Time Thief

by Jill Cooper

“You were found with the gun, Cass. What am I supposed to think?”

  “Did you see me with the gun or are you just believing what they tell you? Is this what your mother wants you to think?”

  Don lets out a bitter laugh. “I don’t see what my mother has to do with anything. You know as well as I do, she’s been Miranda’s friend since college. We’re talking two decades. She’d have no reason to hurt her. So—.”

  The door opens and Patricia enters, a soft smile on her face. But it’s one that doesn’t reach her chilly eyes. “Enough, Don. You’re going to upset the patient if you keep this up. You need to leave us so we can have a woman-to-woman chat. All right?”

  I pull on my restraints; the last thing I want is to be left in the room with this woman. She killed a girl who’d been nothing more than a child, she’d murdered Miranda somehow and pinned it on me. Everything I know, and am beginning to question, starts and ends with this woman.

  Don’s reluctant to leave. He gazes back at me and I beg with my eyes for him to stay. But though his eyes are be filled with grief and apology, he still leaves, closing the door behind him.

  I blow out a deep breath and hear Patricia sit, then slid her chair toward me. “Now,” her lip curls on one side, “where should we begin, Ms. Winters?”

  My heart pounds erratically. There’s no kindness or compassion on her face as she slips a pair of latex gloves on. Whoever Patricia James really is, she’s cruel and keeps it hidden from her son. I want no part in her games or her company, but being handcuffed to a bed certainly doesn’t help the situation.

  “If you’re going to consider jumping back or forward in time, I’d just like to let you know we fitted you with a restraint device,” Patricia warns me quietly. There’s a calming madness in the way she speaks and smiles, the way a mother would to a misbehaving child. “I must say, we were shocked when you exhibited time travel nuances. We weren’t aware you had been able to do that in other timelines, but it taught us a lot.”

  “Like?” I’m not sure what she’s talking about. I’m pretty sure I’ve never traveled in time before.

  “To always prepare for the unexpected, of course. Which is partially why we’re here. I need to know what Miranda told you and what she could prove?”

  “I…I don’t know anything.”

  “True, at least for now. We gave you something to impair your short-term memory, your memories of the last day are forgotten, but not gone. Now, we’re going to extract them from you. So, we can see who else needs to be dealt with before all my plans go up in smoke.”

  How would she do that? I freeze into place as the door opens and Rex enters. He’s wheeling a stainless-steel tray that’s covered in needles. When he picks one up, I wince and try to get free.

  “It’s useless to try,” Rex says dispassionately as he expels liquid from the needle.

  “It’ll only hurt a short while,” Patricia stands so Rex can slide in closer. My mind reels in all directions. I don’t want this. Where is Donovan and why is he letting them do this? I’d thought he cared. I’d thought we were forever.

  “Please…” I back away as far as I can but Patricia uses both her hands to steady my head. Slowly she turns it to the side.

  “In a few moments, you won’t be able to feel or move, but you will be aware of what we’re seeing. And you’ll be experience it as if it’s happening to you for the first time all over again.” Rex smiles and it terrifies me.

  I gnash my teeth and I scream. My fists clench and my back goes rigid, but none of it matters as the thick needle pushes between my vertebrae. I’m overcome with a sense of ice rushing up and down my brain stem. My mouth freezes in that scream unable to change, unable to move.

  My feet twitch and I’m unable to stop or control it.

  “You can let her go now,” Rex says as he wheels the cart away. He calls through the door for some equipment and Patricia lets my head go.

  She bends down to gaze into my unblinking eyes and snaps her fingers. “She didn’t even blink.”

  “She can’t, darling, but trust me, she sees you. She’ll remember all of this. At least until we take her memories away.”

  Rex laughs gently and Patricia joins him. My heart seeks revenge but it also seeks Donovan. Where is he and how could he have let this happen? My knight in shining armor is not a knight at all. Instead his armor’s dull and has begun to tarnish.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven: Mike Montgomery

  “She knows. She’s pieced it all together.” Rex sighs and throws himself down into his office chair. It swivels toward the window and he rubs his temples as if a great headache is coming on. I’ve seen him do it before.

