Deadly Designs (Design Series) (18 page)

"So would I." He waited a beat. "Any idea where we are?"

She groaned but staggered to her feet. "Not a clue." She brushed her pants off and straightened to look around her. "In theory, we should be closer to the house than last time."

"And we need to be because I won't be able to carry Tammy very far."

He shifted the load in his arms impatiently.

Determinedly, she spun around as if trying to orient herself. "Right then."

Eric watched the emotions flash across her face. Her face showed everything. She was so honest in her expression. There was no deceit. No subterfuge. You saw exactly what she was thinking. It also meant she couldn't lie to him.

A refreshing change. He didn't know many eligible women in his world and as a ranger, and worse, as the Councilman's son, he wasn't treated the same as the other guys. The women were more formal with him; more on the lookout for a long-term relationship instead of just a fun evening. In his world, he was considered a catch. He suspected Storey would laugh at that.

"Well," he prompted, hating to show he was tiring, but Tammy was a heavyweight. "I need to put Tammy down soon."

Storey spun around, a huge smile on her face. "I think I have it. Let's go." She took off ahead of him. He followed at a much slower pace. So much for believing he could do anything. The longer he carried Tammy, the more he realized he was going to need to bulk up his muscles if trips like this were to continue. As much as he hated the thought of not being invincible...

Then he saw it.

"Is that your house?" He looked around. "We came in from the other side." He brightened. "That's the path to the school where we first met, isn't it?"

"Yes, it is." She almost raced to the house, a lively bounce to her step.

"Storey, wait." He hated to blow her joy but someone needed to be the voice of reason here.

She spun around. "I'm sorry, what? I'm just so hoping this is it. That I'm home."

"I know that. But did you ever wonder if there might be another Storey in this house? In this dimension or this time?"

The smile fell off her face. Horror filled her gaze. "There couldn't be, could there?"

"I have no idea. It's just we're back at the same house, your house, supposedly in the time frame that you were living here back then...so where are you?"

She tilted her head back to stare up at the sky. "I'm getting a headache."

"And what's the chance the house is empty? Do we even know what day it is anymore? Are you in school today? Does your mother work? Did you consider any of that?"

"Of course, I didn't," she snapped. "I can't think straight anymore. But inside is a bed, my bed, where you can lay her down."

He considered that – for a heartbeat. "Right. Lead the way."

Again, she walked to the back kitchen door. He wondered why she never used the front door.

At the back, she found the kitchen door unlocked. "That's more like it."

"You aren't worried about intruders here?"

"No. Small town and all that." She pushed it open wide enough for him and Tammy to enter.

"Small town, two women who live a distance away from any neighbors?"

"Let's just say that up to now, it hasn't been much of an issue."

He nodded, but doubted it would stay that way after life returned to normal. She'd changed. Become more self-confident. More secure. But with the confidence came more awareness of all the things that could go wrong. A loss of innocence, in a way.

It was both good and bad, and it was a sign of maturity.

Inside the kitchen, he stopped and watched her assess her surroundings. Her gaze narrowed on the calendar on the wall. It said May, a relief. From where he stood he couldn't see the year. He could only hope they'd arrived on time. "Storey."

When she didn't respond, he repeated it, "Storey."

"What?" She spun around when he didn't answer right away.

"I need to put her down."

Her gaze widened. "Oh geez. I'm so sorry. Come on, let's go up."

By now he knew the way, but suspected she wanted to see what her room looked like this time. He didn't care. His muscles were screaming and fatigue had taken over. He needed rest, too. At this rate, Tammy would wake and they wouldn't be able to sleep themselves because they'd need to look after her. His back was killing him, but there was no way he'd let Storey know. He was a ranger. They had an image to uphold. So how come there'd been no mention of rescuing damsels and children in distress anywhere in their manual?

Oh wait, what manual?

Storey opened the door and stepped inside. And stopped.

He groaned silently. Now what?

***

"So?" Eric's stressed voice prodded her forward.

"It looks the same."
Thank God.
"I can't tell you how glad I am to see that."

