Hourglass

“I’ll do my best to make sure you can.” He kissed his way across my cheekbone to my lips, his hands sliding under my jacket, his fingers burning against the cotton of my T-shirt. I couldn’t help thinking about how his hands would feel on my bare skin. “Or that you can’t handle it. Whatever you want.”

I wanted to be alone with him. Really alone. “Maybe we should take this back to my place.”

He lifted his head to look at me, a strange expression on his face. I let out a nervous giggle. “That sounded better in my head.”

“It sounded pretty damn good out of it.”

We reached the house without incident. It almost went too smoothly.

“Did I say thank you?” Michael asked as we ducked into Liam’s office. “If not, thank you.” He raised our joined hands to his lips and kissed the inside of my wrist.

“I can’t remember.” I couldn’t remember anything. Hello, erogenous zone. “And you’re welcome.”

He just grinned.

Still holding hands, we stepped into the veil.

I focused on returning to Liam’s office. The silver swirls consumed me again, and all I could hear was the occasional ghostly voice or strain of music.

When we reached the veil, Michael whispered, “Stay in the bridge.” I’ll come back to get you when I’m sure we’re in the clear.”

“Hurry.”

He gave my hand a squeeze and disappeared.

I remained in the bridge alone, focusing on standing still instead of moving forward or backward. It felt so different from traveling. It was as if I was being pushed and pulled, and my life depended on maintaining the balance. The waterlike silver swirls seemed to move clockwise and counterclockwise at the same time. Faces, complete with moving mouths and blinking eyes, faded in and out of focus.

I didn’t like it.

Where was Michael?

The longer I waited, the more oppressive it became, and the closer the faces pushed against the surface of the bridge. I could see details now, eyelashes, eyebrows, dimples, and whiskers. The faces pressed against the barrier in waves, and even though I couldn’t hear them, it looked like their mouths were forming my name in silent screams of warning.

I closed my eyes. Even after a full three minutes of waiting, I could still see the imprints of their faces on my eyelids.

I had to get out.

I stepped from the bridge through the veil and opened my eyes.

To see Cat.

She was pointing a gun at Michael.

Chapter 53

What’s going on?”

A one-handed shove hit me from behind. Michael caught me in his arms.

I regained my balance and looked up into the face of Jack Landers.

Keeping the gun trained on us, Cat made a beeline to Jack, her eyes blazing. My mouth dropped open as I watched her wrap her body around his and kiss him with more tongue than I ever wanted to see again in my entire life.

Not that I thought I’d be alive much longer.

“Cat?” Michael pulled me behind his back to shield me. If being pushed by Jack had thrown me off balance, Cat’s betrayal had me reeling. “What are you doing?”

She touched Jack’s face with reverence, focusing solely on him. “I thought you were dead.”

“I almost was. The formula kept me alive.” Jack took her hand and pressed her fingers to his lips. “I ran out on my last trip back. I thought I was going to be stuck in there forever.”

“That’s why I came. I hoped you could piggyback on Emerson’s gene and exit when she came back through, especially with my exotic matter holding the bridge open. It worked.”

Landers’s voice was reverent. “Thank you.”

“Cat?” Michael said again, pleading.

She ignored him.

“But why? Why did you travel if I wasn’t here to help you?” Cat’s voice broke and she rested her forehead against Landers’s. “You need the formula in your system, and you need me for optimal results. Where did you need to go so badly that you’d risk your life?”

“It doesn’t matter. I’m here now.”

“Cat,” Michael persisted, interrupting them. “What is going on?”

“Damn it, Michael. Shut up.”

When she turned around, we both took a step back. Her usually serene face was twisted into a venomous expression of loathing. “The Boy Scout routine is old.”

“I can’t believe what I’m seeing. Are you really with him?” Michael asked, his voice thick with anger.

“I realize you have the whole young, idealistic thing going on, but surely you can catch up.” She snaked her arm around Jack’s waist, leaning her head against his shoulder.

He was looking at me, and his eyes no longer lacked pigment. They were bright blue. And terrifying.

There was a moment of complete silence before Michael spoke again. “Why?”

“Because Jack and I could do more together than we could apart. Because sitting on the sidelines for all those years made me sick.” She stopped, looking up at Jack. When she noticed his focus was on me, she cleared her throat and her fingers gripped the gun more tightly. I wrapped my hands around Michael’s arm.

“You didn’t sit on the sidelines,” Michael argued. “You’re an integral part of what we do. We can’t travel without you.”

“You couldn’t travel without me,” she corrected. “Liam hit a scientific jackpot. He created molecularly complete exotic matter—in an ingestible formula. Unfortunately, the exact formula went up in smoke with him when he died.”

Michael’s muscles grew tense under my fingers. “That’s the reason you let us go back to save him. Because you wanted the formula.”

“When you discovered that you weren’t going to make it back from your little rescue mission, I thought I’d gotten rid of two problems I never expected Liam to come through that bridge with Emerson.”

“How could you do this?” Michael whispered. “Liam and Kaleb love you. You’re family to them.”

“No. Not family. Not even a poor distant relation.”

“That’s not true.” He took a step toward her. “Liam trusted you—”

Cat pointed the pistol at Michael’s head and cocked the hammer. The bullet slid into the chamber, the sound echoing off the office walls.

“Liam sampled my DNA to get that formula. He didn’t even know what he’d discovered, but he still wouldn’t give me a copy.” No hint of guilt for committing murder touched Cat’s eyes or tainted her voice. “So I used it against him. A misunderstanding kept me from retrieving the research before we killed him. As we all know, exotic matter can be quite destructive when it moves as fast as Ava can throw it.”

“Ava?” Michael said.

“The fire that incinerated the lab wasn’t normal, Michael.” Cat scoffed. “I really have to question how normal you are, as hard as we pushed Ava to distract you. Seduce you. Poor, poor rejected girl.”

“But why?” I asked, looking at each of them, my stomach turning as I thought of how Cat and Landers had manipulated Ava. I wondered if any of us really knew her at all. “Why did you do it?”

Jack answered, “I wanted the ability to time travel. There was no ‘recipe’ for the formula, but there was a full bottle of pills. Cat was willing to experiment.”