by Bella Street
“I know.” She closed her eyes for a moment. “Gareth, you need to listen carefully to me, because I don't have much time. I'm a different Seffy, okay? The girl you buried, she's still there in the ground.” She bit her lip hard. “God, that sounds insane, right?”
“Yes...” he managed faintly.
He reached out to touch her and she caught his hand in hers, squeezing his fingers. “Okay, you're into science fiction. What if I told you time travel is real, along with parallel universes and all that stuff?”
His brown eyes widened. “So, you're Seffy from a parallel universe?” he said in a disbelieving tone.
“Exactly.”
He clung to her hand, his gaze full of anguish. “How can I know I'm not hallucinating?”
Seffy stifled a stab of impatience. Of anyone, she should be the most accommodating of those struggling with the unbelievable. “Ask me something only I would know.”
He blinked, still clearly too shaken to think straight. “Uh, the name of the high school—”
“Tarus.”
“Lani's favorite movie?”
“Zannytu. And I know about your secret stash of Star Wars action figures.”
He gave a shaky laugh, as his eyes misted with tears. “You always hated it when I talked about sci-fi.”
She smiled slightly and released his hand. “Actually, all that geek stuff has come in handy, since your other self is the one who sent me back here.”
He stared at her. “Sent you back?”
“From 1980s Montana.”
His face paled. “Montana? But you weren't even born yet.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“It doesn't make sense.” He ran his hand through his hair. “Understatement, right?”
“Okay, Gareth, listen to me, we're in danger so I don't have time to explain everything. You, me, Lani and Addison. There are people trying to kill us.”
He shook his head. “I don't get it.”
“That drive-by shooting that killed me? It was murder. Same with...Trent.” She watched for his reaction.
Gareth's eyes darkened at Trent's name. “Your so-called boyfriend was just a junkie who got high one too many times.”
“But he obviously kicked the habit and got better at some point.”
“He died of an overdose, Sef. Once a loser, always a loser.”
Seffy suppressed a sigh. Obviously the animosity was the same between the two men. “What time is it?”
He glanced at his watch. “Twelve thirty.”
Ugh. Not enough. “Okay, I need to be someplace by two. But I also need you to find Lani and Addison and get out of town.”
“Why?”
“Because you will be killed.”
“Sef, I—”
“Look, I don't know why, I just know there are people after you. It has something to do with me being here from the past. Someone doesn't want me, any of us, in the way.”
He released a ragged sigh. “That's it? That's the best you got?”
“Gareth! You are staring at your dead friend. Now deal!”
He looked dazed. “Uh, good point. What do we do now?”
“Can you call the girls? Tell them to leave town? Where are they?”
“I didn't bring my phone. I left it at home on the charger because the battery was dead. But they should be at the house. It's Friday. We all have it off.”
“Okay, then we need to go to the house and warn them.”
Gareth touched her hair. “God, Sef, is it really you?”
She nodded weakly. Then he grabbed her and held her in a fierce embrace for several moments.
“You even smell the same,” he whispered. He pulled back a little, and suddenly his lips were on hers.
Seffy grabbed hold of his shoulders for support, too stunned to do anything else but respond. His kiss was hungry and desperate and everything she'd ever longed for from him. She touched his face and hair, reveling in the feel of him. Her tears added saltiness to their kiss, making her heart break with the knowledge that this was just a brief lapse in a stolen, unreal moment.
Someone passing by whistled. Seffy angled her face away and pushed lightly against Gareth's chest. “We have to go,” she said in a low voice. “Before it's too late.” Now that Gareth was no longer kissing her with mind-bending intensity, she inhaled deeply and reminded herself that several lives hung in the balance.
He released her with reluctance. “My car is nearby.”
She shook her head in befuddlement. “You drove your car to the next door park to jog?”
Gareth put his arm around her and led her across the grass. “I was going to run some errands afterward.”
