Momentum (9 page)

Unfortunately, Dan wasn’t in the same celebratory frame of mind as Al. Sophie noticed him walking in for his break from manning the doors. The year hadn’t done his appearance any favors. He had put on a lot of weight and shaved his head. His face was worn from the constant stress, and the gleam in his eyes had pretty much vanished completely. She had changed, also. Initially, it was in order to disguise herself, but her personality had morphed into her look.
 
She was now a brunette, with bangs cut low so that it hid her eyebrows. She had taken to wearing a pair of horn-rimmed glasses, even though she didn’t need them to correct her vision. Gone was the corporate-looking wardrobe; now she, like Dan, dressed in leather pants and black t-shirts daily.

“Gimme a beer,” Dan muttered, walking up to the bar.

“Here.” She slid a brown Budweiser bottle over to him. “What’s eating you?”

“What do you think?” he said cuttingly, rolling his eyes.

“It’ll be fine,” she soothed. She hoped it would, anyway. Although she felt fairly settled in this job, practically being nonexistent–apart from being on the FBI’s wanted list–was frustrating. She had no driver’s license, credit cards, bank account, no social security number, even. She was thankful that Al had no problems paying them in cash, but what if they got sick? She thought back to her job at Ames, which had come with full benefits.

This was all Raj Sen’s fault. He had to pay. Somehow, she had to find a way to become
legitimate
again. For that, she’d need lots of money. Money would buy her a new identity in this dimension, should they decide to stay. However, what she really wanted was to go back home. She was aware that it would be impossible to return to her old life; both she and Dan were bound to be on the wanted list in the other dimension as well for abducting the Darley kids. Damn Raj. Going back would mean a necessary change in identity, with new social security numbers. Going back would also mean a chance of getting to see their families again, albeit, in secret. She couldn’t live without seeing her daughter again; she had done this for her, after all. She’d become involved in Raj’s get-rich-quick scheme to make a fast buck so she could better look after Tiffany. Would she even remember her now? She would be three years old. She wondered how her mother had explained her absence to Tiff. Sophie felt a twinge of pain shoot through her as she remembered running her fingers through Tiffany’s wispy brown curls.

“How is it gonna be
fine
?” Dan snorted. “What the hell are we gonna do with him? We can’t just keep him locked in the basement. What if Al finds out?”

“Finds what out?” Al asked, appearing at the counter.

Sophie shot Dan a venomous glare. What an idiot, always talking out of turn. The bar was full of people. What was he thinking?

“Sophie?” Al prompted.

“Oh, it’s nothing. It’s Dan’s birthday tomorrow, and he’s a bit shy about sharing that. He’ll be forty.” She smirked at Dan.

Al’s face broke into a smile. “Forty! That calls for a celebration! Leave it to me.” He rubbed his hands together in glee. “Dan, could you bring some more snack packs up from the basement? We’re running a bit low up here.”

“Yup, I’ll do that right now.”

“Finish your beer first.” He waved for Dan to sit back down and then made his way back to the dartboard.

“My birthday? Forty? I’m only thirty-four. What’d you say that for?” Dan grumped.

Sophie shrugged. “I had to say something. Besides, now you’ll get to celebrate a birthday if we get stuck here. That should be fun, right?” Dan raised his eyebrows, not looking terribly convinced.

“You better get the snacks. Water our guest while you’re down there.”

~

Kevin rolled around on the hard concrete floor trying to get into a less awkward position. His wrists and legs were duct-taped together, making it nearly impossible to move. Dan had been generous with the duct tape, even sealing his lips shut with a slice from the huge roll. Kevin managed to shuffle his way to the corner and push his body up against the wall so that he was in a semi-sitting position. He looked around. Whosever basement he was in liked to drink; the room was full of alcohol. Cases of beer were piled on top of each other–Budweiser, Heineken, Michelob, even a few foreign labels he’d never heard of. Three walls were lined with metal shelving stuffed full of bottles of wine, vodka, Tequila, gin, and a huge assortment of every liqueur and mixer imaginable. There was a fortune in liquor here, but all he wanted was water. His mouth was parched.

He should have hightailed it out of his house as soon as he had read that note from Dan and Sophie. The note had said that they would call him, though, so he’d been totally unprepared when he had walked into his bedroom, and everything went black as his head was covered with a bag of some sort. Then his hands and ankles were bound and a piece of duct tape stuck over his mouth. He was carried out and driven to this place. When he had been dumped on the cold, hard floor, the bag had been removed to reveal Dan and Sophie. He’d tried to talk, only muffled
mmm
sounds emanating from behind his taped mouth. They hadn’t said anything, just turned around and walked off, locking the door behind them.

