by Jill Cooper
Copyright 2017, Jill Cooper
All Right’s Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or copy without explicit permission.
Publisher: The Wooden Pen Press, LLC
Editor: TG Ayer
Time Thief
By Jill Cooper
My name is Lara Montgomery. Eight years ago when I changed the past, I changed the world. Now, together with the help of my family, I police the timeline and watch for rogue elements that threaten the fabric of the multiverse.
What was once meant to be the wedding of the year has turned into a small private affair, but Lara Montgomery is ready to put the past behind her. And embrace happily ever after, once and for all.
But hidden in the shadows, an old friend—and a dangerous enemy—watches. He lurks and dares Lara to change the past to protect those she loves one more time. Lara can’t fight her base instinct to protect those she loves. She springs a trap that’s been designed just for her and finds herself in a timeline she knows nothing about.
Trapped in a strange time where everything is backwards, and with no way to escape, Lara must face that this time, she might not find her way home without help. Meanwhile, evil fights to regain control of the splintering multiverse and Lara may have to face the truth; that family isn’t always what you think.
Sometimes your enemies are closer than they appear.
Chapter One: Lara Montgomery
Tomorrow it will finally happen and I’ll become Lara James. Wed and happily ever after are in my future. So close to the finish line and I feel nothing but dread.
As if time will catch up with me and ruin everything. It always has.
Time travel, it seems, is more of a curse than a blessing. It’ll forever be my cross to bear. I’ll always be looking over my shoulder, even as I go about my mundane day.
I ease into the receptionist’s brown leather chair to grab the ringing phone. “James and Montgomery Consulting.” I answer the phone, smiling as I lean over the receptionist counter even though it’s supposed to be my day off. “Mr. Crane will be with you in fifteen minutes. He’s stuck in traffic, but I promise he’ll be right there.”
It’s a family affair now, with Donovan’s eye for business and my Dad’s natural ability with numbers. We work together, play together, and soon we’ll all be family. I think about that as I gaze at the minimal diamond ring on my finger.
Earned through hard work, it means more than the four-karat ring I’d had in the timeline where we had it all. My ability to time travel has led me here and I’m happy as I can be with a cloud of worry looming overhead.
I hang up the phone in time to see the receptionist, Maggy, coming around the corner carrying a full cup of coffee. She’s a young thing of twenty-one, with flowing blond hair tipped with purple. She wears a loose black dress and high heels that really set off her legs.
I might only be twenty-five but my time travel escapades have aged me and made me too serious for my years. She scrunches up her nose. “Sorry, Lara. I know you’re only visiting today. So sorry!”
“Don’t worry about it. I’m here to see Don anyway and it’s good to hear the phones ringing off the hook.” Ringing phones means we can keep paying the staff and pay the bills.
Truth be told, considering how hard it had been to get this business off the ground, I was happy to pitch in a helping hand.
After everything Donovan and I had been through—losing all of our money in the stock market, being tempted by time travel assassins with stolen stock information from the future—ringing phones make me happy.
The office might be small and decorated on a budget, but it’s warm. The walls are the color of a creamy coffee and the rugs are plush. People bustle back and forth. The sounds of keyboards clacking and fax machines beeping guides me down the hall.
Donovan’s small office has a view of the parking lot. Humble beginnings, he always said, would lead to big things. Great things.
Just like the upcoming wedding to celebrate our love.
I knock on his office door before I stick my head in. He’s sitting on the edge of the desk, his suit jacket is thrown across his chair and his white shirt is unbuttoned at the top, sleeves rolled up. Clearly, he’s in for the long haul. As he talks, his forehead creases in a way that’s so sexy, and I find myself staring at him. I want nothing more than to glide my fingers across his brow.
When he lifts his head, he catches sight of me and waves. His smile crinkles the skin around his eyes. “Listen, let’s finish this tonight. No, tomorrow I can’t. Tomorrow, I’m the luckiest man in the world. I’m getting married. Thank you. Sure. Okay…bye.”
