by Joni Hahn
“It’s on emergency lock.” She looked at Jaydan, then Riordan. “It will never open unless Cyrus enters the code.”
Jaydan shared a glance with Riordan. “Do that again...”
She pressed the series of buttons. A click sounded. The door didn’t move.
“Saint, can you attract the ratchet system inside the door? If we can pull it off balance, maybe the bolts will slip and I can shove it open.”
Nodding, Riordan knocked across the stainless steel, searching for the internal locking mechanism that would attract his magnetic hands.
“Here.” He pointed at an area to the right of the spindle wheel.
With a nod at Eve, Jaydan said, “When Saint gets set on the door, I want you to hit the keypad again. If he can pull those bolts out of line, it’ll unlock and I can shove open the door.”
Riordan pressed both hands against the steel, Jaydan beside him, ready to shove. “Hit it.”
Eve pressed the buttons. The click sounded, then another, before a low-pitched thunk echoed inside the steel. Jaydan shared a grin with Riordan.
Grabbing the handle, Jaydan grunted as he pulled back with all his might, his muscles accelerating in moderation. Tingles trickled along his flesh, the muscles hardening, but not at full potential.
The door opened a fraction. Grabbing the edge, he strained against his weak limbs, pulling open the door a foot or so. With Riordan beside him, Jaydan slipped in the crevice and shoved with every ounce of strength he possessed.
His armband glowed red-orange.
When it was all said and done, he knew this would cost him. He knew he’d pushed his body well beyond Clint Robinson’s intent.
But, in the grand scheme of things, what did that matter if he couldn’t save Hope?
With a loud roar, he shoved back the door, its hinges squeaking in deafening resistance. Slipping through, he turned around and stopped dead, Riordan beside him.
Clones stood several feet thick in the hall, arms locked together. In front stood two guards, each holding a gun in one hand, a knife in the other. At the very back of the crowd, a defiant Cyrus held Hope in front of him, a syringe against her jugular vein.
“Let’s do this, Saint.”
Holding out his hands, Riordan grinned as the guns sprang from the guards’ hands and into each of his. A gasp fell over the group.
Handing one to Jaydan, he shoved the other into the waist strap on his wetsuit. “Damn, I love my job.”
Rushing forward like a defensive end, Jaydan picked up each of the guards on his shoulders. Two men in lab coats pounded at his back with feeble force. Doing a three-sixty, he knocked them to the floor before slamming down the guards. Stomping over them, more clones came at them, swinging fists.
They were no match for him and Riordan.
Jaydan’s gaze met Hope’s terrified stare as he shoved his way down the hall on unsteady feet. Cyrus remained where he stood, his round eyes worried, his drawn brows betraying his bravado.
Another man rushed him. Jaydan shoved him with one hand. He flew through the air and slammed against the wall.
Rushing on, he was just feet from Hope now.
He heard the crack, the splintering drywall. Glancing up, he had only a second to react before a deluge of debris fell on top of him, filling the hallway in darkness.
***
The cold water woke Hope with a start, her cheek and hair damp. She lay stomach down on the floor, her clothes soaked through, chilling her to the bone. A door lay propped above her, cocooning her between it and a crumbled wall at her back.
Where Jaydan had once stood, a wall of wreckage remained. Crushed concrete, drywall and wood made up a barrier of rubble, the once chaotic hallway filled with resounding silence. The taste of blood filled her mouth, her body shivering.
Her heart pounded against the wet floor, fear stirring her into action. Sitting up, she looked behind her. Cyrus lay in an unconscious heap beneath a pile of debris, his forehead bleeding.
“Jaydan?” She ducked out from under the door. Rising to her feet, she looked to her left. The shadowed corridor stood in a few inches of water, the only lights from the emergency beacon flashing red and white.
“Jaydan?” Going to the place she’d last seen him, she dug through the rubble with frantic hands.
“Why bother? He’s dead.” Cyrus stirred, his eyes still closed, his voice breathless and faint.
His words punctured her heart like a surgeon’s scalpel, her chest clenching into a knot of alarm. Jaydan couldn’t be dead. He wouldn’t leave her like this, alone and in danger.
