confirmed to Mel as she bustled into the library beside him.
“Yes, Ken,” Mel said with a touch of impatience as they reached us. My guess was he’d asked her this ten times already. Greg’s fondness for Mr. Heisenberg, was nothing compared to my dad’s new obsession with the car that arrived back here an hour ago. Dad had scoured every inch of it, demanding that Rothston pay for any damage. There wasn’t any, but that didn’t stop his insistence. You’d have thought it belonged to him.
“You know, Dad,” I said in mock seriousness. “If you want to drive Mr. Heisenberg, all you’d have to do is ask.”
“I’d never asked that!” he hissed back at me, but his tomato-red cheeks told a different story. Greg and I looked at one another and snickered.
“Any time, Mr. Nicolosi,” Greg said easily. “You can drive it back to Indiana, if you want.”
“And leave you to get my daughter safely out of here alone? Not a chance,” he joked back. But I knew it wasn’t entirely a joke. Dad was more than grateful that Greg had saved me, and was going to have to get used to the idea of him being around. But he wasn’t there yet.
“I am ready when they are, Ma’am,” another voice called from the doorway. I looked over to see Charlie Johnson, hat in hand, waiting to take us to the airstrip where we’d fly back on Rothston’s jet.
“Good. Thank you, Charlie,” Mel called back. “They will be with you in just a moment.” She turned and gave me a smile that was mingled with the sincere grandmotherly concern I’d grown to relish receiving from this kind lady. “I wish you would reconsider,” she said. “I would like you to stay.”
“Their lives are back in Indiana,” I said, nodding toward my dad and Greg. “And my life is too. I don’t really belong here. And a lot of people aren’t going to believe the truth about Mr. Jamison and Rex. We both know they’re going to blame me. So, I’d cause more problems for you if I stayed.”
Mel dipped her head in acquiescence. “Rothston has some difficult times ahead of it. We could use the perspective of an outsider. And …” she paused, eyeing Greg for a moment.
“What?” I asked.
Her eyes flickered back to me. “I saw you at the end in New York. Why did you hold his hand before you translocated the QIT?”
“He helps me.” I answered. “I don’t know if it’s just that I focus better or what, but the turbula becomes much more clear and steady for me.”
“That’s what I thought. It is what you told me about last week. He magnifies your attributes.” I felt the blood rushing to my cheeks at the realization that Mel remembered everything I’d said when I’d poured my heart out to her. “I would love the chance to study that,” Mel added. I didn’t miss the excited gleam in her eye. Mel was a scientist in the end, and we would present a new challenge to her – if we stayed.
“Maybe some other time, Mel,” I grinned.
“Or never,” Greg added in a grumble.
Mel looked over at him, and her smile grew. She took one of his hands in hers. “Thank you, Greg. Had you not had to guts to challenge this institution, both Kinzie and I would be lost. They would have needed to kill me too, before much longer, so they could drop the Alzheimer’s charade. I owe you my life.”
Mel gave my dad a hug, and he shuffled uncomfortably. “I miss the old days, Ken,” she said wistfully. “The world seemed less complicated.”
“Less complicated for you, Mel,” he replied. “I’m a common. It was never easy for me here.” He nodded toward the door. “It’s better out there, where everyone else is like me.”
“Maybe there are just too many differences between our kinds,” Melvina agreed, then smiled at me again. “You’ve done a wonderful job raising your daughter. You should be proud.”
“I am,” Dad agreed, beaming at me. “But I had good material to work with.”
“Take care of her,” Mel said to wrap up the conversation.
My dad’s expression grew wistful. “Love to, but I’m not sure he’s going to give me the chance,” he said tipping his head toward Greg, who’d wrapped his arm around my waist.
Mel laughed. “As it should be.”
The three of us headed for the door out to the entry, leaving Melvina behind. Half way there, I stopped and turned back to her. “Tell Curtis I said goodbye.”
“I will, Kinzie,” she agreed.
As we neared the doorway, I turned back again. “Mel?”
“Yes, dear.”
“I don’t think I’ll be coming back here. But you could come visit me in Indiana.”
She smiled at the offer. “Thank you, Kinzie. Maybe I will. But remember, no one can see the future. Not even us.”
ψ ψ ψ
The next installment of the Rothston Series:
CHOICES
The Rothston Institute has fallen to those who are after the key to controlling humanity – a secret held deep within Kinzie Nicolosi’s own body. Scared and on the run, Kinzie’s life becomes entangled with a collection of loners, adding the wrath of their own foes to the dangers she faces. Outmanned and outgunned on all sides, none of them can protect Kinzie or the world from the true evil behind the threats - something far more terrifying than anything they have encountered.
And it is waiting…
“A tense and well-plotted continuation of the Rothston Series” The Kirkus Review
“Highly recommended reading.” Midwest Book Review
Get Choices now!
Not reading on a Kindle? Get Choices here.
About the Author:
Terri-Lynne Smiles has a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy from Denison University and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Michigan. She lives in Ohio with her husband and a sweet but stupid dog, and is working on the final two books in the Rothston Series. Her website is www.terrilynnesmiles.com.
Foreseen (The Rothston Series) Page 36