As he hangs up the phone, I slink inside and close the door. “Is the lucky girl anyone I know?”
Donovan stands and approaches. He swoops me in his arms and gives me a tender kiss. “I don’t know. Do you know any good-looking brunettes with curly hair?”
“I can think of two others that look pretty similar.” I hang onto his shoulders, lean in for another kiss, happy to be where I belong.
“Oh, that’s right. Well, I didn’t think that through very well, did I?” Donovan kisses my button nose and I laugh, running my hands down his back.
“You sure we can’t spend the night together? You’re making me think lots of naughty things.”
Donovan raises his eyebrows. “We’ve had enough bad luck, I’m not going to risk fate by doing something as bold as that.”
I pout with disappointment then kiss his cheek, taking in his musky scent. “Will you at least take me to dinner?”
“And have you tempt me all night long?” Donovan snorts and I laugh in reply. “Don’t you have a sleepover with your sister?”
That’s true, I do. I’m sleeping at my parents’ place for the last time as a single woman and hoping to keep things cordial between everyone. No one ever said life was easy, and life with time travelers make it even worse.
“But I’ll call you,” Donovan whispers and kisses my cheek, then my chin. “With each passing day, I think I love you more.”
The way his eyes sparkle when he says that makes my heart soar. Going from the penthouse in the Back Bay to living in a simple one-bedroom apartment in Somerville would’ve been enough to break some couples, but not us.
With any luck—and lots of commitment—nothing would ever be able to break us apart again. But the fear and dread that something horrible is coming…it never lets go.
****
Years ago, I changed time to save my mother’s life. Back then, I hadn’t realized how much my actions would screw things up. The only thing I could think of was Mom would be alive and back with me and Dad. Boy, had I been I wrong. Instead I got a step-father, a new half-brother and sister, and a conspiracy that has put all our lives in danger.
That happy ever after I’d dreamed for my parents…it was here, and I couldn’t be happier—even if I did walk in on them in Mom’s kitchen. The faucet is running, but it is the last thing on their mind. Mom is leaning against Dad’s chest. His sleeves are rolled up, as if he’d been about to wash the dishes and gotten distracted.
There’s so much love in that room neither of them hear me. I can’t help reaching behind Mom, grabbing a handful of chips, and munching on them loudly to break up the kissing. I might be grown up, but when I’m with my parents, I still feel like a kid and not a twenty-five-year-old woman.
“Lara!” Mom wipes her mouth as if to clear away what I’d just seen, but that isn’t happening.
“Pizza’s here. I thought you guys might want to know. Want me to send some in here or should I just send it up to your room?”
Mom puts her hands on her hips, a glint of pretend anger in her eye. “Lara Montgomery…”
“Tomorrow it’ll be James,” Dad says and rests his hand
on my shoulder. “I feel like I just got back to you and your mom. And you’ll be growing up on me just like that.”
Mom lets out a deep sigh. The guilt she feels for the ten years Dad had spent in prison thanks to her ex-husband—my ex-step-father—is real. So is the love I feel for Jax, too. He had made some mistakes, some big ones, but he’d raised me in this timeline since I was ten-years-old. It confuses my emotions with my sense of loyalty split between two men.
I kiss Dad’s cheek. “You’ll always have me. I’m not going anywhere. Donovan and I will always be nearby.”
He smiles, but there’s sadness. “Send some of the pizza in here. Have fun with Molly.”
Mom twists her hands together. “If you see Mike, send him around, will you? He’s been spending too much time in his room.”
“Because of me,” Dad says and runs his hand through his hair. “I can go if you—.”
“Not on your life, John Crane.” Mom pulls Dad closer to her, as though I’ve already left the room. “I just got you back and I’m not letting you go that easy. Never again.” Mom kisses him and while part of me is elated, part of me wants to give them privacy.
