Page 78 of Preying Game

“Oh Lord. No wonder they didn’t try to find me.”

“We’ll put everything right,” he said, quickly switching his thoughts to the date and time—which they knew from the newspaper articles they’d read.

They were so close. So close to finishing this. But as he started the process of taking them back to 1961, he could feel the weakness of Alice’s energy level.

Desperately, he expended his own life force to push them back to the date she’d been taken.

They had left on a crisp fall day. They materialized into late summer, with leafy trees and chirping birds. Alice looked around and shuddered.

He tried again to gauge her health. “Are you okay?”

“Yes. It looks so pretty in summer, but this was the worst day of my life.”

“We’ll change that. Hayward isn’t here now.”

“But he captured the old me, and we’re going to scare the shit out of her anyway.”

“I’m sorry.”

oOo

It all seemed so unreal, Alice thought as she fought not to be sick.

“Come on. Come on,” she heard Jonah mutter as they lurked in the shadows, waiting for the old Alice to come up the trail. He kept glancing at his watch, the seconds ticking by.

“Could it be the wrong time?” he finally asked.

“I don’t think so,” she answered, although now she wasn’t sure.

“Should we try again and pick another time in the afternoon?”

She dragged in a breath and let it out, before whispering what neither one of them wanted to hear. “No, I don’t think I could survive another time jump.”

“Christ.”

“We have to wait.”

She knew he wanted to do something. But all he could do was help her to sit down on the mossy ground and sling his arm around her, pulling her close.

Leaning her head on his shoulder, she closed her eyes and drifted in some region of reality that she couldn’t name. She loved this man, and this might be the last time they sat together.

“No,” he said aloud, and she knew he had picked up on her thoughts. Trying to simply enjoy this time with him, she reached for his hand and felt his fingers close around hers.

She wasn’t sure how long they sat there in the shade of the trees, but finally she felt him tense.

A sizzle of alarm shot through her, and her eyes blinked open. Despite knowing Hayward had been swept away by the rushing water, she couldn’t stop herself from expecting him here. But it wasn’t Hayward.

Here she is.

She saw a woman dressed in shorts and a tee shirt come up the trail. For a startled moment, she thought it wasn’t her. If you counted the time she’d been in captivity and then when she’d been living with Jonah, only a few months had passed since this moment. But she was astonished at how different she looked.

“Wimpy,” was the word she’d use—after all the physical training she’d been forced to endure. It wasn’t just that. She’d lived in Jonah’s decade for less than a month, but the new reality had definitely changed her. Plus, she’d kept up an exercise routine because she liked the way it made her feel.

Jonah got up, moving rapidly through the trees. He came up from behind Alice’s old self and grabbed her, clamping a hand over her mouth as he dragged her off the trail.

Although she struggled, she was no match for a Decorah Security agent.

Alice felt her stomach lurch as she watched Jonah carry the figure away, toward the thick grove of trees.

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