Just in Time: Portals of Time (23 page)

SHOUTS CAME FROM
the lower level of the house where the Sisters of Doom were staying. It had been two days, and no word had come from the police about the state of the investigation. Luke had told Jess this silence was common, that the department wouldn’t release anything until they had their facts confirmed, but everyone in Jess’s household was on edge. Still, he’d never heard the women have a knock-down-drag-out. He crossed to the top of the steps to listen in.

“Under no circumstances will I be a part of this.” Celeste’s voice was full of emotion. The only other time he’d heard her be so forceful was when they didn’t want her to take the lead with Krueger.

“I agree with Celi.” This from Dorian. Her comment was also heartfelt.

A pause. “Maybe you don’t have a choice.” He could picture Alisha’s insistent stance. “If I just do something—”

“Then I won’t go to Virginia. I pledge that to you, Lisha. I won’t.”

“The girl is only seventeen,” Alisha added. “She’ll heal fine. And our work here is only half done. We must get on to our next task.”

“We’ll have to look for another avenue to pursue,” Dorian said. “Surely there are other ways we can infiltrate his life.”

Jess didn’t know what their next task was, or who it concerned, but he didn’t like the sound of this, so he shuffled down the steps.

They were around a table in the common area of the lower floor, Dorian and Celeste seated. Alisha stood over the others, her hands on the wood surface, just as he’d envisioned. Dressed today in his time period’s clothing, their hair in contemporary styles, he could almost imagine they belonged here in his time.

He asked, “What’s going on?”

Alisha straightened. She shot a fulminating look at Jess. “This is none of your concern.”

“It is if you’re yelling loud enough to wake the dead.”

“You can’t do that,” Celeste said. “Can you?”

“It’s an idiom, Celeste.” Alisha’s tone was more than impatient.

“We’re sorry we bothered you,” Dorian put in. “We’ll be quieter.”

“Too late for that. I overheard you saying you were planning to hurt someone.”

A gasp came from behind him. He turned to find Helen had also come down to the lower level. She seemed stronger today. “Hurt someone? Why?”

“To save the Earth.” Alisha’s voice rose a notch. “And I don’t have to explain this to you or get your permission. As soon as we’re done here, we’ll go on to the next task and never see you again.”

Dorian gasped.

“We can’t allow you to knowingly hurt someone.” Helen approached Alisha and touched her arm. “There has to be another way.”

Footsteps on the stairs. David Ryan appeared in the room, wearing his collar. “Hi, I let myself in through the open screen and heard the commotion. Can I help?”

Sighing heavily, Alisha nodded to the table, which sat six. “All right. Sit down. I’ll tell you some of it. But don’t ask specifics about what we have to do.”

Once they were seated, and people calmed somewhat, Alisha related the story about Celeste needing to take the place of a caregiver in someone’s home. “I won’t tell you why, but it’s imperative that Celeste become a part of the lives of a certain family. A position in child care would help us immensely. It’s an expeditious solution.”

“Hurting someone is out of the question,” David said softly. “Isn’t there any other way to get this girl out of her job? Something good we can do for her to make her leave?”

Celeste asked, “You haven’t really considered another way, have you Lisha?”

“All right, I haven’t. This is so simple and immediate. We could be done with everything in a few weeks.”

“Let’s look at it from another angle.” David again. “She’s a bright, socially conscious individual, who didn’t have money to go to Johns Hopkins.” His face lit from within. “Maybe we can arrange for a scholarship. I’ll contribute.”

“We have the currency to do that, Alisha.” Celeste again.

“We can’t very well send her a diamond!”

Jess or Luke had been traveling to different stores in the city to exchange them for cash when needed.

“No, but we could offer an anonymous scholarship.” Jess liked the idea that David had brought up. “I know some people at Hopkins. Some scientists. They could engineer the acceptance of a bright young student.”

“More people cannot know about us!” Alisha was getting agitated again. “I must insist.”

“I could do it without explaining why,” Jess went on. “Call down there to tell them I want to be the benefactor of a student I’m a distant relative of. It will be viewed as a philanthropic endeavor.”

David smiled. “It
will be
a philanthropic endeavor.”

“Would the college arrange it anonymously?” Dorian asked.