I back into the dining room and head up the stairs to the second level. Mike’s bedroom is first and I knock. “Mike, pizza’s in Molly’s room if you want any.”
All I can hear is the thump of bad rock and roll music. “Mike!” I knock a little louder and finally the door opens.
“What do you want?” Mike crosses his arms and leans against the door jam. He’s in black jeans and a black t-shirt. When had my baby brother turned into an emo teenager?
“Pizza, if you’re hungry. It’s in Molly’s room.”
“I’m good.” Mike starts to close the door and I wedge my foot.
I scowl as the door hits my bare toes. “Mom wants to see you downstairs, too. I know things have been rough for you with the changes, but she’s worried about you. Mom isn’t the enemy.”
He stares at me, his expression disinterested. “Everything you’ve done and you can say that with a straight face?”
“Hey,” I chastise and my eyebrows draw together. “I’ve done what I needed to keep this family together. That includes you.”
“My family is Mom, Dad, you and Molly. Not your dad, Lara. Not while mine is left out in the cold.” Mike turns his back on me and heads into his room.
I follow after him and inside I feel so defensive. Sure, I was happy my parents had rekindled their relationship, but it wasn’t what I had wanted at first. “Jax is every bit my dad too. I hate how things ended and I hate that Mom decided to divorce him. It killed me inside, Mike. I tried to convince her. I tried.”
“Sure,” Mike flops on his bed and faces the wall, angrily flipping through a magazine, “except now you have what you want. Your dad in our house.”
“That’s Mom’s decision. Not mine. She deserves to be happy. Don’t take that away from her. She’s been through hell and back. You were too young to remember how hard it was.”
He tosses his head back and glares at me. “I remember.”
Sure, he does. The anger flames inside me, but he’s just a kid. I need to control it. “Maybe you feel like the world is against you, Mike. I felt like that, too, but it’s not true. We’re here for you. We just want everyone to get along and be happy.”
“You’ll get your happy tomorrow, right?” Mike snorts and slips his headphones on. He’s done with me, just like he’s been for weeks. I hope at least he won’t sulk tomorrow. I hope things can at least go the way they are supposed to for one miserable day.
I remember being an angry teenager with a huge chip on my shoulder, but I wanted more for Mike. I don’t want him to make the same mistakes I’d made.
****
Molly and I eat enough pepperoni pizza for a family of four while sitting on the floor of her room. She’s in pink pajamas and I’m in blue and there are empty soda cans between us, and we laugh at some silly show that’s on her television.
We’re almost identical except there’s an innocence to her face I hadn’t been allowed to have. Her eyes are always full of emotion and she’s so grown up now, I can barely believe it when I stop to take it all in. She has tiny petite breasts, for goodness sakes.
What happened to that seven-year-old girl who I felt like I just met yesterday?
I should be done eating if I want to squeeze into my wedding dress tomorrow, but I can’t help picking at the cheese on the remaining slice of pizza. “How’s Mike been with you lately?” I try not to stare at her as I ask the question. I don’t want it to seem like a serious grilling, but I’m worried about him.
More than I’d thought I’d been.
Molly shrugs, staring off at the TV instead of at me. “He’s more serious than he used to be. I noticed it when Mom and Uncle John started seeing more of each other. Now that he’s practically moved in, Mike is way moodier. He used to be so much fun. Carefree. He’s not himself.” She sighs and her eyes turn down. Far as twins go, they were the closest.
“Let’s try to cut him some slack. It’s not easy for Mike. He doesn’t know or see the things that we do.”
“We’re a time traveling duo.” Molly slurps her soda.
More like I’m a time traveler and I’m not sure what Molly is. She can rewind, fast forward, and freeze time, but what she does isn’t exactly traveling. She doesn’t change the past so much as study it. When she does change it, those caught in her stream remember the past the way it was.
And the way Molly made it be.