"But?"

She turned back toward him, confused. "But what?"

"You haven't entered fully," he snapped. "If everything is all right, let me in."

Finally, the impatience, fatigue and frustration in his voice hit her. She stepped aside quickly. He had to be exhausted. "Sorry, I'm tired too."

"And that's going to have to be something we address immediately." At the bed he leaned over to lay Tammy down. Storey rushed over. "Hang on." She pulled the covers back. "Now, lay her down. Maybe we'll be lucky and she'll sleep long enough for us to rest as well."

"I doubt it, but I need to crash regardless. I think the time travel stuff finished my system." Straightening, his gaze fell to the open floor. "I'm going to lie on the floor with that blanket if you don't mind?" He pointed at the one half falling off the end of her bed. Storey snatched it up and held it out to him.

"I'm thinking to lie down beside Tammy, actually."

Eric didn't even look at where she pointed. He'd stretched out on the floor, pulling her blanket over him. "Go ahead. I won't sleep long. A couple of hours should recharge me."

"Good for you. I doubt that little bit will do me," she muttered. Storey locked her bedroom door, turned out the light and curled up behind Tammy. The rodent opened his eyes, glared at her, realized she wasn't moving and returned to his spot in the crook of Tammy's arms.

She was so tired. Yet the thought of another Storey walking in on them was enough to keep her mind buzzing. She needed rest. She needed solutions. She'd needed this to all go back to normal.

Somehow.

While her mind pondered and fussed, Eric slept deeply on the floor beside her. His snores wafted gently through the room, making her smile. Then she was jealous. He could rest so easily. As if there weren't a million problems pressing in on them. She desperately needed rest, too. And a shower and a change of clothes and…she fell asleep.

***

"Storey." Her shoulder was jostled. She frowned and tried to burrow deeper into her pillow.

The insistent voice wouldn't let up. "Storey, wake up."

She grumbled, "Too tired."

"I know you're tired, but there's a problem."

Storey's eyes slowly opened as that information filtered in. They were safe. They were home. So what was the big deal? Her mind flooded with memories. She sat up slowly, hating the screaming going on in her head, and felt tempted to ignore everything and go back to sleep. Her brain screamed for more sleep. "Eric? How long did we sleep?"

"I don't know. A couple of hours, maybe."

A dull daylight shone through the window. She stared out the window. The sky had turned black and clouds had gathered. "I think time travel must be harder on us than normal portal travel. I still feel like I have lead inside my bones." She yawned. "I just hope we're in the right time frame."

"Yes." His voice was grim. "But we have a bigger problem."

"What's the matter?" She studied his face.

"Tammy's missing."

She blinked. Once. Twice. Then panic hit. "Oh my God. Are you serious? I locked the door. I know I did."

"And she unlocked it."

Storey made it to her feet, swaying only slightly. She looked around and pointed out signs of Tammy's activities. A block of cheese sat on the desk, a large chunk ripped off, and an open package of pepperoni was almost gone. "She's found food at least."

Eric stared hungrily at the items. Storey rolled her eyes. "Grab it then. I'm going to go outside and see if she's there."

She stood up, searching for Tammy. "How long has she been gone?"

"I only woke up a few minutes ago. So I can't say."

"We have to find her," she said urgently. She stumbled to the door.

"I know." He said, explaining patiently. "That's why I came and woke you."

She checked her mother's bedroom. Empty. Downstairs, she checked out the various rooms and couldn't see any sign of Tammy. Out on the front deck, she searched the front of the house. Thankfully it appeared her parents hadn't returned. At least there were no vehicles at home.

At the outside chairs she found a stub of pepperoni. "At least we know she came this way."

Eric walked up behind her. "Great. So where'd she go from here?"

"I wish I knew how long she'd been gone. That would give me an idea of how far she could have traveled." Storey glanced out into the dark cloudy skies and ran her fingers through her hair. "I feel like I haven't slept in days."

"We haven't really. Portal travel, stress and even panic as we run for our lives, none of that is exactly easy on us, you know."