She plowed away at the debris, throwing it behind her.
“Your grandfather loved your mother the way you love him.”
Disgust stilled her a moment before she continued to work. Cyrus just played mind games with her. She had to stay focused on Jaydan.
“Seth met a man, Nathan Chalmers, who had an idea for a time machine. Your grandfather financed the project so he could bring Kimberly to the future.”
Denial shivered through her body with raging anger. “Just shut up, Cyrus.”
His pained chuckle grated on her threadbare nerves.
“Seth knew she wouldn’t be interested in him as an old man but, he’d hoped his money would be enough to convince her to stay. Those bracelets you wear were a gift from Seth. He sent them with Chalmers to woo her to the future. That’s why you see them in the photos. She accepted them the day before she came to the future.”
The urge to throw the bracelets into the rubble consumed her. She wanted to stomp on them and crushed them under her feet. To do so would betray her memories and give him the satisfaction of upsetting her. It took every ounce of her feeble strength to deny it.
Clawing at the debris, she continued to search for Jaydan.
“What Seth hadn’t counted on was Kimberly falling in love with your father.”
Shutting her eyes in despair, Hope knew her mother had loved Luke. She remembered the loving kisses, the adoring hugs, the tugs on his hand into their bedroom.
She had never understood why her father didn’t reciprocate. Now she knew. Annie Crawford. His one true love.
“When Seth learned they were going to marry, he tracked down Annie Crawford.”
Oh, God…
Whipping around, Hope screamed at him again. “I told you to shut up. Just shut up, Cyrus!”
He laughed with bitter cruelty, his arms now free of the wreckage.
The debris behind her stirred. Hope stared at it, looking for movement. Please Jaydan...
“He made a deal with Annie, but she was killed in an accident that night on the way home.”
Tears blurred her vision, anger and pain piercing her eyes with stinging pinpricks.
“Jaydan, help me, please…”
The crash made her jump. Pain exploded in her head, before everything went dark.
***
Jaydan burst through the rubble, sending concrete and drywall sailing in all directions. He’d heard Hope’s voice, her cries pulling him out from under the pain that threatened to consume him completely.
A block tumbled down the pile, followed by irate cursing. Leaning over, he cleared the remaining garbage on top of Riordan. His blond head appeared. With a clasp around his arm, Jaydan bent to help him up. Riordan straightened to his full height, grunting and groaning.
“Damn, I hurt.”
Jaydan stormed down the hall, Riordan at his side. He forced one foot in front of the other, pain wracking him with merciless vitality.
He ignored the red glow of his armband.
“Rose, your head is bleeding around your microchip.”
Brushing a hand down the back of his head, it came away with fresh blood. “I can’t think about anything but Hope right now.”
The corridor spun like an amusement park ride. Jaydan pitched to the side and into the wall. Riordan righted him.
“You’re a freaking mess, Rose. Stay here and I’ll find Hope.”
“Like hell.” He snat
ched his arm out of Riordan’s hand. “I won’t rest until she’s safe and I kill Matheson.”
Though his mind said he thundered down the hall, he knew his movements were shaky and garbled. He had to hang on long enough to kill Matheson. Once he was gone, Jaydan knew Riordan would take care of his sister.
Searching the destroyed remains, they spotted Matheson in a room that once overlooked the lab. Wiping the blood from his eyes, Jaydan picked up a large, oak door that stood in their path. Several shots rang out. He stumbled back with each echoing burst, yet forged ahead with wavering steps. Thank God for the chainmail beneath his wetsuit.
Cyrus sat on a massive oak desk, Hope lying unconscious beside him. He held a gun in his hand, another at the ready a foot or two away.
Jaydan’s voice trembled, his voice slurred and struggling to work. “You’d better think… long and hard about that last bullet, Matheson. You’ll never make it to the other gun.”
He smiled at Jaydan, his hatred flaming. “But, I can easily reach your fiancée.”
Pointing the gun at Hope’s head, Cyrus’ smile faltered. The gun juggled in his hand as he struggled to hold it. Riordan stood beside Jaydan, his hands extended.
