Page 73 of Borrowed Time

And while it felt as if my stomach had dropped somewhere to the region of my lace-up boots, Jeremiah didn’t even miss a beat.

“None of this is any concern of yours, Samuel,” he said calmly. “I’m just finishing up my business here and will be over to your house directly.”

“‘Business,’ huh?” Samuel returned, and then mounted the top step so he blocked the entrance to the staircase. A few snowflakes dusted the shoulders of his black coat, telling me that my instincts had been correct about the storm. “What kind of business would you have with the likes of them?”

Jeremiah only stared at his younger brother. I knew if I’d been on the receiving end of that baleful, black glare, I probably would have backed down.

Samuel, on the other hand, seemed utterly immune to theprimus’sglare, and only went on, “I thought you’d been acting sort of strange the past week, but I told myself maybe it was just because you didn’t like having these two snooping around. Kind of strange to see them here and you talking with them like they’re your best friends or something.”

As he was speaking, Seth shifted slightly. Not in a way that Samuel would probably have paid much attention to, considering how focused he was on his brother, but enough that I could tell exactly what he was doing.

He was making sure that if anything terrible happened, it would happen to him first.

A suspicion that seemed warranted, because right then, Samuel planted his hands on his hips, shoving his black frock coat aside and revealing the pistol he wore at his hip.

Was it the same gun he’d used to shoot my father?

“Samuel, go home,” Jeremiah said, and now there was a note of command in his voice I’d never heard before, one so compelling, I almost took a step forward even though those words hadn’t been directed at me.

Some kind of magic, I guessed, and I knew he must have been pushed to his limit to use that kind of enchantment on a member of his own family.

For just a moment, the other man wavered, his face almost blank. But then his jaw set, and he shook, reminding me of the family dog when she was upset about something.

“Nope,” Samuel said. “You’ve already caused enough trouble by not taking that Rowe bastard seriously and then dangling after the Prewitt woman. I’m not going to let her relatives come here and finish the job.”

And he pulled the gun out of its holster.

A blur as Seth stepped directly in front of me. His arms went around my waist, and his whisper came in my ear, urgent.

“Jump, Devynn — take us home!”

The last thing I heard before the world became a blur was the pistol going off.

19

UNEXPECTED CONSEQUENCES

Their feet touched solid ground.Seth let go of Devynn and reached around to feel his back, almost positive that Samuel’s bullet must have hit its target.

But his searching fingers found only dry wool, and there definitely wasn’t any pain, nothing to indicate he’d been shot.

“Are you all right?” he asked Devynn.

“I’m fine,” she said.

Her face was pale, but her voice sounded strong enough, so he knew she was telling the truth. He glanced away from her, and saw they stood in a place so familiar to him, he probably could have navigated it in his sleep.

Main Street, Jerome.

In fact, they had emerged right in front of McAllister Mercantile. The air touching his face was cool but not cold, and a brisk wind ruffled his hair.

What time of year was it? Definitely not summer, but….

He scanned the street around them, and something in his stomach tightened. Yes, the buildings were familiar, but now he noted that several of them had boarded-up windows, andalthough cars were parked on the street, the place didn’t seem nearly as bustling as he remembered.

Also, these cars were strange, their shapes far more curved than the boxy vehicles of his own time. And although the building in front of them was the same general store that had been a part of his life since the day he was born, the sign above the front door looked different, the font used to spell out the mercantile’s name not nearly as fancy as he remembered, but blocky and straightforward.

“When are we?” he asked, and Devynn shook her head, her expression now worried.

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