by SY Thompson
Ronan’s head snapped back at the comment and she stared at Sidney in wounded anger.
“Is that all I am to you, an employee?”
“What else would you be?” Sidney asked as she tried to deny her feelings. She knew she was hurting Ronan but was unable to stop. “You were hired as my pilot.”
Ronan swallowed and responded softly. “I would have thought things had changed between us and that you would see me as a woman, not as a hired hand.”
Sidney looked at her with as little sympathy as she could manage and said, “I’m sorry. I don’t work that way.”
“I see.” Ronan uttered the words as calmly as possible, but her face hardened. Her eyes landed on the battered briefcase that she’d been lugging through the swamps the past few days.
“Then perhaps we should focus on something you can understand, like saving your life.”
“What are you doing? That’s mine.”
Ronan grabbed the briefcase and squatted on the ground to open it. “You don’t need it. It’s slowing you down.” Ronan tossed various objects into different piles on the dirt, heedless of the mess she was making.
“But the supplies...” It was all she could think of to stop Ronan.
“What we have left will fit in the saddlebags.”
Ronan discarded anything extraneous and shoved the few necessary supplies into her own bags. When she reached the bottom, she grabbed the disc and shoved it into her shirt pocket before she picked up Sidney’s photograph of her grandparents. She looked up at that moment and their eyes met. Sidney watched Ronan through narrowed eyes. Her chest heaved in anger and hurt as she waited to see what Ronan would do next.
“Didn’t you just say that you would never hurt me?”
Ronan looked away, her eyes drifting to the ground. Sidney watched her jaw clench for a moment and then Ronan wordlessly placed Sidney’s photo into the pack before she picked up the discarded items and shoved them back into the leather case.
“We’ll have to find somewhere to hide this,” she said sullenly. “We’ll try to come back for it later.”
A loud boom sounded from somewhere close behind them in the jungle and bark exploded from the tree beside Ronan.
“No time.” Sidney grabbed Ronan by the arm and urged her to run, forgetting about what had just happened between them.
Ronan dropped the briefcase and ran with Sidney hot on her heels. They sprinted through the woods and jumped over fallen limbs and scrub as they evaded their pursuers. Low-hanging branches smacked wetly against their sweaty faces and adrenaline pumped through their systems.
Sidney was surprised to find that she suddenly didn’t feel so tired and pulled slightly ahead of Ronan.
“Wait,” Ronan called from behind and Sidney felt her grab the back of her shirt before hauling her to the left of the trail. “This way.”
Sidney realized belatedly that she had almost rushed straight into a two-foot high fire ant bed. If she’d kept going, she would have smacked right into it. A small bed lying on the ground wouldn’t have caused much trouble, but tackling one of these mounds could mean a slow, painful death. She quickly caught on to what Ronan had in mind. If they could circle back in front of it and stay just in sight of their enemy, they might be able to lure their pursuer into the mound.
He’d fired the previous shot at them from too far away to be effective, and with any luck, he would still be too far away to become suspicious of them running in a wide circle.
When they got to the far side of the mound, Ronan pulled Sidney back on track directly in front of their attacker. If time weren’t a primary concern, Sidney might have felt a little irritated at Ronan yanking her back and forth. With the foliage in the way, Sidney could just barely see bits and pieces of the attacker’s clothing.
A few moments later, they heard a startled yelp and the sound of a dull thud as the man made the acquaintance of the deadly mound.
Sidney looked at Ronan and grinned. “Good thinking.” She rested her hands on her hips and took several deep breaths to catch her wind.
Ronan glowed at the praise. “Thank you, but he may have only struck the outer rim and might be okay. If he is, he’ll be coming after us soon enough. I think we should get out of here before that happens.”
A gentle but insistent hand on her shoulder prevented Ronan from walking away. “Wait just a moment. I’m sorry...about earlier. You are more than an employee to me. It’s been a long time since I was attracted to someone, and I’m not sure how to deal with all this.”
Ronan smiled softly. “I’m sorry, too, and I’m sorry for throwing away your briefcase. It was childish of me. We’re still close enough if you want to go back for it.”
“No, you were right. It was slowing me down. I’m just glad you didn’t throw away my picture.”
“I couldn’t bring myself to hurt you in that way. You must have been very close,” Ronan finished.
“We were. I miss them very much.”
Ronan held out a hand. “Friends again?”
Sidney took the hand with a smile and stared intently into the blue eyes. “That much, I can promise you.”
Ronan flushed a little and changed the topic. “Then let’s put some distance between us and our uninvited guest.”
As they walked into the woods Sidney felt compelled to ask, “Ronan?”
“Hmm?”
“You are eventually going to tell me everything. Right?”
“You have my word.”
Chapter Seventeen
THE FIRST INDICATION they were approaching civilization were the sounds of intermittent traffic on a nearby roadway. Then they had to wade across the river where it intersected their path. Fortunately, the waterway narrowed and became much shallower at this point and reached only to mid-shin. Sidney grimaced in discomfort as her sneakers squished when they reached dry ground on the other side.
“Not long now,” Ronan assured her with a smile.