She leaned against him, soaking up his support...while it lasted. “What were you going to do?”
He put his sunglasses back on. “Stuff.”
Seffy recognized the hedging in his voice. “With Verity?”
His mouth opened, then closed.
“I saw you two together.”
Gareth's eyes widened. “When?”
“Yesterday, at the house.”
“What? Why didn't you show yourself?”
“I didn't even know if you all existed here. We found Lani's car—”
“We? You're not alone?”
Big oops. “The people who sent me on this mission, or whatever—they're the 'we'.” She cleared her throat, wondering if he could read her as easily as she could read him. “Anyway, she had mail in her car with an address. I went to the address and saw you leave the house with Verity.”
Gareth stopped and turned her to face him. “I don't know what you saw—”
“You kissed her.”
He took a breath. “We're dating a little. She's aggressive and—” His eyes grew shiny. “And I miss you.”
Biting her lip, she put her hand on his chest. “It's okay, really. I can't stay here and you...should be with her.”
He looked down at the ground. “It can never be the same.”
When he met her eyes, Seffy caught her breath at the emotion glittering there.
“You know that you're the only girl I'll ever really love.”
She forgot to breathe. Then her face crumpled. Why like this? Why now? Seffy looked at her hand where it rested against his chest. She felt his strong heartbeat under her palm.
Gareth nudged her chin up. “Even when you and Trent were together. I never stopped loving you.”
Seffy's eyes widened. Oh, Gareth. She swallowed. “Why...why was I with that guy in the first place?”
His gaze became distant and he dropped his hand. “I don't know. Maybe because on some level, I failed you.”
She shook her head. “You have never failed me. Ever.”
A muscle jumped in his jaw. “Yeah, so why were you with that loser? He was human debris, Sef. He didn't deserve to breathe the same air as you.”
Looking past him, she said, “Gareth, that's something that happened here, and this isn't my world.”
He regarded her for several moments. “Is there a Trent where you're from?”
Seffy felt her face heat under his scrutiny, but she couldn't bring herself to answer the question. “We need to go make sure the girls are safe.”
On the drive to the house, she studied Gareth's profile, still not sure if this was really happening. She concentrated on inhaling and exhaling to keep her head clear. The action made her aware of the photograph. She had to know, even if it made him suspicious.
“Gareth, how did Trent and I meet? I don't have any memory of such a thing. That freaks me out.”
His face hardened. “He was apparently trying to overcome a heroin addiction and knew one of the doctors at your clinic. When he went in to meet the guy for lunch, he claims he saw you at the desk, that you were this beautiful vision, and he finally had a reason to quit.” He snorted, then lowered his voice. “The only thing he got right is that you're beautiful.”
Seffy noticed Gareth hadn't mentioned her lack of blonde hair and blue eyes. “So
did I just start dating him or something?”
“No, you didn't like him at first—none of us did—but he was obsessed or something. He got clean and you finally gave in, I guess.” He glanced at her. “Nothing I said made any difference.”
“Were...?” Did she dare ask the question? “Were you and I ever...together?”
Gareth's face darkened as he gave a quick shake to his head. “I wasn't Trent.”
I guess that's why they call it an alternate reality, she thought faintly. In what world did she choose Trent over Gareth? “How long was I with him?”
Gareth gripped the steering wheel. “About six months. What a waste.”
She fell silent, trying to process the sheer bizarreness of this conversation, of the pinwheel quality of time.
“He was pretty messed after you died. Went back to the needle.”
“He wouldn't have done that,” she said in a low voice. “It was murder.” Seffy zipped her lips, aware she'd revealed too much, but Gareth seemed too distracted to notice.
“Whatever.” He turned off the car. “We're here.”
Chapter Eighteen
Seffy peered at Gareth from under her lashes, not quite ready to jump out of the car. She knew her answers hadn't satisfied him, but there simply wasn't time to discuss the ins and outs of time travel. She'd already wasted too much time in the park as it was. Seffy moistened her lips. Correction. Not wasted. She wouldn't trade the moment of Gareth's confession for anything.