“Why not?” Jess said. “This is a perfect solution. And you should like it. She’s studying environmental science. Maybe she’s the one to keep my research going when I retire, to discover more ways to get clean energy. Maybe
she’ll
save the world this time around.”

Dorian and Celeste grinned. Alisha rolled her eyes. “That is so far-fetched.”

Celeste shook her head vehemently. “It’s not, Lisha. We know in some theories of time travel, we were meant to change events in history.”

Helen leaned in. “Please, let us try the gentler way.”

Alisha glared at all of them.

But eventually, she agreed.

LUKE’S SHOULDER WAS
still sore when he awoke, despite the use of the Multimed earlier that day. At least the wound had healed enough so he didn’t need a sling. He lay back on his pillows and watched the ceiling fan whir, listened to the birds chirping outside. He couldn’t believe the turn his life had taken. If he dared to confide in anybody, they’d think he was nuts. It was lucky that—soon, he hoped—this whole thing with Jess would be over. They were waiting for information from the police, and worst-case scenario, for the date of the article Alisha found on their fancy computer to arrive. If they got the magazine, and it showed Jess’s article was published when he was alive instead of posthumously as it originally ran, they’d succeeded.

His cell phone buzzed. Snatching it up, he said, “Cromwell.”

“Luke, it’s Al. I have some news. Our guys traced the IP address at Petron. It’s a big fish. I’m heading over there now to talk to him.”

“I’m coming with you.” He started to get up, and pain shot from his shoulder to his hand. Fuck!

“Under no circumstances are you to interfere with my investigation. Internal Affairs and I decided your suspension will be for the time you’re taking off.”

“Thanks, Cap.”

“Don’t thank me too much. I’m putting a letter in your folder that you played cowboy. And worse, I’m still pissed as hell at you for not trusting me with this.”

“I hear ya.”

As soon as he clicked off, the door to the den opened. Dorian stood in the entryway, dressed in white shorts, a soft green slip of a top called a camisole, and she was barefoot. She looked every inch of a modern woman, and he felt his body respond. Jesus. Even now, when he was in pain. “Hey there, sweetheart? Did you come to comfort me?”

She walked into the room and sat on the edge of the bed. Brushed a lock of hair off his face. The tender gesture made his heart lurch. “You’re incorrigible. You’re sick and in pain, and you still flirt.”

When he grabbed her hand, he felt her pulse leap. “I’m not the only one interested.”

She grinned. “You’re not. But it’s mid-revolution, and there are a houseful of people around us.”

“I guess we’ll have to wait until tonight. You can sneak into my room.”

“We’ll see.” He noted now that there was conflict in her green eyes. “What’s wrong?”

“We’ve been arguing about our next task.”

“You and the Sisters of Doom?”

“And Helen, David and Jess. Everybody got in on the discussion.”

Luke didn’t like being left out. “Tell me.”

She related the story. He could see she was upset, but he had to give his honest opinion. “Huh. I agree with Alisha. One broken leg is a small price to pay for saving the future. And if it will solve the problem quickly…”

“The other path will get her there soon, too. And no one will be harmed.”

“Who’s the guy?”

“What guy?”

“That Celeste needs to get an in with.”

“I can’t tell you, Luke. You know that, yet you keep asking.”

“I hate that you don’t trust me with this.” He was parroting Al, but his objection was nonetheless heartfelt.

“The people who sent us here made us swear we wouldn’t reveal our next mission to anyone.” She bit her lip.
“They
don’t trust you.”

“You told Jess who you were and what you were doing here. Why can’t you follow the same pattern next time?”

“Because we needed to convince Jess quickly, for obvious reasons.”

“Which still pisses me off.”

She shook her head. “I’ll never understand that saying.”

“Really? It makes perfect sense to me.”

“Because you’re a man. In any case, as soon as the date passes for that megadamned article, we’ll be leaving.”

What the hell? “What do you mean,
we?”

Now she cocked her head. The fact that she was surprised by his reaction made him even madder. “I don’t understand.”

“Celeste has to do this, right?”

“Of course. But Alisha and I need to help her.”

“After what’s happened between us, you can’t go, Dorian.”

“I don’t understand,” she reiterated.