The same door that someone was now unlocking. Kevin braced himself. Was Raj back? The last time he’d encountered Raj was a year ago when Raj had nearly killed him. Then Raj had disappeared. Could he be back to finish the job?

It was Dan, thankfully. As much as he feared his large size, past encounters had shown him to have a pleasant disposition. However, it had been a year since his last run-in with this man, a year which Dan had spent on the run. That might have hardened him.

Dan closed the door, walked over, and pulled the tape from his mouth, peeling some of Kevin’s skin off in the process. He flinched in agony as his lips and skin burned, tears streaming down his face.

“Sorry ‘bout that. I didn’t know the tape would take the skin off like that. Here, have some water.”

Kevin took a sip from the straw, his lips quivering with pain, but the water was soothing as it went down his throat.

“I’m guessing that you’re not ready for grub, so I’ll be back later. We need to move you, anyway.” Dan extended the bottle for another sip, then laid the bottle down on the floor next to him and turned to leave.

“Wait,” Kevin croaked hoarsely.

“Say what?”

“Please. What do you want?”

“Sophie’s gonna talk to you ‘bout that later.”

“Please,” he whispered again.

“Well, money and a way to get home,” Dan replied, before he turned around and walked out the door.

~

“Did you gag him before you came back up?” Sophie asked. She thought it was best to make sure; Dan could be so forgetful.

“Naw. He’s all torn from where I pulled the duct tape off. There was no way I was gonna put another bit of tape on it.”

“What if he yells or screams?”

“Doubt it.” Dan put the boxes behind the counter. “He can barely speak, and it’s too noisy up here to hear anything anyway. If I hear anything, I’ll head straight back down. I’m gonna go back out and relieve Big Mike now. He needs to feed his chinchilla. Can you let Al know that the snacks are behind the counter?”

Sophie nodded as Dan disappeared to man the door again. It was his turn to lock up, which was perfect. It meant that Al would leave them behind on their own. Then they could deal with Kevin.

D
avid took the note from Morena, his forehead creasing as he read.

“What’s up?” I asked.

Stuffing the note into his pocket, he looked over at Morena with his jaw clenched. His eyes narrowed as she shrugged.

“What the heck is going on?” What was I? Invisible?

“I think we should drive over to my house until we hear from your dad,” Morena suggested.

“David?” I nudged him with my elbow.

“It’s nothing for you to worry about. Let’s head over to Morena’s house. I’m wiped.”

The drive to Mountain View was silent. David spent the entire trip with his eyes shut. He really did seem tired, even after the nap on the plane. I guessed the wandering thing took a lot out of him. Or perhaps he was just pretending to stop me from asking more questions. Morena didn’t seem to be into chatting, either. I didn’t know her anyway, so I spent my time staring out the window.

I had done this drive a zillion times. Everything looked the same. We passed the high school, which also looked just the same. It was hard to believe that we were in another dimension. Maybe we weren’t.

“Can we drive by my house? I need to pick up some clothes,” I asked hopefully.

“Arizona, your house doesn’t exist in this dimension. Don’t worry about clothes, though. I picked some up for you. I picked up some other supplies as well.”

Doesn’t exist in this dimension
? I couldn’t get my head around that. “How exactly do we know each other?”

I could see Morena staring at me in the rearview mirror; she looked puzzled.

“Arizona, don’t you remember staying at my house before?”

“No. I don’t think I’ve ever met you.”

She didn’t say anything else and turned on the radio. After a while, she turned into a driveway and stopped the car in front of a two-story, fenced-in house.

I followed them inside. The house was magnificent–large, bright spaces with floor-to-ceiling windows and filled with antique furniture. I would definitely have remembered visiting there before. I hadn’t, yet it did feel vaguely familiar.

“Arizona, come with me. I’ll show you to your bedroom.”

I followed Morena up the stairs to a bedroom. She pointed to the closet. “I stocked it for you. The bathroom is over there. Take your time, and come down when you’re ready. Okay? No hurry. If you feel like a nap, that’s fine.”

I nodded and closed the door behind her. I walked over to the closet. Morena had done an awesome job with the clothes. I selected a pair of jeans, a pink Abercrombie t-shirt, and a blue sweater, laid them on the bed, then went to take a shower.

~

“So, what’s going on, David?” Morena asked, once Arizona was safely busy in the bedroom. “How come she doesn’t remember me?”

 
“I’m not exactly sure.” David sat down and took a gulp from his drink. “She seems back to being Arizona Darley again, the
real
Arizona Darley. It’s like the last year didn’t happen for her.”