He loved her. On some level, in some universe. If Compound Gareth still avoided her, she had the comfort of knowing that there was a version who had given her his heart.
He turned to her then, brushing a tear from her cheek. “I forgot about your beautiful brown eyes. What made you ever change your coloring?”
A portion of her joy deflated. It had been his idea all along. She'd always wondered if it was because he couldn't bear the sight of her as she'd looked when they met—when he'd discovered her secrets. Seffy didn't answer. Instead she tried to memorize Gareth's gentle, adoring expression.
Gareth glanced past her and suddenly frowned. She followed his gaze toward the alley view of the bungalow.
“I've never seen that car around here.”
Seffy's heart plummeted. Oh no. A black Audi was parked haphazardly near the trashcan, with the door hanging open. After a moment she realized the engine was running. She grabbed Gareth's arm as he moved to exit the car. “No!” she cried. “It's too late!”
He shook off her arm and ran to the back door. Seffy scrambled from her seat and followed. “Gareth! Please! Don't go inside! The shooter is probably still here!”
He ignored her and went up the back stairs with cautious steps. The door was open. He walked inside. Seffy followed him, shaking so hard she could barely function. “He'll kill you, Gareth,” she whispered through new tears.
He glanced over his shoulder. “Stay behind me.”
They went through the kitchen. Seffy struggled to control her respiration, but she feared the worst. The Audi had its door open—as if the driver bolted because he was after someone.
“Oh, God.”
She heard Gareth retch. He stumbled forward and landed on his hands and knees, revealing a view of the living room to Seffy. Bile rose in her own throat. Lani and Addison leaned against the wall like discarded dolls, their eyes open and glassy, a trail of smeared blood staining the wall above them.
Seffy was too shocked to cry. She staggered to their bodies and sank onto the floor next to Addison. She took her hand and pressed it to her cheek. Her skin was still warm.
Too late. Too late for everything that mattered. Seffy laid Addison's hand in her lap.
Gareth crawled over to where she sat. His waxen face was hardening into something terrifying. “Who would do this?”
“I don't know who they are,” she said, feeling hysteria rising within her.
A step sounded on the stairs. They looked up as a man came into the living room. Seffy scrambled to her feet, intending to do what, she didn't know, but she wanted to face him. Wanted him to look her in the eye before he killed her.
He raised a gun and aimed. An arm suddenly snaked around her waist, yanking her to the floor as a shot was fired. She felt a bullet tear through her upper arm.
“Seffy, get down!”
She heard Gareth's frantic cry from far away. He pushed her to the side and got to his feet. The gunman fired at Gareth's chest. Seffy watched in horror as Gareth jerked backward from the blow. But he advanced on the gunman until another shot had him weaving unsteadily on his feet.
She covered her head with her arms and closed her eyes, praying for the nightmare to end. Another shot. A moment of pure silence. Then the floor shook with the weight of Gareth's collapsing body. Seffy began to hyperventilate, waiting for the next blow. A buzzing sounded in her ears. She leaned over, pressing her forehead to the cool wood floor.
Seffy passed in and out of reality. One moment the floorboards were moving under her face like waves on the sea, then in another moment she could pick out the precise grain of the wood and see the tiniest bit of dirt casting a minute shadow. She closed her eyes, waiting for the darkness to claim her.
A foot shoved her in the ribs. “Get up.”
Seffy ignored the man, cursing him for drawing out her death. She curled up in a tight ball, which pulled at the stitches on her back and inflamed the wound on her arm. But none of it mattered. Oh, Gareth.
Suddenly, she was pushed onto her back. “I said get up.”
Seffy looked up at the killer. His dark eyes gave nothing away. “Why?”
“I have new orders. They want you alive.”
She swallowed slowly. “Who's they?”
“Just get up.”
