“The time machine plans. We should think of this like a failed experiment. We take what we learned and try again. I’m sorry I had to pull you away from the desk, but if we start over, we’ll know what to look out for this time. I can distract Leo, maybe stay down on the main floor with him. We’ll come up with a different reason why you’re there and you’ll have more time to?—”
“More time to transfer the file to an off-site server where we can look at it at our leisure?”
“Yeah, something like that. Whatever you can do. If you take me back to the house and Indigo is there, then...” I trail off, because despite what I’m saying, I don’t actually want to die. But it will be fast. Better than having Walter Wolfe pulling off my toenails. Or convincing Jasper to drive us into a wall or off a bridge. I don’t think I could do that to him, regardless of how I feel. As I put a finger to my lips, it tingles where his scruff scraped over the sensitive skin there, those feelings are becoming increasingly unclear. The time loop isn’t the only thing messing with my head. I really want to kiss him again, even knowing who he truly is now.
“Or we could skip the noble sacrifice part of the evening and go check out the info I downloaded and sent to an off-site server to look at in a more leisurely manner?”
I’m so focused on my inevitable meeting with Indigo that it takes a second before I understand what he’s saying.
“Wait. What?”
He lifts his phone from the centre console. The screen is black, but he says, “Finished the transfer as you got in my lap. It’s all waiting for us somewhere safe.” He tips a mock salute to me. “So thank you very much for your kind offer, but it’s not on your shoulders alone to save us. I’m pleased to report that you will not be needing to die tonight.”
My whole body relaxes at his words. Clarissa’s always telling me much the same thing, though obviously in less fatal terms. She says I don’t need to do everything by myself. That we have a whole team of highly qualified researchers who can break down code and run models. It doesn’t need to be me sitting at the lab into the darkest hours watching numbers roll over the screen until my head aches. I can lean on other people. I’ve never been especially good at it. For now, though, I’m going to take her advice. I close my eyes, letting the sound of the tires on the road fill my brain with static.
I must fall asleep, because the next thing I know, we’re pulling into a perfectly unremarkable driveway next to an equally and perfectly unremarkable suburban house. It’s a two-story home with white shutters and a detached garage.
“We’re here,” Jasper says.
“Where’s here?”
He gives me a soft smile, less self-assured than the ones I’ve seen before. Something tells me even after all our dates, this is the first time we’ve come to this specific location, and the thought makes me apprehensive. I hate that I’m still doubting him, but how can I not?
“My place.”
My sleepy brain takes a second to register what he’s said, but when it does, I’m suddenly very awake. “You brought me to your house?”
“Well... my apartment. I live over the garage.”
I glance through the windshield at the detached garage sitting silently at the end of the driveway. I don’t know where I thought Jasper lived. Some hench cave somewhere, probably.
“Is it safe?” I don’t know how a criminal organization’s HR department works, but they have to know where he lives, right?
But Jasper doesn’t seem to have any similar concerns. He gives me his lopsided grin and says, “Hide in plain sight, right? With any luck, Leo and Bobby are finishing up their shifts and are off for a few drinks at Kicks. They haven’t given us any further thought.”
Our luck so far has not been amazing, so I don’t know why he thinks it’s going to change now.
“And if theyhavegiven it more thought?” I’m picturing the gruesome death Jasper described earlier. Something about the way Bobby looked at me the way a predator eyes prey makes me think he’d really enjoy inflicting pain.
“We’ll be quick,” Jasper says, giving my hand a squeeze. I wiggle my fingers restlessly. This can’t be the best plan. “I can’t access the files from anywhere but my desktop setup. It’s not the sort of thing you really email to yourself.”
That part I understand, at least. The security protocols around information about the Ziro Machine are extensive. The five-syllable password may seem silly to Jasper, but it’s only the beginning of what you have to do to have access to the plans.
We get out of the car, and when I slam my door shut, Jasper winces.
“What?”
“Just... try to keep it down. The neighbours are fussy about making too much noise.”
Except it’s not the neighbour’s house that suddenly floods the driveway with light; it’s the one next to the garage. I freeze in place as the front door opens. A woman with graying hair in navy blue pajamas comes out to the porch, squinting at us.
“Jasper?” she says. “Whose car is that?”
I reach for Jasper’s hand, ready to run. “Your landlady?”
Jasper sighs, squeezing my fingers gently. “That... would be my mom.”
CHAPTER 12
