Timesurfers Page 19

  Austin gave her a sexy little lopsided grin. “You look great!”

  She returned his infectious smile. Her heart gave a little skip at his now familiar checked flannel shirt. This one was purple and blue. He made wearing faded jeans an art, and today he had on some awesome black biker boots. His fingers drummed against his thighs. An enormous bundle of energy, he was never completely still. Something invisible pulled her to him like a magnet. She carefully ran through her plan in her head one last time.

  “Hey, come back to me.” Austin’s voice was soft and warm as he brushed his thumb against her cheek.

  The world fell away. Austin didn’t have perfect bone structure like Jonah; his face was more oval. He was still incredibly hot, but he looked more...happy-go-lucky and fun. One glance told you he was trouble with a capital T! She needed to focus.

  He didn’t resist when she turned his arm to check his quantum indicators. Her finger ran down the numbers until she reached 2017 tattooed in blue ink. Yep, he was the right Austin.

  “Always check the QIs.” He pressed his forehead against hers. “My head is so filled with you I don’t remember which century I’m in.”

  Cate closed her eyes and let the exquisite feeling of his closeness wash over her for one last second, and then pushed him away. Finding Xavier was bigger than her feelings for Austin. It was time to use her brain...and some acting skills. She raised her hands to the sky and threw back her head. “Xavier’s gone! Someone took my brother.”

  “Calm down.” He placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. The concern in his voice amplified her guilt.

  “Calm down?” She circled around him, tearing at her hair. “My brother has been kidnapped and I’m going to choose to join Mortez! Don’t deny it...Why? Why would I choose her?”

  “Every Timesurfer chooses a side. If there were no sides, Timesurfers wouldn’t exist. Without good and bad there would be no heroes. If people never suffered and died from disease or war, no one would step up with cures or negotiate peace.”

  She stared at his collarbone. He was a good head and a half taller than her. “Mortez is evil. She kills people.”

  A small pulse flickered where his jaw met his ear. “So do I.” He tilted his chin ever so slightly, confident and defiant in who he was and what he did.

  Cate took an involuntary step backward. She suspected Austin had killed before, but hearing him say it made her pause.

  “Other Timesurfers usually, but sometimes stuff happens. Naitanui gives me a job, and I get it done.” He used the matter-of-fact tone of someone completely committed to what they did.

  That was the opening she needed. “Was kidnapping Xavier a job Naitanui gave you? Mum thinks he’s been gone for five years. I know different. I saw him less than twenty-four hours ago. This altered time line is because Timesurfers went back in time and kidnapped him yesterday. He could be dead!” She dropped to her knees and sobbed.

  “Under no circumstances would Naitanui sanction anyone kidnapping him and altering history. He never mentioned Xavier to me in this mission brief.” He knelt and grabbed her shoulders.

  “Mission!” She shoved him hard and jumped to her feet. “I’m nothing more than a mission Naitanui gave you?” She folded her arms over her chest and stared him down. She braced. The answer to this might sting.

  “Cate...”

  She held her hand up and shushed him. “It’s your mission to ensure I do one thing and Jonah’s to make me do something different.”

  “You’re oversimplifying the situation.” He stepped back and shoved his hands in the back pockets of his jeans.

  “It all comes down to me doing what you want. So I’ll do you a deal.”

  “We’re doing deals now?” He raised one eyebrow. The sun outlined his head and broad shoulders with a halo of light. He glowed against the sprinkling of grey rain clouds from last night.

  “Help me find Xavier, and I’ll do what Naitanui wants. I’ll join Naitanui if that’s what it takes to get him to help me find Xavier.”

  “Suggesting a deal is not the smartest thing I’ve heard you say. I don’t imagine Naitanui would be interested in a deal. I have been wrong before though, once. It was a Tuesday in 2010, I think.”

  His cheeky grin failed to curb her irritation at his implication her idea was dumb. She bit back her initial response to shove him hard and counted to three. Think about Xavier. Think about Xavier.

  “I bet you’re dying to smack me.”