Cyrus gasped aloud, using both hands to keep his gun steady. “You’re alive?”
Riordan said, “It’ll take more than you and your freak factory to bring me down, Matheson.”
With a growl, Jaydan charged him. The gun shot out of his hands. With a tackle, Jaydan shoved him against the wall of cabinets. Pain exploded in his head and scattered throughout his body, throbbing and acute. Pulling back, he landed a weak blow to Cyrus’ face before the room spun.
“Move so much as a facial muscle, Cyrus, and I’ll blow your brains all over this room.” Hope stood behind him, holding the spare gun in both hands.
Wobbling where he stood, Jaydan tasted blood on his lips. His little spitfire had just saved his ass, her brother beside her.
She said, “Protecting my fiancé is in my DNA code, asshole.”
Jaydan grinned to himself. She was safe now.
Dropping to the floor, he whispered her name.
Hope fell to her knees and turned Jaydan onto his back.
No tore from her throat like slivers of granite as tears spilled down her cheeks. Her vision was no longer a daydream, but reality.
Blood covered his face in a mask of mortality, the skin beneath pale and alabaster white. Plaster and concrete dusted his wetsuit from head to toe, his hair matted in blood and sweat.
His armband glowed bright, fiery red.
“Jaydan…” She kissed his cool, parted lips. “Please. Don’t do this.”
He didn’t move.
Grabbing his shoulders in both hands, she shook him. “Jaydan. You told me you’d always be here for me. Well, I need you now, dammit.” Dropping her head to his chest, she spoke against his suit. “I love you.”
Was this really how it would all end? After all they’d been through, they only got one night together?
Reality suffocated her like a damp quilt, denial breathing life into her full lungs.
No. She wouldn’t let him do this. She refused to accept it.
Grabbing Jaydan’s arm, she looked for some kind of call button on his armband, something, to reach Mitchell.
Her hands shook as she pressed a finger to the touch screen. “Mitchell.”
Nothing happened.
Glancing up, Hope watched Riordan rush back into the room after taking Cyrus down the hall. “Mitchell.” He squatted down beside her.
“Saint. What’s the status on Rose? He’s off the charts.”
Riordan looked at her, his eyes sad. “He’s f’d up. His microchip is toast. The last carbs he ate didn’t work.”
“Jacobs and Monroe, I need you there ten minutes ago.”
“Roger that,” one of them said. “I’m headed your way, Monroe.”
“Roger that.”
Mitchell’s voice held a strong note of worry. “Saint, is Hope with you?”
Riordan hugged her against his side. “Yes. She’s okay.”
“Tell her to keep talking to him. We need her to keep him alive.”
Grabbing Jaydan’s cold hand, she squeezed it, trying to infuse some warmth. He’d always been the one to take care of her. How did she save him now?
Kissing him on the lips, she brushed away clumps of hair from his forehead. “Rose, talk to me.”
He lay deathly still, his fingers limp in her hand.
“The damned idiot wouldn’t stop until he reached you.” Riordan’s soft voice made her sob.
“Dammit, Rose.” She sniffed back tears. “We had this conversation. You knew you couldn’t push yourself too far or you’d…” Laying her head against his chest again, sobs wracked her body. “Please Jaydan, don’t leave me.”
A bright light flashed in the room, followed by a green fog. Two men standing back-to-back appeared before her eyes. She could do nothing but gape.
“Move back, Sis.” Riordan helped her stand.
The dark-haired man helped the other roll Jaydan onto his stomach. The redhead wore some kind of gloves on his hands, his fingers wrapped in hundreds of metal ringlets.
Finding the microchip under Jaydan’s hair, he nodded to the dark-haired man who held down Jaydan. The redhead pressed a gloved finger to a port on the chip. A sharp zap shimmied through her as Jaydan jolted once - but didn’t wake.
The agent’s worried gaze went to Riordan, then her.
“Try it again.” Hope’s voice came out a harsh demand.
Pressing his finger to the port, the agent sent a thunderbolt of electricity to the chip, the zap lasting longer this time. Jaydan’s body quaked with spasms. Both agents held him down until the tremors gradually lessened.
