18. CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 18
B y the time Gideon and his friends made their way back across the city to Club Deux Mondes, crossed over to Taco Shots, and sent word via the staff there for Matthew—who clearly wasn’t expecting them and showed up in uncharacteristic khaki shorts and a t-shirt—it had been two hours since Lexi was taken.
Gideon was in a rage, though Julian managed to keep him calm enough to avoid destroying Taco Shots. Nevertheless, he paced furiously, face red, veins bulging at his temples, hating the fact that he still wore his damned peasant shirt, breeches and boots. He needed to deal with Lexi’s world now—a world in which he already felt far less capable. His current clothing merely underscored the fact that here, in her universe, he was an anachronism. A thing to be looked at with curiosity, not respect.
His feeling of helplessness mounted.
“What the hell did you do, McCabe?” He grabbed Matthew by the sleeves of his Hard Rock Paris t-shirt, ripping the seams at the shoulders as he yanked him forward. “Where is Lexi?”
“What are you talking about?” Matthew asked, his eyes darting from Gideon to Vikkras to Alana to Julian. “I sent her across to you this morning.”
“She slipped back through, asshole!” He let go of Matt’s sleeves and pushed him hard in the chest, Matthew’s back landing solidly against the edge of the bar. “You pulled her back through! Why? How?”
Alana came forward, placing a hand on Gideon’s shoulder. “We don’t know what’s going on yet. Let’s hear from Matthew first.”
He shrugged her hand off. “Don’t use your voice on me. She’s in trouble. Every moment counts.” But he did relax his shoulders, taking his first deep breath in a while.
“Gideon, I honestly don’t know what you’re talking about,” Matt said.
“He’s telling the truth, G,” Alana said. “Of that I’m sure.”
Matthew slumped back against the bar, an expression of gratitude on his face as he nodded his thanks to Alana. “I don’t understand. It’s now been well over four hours since I sent her to you. Did you play the tones again to keep her there? If not, maybe her time just lapsed and she slipped back through.”
“No, it wasn’t like that,” Alana said. “Gideon renewed the tones for her, and she had nearly three hours left. She was standing next to him in a meadow when she suddenly—”
“Aahhhh!” Gideon slammed his fist onto the bar countertop, rattling every inanimate object in the room.
“—when she suddenly phased out of our world.” Alana ignored him and continued. “She’s been missing now for two hours.”
“Shit,” Matthew said, his brows knitting together.
“Yeah, shit,” Gideon agreed.
They were getting nowhere fast, and he and his friends had a ticking clock of their own. The longer they stayed in World Two, the weaker, and therefore less useful, they’d be. Eventually they’d have to return home to regain some strength. And Gideon refused to go back without Lexi safe at his side.
“But she was wearing her timer when she slipped out of your world?” Matthew asked.
“Yes. ”
“Then hopefully I can help.” He hurried into his office and returned with a small flat tablet that Gideon recognized as one of their computing devices. Matthew tapped his fingers on the screen.
“Gideon, this may be a stupid question, but have you tried to reach her telepathically?” Alana asked while they waited.
He had been trying, of course. Non-stop since they’d crossed into World Two. And there was nothing. He was so afraid of what that might mean, he hadn’t been able to bring himself to mention it to the others. The fist to his gut had ballooned to the size of a basketball since they’d arrived in her world.
“Lexi? Sweetheart, please, are you there?”
He looked at Alana and shook his head, swallowing the words he couldn’t speak.
“Listen, from what you’ve told me, you both need to be in relaxed, open frames of mind to connect, right?” she asked.
He nodded.
“Well, you’re clearly anything but calm since the moment she disappeared. Let’s try it together. Listen to my voice, take a deep breath, and relax.” She took one of his hands in both of hers and squeezed. “Try it again now.”
“Lexi? Where are you? I’m right here. I’m in your world.”
He waited. There was only silence.
“She’s not—” He bit off the words.
“No, you’re wrong,” she said. “She is there. Don’t you feel her? She’s not awake, but she’s there, just under the surface of consciousness. Try again. Wake her up.”
“Lexi, wake up! Wake up and tell me where you are.”
He felt a movement then, a struggle to the surface.
“Gideon?” Her voice in his mind was groggy, quiet.
“I hear her,” he said out loud. “Yes, sweetheart. I’m here. Where are you? I’m coming to get you.”
“Ow, my head… why didn’t you answer me before… and where…”
“I couldn’t hear you before, baby. Where are you?”
“Gideon… stop… Benjamin Smythe.”
He could sense a throbbing pain on the side of her forehead, and then she slid away into unconsciousness again. At least, thank God, she was alive. But what did any of this have to do with Benjamin Smythe?
“Got her.” Matthew blurted out, interrupting Gideon’s thoughts. “Though I’m afraid you guys really aren’t going to like where she is.”
Matthew was driving them to a location adjacent to the Philadelphia airport. The worst possible place for Gideon and Julian to be. The noise of the jets, the smell of the fuel, the hyped-up emotions of thousands of people. On top of it, the early evening skies were darkening, and the first of the giant fireworks displays were exploding over the city.
“Although at the moment I am glad of it, please explain to me again why you had this electronic… leash… on my woman,” Gideon said, his hands braced against the dashboard of the car as they sped down a vast roadway Matthew had called I-95.
