Selfless Series Box Set

by S Breaker

  Noah’s eyes narrowed slightly for a moment then he turned to Laney. “Do you like music?”

  She blinked out of a daze and looked up at him in incredulous disbelief. “What?”

  He met her gaze. “Do you like music?” he repeated before gesturing toward the corner, by the swinging glass doors entrance of The Shack.

  Laney saw that he was pointing at the diner jukebox but it didn’t explain his question. She shot him a strange look. “Are you having a ‘bleed through’?”

  He rolled his eyes. “Just come on and help me pick a song,” he said, motioning her over.

  “Fine.” She hopped off the stool to follow him as he walked over to the jukebox. She fished out a quarter from her pocket.

  Then Noah moved to whirl them around so that her back was to the jukebox.

  Laney jumped, startled. “What are you doing?” she whispered.

  He leaned his head closer. “Over my shoulder. Two o’clock. See those guys in the back?” he said under his breath, otherwise not moving an inch.

  Laney discreetly glanced up over his shoulder to see the group of college guys wearing another school’s letter jackets sitting at a booth almost obscured by a UFO catcher game.

  “They’ve been following us since we left campus. I recognized their car when we parked. I’d seen it on the road when we were driving along the quarantine zone.”

  He’d spoken too near her ear that she felt shivers down her neck. “A-are you sure?”

  Given that she’d been trying to avoid him for days, the last time he was this close to her was the night before she got abducted by The Alliance.

  And even then, even when she didn’t have a clue about the Primaries Theory, she’d already felt it. There was something about him. He didn’t even need to touch her and she could already feel her skin tingling.

  And it wasn’t just that he was hot. There was just always something very reassuring about being close to Noah. A calm. A stillness. Of a foregone conclusion.

  Noah met her gaze, only then realizing their proximity, and he registered the contemplative uncertainty on her face. Although instead of looking guilty and pulling away, like she had gotten used to him doing, he kept his electric blue eyes pinned on her.

  “Don’t worry,” he assured huskily. “I wasn’t going to kiss you.”

  She took a deep breath. She couldn’t remember the last time she found freshly-showered soap smell so incredibly intoxicating. “I wasn’t worried,” she nearly stammered out.

  It was getting difficult to stay upright, to not lean against him. But she caught the veiled amusement on his face. He knew exactly what was going on. And he had known right from the start.

  And while in the past, Laney had ignorantly let herself get carried away by the unidentified compelling forces, this time, it had a more defined point that at least she understood.

  But even so…

  She couldn’t look away from his mesmerizing gaze and was starting to heave.

  It still felt…inevitable.

  So what if the theory was right? More to the point, so what if the theory was wrong?

  Noah’s forehead creased slightly as he detected the apparent change in her conviction.

  Laney’s eyes trailed down the strong line of his jaw before her gaze was drawn to his mouth and she caught the hint of a smirk on his lips.

  She swallowed hard, her heart pounding loud in her ears as she tilted her chin up the tiniest fraction of an inch.

  Theories be damned…

  “Laney?” Kevin’s face appeared behind the window.

  Laney jumped about a mile high. “Oh my god, Kevin!” She pushed away until Noah was a good three feet away, standing beside her.

  Kevin pushed the swinging doors open, his eyes on her. He came in with three other friends, all of whom headed toward a booth across the diner, before he looked over to give Noah an exceedingly curious look.

  Noah, obviously displeased, glowered at him in response but didn’t say anything.

  “Hey.” Kevin leaned toward Laney, his one hand on her shoulder to turn toward him, or more specifically, away from Noah. “What are you doing here?” he asked Laney, scanning over his shoulder to give the diner a once-over to see if she was perhaps with anyone else. “I thought you were having a girls’ night in with Darla?”

  Laney’s throat was dry. “Uh…” Her gaze flickered up to Noah’s, at a loss. Her heart was beating so fast, she thought she might have a heart attack.