  I open the bottle of aspirin sitting on his desk and fling two pills at him. He opens his hand to catch them and I slow time down, spin the pills, so they’ll land softly into his open palm. As he grabs the glass of water beside him, he smirks.

  “Always such a showoff, Mike.”

  Shrugging, I loosen the collar of my suit and sit on the edge of his desk. “The girls think they’re the only ones who are special. That’ll be their undoing in the end, Uncle.”

  “Perhaps, but now that we’ve outted you to them, they’ll grow more careful. More suspicious. Are you sure that’s really what you wanted?”

  “He needs them to know, that fifteen-year-old version of me that’s in pain, that feels cut off from his family and friends. He knows they keep secrets from him and he wants to hurt them as much as they’ve hurt him. It’s the only way we can get him to turn into me.” I smirk and it might be as devilish as my uncle’s.

  “And what do you need, twenty-three-year-old Mike Montgomery?”

  “Power. The power to crush them and take what they leave behind.”

  Rex flicks his pencil onto the desktop. “The young you is vulnerable. Cassidy and especially Molly, could turn him with a few kind words. His twin has a way with him and always had. If you hadn’t been lurking around to keep them apart here…”

  “Keep them both away. And what about that pesky half-sister of mine, Lara?”

  “She’ll never escape out of the timeline she’s been trapped in. Not if you’re as powerful as I think you are.”

  There’s a knock at the door and I stand to face it. On the other side, another version of Rex escorts the younger version of me we’ve been talking about. He’s wearing polo and slacks and is as proper as I remember him being. His hair is combed to one side and there’s so much of our mother in his face, that it makes my stomach churn with acid.

  He looks at me with that small turn up of his lips, the tilt of his head, his button nose so perfect you almost want to punch him. “The game’s been fun,” he says calmly, “but I’m ready now to go home. I’m ready to show Molly, Lara, everyone that I can do the things they can do. I’m ready for you to bring my mom back.”

  Both Rexes stiffen. The one behind the desk dismisses the one beside teenage Mike. I glance back at my Uncle before bending down in front of Mike. “Your family isn’t ready yet. They don’t understand our brilliance yet, Mike. If you want to grow up and become me, we need a little more. Cassidy and Molly will try to undo everything that we’ve done. They’ll want to study you. Maybe even lock you up on the bridge for all that you can do.”

  Mike backs up a step and looks at me and Rex with fright in his eyes. “What do you mean?”

  “You don’t just travel in time like the girls. You’re more powerful.” Rex smiles.

  I watch Mike’s face as he falls under Rex’s spell. It’s always fascinating to watch him work and watch him create followers, time after time.

  “You can change circumstances, bend time, even steal it on a whim. They won’t be able to just let you go. Sure, they’ll say you’re a danger to the universe, the earth, bending time is bad for humanity, etc etc. In reality, what they’re saying is they don’t want to be one-upped by the likes of you. The little brother. The boy. It’s always been an exclusive girls’ club, hasn’t it?”

  Slowly Mike
nods. “I don’t want them to get hurt.”

  “They won’t be hurt,” Rex says. “Lara is perfectly safe. When it’s time, you’ll all be reunited, but first we need things here to cement a bit longer. We need to make sure Molly won’t interfere in what is about to happen.”

  “What is going to happen?”

  “Patricia will secure the vote so that all time travel restrictions are removed. That’ll give us the ability to practice on her behalf and the memory-swiping program will move forward at an unpresented level.”

  “Do they know?” Mike scowls. “What we can do?” He looks to me.

  I smile. “If people realized I have learned to replace memories on a broad scale, change the circumstances and events of this timeline without creating a new one, no one would let me live, Mike. Remember that our futures are linked. If you go, I cease to exist, and if I go, you have no future.”

  Mike nods and swallows hard. It’s a lot of information to take in all at once so I pat his shoulder. “Why don’t I take you out for ice cream. Just you and me? I’ll make sure all your fears are put to rest.”