She proved to be right when ten minutes later they abruptly came to the edge of the blacktop. Ronan struck off as though she knew where she was going and Sidney happily assumed that she did since she quickly checked the analyzer before she put it in the pack. Sidney hoped they wouldn’t need it again anytime soon. Eventually they came to the outskirts of a small town, sparsely decorated with few businesses and even fewer people. To Sidney it didn’t seem very promising. She glanced down and Ronan caught the frown of frustration.
“Don’t worry. We haven’t reached the main business area, yet. We’re in Homestead, Florida which was actually a very well-known tourist area during the 21st century.”
Ronan took a few more steps before she froze, apparently realizing what she’d just said. After a brief hesitation, she continued walking as though nothing was out of the ordinary, leaving Sidney no choice but to jog to catch up.
She flushed hard a moment later when Sidney asked, “So, what’s it like on your planet?”
The abashed look on Ronan’s face was priceless and Sidney could see the wheels spinning as she desperately sought an explanation for her slip. Mentally, Sidney rubbed her hands together in glee. Gotcha, I knew you were from the future.
Then she became serious as the implications hit her. How bad was their future if Ronan had felt compelled to give up everything to come back and correct it? How could she go back and correct it? She must have felt that things were dire enough to take matters into her own hands, but her focus thus far had appeared to center around Sidney.
Sidney wondered what she had to do with how the world turned out. She wasn’t a politician, much less an activist. If all of this had something to do with her, wouldn’t Ronan have already told her what it was? Maybe Ronan didn’t think Sidney could handle it. That means things were even worse than they seemed.
Ronan didn’t reply and Sidney decided she was too exhausted to pursue the topic anyway. Right now, they both needed to eat, bathe, and rest.
The hotel wasn’t exactly five-star, but Sidney thought they wer
e in heaven as they stepped through the double doors. The comfortably cool lobby had nothing that reminded her of the muck or grime they’d been slogging through the last two days. However, from the look on the clerk’s face when they walked up to the hotel registry, she was sure he wouldn’t allow them to stay. She had no doubt that they looked like a couple of street urchins in their dirty, torn clothing, with their hair plastered to their heads and grime liberally coating every inch of their visible, sunburned flesh.
“May I help you?” he asked with a sneer as he took in the grubby appearance of the women that stood before him.
His thinly veiled disgust quickly turned to studied politeness when Ronan pulled a platinum MasterCard from her wallet and plunked it down on the counter. When she applied a generous tip at the end of the transaction, he didn’t even bother to ask if they had luggage, instead quickly signaling for a bellhop to show them to their room.
As soon as the door to the room clicked closed, Sidney burst out heartily, “Thank God. All I can think about is a shower and some sleep.”
“Just let me wash my face and hands and the bathroom’s all yours.”
By the tone, Sidney just knew she was up to something and couldn’t help but wonder what it was. “You planning something?”
“I’m just going to arrange for some transportation and some fresh clothing. Unless you prefer what you have on?”
The question was lightly teasing, causing Sidney to look down at her torn and filthy clothes. “I guess you have a point.”
Her smile faded as worry for Ronan rose in her thoughts. She stepped closer and reached out a hand to cup her jaw, her thumb tracing the dimpled chin. “Please be careful. I don’t know what I’d do if anything happened to you.”
Ronan hesitated for a fraction of a second, as though there was something she wanted to say, before she abruptly retreated to the bathroom. Sidney saw the look of confusion on her face and berated herself. Great, she thought as the bathroom door closed. We’re running for our lives and I’m flirting with her. She probably thinks my behavior is completely inappropriate.
She groaned as she sat on the edge of the bed and bent over to struggle with her knotted and wet shoelaces. Finally, she won the battle and removed her sneakers and socks. Sidney closed her eyes in bliss and wriggled her shriveled toes while she savored the feel of cool air on her overtired extremities. The flush of the toilet and the sound of running water told her Ronan had almost finished in the bathroom.
Soon, Ronan emerged looking much better than she had when she’d gone into the small room. She still smelled of the swamps, but Sidney realized there was nothing she could do about her clothes for the moment. At least she looked refreshed with her face and hands clean. With any luck, anyone Ronan interacted with would simply think she’d been hard at work that day.
“I’ll try not to take too long. Please sleep if you can, but don’t call for room service or use the telephone. More pursuers could arrive and we don’t want to give them any advantage.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Sidney shot back, angered by the coolness she felt suddenly emanating from Ronan.
A moment ago, everything had seemed fine and now she spoke to Sidney as if she was a disobedient child. She should know better than to become interested in anyone. Experiencing this sharp stab of pain more than once in a lifetime should have been enough for the lesson to sink in. All they were ever interested in were games. She was very disappointed to find that Ronan wasn’t so different after all.
“Any other orders you’d like to give before you just leave me here? Or maybe you’d like to show me another snazzy gadget your friend invented?”
“Sidney, I’m not trying to give you orders.” Ronan looked confused by the sudden attack.
“No? That seems to be all you have done in the last two days.”
“You know I’m trying to save your life.”
“So you say. You make up some half-baked story about Roger trying to do away with me and use that man who broke into my home as sole proof.”