"I hear you." And she really didn't want to hear the details right now. Hadn't he mentioned brain damage in an earlier conversation? Nasty. She so didn't want to go there right now. She turned back to the real issue. "I really wish Tammy hadn't gone missing. I so don't need this."

"Actually…I'm not sure she has." He placed his hands on her shoulders and turned her gently. "Is that her? It looks almost like she's swinging on something like a suspended tire?"

Sure enough Tammy sat facing the other way on an old tire swing at the back of the neighbor's property. "Well thank heavens for that. One thing solved. Let's bring her back."

She started walking forward, Eric at her side, a chunk of cheese in one of his hands and a stick of pepperoni in the other. "You really love protein, don't you?"

"Protein?" He looked at the food in his hands.

"Meat. You could have grabbed an apple you know. Round out your food choices a little."

He grinned taking a big bite of cheese. "I'm good."

Males. She called out, "Tammy?"

Tammy spun around, saw them and a big grin lit her face. She opened her mouth and for the first time, a normal, or almost normal sounding voice came out. "Toey."

Storey grinned. "Almost. It's Storey with an Ssss sound."

Tammy tried again, her round face wrinkling with concentration. "Storrey."

"Close enough." Storey held out her hand. "Come on kiddo, back to the house."

Tammy hopped off, whistled sharply – at least her lips pursed the right motion, but it sounded more like air rushed out instead. But didn't the dratted rodent come running. He looked livelier too. He was dragging his leash behind. Tammy bent and grabbed the leash in one hand and her pet in the other.

The rest had done them all good. Storey had to admit she'd prefer to rest here for a day or two. Just sleep, shower, eat and repeat.

"I'm going to turn on the computer and check the dates."

"Will that tell you for sure?"

She frowned. "I can check the news and see what's happening. Computers are very exact nowadays."

"Hmmm."

"What are you thinking?" she asked curiously.

He glanced her and then away quickly. "I'm wondering about going back into time before the Louers crossed to their new dimension and make sure she's there for that crossing."

Storey's steps slowed as she considered the idea. "What would happen if we did something like that? Would we be messing with their future?"

"With Tammy's future maybe, in that she wouldn't remember any of this as it wouldn't have happened yet – in theory at least. If we returned in time to a point before Skorky ran away…and somehow stopped her from leaving the group…then she wouldn't have been there for you to find when you did."

"And I would have woken up still with my stylus and backpack and made a quick exit home. None of these last days would have happened." Her voice rose in excitement.

"In theory."

"And…would we remember it all? Or would we just not have those memories because we wouldn't have had these days?"

Eric shook his head. "I have no idea."

"It's a scary thought. It might be the best way to deal with Tammy's situation but is that the way to deal with anything else?"

"I don't think we can use it for much else though, at least not without messing with a lot of stuff."

It was her turn to say "Hmmm, I suppose." But her mind wouldn't let go of the concept. If it would return her world to normal that would be huge. But how could she do that without messing up the Louers' dimension?

Back at the house, Storey took everyone back to her room and turned on her laptop. It sat under a pile of clothes. She'd forgotten about it in their last few crazy trips. Once up, with Eric and Tammy crowding around, both of them eating apples this time, Storey checked the date. May 17th. Close enough. Checking out the news, as far as she could see, they were back where they belonged.

"Thank heavens for that," she murmured, relief slipping off her shoulders.

He wrapped one arm around her shoulder and squeezed. She smiled. Behind her, a telephone rang. She turned, a frown forming. Should she answer it or not?

"Aren't you going to answer it?" He dropped his arm and took a step back.

"It won't be for me. I have a cell phone."

But her feet walked in that direction. Slowly, she picked it up. "Hello."

"Storey? Where the hell have you been?"

Storey didn't recognize the irate voice. "Who is this?"

"Your father, of course. Who do you think?" Sarcasm dripped through the phone line. "Where have you been?"

"Um, doing homework?" she wrinkled her face at Eric, whispering the identity of the caller. He frowned at her.

She shrugged and spoke into the phone. "When are you coming home?"