  “Yes,” Rex says with a lick of his upper lip. “Why don’t you do that? Mike here can erase all your fears, I’m sure of it.”

  As was I. It was like taking candy from a baby.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight: Lara James

  I charge up onto the bridge, shooting upward like a rocket through it with so much momentum I almost bounce off the ceiling. Landing on the ground with a thud, I come face to face with Mike. Not the brother I remember, but an older version who resembles Rex more than Jax with his brown hair and devilish smirk.

  He’s taken after his uncle and not his father. That realization turns and twists in my gut until it makes me sick.

  He’s been concentrating too long on keeping me out of the bridge. His contorted face covers in wrinkles that age him beyond his years and perspiration. He wipes at the trail of blood from his nose. “Well, I guess there’s no keeping the infamous Lara Montgomery down, is there?”

  His words are the closest to hurting me he could’ve gotten with the amount of anger I’m feeling. “I shouldn’t be infamous to you, Mike. You’re my little brother. I don’t know how we got here, but think of Molly. Think of—.”

  Mike steps forward and won’t let me continue. “How it happened? How about you, the great Lara Crane, couldn’t stop messing with time. You stole everything from me that should’ve been mine. Mom, Dad, even Molly…no one even noticed me. I couldn’t have paid for the type of attention that people can’t stop giving you even though you’re the screw up.”

  “If I hadn’t changed time, you never would’ve been born. I know I complicated things. I’ve made mistakes and I pay for them every day but without those mistakes, Mom would still be dead. How you can side with Rex when—.”

  “He’s the only one who ever cared about me. Before I came to him I had nothing. No one cared about my life. It was always Molly, Lara, Molly. What about me? Why wasn’t I important enough!”

  I’m sorry for his pain but even more than that, I see what’s really going on. “He’s manipulated you. I don’t know when he came into your life, but whatever he’s told you, it’s a lie.”

  “That I’m good enough? That I’m powerful in my own right? And I am. I can do things you can’t even dream of.”

  “Like?” I goad him on so he’ll tell me.

  “I can rearrange the timeline. Give people false memories. Delete people, like you. Rearrange relationships. Even move people around forward and backward in time. It’s not easy. The timeline wants to fix itself. It takes all of my concentration.”

  I’m floored by the information and wonder how—if he is so strong—no one has ever found out? Why is there no mention of him in any of the timelines I have visited. For all his rambling, now I have the information I need. I just have to interrupt his concentration, give everyone the chance to get free.

  I want to do that, but I also want to save him. How can I do both? The answer lies with young Mike, not this older twisted version of him.

  “Then undo it. Put things back the way it was supposed to be.”

  Mike shakes his head. “I could, but I won’t. I want Rex to succeed. I want everyone to see that I’m more powerful than you.”

  “Whatever Rex did to you, I’m sorry. Really am. I hope I can show you one day how wrong you are, but right now, I just have to stop you.”

  I make a fist and throw it toward Mike’s head. He jolt’s away into nothing but a purple streak. When he’s suddenly behind me, I pivot on my heel. I try again and again, unable to catch him. That’s not supposed to be possible on the bridge; it exists outside of space and time, so how is he able to do that?

  For the first time since landing on the bridge, fear creeps into me. I take a deep breath and Mike shrugs his arms out. “Catch me if you can, Lara.”

  Then he’s gone. He disappears and in his place, I’m surrounded by ten versions of Rex, all slightly different from each other—different hair style, a different suit—all with the same smirk and British accent. They all greet me with a hello.

  “Hello, Lara.”

  “Hello.”

  “Here we go again, darling.”

  I edge backward and I keep my distance as they close in on me. I try to stay in the center. Bending my knees, I work on exploding upward, my handle crackling with power. Without Mike around, I can get back to my timeline. I can fix things so none of this ever happened.

  Just as I always do.

  “Say bye, Rex.” My lip turns up in a snarl and I open a portal back to my timeline, ready to reset the past.