  “Hey. Jake.” Kevin’s greeting sounded vague, but definitely not pleased. “Nice jacket.”

  “I’m sorry. Who are you?” Noah’s eyebrows were raised.

  Kevin shot him an indignant look. “Uh, I’m Laney’s boyfriend. We’ve been together for two years,” he stated.

  “Mm…I’m thinking it’s only been like eighteen months.” Noah narrowed his eyes.

  Kevin’s jaw dropped.

  Laney cringed. “Kevin, hey,” she jumped in, putting a hand on his arm before either of them could say any more. “It’s okay.”

  He met her gaze coolly. “I’m sorry. I just didn’t realize you guys even knew each other.”

  “Oh. It’s fairly recent. Um…” Laney racked her brain. “We were just—just—working on a project together. A science project.” That was actually valid.

  Kevin put his arm around her shoulders. “Listen, it’s getting pretty late. I’m sure Jake here has somewhere else to be. Why do you let me drive you back, huh? Get you home safe,” he offered with a tone of authority, tossing Noah a casual glance.

  Noah’s expression was one of incredulity. “Are you implying she’s not safe with me?”

  “Noa—I mean, Jake,” Laney cut in quickly. “Hey, um, listen, I really appreciate your help with the—thing but uh…I think maybe Kevin’s right. We’d better do this later?”

  Kevin smiled, already starting to walk away with her. “The guys and I just popped in for a root beer before game night. Why don’t you come sit with us for a bit?”

  “I still need your help, Laney.” Noah’s statement contained neither patience nor amusement with the situation.

  Laney shot Noah a wide-eyed pointed look over her shoulder. Be cool, man! It wouldn’t do either of them any good to blow their cover now. She motioned for him to hang tight as she was going to have to think of a way out of their predicament. And fast.

  And three… Laney counted in her head, her jaw clenched in unease as she sat at the table, her eyes glued to the empty soda glass in Kevin’s hand.

  It was his third one. In fifteen minutes.

  She put her hand on his arm. “Get you another one?”

  Kevin met her gaze. “Thanks, babe,” he said even as he moved to stand up. “But I gotta hit the head first.”

  Laney almost sighed with relief as she discreetly checked on Noah who had been sitting by the bar, his intense gaze glued to her for the last fifteen minutes.

  It was like a nightmare, as the last thing she wanted right then was to have Noah watch her be on a “date” with alternate Kevin, especially after the incredibly close call by the jukebox earlier.

  But she furrowed her eyebrows when she found the particular bar stool empty. She scanned the diner to try to spot where Noah had gone, a slight frown of concern on her face.

  Even though she was confident that he wouldn’t have left without her, she was hyper-aware that they were on a clock, so as soon as Kevin had gone to the back, out of view, she also made an excuse to leave the table so she could look for Noah.

  When Laney came around the corner, she tilted her head in puzzlement as she spotted Noah by one of the tables near the front. He was strangely enough, animatedly talking to a group of students whom Laney recognized were from the Science club at school.

  “That’s ridiculous. Look, even Einstein knew he was full of it,” Laney overheard one of the students saying.

  “Yes, but he did admit that the cosmological constant was his biggest mistake and yet it still became one of the bigg
est breakthroughs in scientific history, didn’t it?” Noah was leaned against the back of one chair, dispassionately arguing his point.

  Laney came up quietly and tapped Noah’s shoulder. “Uh…Jake?”

  He turned to look, his eyes still bright with fervor. “Oh, hey Laney,” he began. “Would you tell these leptons that Einstein was an unequivocal genius?”

  Laney cast a glance around the awestruck group, before returning her gaze to his. “Sounds fascinating.”

  Her use of the expression made him blink as though snapping out of a trance.

  Noah looked around. The students at the table were all staring at him strangely, as for one thing, Jake Donovan had never interacted with them ever before. For another, he never in a million years would have been able to argue Einstein’s theories so rationally.

  Then again, he wasn’t really Jake Donovan.

  She tugged on his arm to steer him away from the table.

