Chapter 8
Kaitlin gulped down her wine and poured another glass. She felt like she was in a little bubble cut off from the rest of the world. But if so, then it was a bubble of her own making.
Even knowing that, she couldn’t break it down. Beside her, Sadie was in animated conversation with Josie who was on her other side. Sadie turned to her briefly and squeezed her leg. “Thank you,” she whispered in Kaitlin’s head, “She’s so much better.”
Sadie had been worried about Josie, especially since she hadn’t been able to draw her sister out of herself after her asshole of a husband’s death. But at last, she was coming around.
Even Kane was joining in the conversation. A three-way between him and Jake and his sister, Janelle, on his other side. She seemed to have forgiven her brother for abandoning them all.
“Sometimes you need to forgive.”
She looked across and caught the other woman’s gaze.
Everyone seemed to be telling her that these days. But she just didn’t know how to let go of the bitterness.
Someone placed a bowl of stew in front of her, and a board of crusty bread in the middle of the table. She ate, letting the talk wash over her, but not participating.
She’d been in Kane’s head when he was thinking about the past, and she’d found it fascinating.
What would it be like to be all alone, a stranger in a strange land?
Maybe nice. You wouldn’t have to worry about losing anyone.
Caring about someone and worrying that they could be snatched away without a moment’s notice.
An image of Sam flashed up in her mind. He was smiling. The thing was, she’d been alone since he died. Even when she was in company. All these people cared about her, and she cared about them. Still, there was an insurmountable barrier between them.
“Nothing is insurmountable,” Sadie said.
For a moment, she thought about asking them all to keep out of her head—as she had with Kane—but she didn’t really want that. She wasn’t ashamed of her thoughts, her feelings. She just didn’t know how to change them.
She ate slowly. The food was good and the wine even better. She had a second bowl, more bread topped with creamy yellow butter from Martin’s own cows. Finally, she emptied the last of the wine into her glass.
“Why aren’t you fat?” Christa asked from across the table.
She grinned. She was still skinnier than she would have liked, but she found it almost impossible to put on weight. “Good metabolism and lots of red wine.”
Jake and Christa cleared the table—she thought about getting up to help but decided against it. They were going to have to talk soon and then...
She didn’t know what she was expecting to find in the files Ethan had found. Would there be pictures? She didn’t have any pictures of Sam. But if there were pictures of the experiments they had done—could she bear to see them?
“Okay,” Jake said to her. “Talk.”
She blew out her breath. “I was walking home last night. It was around twelve-thirty. I was cutting through this alley when I felt something in my mind.” She closed her eyes for a moment and remembered the sensation.
“Like a sharp pain. I put up walls and the pain disappeared, but it was like a pressure, something pushing at me. It was only for a second or two and then it was gone.” She looked at Rose, who nodded.
“Sounds like the same thing I experienced before the attack at the Conclave party where Josie’s husband was killed.”
“Anyway…it went away but shortly afterwards I picked up on two guys following me. Sort of the rent-a-thug types. They were huge, like they’d been living on steroids for the last century. I had a quick scan, and they were there to abduct me.”
“Did you run?” Martin asked. “Tell me you ran.”
She frowned. “Of course, I didn’t run. There were only two of them, and I needed to know who they were working for.
” Plus, she’d felt like punching someone.
“I got a bit more information and then knocked them out. Unfortunately, they had no clue who had hired them. They’d been paid anonymously and were to call someone once they had me.
And yes, I tried the number. It was a dead end. ”
“You left them?”
“No. I sent a text to a detective I know. He had them picked up. I didn’t want to wait for them to wake up, but I wanted another look into their minds to see if I could find anything else.”
“You involved the police.” That was Jake—he was catching paranoia from Kane.
“Yeah. I have a very good friend with the Metropolitan Police.” She cast a glance at Kane as she said it, but he just smiled, which pissed her off a little. “But there was nothing else. Waste of time.”
“And you haven’t felt anything since?” Jake asked.