  Chapter Twenty Nine: Molly Montgomery

  “Don’t forget your backpack before you run for the bus, sweetheart.” Mom places a kiss on my cheek.

  Where she kisses me, I feel warm, as if her love lingers behind. “What?” I gaze around. I’m sitting at the kitchen table and there’s a half-eaten plate of toast and bacon in front of me. The smell from coffee lingers and the television on the counter flickers with the morning news like it always did when Dad….

  “You hear your mom, squirt? You’re going to be late for the bus if you don’t hurry.” Dad says as he puts his coffee cup into the sink.

  I stand still with shock, my eyes wide to see Dad—Jax Montgomery—standing in our kitchen just as he always used to before the divorce. “Dad?”

  Mom and Dad laugh. “Well, at least we still know she can speak.” Mom’s eyes twinkle as he hands me my backpack. “Hurry up and maybe you can catch Mike.”

  I sling the bag over my shoulder and my eyes linger on Dad. “Will you be here when I get back?”

  “Sure will, squirt. I have a meeting at noon, but I’ll be home in time to put cookies out. You still eat cookies, don’t you?”

  “I do.” My insides are smiling as I hug him tight.

  “Well, good. I knew my baby girl wasn’t that grown up yet.” Dad kisses the top of my head and then I hug Mom. Why had I though my parents had gotten divorced? Why had I thought she was dating John Crane?

  As I leave the kitchen I glance up at the clock. “You might want to fix that thing. The hands are spinning backward.” I’m unable to shake the feeling that that means something. It’s supposed to tell me something.

  But what?

  ****

  I run down the street fast until I catch up with Mike. He’s trotting slowly to the bus stop with his hands in the pockets of his jeans. “Wait up, Mike!” I hurry, my feet stomping the sidewalk as he comes to a stop.

  He grins at me. “There you are.”

  I link my arm through his and we walk together side by side. We fall into a comfortable silence, content to be together, as we always are. Always will be.

  I wonder what life will be like when we’re older. Will we always make time for each other? Maybe meet after college classes for drinks and catching up? Which of us will marry first and what will that do to our relationship?

  “You think too much.” Mike sh
akes his head and punches me on the arm.

  “Only of good stuff. Growing up is kind of scary.”

  “You have me.” Mike ruffles my hair and I can’t remember the last time he’s done that.

  The bus pulls up to the curb and slows to a stop. The breaks squeak and while I wait for the doors to open, I catch the reflection along the side. Mike has no reflection and I only see myself, but instead of holding a backpack, I’m sitting on a hospital bed. My long hair is unbrushed, unkempt, and I’m in a hospital nightgown.

  “Space cadet, you coming?” Mike asks, one foot up on the bus.

  “Yeah.” I blow out a long breath and step up onto the bus. I glance back toward our house and watch how the trees blow in the wind. Funny, thing seems fine, so why is there this growing pit in the bottom of my stomach?

  ****

  I can’t relax on the bus ride and all through the first periods of school, everything feels wrong. The teachers smile, my friends make conversation, but none of it seems real. It’s too perfect. Things happen just as they’re supposed to.

  Mike walks me to the science lab, but I don’t go in. Instead, I hurry down to the first floor to use a pay phone. I check my pockets for a coin and I’m exasperated when I can’t find one, but then when I open my palm, there’s a shiny quarter. It’s there, as if it’s always been there.

  Things like that just don’t happen.

  Swallowing hard, I slide the quarter into the machine and dial the only person I can think of. Something is happening to me and I hope she’ll have an answer. She’ll know what I’m going through and be able to help me.

  “Please answer, please answer,” I nearly chant to myself until the line is picked up.

  “Lara Montgomery here.”

  I breathe a sigh of relief and my eyes flutter closed. “Lara, thank God you’re all right.”

  “Molly? Are you at school, everything all right?”

  “Something’s wrong. Something isn’t right. I need you, Lara.” I twist the phone cord around my finger and stare up at the clock. Its hands spin backwards too and for some reason, that gives me the urge to puke.