  “Uh, Professor?” Laney quipped as she led the way toward the diner’s exit. “Maybe you should limit your interaction with the natives. We’re trying to keep you on the down-low?” She had a mischievous look on her face as she was reiterating Noah’s own words to her from the airship last week regarding her interactions with the people from his world.

  Noah shook his head in mirth as he opened the door for her.

  “Now come on,” she said, hurriedly leading the way back to his Mustang, already unlocking the car with the key fob in her hand. “I told those guys I was going to the ladies’ and if Kevin knows me like I think he does, he’s going to be looking for me in exactly eight minutes, by which time we need to be long gone.”

  Unfortunately, Kevin was a stand-up boyfriend, who just so happened to be getting something from his car too.

  “Laney?” He looked taken aback when he saw her coming out. “Where do you think you’re going?”

  There was no one else outside the diner. No one else she could be coming out to meet.

  Laney’s brain blanked in panic for what could pass as a valid excuse for her to be going to take a ride in Jake Donovan’s car, not to mention for her to be having the keys to it right in her hand.

  But Noah had had enough of delays. He tapped Kevin on the shoulder as he came up behind him, and as Kevin turned to look, Noah moved swiftly to knock him out, and Kevin collapsed in his arms, unconscious.

  Laney watched in shock as Noah dragged Kevin toward his Prius and put him in the back seat. She caught the expression on Noah’s face as he walked back to his Mustang and she shot him a dry look. “You enjoyed that a little, didn’t you?”

  There was a shadow of a grin on Noah’s face but all he said was, “We should go.”

  Drive

  “What’s going to happen to him?”

  Noah glanced up at Laney who had driven back to the main road that ran along the quarantine zone before asking her question.

  “Who?”

  “Kevin.”

  He rolled his eyes. “He’ll just wake up in the morning with a little headache. I doubt he’ll remember anything. Don’t worry about him. He’s a big boy. He’s not even your Kevin.”

  The statement made Laney stop short.

  Noah stopped too. “I’m sorry. That’s not how I meant it.”

  She shook her head. “No, you’re right. This is ridiculous. I just want to go home. And we’re not even halfway there yet.” Her dejected gaze flicked up to notice the traffic light turn yellow at an intersection and she stepped on the brakes to slow the car down.

  Noah considered her expression. “Look,” he started, sounding remorseful. “I’m sorry. I know how…important he is to you.” He cracked his neck slightly while speaking. “But I promise you, whatever’s happened on your world, for whatever reason, if given the choice, Kevin chooses Darla instead of you, he will have committed an error on a massive scale which he will regret forever.”

  Laney turned to stare at him, half-incredulous, half-terrified at the gravity of his tone.

  After a moment, Noah’s eyes softened as if he’d just realized how scary he’d sounded. He blinked, trying to sound casual. “I mean, you know. That would be totally lame.”

  She pursed her lips in amusement. It was very strange to be taking dating advice from ‘Jake Donovan.’ It was completely throwing her off.

  “What?” He shot her a questioning look.

  She reached her hand out to muss up his hair, completing his transformation back into Noah. “That’s better.”

  He smiled, his gaze not leaving her face.

  Laney drew a shaky deep breath, forcing herself to look away, just as the car behind them honked in protest and she looked up, alerted.

  The traffic lights had turned green.

  “Alright, alright,” Laney mumbled as she slammed on the gas to get the car moving. She shook her head briskly to focus. “So do we have a plan?”

  “Well,” Noah started, peering out the window at the endless fence as they drove by. “If the quarantine zone is what that news report said, then at least we know the public will have been warned to stay away from it. We won’t have to worry about witnesses. But given that we still haven’t found a gap in the fence, we might not have a choice but to cut through it.”

  “You said you thought the fence was electrified,” Laney reminded him. “We don’t have any tools or gadgets.”

  He shrugged. “I might still have one or two tricks up these vintage sleeves,” he said with a catch in his tone.