“We just…got together. I want you to stay here with me. Let Alisha go with Celeste.”

Dorian’s expression turned dark, and suddenly he saw the other side of her again. The professional, competent woman from another world. “I can’t do that. This is my job. My life’s mission.”

Sinking back into the pillows, he wondered how to get his way. Hmm, she wasn’t used to seduction. He grasped her hand. “Baby, I just found you. I don’t want you to go.”

Her eyes widened and she moved farther down the mattress. “Don’t do that to me! Don’t use this closeness you forced on me to your advantage.”

That got his hackles up. “Forced on you? You were a willing participant.”

“No, I wasn’t.” Visibly, she tried to shake off her anger. “Look, Luke, I like what’s happened between us, though it frightens me. But when you try to manipulate me, like you just did, it makes me angry. I’m still not comfortable with what’s between us.”

He wasn’t used to women telling the stark truth. And it shamed him. He squeezed her hand. “You’re right; I’m sorry. I just don’t want you to go, but I shouldn’t have used my masculine wiles on you.”

She calmed, missing the joke. Did men even have wiles?

“Okay, here’s the deal. Tell me what you’re going to do so I’ll feel better about you helping out Celeste.”

Her face blanked.

“Look, if it’s dangerous like your assignment for Jess, I have a right to know.”

She held up her hand. “I won’t tell you anything.”

“I can’t let you go without knowing what you’ll be doing.”

“Let
me go?”

“Um, yeah.” He made his voice nonchalant because he knew he was on shaky ground. Still, he
was
pissed.

“You have no say over me in that regard. In any regard.”

“I guess that puts me in my place.”

“I don’t understand, Luke.” She kept saying that.

“No, doll, you sure as hell don’t. Now get off the bed, so I can take a shower.”

“I’ll help you.”

“I’d rather to be left alone.”

“Luke, why are you doing this?”

“Just get the hell out of here, Dorian.” When she didn’t move, he barked, “Now!”

The look on her face sliced him to the core. She was an innocent in the ways of men and women, and he was manipulating her. But, hell, she might be a woman of the future, but he was definitely a man of the present. And, goddamn it, couples compromised.

As much as he could, he stalked to the bathroom. Maybe a shower would help.

But he kept seeing the confused and hurt look on Dorian’s face, even as he let the hot spray pummel him.

DORIAN STOOD BY
the window in the lower level of the Cromwell house, dressed only in a white islet gown she’d bought on a shopping trip with Helen. Who knew Dorian would be susceptible to such feminine lingerie? A few months ago, she didn’t even know what lingerie was, let alone wear it to bed. People of the future slept nude because making clothing for sleep time was a waste of resources.

“What’s wrong, Dorian?”

She turned to find Celeste behind her, dressed similarly only her gown was pink.

“I can’t sleep.”

“Go to Luke.” She gave her friend a knowing smile. “He won’t mind.”

“Luke and I are having a fight. You know, the kind the three of us have sometimes.”

Celeste cocked her head. Her hair swirled with the motion, not that it was well below her chin. “What’s it like to fight with a man?”

“It’s very hurtful. I don’t know what to do with all these emotions.”

Celeste touched her, drained some of the anxiety.

“I wish you wouldn’t do that. Take my negative energy.”

“I took only a little. Now you can think more clearly.”

“You’re a nice person, Celeste.”

“Thank you. Now go see Luke.” She winked. “Helen told me make-up sex is the best.”

Chucking, Dorian hugged her friend then climbed the stairs and walked through the dark house to the space Luke occupied. His door was ajar. He faced the window, silhouetted in the moonlight. The beams kissed his dark hair and illuminated his shoulders. He wore only those incredibly appealing tight briefs.

She pushed open the door.

He didn’t turn.

“Luke? It’s me, Dorian.”

Still facing away from her, he said in a low voice, “I didn’t know if you’d come.”

“I didn’t know if you wanted me to.”

He pivoted. “I wanted you to.” She wondered why he hadn’t come to her. This must be another convention of their time, another one she didn’t like. He said, “Lock the door.”

She did.

“Come here.”

Her steps were faulty. She was almost afraid, not knowing this enigmatic side of Luke. But there was a dark spark of excitement from it kindling inside her, too.