Read Online Timestorm by Julie Cross - Free Book Online Page B

continues to be unproductive.” He shut the door halfway, leaving me in the dark. “Get some sleep. You’ll feel better tomorrow.”
    And because Thomas told me to, I pushed my worries aside for now and fell right to sleep.
    *   *   *
    “Huh,” I said. “Are you sure this is the same Thomas that I knew?”
    “Yes,” Blake said firmly. “And Grayson didn’t only stay in the past because of his partner. He also began to disagree with Thomas and Dr. Ludwig.”
    “Sorry about the girl’s setting you up like that. Totally sucks,” I said to try and make the air in the small space slightly more comfortable for him.
    “Yeah, totally,” Holly chimed in. She lifted her feet onto the long desk and leaned back in her chair. “I’ve been there, too. One time I was at this party and this guy I didn’t even know hit on me at the bar and then when I asked him to dance, he was really into it. Turns out he was just another agent trying to get information out of me about my best friend—”
    “Wait,” Blake interrupted looking confused. “What—?”
    “He’s dead,” she said, jumping back in. “Not the guy at the bar. My best friend. And the guy I danced with … apparently he’s hung out with various versions of me and doesn’t feel like it’s important to give me any details about those encounters.”
    I stayed leaning against the wall, staring at Holly while attempting to look like I wasn’t completely in love with her. “That’s a great story, Hol, but—”
    “So this guy was a time traveler?” Blake asked. “Who did he work for? Tempest?”
    “Supposedly Tempest,” Holly said. “Good guys, bad guys, I’m not sure and it really doesn’t matter. Just another asshole trying to hook up with me for a mission.”
    “ He was trying to hook up with you ?” I rolled my eyes and let out an angry breath. “If I remember right, you were the one that asked to come home with me. And I said no!”
    Blake’s eyes bounced nervously between the two of us. “Um, okay, I’m lost.”
    Holly dropped her feet to the floor with a loud thud and leaned forward in her chair, angling it away from me and facing Blake. “Let’s try this a different way. Let’s say another time traveler, one you don’t know very well, maybe not at all, seems to know a hell of a lot about you. And then you find out he or she has been jumping into the past and hanging out with you or doing God knows what with you. Then he or she erases everything and won’t tell you a fucking thing about what happened, would that piss you off?”
    “You know what, Agent Flynn ?” I snapped. “I never took you as the passive-aggressive type.”
    She spun her chair around to face me. “Oh, I think I’m being very direct.”
    Panic crept up inside me, mixing with anger. Why couldn’t she see that I was trying to make things better for her? “What? Am I supposed to relay every single second to you? Seriously? I already told you everything days ago, or don’t you remember?”
    She stood up and walked closer to me, arms folded across her chest. “I’ve been thinking about that a lot lately and too many things don’t add up. If you only knew me through Adam, why did seeing me with Brian at the bookstore piss you off so much? Don’t deny it either, I could tell you were furious. And why did you almost kiss me during that fifty-thousand-dollar dance?”
    I held my breath, feeling my heart thud too loud. I swallowed back the words I wanted to say and kept my mouth shut. She was too perceptive to miss the waver that would inevitably be present in my voice.
    “You were about to kiss me, I know you were. It was like you forgot that you weren’t with a version of me who wouldn’t think that was weird. Like another version of me would expect to be kissed by you.”
    My eyes were locked on hers, nowhere to run. All I could do was say, “Just let it go, Hol, please. It doesn’t matter.”
    With that lame reply, I turned around and left the room.