  She chuckled in dry mocking.

  Then Noah’s eyebrows furrowed. He leaned over to check the side mirror before discreetly looking over his shoulder to see behind them.

  “What is it?” she asked, checking the rearview mirror herself.

  He was already groaning. “I think we’re being followed.”

  Laney moaned in annoyance. “No!”

  “It must be those guys from the diner,” he guessed. “Did you recognize them?”

  She grumbled. “I can’t believe we’re being chased again.”

  “Hey, at least we’re not on foot this time.”

  “Oh, yeah, this is much better,” she said as she floored the gas.

  The black sedan car following them started to gain speed too.

  “Yup, they’re definitely chasing us.” Noah’s arm was braced across the back of the seat as he kept an eye on the car trailing behind them. “They must be Alliance.”

  She tilted her head. “Or maybe that guy whose arm you broke is looking for payback,” she quipped.

  Noah’s face was straight. “Or it’s your boyfriend’s friends looking to pick a fight.”

  “Oh boy.” Laney blew out a breath at those odds. “Come on, Alliance,” she said, crossing her fingers.

  She checked the side mirrors again in time to see the other car catch up to drive alongside them, right before they sharply maneuvered to attempt a sly sideswipe.

  Laney spun the wheel quickly away. “Whoa!” Her pulse started to race.

  Noah was trying to peer into the other car but its windows were all tinted heavily. “I can’t tell who it is.”

  Laney bit her lip in concentration, shifting gears and pulling away to get some distance from the other car again. “Well,” she said, furtively looking around the road up ahead. They were headed into the residential area along the old lake. “Whoever you are, let’s see if you know this neighborhood as well as me.”

  “As well as I.”

  “Shut up, Noah!” she snapped.

  She revved all three hundred and ten of the horses in the engine and the car all but flew down the road with a roar, just before she jerked the wheel to make a screeching right and then an abrupt left, zipping the car neatly into a little grove in the middle of two pastel suburban houses before shutting off the engine and all the lights.

  Laney was still heaving when she saw the other car zoom past, missing them completely. She grinned in triumph, only then turning to look at Noah.

  He was staring at her, the expression
on his face what must pass for awe. “Been in many car chases before?”

  “No, but I do watch an unhealthy amount of movies.”

  “How do you even know about this place?” He looked amazed as he inspected the grove that was sheltered under overgrown vines and shrubs.

  Laney replied offhand. “Are you kidding? This whole area used to be farmland. It’s full of shady little corners. It’s become sort of a best-kept secret place for kids to—” She broke off, realizing what she was about to say.

  She met his expectant gaze and blinked to rephrase. “Hang out. And talk. All night.”

  “All night?” Noah’s face was skeptical.

  “If they wanted to,” she added tentatively. She was probably the last person on Earth who should be trying to explain the grand young tradition of “parking” to Noah.

  He scoffed in mocking. “I feel like I almost need to double-check if you’re having a ‘bleed through’ right now.”

  Laney’s shoulders shook in mirth. But she knew fairly well he didn’t need to check. Noah was the one person who could recognize her no matter what for some reason.

  Or perhaps for one very specific particular reason.

  As the silence fell between them, Laney felt the familiar probing warmth in his gaze again. Her pulse raced in the recollection of what had almost happened at The Shack.

  She supposed she should have been relieved that Kevin had come at that exact moment but she couldn’t help feel as though she’d been left hanging.

  Her stomach twisted at the stark reminder of another certain Kevin whom she should have been thinking about instead. Not to mention a certain fiancée of Noah’s whom he didn’t even know was actually not entirely lost.

  Damn that damn theory.

  She fidgeted in her seat.

  “What is it?” Noah noticed her unease.

  Laney’s gaze was fixed to the dashboard. “Berry told me.”

  Noah’s eyebrows rose in a silent prompt.

  “About primaries.”

  If he was surprised, he didn’t show it. “It’s just a theory.”

  She met his gaze again. “I know.”