  “No,” she lied. His low, throaty chuckle irked her. She hated that he could read her so well. “I’m considering my position. Making a deal requires negotiation.”

  “We don’t do deals.” He ran his hand over his hair.

  “There’s a first time for everything. Kidnapping Xavier is an altered time line. It’s Naitanui’s job to fix that so it’s your duty to find Xavier and return him. I want to deal directly with Naitanui. Take me to him, please.”

  Austin was wavering.

  She played her trump card. “Xavier’s been kidnapped. I know what that feels like. They could be torturing him. I have to find him.”

  “I should argue eloquently why taking you to Naitanui to make a deal is ridiculous and pointless, or simply walk away.”

  “But?”

  “I like to ruffle a few feathers. Hold tight. We’re going straight inside the Break this time.”

  ***

  Timesurfers milled around the screens and computers when they arrived directly in the command room at the Break. When she grabbed Austin to steady herself, her fingers pressed skin stretched over lean, pliable muscle. The noise level in the Break plummeted. Everyone stared. There were a few tentative smiles before the murmurs started.

  “Coming straight in is like bursting into someone’s house unannounced,” Austin explained before he spoke to Naitanui. “This is a special request trip from Cate.”

  Rose strolled through an arched tunnel opening. “What’s she doing here?” She sat and swung her legs onto the gleaming black marble table. Her calf-high black army boots were splattered with red mud. There were knives in leather sheaths strapped to her thighs and two thick leather sashes crisscrossed her chest. The hilt of a sword protruded over her shoulder. Her blue QIs glistened. She had more than Jonah.

  “What brings you here?” Naitanui pulled his brassy blonde and black dreadlocks into a low ponytail. When he stepped closer, he blocked out everything around her. His height had tricked Cate into thinking he wasn’t all that broad. He was much more muscular than she remembered.

  Austin motioned with his head for her to talk.

  She kicked the red dirt floor a few times, and dust floated over her boots. The other Timesurfers had evacuated the cavernous space. Apart from a low electrical hum, the room was now silent.

  Rose sighed. “If Rafe was here, he could read your mind. He’s not, so spit it out!”

  Rose is such a bitch! All the time.

  “I heard that.” Rafe jogged into the room, flicking his mullet behind his shoulders. He wore that atrocious Hawaiian shirt again. “You should learn to shield your thoughts, Cate. I can read your mind like an open book. Sometimes there’s a bit of a glitch, but normally—open book.” He mimed opening a book.

  “Spit it out, girl!” Rose’s combat pants actually accented her long, shapely legs. The tank top emphasised her broad shoulders and athletic arms.

  Cate pulled her hair back into a ponytail with her hands and twirled the ends. Doubt crept into her mind. She ignored it. “I’m the Catherine that you’re looking for. The Catherine who’s working with Jonah and Mortez in this time.”

  Naitanui didn’t move.

  “I’ll do whatever you want if you help me look for my brother, Xavier. I’ll join you instead of Mortez if necessary. Just help me look for him.”

  Austin stepped forward. “I’m happy to travel with her and see if we can pick up a trail.” His voice was all business. There was nothing flirty about that statement at all.

  “Big shock, that.”
Rose’s classically beautiful face twisted into a sneer as she pointed an accusing finger at Cate. “It’s unfathomable Jonah hasn’t cautioned you about making open ended statements. I taught him better. Always be specific. ‘If you help me find my brother, I’ll listen to what you have to say.’ Do you see the difference? You only have to listen if you actually find Xavier. Anyone can wander through a few decades with you and pretend to look.”

  The tiny, frayed thread holding Cate together stretched and snapped. “What is your problem? Or do you just PMS like a bitch all the time?”

  Rafe moved so fast he had hold of Rose before Cate realised Austin had hold of her arms.

  “I won’t hurt her,” Rose hissed, her grey eyes practically spitting steel sparks. “I want to, but I won’t.”

  “Come on! Give it your best shot.” Cate fought like a wildcat to get free, but she was no match for Austin. Until he released her, she was going nowhere.

  “You’re aware Rose could kill you five times in five different ways before you’d even assumed that fighting stance you like so much,” Austin murmured.

