Page 60 of Destiny Reclaimed
He knit his brows and kept his gaze on her. Hearing the vile man’s name roll off her tongue had him wanting to know more, especially since she claimed Arthur was a time traveler, too. Good Lord, what was he thinking? Why was he starting to buy into this story? This was stupid. He needed her out of his house.
Jack gestured toward the door. “You need to leave.”
Gabriela lifted her tiny body from the chair. Yeah, right, like she could be a soldier with that petite frame.
“I’ll leave if that’s what you want, but let me just ask you a couple of questions first.”
If that meant she’d leave soon without issue he’d agree. He nodded.
Her gaze landed on the left side of his face. “How did you get that scar on your earlobe?”
Instinctively, he reached up and touched it. How had she even noticed the faint scar? “Fishing accident, I guess. I don’t really remember. My father told me that when I was young, he and I were on the shore fishing with one of his buddies, and when the guy cast the hook it caught me in the ear. Nearly ripped the lobe off.”
“Are you sure?”
Recalling the vision he’d had minutes earlier about him crashing a war plane into bloody water sent a small amount of doubt to coil in his stomach.
Her gaze lifted to meet his, then drifted up. “And the scar above your eye, the one that extends upward toward your temple. How did you get that?” she asked with an arched brow.
Jack pressed his fingertips to the jagged scar. “I wiped out on my bicycle when I was ten or so.”
She pursed her lips. “Are you sure?”
Thinking back to a few minutes earlier, he remembered the vision he’d had about flying an evacuation chopper in Vietnam and getting shot through his helmet causing the scrape to his head. He lowered his hand to inspect the thick, ragged scar at the fatty part of the V between his thumb and forefinger.
“Is that from your bike accident, too?”
Her tone let him know she didn’t buy the story, planting a larger seed of doubt to sprout in his mind. “Y-yes.”
“Right. One more question, and I’ll be on my way. The bullet scar on your shoulder, where did that come from?”
The blow of that question nearly knocked him off his feet. That scar was concealed. How could she possibly know about it? She had mentioned it took a while for her to track him down. Maybe in her search, she’d found someone in town who knew of this injury. Yeah, that was it...unless the third vision he’d had moments earlier was true?
Reservation had him drumming for an explanation other than the possibility she told the truth abouttime travel.
“I can see you still don’t believe me. I’ll give you a couple of days to think about this, but I’ll be back.”
She spun and took two steps toward the door before she paused and glanced over her shoulder. “One more thing. That woman you’re so in love with, the one married to your cousin—she’s actually your wife. And the boy...he’s yours as well. Arthur stole them when he stole your family’s history. That connection you feel for them is real.”
Jack would be lying if he said her words didn’t send a thrill of excitement to whip through him at the thought of Gwennie being his, but how was that possible.
“No. It can’t be.” There was no use in holding hope on this, he wasn’t that lucky of a guy.
Gabriela shrugged. “Well, suit yourself. Just stand by and let him go on beating her.”
Those words sliced through his heart like a knife. He stared after the woman as she stepped through the doorway. Guilt squeezed his chest.
“Wait!” he called after her and lunged for the door.
From halfway down the staircase, the lady glanced over her shoulder at him. “Are you ready to fight for what’s rightfully yours and do right by the American people?”
He knew in his heart she spoke the truth. He didn’t understand how all this could have happened or what exactly the fierce woman meant regarding the American people, but deep down heknewGwennie was his soulmate and Blake was his son, and along with that came something that contributed to the greater good.
“Yes, but I don’t know where to start...what to do.”
“Me neither...well, I do have an idea, but...” She paused and shook her head. “We’ll figure it out. No matter the cost. It’s the right thing to do,” she added gravely.
No matter the cost.What did she mean by that?
