21. CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 21
W hen Benjamin took off running, he’d had no plan of action other than to get clear of Gideon Ashe’s path of destruction. He’d known a fraction of a second before everyone else what was about to happen, having caught the sudden change in Gideon’s demeanor, the calm resolution that had settled over him. Thankfully, though weaker while in World Two, Benjamin was nevertheless a blur moving down the row of concrete blocks.
There’d been no point in waiting to see what happened. Everyone present who was related to the Prometheus Group would be lost and his only concern was getting the hell out of there.
As he got to the end of the long row, he rounded the corner out of eyesight of the people he’d left behind, and that was when, for the second time that day, he heard the thunder crack of Gideon’s rage. He could only imagine the shock to the four gun-toting goons and the two execs who were now probably lying like rag dolls on the hot concrete. The thought made him giggle. The damn suit had belittled him right in front of Gideon, Julian, and the blasted hired muscle.
Good riddance to all of them.
But a worm of doubt wiggled into his brain. A subtle niggling at the back of his mind. No Prometheus Group VPs, no goons, not even his stone-cold contact, Philly, who’d been disconcertingly absent all day. This was not, in fact, something to giggle about.
He was alone .
Brushing aside the little worry worm, he kept moving. The others would be in their car and fast on his heels at any moment. He exited the facility and ran out onto the sidewalk fronting the busy four-lane street.
But where to go? And how to go? The worm wound its way in deeper.
He heard what was rapidly becoming a familiar sound and looked up at the sky. His eyes focused on the eerie gray dot that grew bigger and bigger and his hands reflexively went to his ears. As the freakish expanse of metal moving through the air came closer, his knees went to the ground, his forehead blossomed in sweat, and he knew. He knew he’d made a colossal error.
Without any other contacts in this world, it was all over for him. He’d never met anyone else related to the Prometheus Group, had no idea who they were or how to contact them. Abandoned and alone in a foreign universe, he couldn’t stay in World Two, and he couldn’t go home.
The full force of his situation hit him, along with a brand-new sensation… panic. Hands wringing, he took several steps in every direction, each time returning to his original spot, his thinking confused and scattered.
A car blared its horn from somewhere behind him and he turned to see Matthew whipping around the corner towards the facility exit. Towards Benjamin himself. He had no plan, no recourse. All he knew was that he refused to be taken down by Gideon Ashe.
Benjamin bolted straight into the road in front of him. Tires screeched, horns blared, men yelled obscenities.
“Stop! Stop this noise, please!” he shouted to no one in particular as he dashed back up to the curb. His arms wrapped around his gut as the pain from the sensory onslaught of sound, movement, and the smell of gas fumes and burned rubber soured his mouth and tore at his brain .
Matthew’s car screeched to a stop and Julian’s door flew open as he stepped out from behind it.
“Benjamin, wait!” Julian yelled. “At least get into the car with us, you wretched buffoon. We can deal with this in our own world.”
Were they offering him an option? A way home at the very least?
But shame over his choices now burned deep, and he couldn’t. He just… couldn’t.
Pressing his hands to his ears to cover both the sounds of the city and the temptation of Julian’s offer, Benjamin darted back into the road during a brief pause in traffic. He stopped on the grass-covered divider in the middle.
He just needed time to think, that’s all. Figure out what to do next.
He sank down onto the ground, crossing his legs and dropping his head in his hands. What a fool he’d been, believing the people of World Two would be any more sympathetic and fair-minded than his own. People were the same in any universe, letting you down in every dimension.
Fear turned to anger in his veins, pulsed hot in his cheeks. Anger at humanity. Anger at himself.
God, he’d been so stupid!
His hands clenched into fists and he banged them against his temples as he rocked forward and back on the ground. What to do, what to do…
From what seemed like miles away he heard Matthew and now Gideon yelling. “Benjamin, what are you doing? Get out of the road. Come back with us!”
He glanced up at the familiar faces two road lanes away, watched them waving and beckoning to him. And he thought then that perhaps going home, even with Gideon, was not such a bad idea after all. That’s what Mary would want him to do, he was suddenly sure. Confront his guilt and treason. Accept the consequences. Be with his people in his home world. Spend the rest of his life making amends if it were even possible.
He rose and stepped back into the road towards Gideon and Julian. They may have betrayed him and Mary before, but at least they’d believed they were doing the right thing at the time. They’d cared about something, even if Benjamin disagreed with their priorities. And angry though they were right now, they seemed to care about what would become of him.
Unlike Philly , he thought while dodging one car after another, their horns blaring at him as he tried to get back across the busy street.
Philly hadn’t cared about him one bit. She’d sold him lies to get him to betray his people, and not for any more noble a reason than to line her own pockets. Miserable bitch. Now that he was going home and the truth of everything would come out, he’d at least take satisfaction in disclosing her secrets.
But as he hopscotched around the cars, a giant flash of light filled the sky above, the massive fireworks thundering in his ears. Benjamin felt sick, dizzy and nauseated as one knee buckled under him, and he went down right in the middle of a lane.
“Get up. Hurry!” he heard Gideon shout, though it was already too late.
Benjamin had exactly enough time to think, I hope you burn in hell, Margot , as a brand new, bright red Mercedes Roadster married him to the pavement.