  She was, but she didn’t care!

  “ENOUGH!” Naitanui demanded. His voice echoed around the empty space as his yellow eyes flashed with fury.

  Cate threw her head back, disappointed when it didn’t make contact with Austin. “I’m so sick of you people telling me what to do. I don’t have to listen to you. You are not the boss of me.”

  Austin chuckled, but didn’t loosen his painful grip on her biceps. She would have bruises where his fingers dug into her skin. “Excellent point, but because you want our help, you might want to play a little nicer.”

  “Will you help me find Xavier?” Cate met Naitanui’s panther like gaze. “Please.”

  Naitanui’s face remained expressionless as he contemplated her request. His pale pink lips drew into a thin line as his yellow eyes narrowed. He hardly had any eyelashes. “I’ll consider helping on one condition.”

  “Anything,” Cate breathed.

  “Have you learned nothing?” Rose twirled her ink black hair into a perfect French knot and used two knives from her thigh holster to secure it. “You should have said, ‘I’ll hear your condition.’ Never throw the ‘anything’ card out there.”

  Now that Jonah had told Cate.

  “I will help you find Xavier,” Naitanui said. “After you pass the GTs.”

  Austin’s hands dropped from her arms. All eyes turned to Naitanui, and a big silence followed before everyone spoke at once.

  Rose’s voice rose above the others. “She won’t last three seconds in the GTs.”

  “Which is why you, Rose, will train her,” Naitanui replied.

  “What?” Rose and Cate chorused.

  Rose shook her head and glared at Naitanui.

  Cate had no idea what a GT was, but training for anything with Rose would be torture. This was probably the first and last time she would agree with Rose.

  “It wasn’t a request.” Naitanui’s voice was scarily quiet. Rose bit her lip as she stepped back and nodded. Her anger radiated across the room, but she kept it under check.

  A bud of apprehension slowly unfurled in Cate’s chest. No one gave Naitanui that type of power, he had earned it. She swallowed as Naitanui turned her way. His smile was more dangerous and unsettling than any ranting. “So are we agreed?”

  She rubbed her forehead. “What are the GTs?”

  “The Grommet Trials are a Timesurfer initiation ritual. They’re brutal,” Rafe said.

  Regardless of how brutal they were, Cate had no choice. This was her only way to find Xavier. “I agree.” Training with Rose and completing the GTs...Xavier was going to owe her big time.

  “Excellent. Rose, take Cate and start her training. You have twenty-one days before the next full moon and GTs.”

  Cate’s shoulders slumped. “I can’t be away for that long.”

  Naitanui patted her shoulder. “You’ll be gone for less than a minute in your time.”

  Austin took Cate’s arm. “I’ll help.” Boyish excitement poured off him.

  “Absolutely not!” Rose said. “I don’t need the distraction that is you in the same millennium while we prepare.”

  “Mum!” Austin drew out the word as only kids can. It was such a normal thing to do, but so out of place between Rose and Austin.

  “Don’t ‘Mum’ me!” Rose shut him down with one of her Medusa looks. “Take Cate to my quarters, and keep your hands off one another.”

  “This isn’t breaking any of your rules?” Cate asked Naitanui before heading toward the entrance Rose specified.

  “I never break the rules. You’ll do well to remember that.”

  “Incoming wounded. Incoming wounded. Stretcher bearers to the command room and healers to the healing chamber.” A pleasant voice repeated over a speaker as the room glowed red.

  A group of men and women dressed in old fashioned army and nurse uniforms appeared. Some were wailing with pain. Cate gulped. Three of them were missing limbs and there was blood everywhere.

  “Make sure you have my arm!” One injured man called.

  “And both our legs.” Another injured man shrieked. The third man was quiet and deathly white.

  “I have them,” a nurse called. “Well...I’m ninety percent sure I have the correct ones.”

  The stretchers bearers raced into room and heaved the injured onto the stretchers they carried.

  “Go, Austin,” Naitanui commanded.

  “They look like they’ve been in a war,” Cate said as Austin guided her forward. He followed close behind, touching her shoulder to indicate she should turn left.