“What about the man that was shooting at us and the other four men in the woods?”
“They were probably just hunters. That other guy probably didn’t see us clearly in the swamps and thought he was shooting at game. Now we’ve left him stranded and being eaten on a fire ant nest in the swamps. We’ll end up tried for murder,” she exclaimed being deliberately melodramatic.
“You don’t really believe that.”
Sidney couldn’t respond, already embarrassed by her outburst. Pride was one of her biggest shortcomings and made it hard for her to take the words back when she thought she was getting the cold shoulder.
“Please Sidney, do you really believe that?”
“I don’t know what to believe,” she admitted finally, and allowed some of the fear she had been feeling to show in her eyes. “You keep asking me to trust you, but you haven’t really told me anything. Roger and I were married for a long time and even though it wasn’t the best relationship, I have a hard time believing he would try to kill me.”
Sidney sat up on the bed and looked deeply into Ronan’s eyes. “Give me something. Even if you can’t tell me everything, just answer this. Where did all your gadgets come from?”
Ronan answered carefully. “I told you a friend of mine invented them.”
“And I assume this scientist friend of yours was also from the future?”
Startled by that, Ronan sputtered, “H...how did you...?”
Sidney smiled at the reaction. Her voice gentled unconsciously as she answered in a way that she hoped wouldn’t frighten her companion. “You made a comment about Homestead, Florida being a tourist attraction in the 21st century.”
Ronan was clearly flustered. “I just meant...”
Sidney stood and placed a finger against the full lips to halt the tirade before it could begin. “Shh,” she said gently. “It’s all right.”
Ronan’s breath came quicker as Sidney’s eyes fastened to her mouth. A slender finger stroked the line of the top lip and followed it around to trace the bow of the fuller lower one. Her tongue stroked her lower lip as she stared, mesmerizing Ronan with the action. They leaned slowly toward each other, the distance closed until their breaths ghosted gently over each other. The words Ronan had spoken in the swamps, “Kiss me,” played over again in Sidney’s mind and her stomach clinched in anticipation of tasting her again.
“I can’t...think...when you’re this close to me,” Ronan said softly.
Sidney stared into the blue eyes and admitted to herself that she wanted this to happen, had wanted it to happen almost from the moment she had met the dynamic woman. The only thing holding her back was that she didn’t really know how Ronan felt. She hadn’t even indicated an attraction for other women in general and the previous kisses were probably a result of all the recent emotional stress.
Sidney swallowed the trepidation and took a chance. “Is that a bad thing?”
“No, just unexpected.”
“So...are you going to kiss me, or not,” Sidney prompted with a small, but challenging grin.
A blonde eyebrow arched at the question and Ronan took a deep breath. She gently leaned closer until their cheeks rested gently together and she could whisper directly into Sidney’s ear.
“Hold on to that thought and when I get back I’ll be glad to take you up on it.” Ronan’s eyes fluttered gently closed as she sucked the tender lobe.
Sidney almost swooned at the feel of the warm, wet tongue that stroked her skin. She grabbed onto Ronan’s shoulders tightly and held her close for a few more precious moments.
It was over much too quickly and Ronan drew slowly away. “I’ll be back as fast as possible. Please sleep if you can.”
Sidney nodded slowly, the words no longer sounded like a demand but a gentle plea from someone she had begun to care about more than she wanted to admit. “All right.”
Chapter Eighteen
RELUCTANTLY, RONAN TURNED and walked to the door befor
e she could change her mind, pull Sidney to her, and make passionate love to her for the rest of the night. Unable to resist completely, she cast one last look at her before she pulled the door gently closed. A few hours later, Ronan completed her tasks and was on her way back to the hotel. She was completely exhausted and her eyes burned, but she felt she had everything they would need to complete their journey.
A quick stop at a bank had been on her list of things to do first. She walked down the street and entered a local branch of one where she’d previously deposited funds. People that came into and went out of the bank looked at her curiously. Ronan knew she appeared very contained and self-assured, but the state of her clothes didn’t match the picture, and the smell coming off her body was a little disgusting.
She ignored them all and entered the bank as if she owned the place to take out a large withdrawal. When Sidney had suddenly taken off on her little excursion, she’d caught Ronan off guard. She had very little cash on her and was just lucky that she kept her wallet in her jacket pocket. At least she had identification. She didn’t want to use credit cards since even in this period they would leave a trail that would be too easy to follow.
“Can I help you, miss?” a friendly teller asked. To her credit, she didn’t seem to care what Ronan wore and was very eager to help.
“Yes.” Ronan smiled at the woman who was really more of a girl. “I would like to withdraw twenty-thousand dollars from my account.”
After she left the bank, her next stop had been to rent a car. Ronan was extremely careful about renting the nondescript white Buick with a credit card that identified her under a different name. She would have preferred to pay cash, but the agency required a credit card in case of damages. She was realistic enough to know that a card with a false name would do little good. Homestead, Florida wasn’t very large and there would be few people renting cars. All their pursuers needed to do was check for any females that matched their description. They would be able to determine their destination and how much of a head start there was, which was precisely why Ronan lied.