Molly sees all the infinite streams of time as though they are individual strands. She’s learning not to tell people about their life choices as it freaks people out, but there’s something special about her that is radically different than my own power.
I feel the urge to sneeze and right before I do, Molly says, “Bless you,” and hands me a tissue. Taking it, I wipe my nose and give her a look.
“What?” Molly asks. “You were going to sneeze. You did the eye twitch thing you always do before you sneeze.”
I wipe my nose. “So, he’s really moved in?”
Molly shrugs. “Feels like it. Some night’s he stays and just pretends he got here early enough to make breakfast. Like anyone is stupid enough to fall for that.”
“Huh,” well, I’d have to tease my parents about that later.
“How about you? Are you nervous?” Molly asks genuinely, her eyes wide as she waits for my answer.
“I’ve been waiting for this day for years…it seems like. Nervous is the last thing I am.”
“Just be careful. The future’s path isn’t set yet.”
Her tone of voice scares me. I open my mouth to ask her what she means but a shimmering hole in time, appears before us =. Cassidy, my great niece from the future, steps through. She’s staring at her phone and lifts a hand to close the gateway to the bridge—a place that exists outside of time.
“Here you guys are. Everything so far looks tip top. No sightings that we need to worry about. No Rex. No rogue time travelers. What?” Cassidy blinks as she finally looks up. “Why are you both staring at me like that?”
Molly laughs as she reaches up and grabs Cassidy, pulling her down into the group with us. “You’re late for pizza. This is the night before Lara gets married. We don’t want to talk about any of that right now.”
Cassidy scowls. “Well, when will we talk about it then? Tomorrow she’ll be too busy. Then she’ll be going off on her honeymoon.”
“No honeymoon, remember?” I try not to feel that twinge of disappointment. The time isn’t right just yet for a honeymoon. We can’t afford it, but I so desperately want to be away with Donovan all to myself.
She gives me a look. “Right, well just because you guys don’t know how to do it right. I—.” Molly shoves a piece of pizza into Cassidy’s mouth and we all erupt into a fit of giggles.
They’re my present, my future, all the reasons I have for living my life. We’re together and life is good. Nothing
is ever going to tear me away.
Chapter Two: Molly
I love my big sister, but she snores like the Dickens. Whatever that means. I’m staring up at the ceiling when my stomach growls so loud I find myself feeling sick. I decide to grab something to eat. That left-over pizza in the fridge is calling my name.
Peeling my comforter off, I tip-toe over Lara’s and Cassidy’s sleeping bodies. I take a moment to stare at Cassidy’s face and I marvel at the fact that she’s older than me, but I am her grandmother. One day. That means I grow up, I have a daughter who in turn will grow up and have her.
That means all of this will work out and no matter what path I take, it’ll all lead to her. Pretty cool, if you think about it. I wish it was something I could share with others, but I guess I can’t unless I want to really confuse people.
Downstairs, I trip over Uncle John’s duffle bag. They really aren’t the stealthiest of individuals. I wouldn’t mind except for how trippy Mike’s been about the situation. I move the bag over before heading into the kitchen. When I open the fridge, the light nearly blinds me it’s so bright.
Fridges should come with a nighttime setting, for goodness sakes.
I bitied into the cold pizza and the burst of sweetness and tang from the tomato sauce makes it worth it. I close the fridge door and lean against it, enjoying my snack. As my vision readjusts to the darkness, a shape takes form in front of me and I jump at the sight of Mike. He’s in his pajamas and staring at me, a small smile on his face.
“Don’t you ever learn that you can’t do anything without me hearing you?”
I swallow the pizza bits still in my mouth. “Want a piece? We can eat together.”
Mike nods. “Yeah, I’m starving.”
“Ask and you shall receive.” I pull a piece from the fridge and hand it to him. We could sit at the table, but we always eat our midnight snacks on the floor with our backs against the cabinets. I don’t know why it started. Probably because when we were little we couldn’t move the chairs without them squeaking across the floor.