  “They have been. World War I. Some were at the Western Front and the others at Gallipoli cove. More people were killed or wounded at the Western Front than any other place during that war. The Allies and the Germans each suffered close to four million casualties. That’s about a million each for every year the war raged.”

  “Why were the Timesurfers sent to the war?”

  “They were on an education immersion expedition. Three days tasting, smelling and living in a war makes you understand the horrendous sacrifice it requires. Their wounds will heal, many of the soldiers who fought in the war weren’t that fortunate.”

  Cate remained silent. After a few steps, she faced a grey granite wall. Austin placed his hand on the rock, and orange circles glowed around his fingertips. The stone wall rippled and vanished. She stepped into a hallway wider than her entire house. There were brightly coloured rugs scattered along the cream and caramel slate floor. To her left was a two-story wall of glass with mind blowing ocean views. On her right, a wrought iron staircase curled up and down to other levels.

  “Welcome to the Shack,” Austin announced with a flourish. “This is where we live. Rose is the last door on the left.”

  She had to skip every few steps to keep up with Austin’s long strides. The hallway walls had distressed cream timber panelling on the bottom half. The top half was painted pale blue streaked with abstract veins of gold. Sun streamed through the evenly spaced floor-to-ceiling windows along the left side. Austin opened the last door on the left. “This is us. After you.”

  “How many Timesurfers live here?”

  “There’s between 100 and 200 at most times. It’s preferred, not required we live here. Spending more time in here reduces your aura outside. Rose and I moved in when Jonah left. Before that we all lived together in Rose Cottage further up the point. Naitanui has Shacks set up all around the world. You can access any of them through the portal at the Break we came through.”

  Cate’s breath caught in her throat as she stepped through the door to Rose’s quarters. “Holy cow!” A massive wall of glass gave an uninterrupted view over the vibrant blue ocean. “That’s amazing.”

  Austin flopped on a retro white leather couch. Everything in the kitchen and living area was so stylish, but also looked comfortable and relaxed.

  “Are these you?” She walked to row
s of photos that covered one wall.

  “Yep. Wasn’t I a beautiful baby?”

  She rolled her eyes. There were photos of Rose and Jonah with Austin from before he could walk until quite recently. The three of them at the Egyptian pyramids, in front of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, in a spectacular redwood forest, on blindingly white beaches, and even at the hot air balloon place she visited for her birthday. Rose and Jonah hadn’t changed over time. Austin had indeed been a beautiful baby and a cheeky and happy looking kid. His face was scar free in every photo. “Who are the old sepia pictures of?”

  Austin pointed to a different photo as he spoke each name. “Jonah, Jonah, Rose, Rose, Rose, and Rose. That old guy with the curled moustache is Rose’s dad. The blank frame had a photo of my dad in it, but Rose removed it one night. I presume there was heavy drinking involved.”

  A large framed photo of Jonah, Austin, and Naitanui together on the balcony that stretched across Rose’s room rested against the wall. It was the only picture of Austin with his scars. “When was that taken?”

  Austin scratched his head and looked vague. “A few months ago, I think. For her birthday, Rose insisted on one photo with Jonah, Naitanui, and me together. Jonah and Rose are the closest thing Naitanui has to family, so they get away with slightly more than your average Timesurfer. Jonah snuck away from Mortez especially. He and Rose are embroiled in an eternal love and agony loop. It’s exhausting to watch.”

  She gave Austin a sideways look. That was further confirmation she and Jonah weren’t together in the future.

  “Although I’m sure his feelings for you are genuine. If he has shown any feelings for you.”

  Austin had misunderstood her silence. Jonah was off the charts hot and she liked him. Being with him would be easy. However, it was clear now his heart belonged to Rose, and Cate got that, because her heart belonged to Austin. A huge weight lifted from her shoulders, and she could breathe properly for the first time in days. One smile from Austin and she had been hooked. It was inexplicable and undeniable. To be with anyone else would be cheating herself and them. She would never love anyone as completely as she loved Austin.

  “Has he shown any feelings for you?” Austin asked.