With stiff movements, Seffy got to her feet, averting her eyes from the fallen bodies of her friends. She faced the man who had his gun trained on her head.
“Let's go.”
She reached into her pocket and pulled out the vial. “They don't want me, just my blood. Why don't you just take this and walk away?”
His eyes widened at the red vial in her hand. While he was distracted, she tossed it to him. He reflexively moved to catch it. Seffy lunged for the gun, and snatched it neatly from his hands. He snorted in derision when he realized the trick. He showed his palms in surrender. “Who taught you that move?”
“The same one who taught me this.” Seffy pulled the trigger and emptied the clip into the man's chest. When it was empty after three shots, she walked over to his crumpled body and went through his pockets. All she found was another clip. Seffy replaced the empty one and training the gun on the man, began to count the automatic shots riddling his body. When she was down to one, she stopped.
Her breath came in hitches as she lowered the firearm. Seffy shoved it in her pocket. Dimly aware of moisture on her cheeks, she walked over to Lani and Addison and swept their eyes closed with her hand. She pulled a velour throw from the back of the couch and arranged it over their bodies, tucking it under their chins, as if to keep them warm.
Next she took the couch pillow and went over to Gareth. Seffy stood over his body for several moments before sinking onto the floor next to him. Using the last of her strength, she lifted his upper body by the shoulders and settled his head in her lap. Seffy leaned forward, pressing her forehead against his as tears dripped from eyes.
Her mind was a terrifying blank. She sat touching his hair as her stupid heart continued its stubborn beat. Gareth's expression looked almost peaceful, as if he was asleep and not...worse.
She traced the line of his face from his brow, down his cheekbone, to the hollow underneath, down to his jaw. Cradling his head, she pressed her lips against his cooling skin. The action seemed to jolt her from some kind of trance.
Remembering the gun in her pocket, Seffy swallowed convulsively. The gun with the remaining round. She could stay here, with her friends, with Gareth in her arms forever.
Seffy winced in pain as she
pulled the gun from her pocket. She stared at its dark, smooth lines and tried to remember what model it was. Malone had shown her several, had made her handle many kinds over and over until she became familiar and comfortable with feel of every one of them.
But now, it was just a gun. It was black. And heavy. With one smooth action, she could make it a little less heavy, reducing its heft by the weight of one small bullet.
Seffy glanced down at Gareth. She took his hand and pressed it to her lips. When she replaced his hand, she noticed his watch. The face stared up at her in perfect alignment.
1:27.
The numbers blurred in her mind. They were just numbers, that was all. Life was here, what was left of it anyway. She looked down at Gareth and gulped back a sob. How could he be gone?
“He's not.”
Seffy froze at the quiet voice breaking the grim stillness. She looked up. Clay stood in the middle of the room. His face was grayer, more flaccid than she remembered.
“Gareth is still waiting for you. Remember that.”
She screwed her eyes shut in confusion. “No...you see, I was too late.”
“It's time to go.”
Seffy stared at him. “What?”
“You have to go back to Montana.”
Realization slowly seeped into her mind, but she shook her head. “I don't want to go.”
“Your friends are still alive there. They're depending on you.”
She nibbled her her bottom lip. “If I failed them here, I will just fail them there.”
“You will fail everyone if you don't go.”
Her head hurt. She rubbed it and wished Clay would go away. But an inkling of resignation made her take the pillow and slide it under Gareth's head as she shifted out from under his body. Before getting to her feet, she leaned over and pressed one last kiss against his cheek. The action nearly shattered her, so she quickly rose, breathing hard.
Clay pointed at the stairs. Seffy followed his hint and went up to her room. She looked around, vaguely remembering the last time she was here. The room was still cold and stuffy. With unhurried movements, she went to the closet and saw a Juicy Couture track suit on a hanger. Stripping off the gray sweat suit, she changed into the pink velour suit, which hung on her thinner frame, and tucked the gun into the pouch in front.