Jaydan’s muscles hardened before her eyes, the body beneath the wetsuit transforming to sharp angles. Muffled curse words broadcasted against the tile in the otherwise silent room.
The tears began anew as her heart soared in elation.
Riordan grinned at the redhead. “Monroe, tell him to get his ass up off the floor.”
“Hell, do you see the size of his muscles?” Monroe pointed at the dark-haired agent. “Jacobs should do it. He can teleport. I can’t run fast enough.”
The three men laughed aloud while Jaydan moaned on the floor in pain. The jerks.
Dropping to her knees by Jaydan’s head, Hope ran her fingers through his hair.
“Don’t move, Jaydan. Just rest, okay?”
Grabbing her leg, he pulled her down beside him, her face inches from his. “Tell those three assholes to get the hell out of here. I know what will make me feel better and I don’t want an audience.”
Epilogue
Hope sat at the bar in the neighborhood pub, staring out the front window. She’d arranged this engagement party for Riordan and Natalie but she really wasn’t in the partying mood.
She hadn’t seen Jaydan in over a week. His absence made her feel incomplete, like she floated in limbo, waiting for him to fill her life again.
When she talked with Mitchell about her new position as D.I.R.E. liaison, he’d assured her Jaydan was doing fine. After they replaced the microchip at the back of his head, Jaydan was ordered to rest for several days. He’d pushed his body well beyond human capabilities, infuriating Mitchell. He asked her to give Jaydan a reprieve so he could concentrate on re-cooperating.
Now she was the one that felt beat up.
She smiled at Keegan across the room, talking to Riordan. For a woman that had always strived for her own purpose, Hope knew her thinking was awfully pathetic. Allowing Jaydan Rose to become her purpose probably ranked her right up there with online suppliers of imaginary friends.
“I just thought I’d make it known that if your redneck ditches you, I’m completely available.”
Dylan McCall leaned both elbows back against the bar, blue eyes shining in his handsome face. If she weren’t insanely in love with her redneck, she’d take him up on
his offer.
Holding up a hand, she laughed. “I consider myself notified. Although, I’m not so sure I’d want to get involved with another D.I.R.E. agent.”
The Marine grinned with pride. “Then you’re out of luck. I’m all in with Mitchell. Especially after he cleared my record and arranged an early discharge from duty. After I visit my family next week, I head back to HQ for pre-enhancement training. Your brother’s going to work with me.” His voice took a serious turn. “I think we have some kind of bond after going through Altay. I really admire him.”
Placing a hand on his arm, Hope spoke with all sincerity. “You’re going to be a great asset to D.I.R.E. We couldn’t have rescued Keegan with you.”
Natalie signaled her to come over to their group. Excusing herself from Dylan, she walked over to the table where Dan Meeks sat with his daughters. Keegan had her arm looped through her father’s elbow, Natalie between her and Riordan. Taking the seat beside Dan, Hope still felt a mild animosity with him after he planted an imposter posing as Riordan at Powers International.
“The three of us girls need to do some wedding shopping,” Natalie’s voice sounded high with excitement.
Kissing Natalie on the mouth, Riordan stood up. “Time to go.”
She smiled up at him. “This is our engagement party. I think you’re supposed to talk about the wedding.”
Raising her hand to his lips, Riordan said, “No, you’re supposed to talk about the wedding. I’m supposed to keep the men entertained.”
The bell above the door jingled. Tristan Jacobs, Aidan Monroe, Dar Naylor and their fiancées walked in, Mitchell and his wife, Angela, behind them. If they had all managed to get away, where was Jaydan?
“Saved by the bell.” Riordan sauntered over to his boss and shook hands.
“Where’s Luke, Hope?” Natalie frowned at her. “I’m surprised he isn’t here yet.”
Hope stared out the front glass again. Yes, both he and Jaydan were suspiciously late. It wasn’t like her father to miss something like this. He loved Riordan too much.
Pulling out her phone, she opened the DNA tracker. With her father under favorites, she pulled up his location quickly. Frowning at the screen, it showed him at the pub.