Julian sat in an equally rigid manner in the back, his eyes wide as he stared out the window at other cars rushing past. “Haven’t you people ever heard of horses?” he asked, closing his eyes and slumping down into the seat. “This is insanity, pure and simple.”
“It wasn’t just Lexi,” Matthew said. “After what happened to Alana and Vikkras, I installed tiny GPS devices—trackers—on all the timers. Every patron who goes through the portal now can be located… well, in my world at least. They won’t work in yours because of the technology. I wasn’t sure if they would be of any use at all, but obviously now I’m glad I did. ”
“Hmmm. Thank you,” Gideon said. “But, I want to ask you something, and you need to answer me honestly.”
Matthew swerved the car quickly at that moment to get into an exit lane, cutting off another car, the driver of that car blaring his horn at them.
“Shit!” Gideon yelled.
“Holy hell!” shouted Julian at the same time, both men clapping their hands over their ears in pain and sliding a little lower into their seats.
“I’m so sorry,” said Matthew.
Blessedly, Gideon realized, the car was slowing down now that it was off the highway and onto smaller roads.
“What do you want to ask me?” Matthew asked.
“Frankly, Alana has been sensing tension coming from you for a little while now,” he said. “She felt like something was off. What’s going on? Does it have something to do with all of this?”
Matt looked over at him with such an openly hurt expression that Gideon suddenly felt horrible for even asking. Matthew had been his friend and colleague for several years, and his actions were helping them find Lexi.
“I’m sorry,” Gideon offered. “I don’t mean to offend you, but with everything that’s gone on recently I need to ask.”
“No, it’s okay,” Matt said. “I just… I’ve been a little concerned lately. About some of the patrons going through the portal.”
“Concerned?” Gideon raised an eyebrow.
“Nothing specific, man. Just… call it a security expert’s intuition.”
“And you didn’t think to talk to me about this?” Sweat filled with anger, worry, and physical discomfort was beading on his brow. He wiped it with the back of his hand.
“Honestly, I couldn’t find any reason to nix any of the visitors when I vetted them. It was more just a feeling. I really didn’t think it was anything worth bothering you about unless I had further reason to.”
Just a feeling. The same thing Alana had said. Yet no one had any answers and everyone’s big plan was to keep an eye out . A plan that had worked so well they were now racing through World Two hoping like hell Lexi was okay. “No, in actual fact you didn’t want to work any harder, to do what needed to be done for a deeper vetting. Or maybe you didn’t want to say no to any money that happened to slide across your palm in exchange for looking the other way.”
“What the hell? That’s not true!”
“Boys, can we please bring it down a notch?” Julian said from the back seat. “Not only am I being forced to risk life and limb in this infernal metal carriage, but I am without both my cigar and my cat at the moment, and you simply cannot ask me to put up with your silly schoolgirl bickering as well.”
The mood in the car lightened a little, and Gideon had to admit he was thankful, the pounding in his head lessening to a noticeable degree. Knowing that Julian had intentionally calmed them, he glanced back at his cousin. Julian was physically suffering as much as Gideon from his exposure to World Two, and the expenditure of his psychic energy had obviously cost him. He was pale, and his normally consistent grin was conspicuously absent. Gideon nodded to his cousin, acknowledging what he’d done for them.
“You’re right,” Matthew said. “I should have told you. I took some chances when I shouldn’t have. I did have several men I trusted helping me keep watch over all the visitors while they were in your world, but obviously it wasn’t enough to prevent this from happening. Whatever this is, anyway.”
So that’s who those two men had been that he and Lexi had seen Matthew talking to that night. He’d really been wrong about Matthew. Maybe he’d been a little sloppy in not bringing his concerns to Gideon, but it was nothing nefarious on his part. Whatever this new evil was, it was something else altogether. His colleague, his friend, was a good man.
“I admit it. I screwed up.” Matthew said. “I’m really sorry.”
Gideon reached over and put an increasingly shaky hand on Matthew’s shoulder. “No, it’s okay, brother. You couldn’t have known something like this would happen. And without your help, Lexi…” He didn’t finish the sentence.
The truth was, Gideon hated himself in that moment. Matthew really was saving Lexi. Technology was saving Lexi. That damn tracking device and the computer and the car barreling down a wide paved road were saving Lexi. And he didn’t understand or even know how to use any of those things. All he had were some pathetic leather wristbands with a few pretty crystals on them.
On top of that, he’d sent Vik and Alana back to his world to find Benjamin and figure out what he had to do with all this. If something went wrong on that front, neither of them would be as physically able to deal with it as Gideon. They simply did not have his physical power.
He’d sworn for almost a century to protect his world and his people. Yet now, with an unknown threat, they’d all agreed it made more sense for Vik and Alana to go deal with Benjamin and for him to stay and get Lexi. Or rather, to keep Matthew company while Matthew rescued Lexi.
Gideon had been alive for ninety-seven years. Yet on this one day, within a matter of only a few hours, he’d become helpless, incapable, and completely torn in two for the first time in his life. Relying on others in every way.
He hated himself.
The car finally came to a stop in front of what looked like long rows of concrete buildings with metal doors spaced every twenty feet or so along the blocks. A sign read “Public Storage.”
Matthew tapped the computer screen. “This is the place. She’s here somewhere.”