“No. But likely they’ll have the technology to shield themselves—so we only pick them up when they’re trying to read us.”
“Could they have followed you here?”
She shrugged. “They could have, I suppose. But I think we might have noticed someone following a helicopter.”
“All the same, we have to presume that they got something from your mind.”
“Maybe, but I closed down pretty fast.” Though whoever they were, they’d been powerful. At least as powerful as her.
“You need to warn Leila and Brandon,” Jake said.
“Already done,” Kane replied. “They’re on high alert and are checking in hourly. So far—nothing. There are enough safeguards in place to give them plenty of warning, but I think we need to send back-up as soon as possible.”
“Tomorrow. As soon as the meeting is over. Ethan, can you organize transport?”
“No problem.”
An idea had been hovering at the edge of her mind—a pretty good idea even if it was hers.
Maybe even a breakthrough. “So,” she said, “are we presuming whoever it was who hired the thugs to get me are the same as the guys from the party? Not necessarily the same ones exactly, but—and I feel a little odd even saying this out loud—from the future?”
“I think we have to presume that,” Jake replied. “What are you thinking?”
He sounded so suspicious. Probably from past experience.
“Well, what have we spent the last eighteen months trying to find out, with absolutely no success whatsoever?” When no one answered, she continued, “Duh. We’ve been trying to find out what happens in the future.
What causes the cataclysm. And here’s someone, or likely more than one, who knows what happened, because they’ve been there. ”
Jake frowned. “Except, we don’t even know if they’re still here. They might have already whizzed back to their own time.”
“Maybe. But I think not. After all, they didn’t get what they came for.”
“And that would be?” Jake sounded intrigued now.
She grinned. “Me.”
“No fucking way,” Kane growled from across the table.
Hah. She’d known he’d like her idea. An added bonus. Mr. Ruthless Revilla didn’t like the idea of her putting herself in harm’s way.
“Not your call,” she said with a smile and turned back to Jake. “We’ve been wandering about in the dark like fucking idiots, waiting to stumble over the answers. That hasn’t happened and we’re nearly out of time. We have to look at this as an opportunity.”
“What are you suggesting?”
“Let me go back to London, meander around. Hopefully, they’ll send someone else to pick me up.
This time, I’ll let myself be overpowered.
They can take me to whoever is behind it, and I’ll ask them if they know what it is that’s going to destroy the world and exactly when it’s going to happen. Ta-da.”
“And you think they’re going to tell you?” Kane said, his tone incredulous. “What about the little fact that you’ll be their prisoner. That’s a stupid, fucking harebrained plan, and it’s not going to happen.”
“It’s not down to you to say.”
His jaw clenched. “Not happening.”
“Actually, I think it’s a good idea,” Rose said. “Of course, we would make sure she has backup. As soon as the kidnappers deliver her to the bad guys, we move in and pick them up.”
“Wouldn’t any one of us work just as well?” Jake asked.
Kaitlin scowled. “Why should you be put in harm’s way any more than me? Are you being sexist?”
“Maybe. But I wasn’t thinking of someone of the opposite sex so much as someone a little less...reckless.”
“Good point. But it will probably work better with a girl,” Rose said. “Less of a threat.”
“Hah,” Kane muttered. “Not Kaitlin then.”
“I can look non-threatening.” Kaitlin forced her features into what she presumed was a sweet, vaguely simple expression. Nobody looked particularly impressed. She’d have to practice in front of the mirror.
“We could bug her, I suppose,” Jake said. “Some sort of tracking device.”
“You’re not seriously considering this?” Kane asked the room in general.
“Of course, they are.” She smirked. “Look, I know there is a small risk involved, but it’s got to be better than ambling around in a daze the way we have been doing. And did I mention—we’re running out of time.”
“Let’s leave it for now,” Jake said. “We’ll discuss it more at the meeting tomorrow. See what the others think.”
She cast a glance at Kane, he was looking pissed off. Good. At least winding him up took her mind off what was to come.
Whatever Ethan had found in the Conclave files.