CHAPTER 5
Lara's heart slammed in her chest as she crouched behind the thick table with Kelsey Trent. Charlie had taken a few wild shots as he'd entered the kitchen, probably to keep her from shooting him. A bullet whizzed over her head and thudded into the wall behind her. Kelsey screamed.
Lara's chest constricted, making it hard to breathe. The thought of sticking her head out was terrifying. But she had to see to take aim. She struggled to remember all the instructions that had been drummed into her head at the academy. Dammit. She'd thought the simulations were scary, but they were child's play compared to the real thing.
The shots stopped.
Now or never, Lara leaned to the side of the table and aimed her pistol. Time suddenly slowed to a crawl. A cold sweat chilled her skin while her ears filled with a buzzing noise. All she could feel was her right index finger crooked against the trigger, ready to kill.
God, no. Forced to kill someone. She'd known in theory that this could happen, but she'd foolishly believed that somehow, if she was careful enough, it never would.
Charlie spotted her and aimed his gun.
This was it.
The air wavered in front of Lara.
"What the hell?" Charlie stumbled backward.
He saw it, too? Lara's knees shook in her semi-crouched position. The multicolored pocket of air took shape. Human shape. Jack. She gasped.
"Oh my God!" Charlie pointed his gun.
With a blur of super speed, Jack knocked the gun from Charlie's hand and slammed him down onto the tile floor.
Lara blinked, stunned by Jack's speed. In the millisecond it took to reopen her eyes, Jack had Charlie pinned down and his hands pulled behind his back. Jack be nimble, Jack be quick.
"Get off me!" Charlie squirmed, but couldn't budge his captor.
A wave of cold air swirled around the room.
Jack's eyes narrowed, gleaming with a golden intensity. "Be still. Be quiet."
Charlie went limp. Kelsey slumped against the table with a blank expression. Lara shivered. Jack. He was doing his mind tricks again.
"Lara, pass me your handcuffs," Jack demanded.
Icy cold vapor crept along her skin. Oh God, it had been cold in the hotel room, too. Was Jack doing that? And how had he magically appeared out of thin air?
He glanced at her. "Are you all right?"
"I-" She stumbled, and her pistol knocked against a table leg. She glanced at it, confused and disoriented by a reality that had suddenly zoomed forward at warp speed.
"Put the gun away, Lara," Jack spoke softly. "And give me your handcuffs."
She holstered her sidearm, then walked stiffly over to Jack and handed him the cuffs. "Thank God you came." She hadn't had to shoot. Jack had saved her from killing. Jack may have saved her life. And the lives of everyone else in the house. Including her partner...
"Harvey!" She ran from the kitchen and located him on the floor in the living room. He was barely conscious, his hand pressed against his blood-soaked shirt.
She spotted a laundry basket full of folded clothes on the coffee table and grabbed whatever was on top. A bath towel, good. She knelt beside her partner and pressed the towel against the bullet wound in his side.
"Butch," Harvey gasped. "Thank God. I heard gunshots. I was afraid you were-"
"I'm fine. Everything's under control. You just hang in there, okay? The bus is on its way."
Harvey grimaced. "I was stupid. I saw his gun, but I hesitated. I-I've never had to shoot anyone before."
"I know." Lara's vision blurred with tears. "I didn't want to shoot, either." What a relief Jack had arrived when he did. But now that she was away from him, she could feel the cold fog clearing from her mind. She realized Kelsey and her crazy husband were staying perfectly still and quiet because Jack had ordered them to be that way. He'd taken complete control of the situation without even wrinkling his expensive suit.
She shuddered. What sort of man could magically appear? Or move as fast as lightning? Or control people's minds? At least he was on her side. Otherwise, he could be a really dangerous man.
Lara's attention snapped back to Harvey when his eyes flickered shut. "Harvey? Harvey, hang in there."
"He's unconscious." Jack strode into the room. "He'll need a transfusion right away." He closed his eyes briefly and drew in a deep breath. "He's Type O positive."
"How can you tell?" Lara kept the towel pressed against Harvey's wound as she looked Jack over. He looked so normal, if you could count extreme good looks as normal.
He knelt beside her. "I assume you called for backup and an ambulance?" When she nodded, he continued, "The man and woman won't remember me. I've altered their memories-"
"How? How do you do it?"
"It's hard to explain." He raised a hand when she started to object. "Not now, Lara. We're short on time, and we need to make sure your story matches up."
"You expect me to lie?"
"This is the truth for the couple in the kitchen. After the man shot your partner, he came after you. You hid his wife behind the table while you waited just inside the door. He barged inside, shooting wildly, and you knocked him on the back of the head with your baton."
"That's the way they remember it?"
"Yes. The guy fell unconscious on the floor. You cuffed him, then ran in here to help your partner."
"I don't think the guy was ever unconscious."
"He will be soon." Jack removed a white handkerchief from an inner coat pocket. "Give me your baton."
"He's already restrained. You're going to hit him?"
"Lara, the story has to make sense. It'll be more believable that you subdued an armed man who's bigger than you if you first rendered him unconscious."
He was right, though Lara didn't like to admit it. Sirens wailed outside. Backup was arriving, and hopefully, an ambulance for Harvey. "Here." She handed Jack the baton. "But don't hit him too hard."
Jack's mouth curled up. "You're too sweet for this line of work, bellissima." His smile faded. "That man tried to kill you. He deserves more than a knot on his head."
Jack left the room, holding the baton with the handkerchief. Lara wondered if he was right, and she cared too much. But if she didn't care, how could she be a good cop? She tensed, waiting for a sound.
Clonk. She winced. Harvey hadn't yelped or even moaned. He had obeyed Jack's order to remain quiet. In a few seconds, Jack was back and handing her the baton.
She wedged it under her belt. "How do you move so fast?"
He dragged a hand through his thick black hair. "There's no time to explain now."
But she wanted answers now, dammit. She knew the rest of tonight would be taken up with paperwork and hospital visits to check on Harvey. "Okay. Tomorrow."
She turned her head as footsteps pounded down the hallway outside. It sounded like a herd of elephants charging to the rescue. She could almost picture Tarzan riding on one of their backs. No, wait. The wildly handsome hero was already in the room.
"You'd better tell me everything tomorrow." She turned back to Jack.
He was gone.
"Oh, that smells good!" LaToya Lafayette dropped her handbag and keys on the console by the door. "What's cooking, girl?"
"Blackened redfish." Lara carefully turned the fish filets in the skillet.
"Great!" LaToya removed her purple LSU Tiger hoodie and fluffed up her glossy black corkscrew curls.
"It's been raining all damned day." She draped the damp sweatshirt over the back of a chair in their tiny living room. "So how come you're cooking? Not that I'm complaining. I love your cooking. But I was planning to take you out to celebrate."
"I don't want to make a big deal out of it."
"But it is a big deal." LaToya strode into the kitchen. "You saved that woman's life. Her children, too. And Harvey."
"I didn't save Harvey. The doctors did that."
"You're too modest, girl." LaToya washed her hands in the kitchen sink. "Everyone was talking about you at my precinct. I heard they're going to do a press conference with the chief of police giving you a commendation."
"Oh God, I hope not." Lara added chopped parsley and chives to the bowl of mashed potatoes.
"You know they'll milk this for all it's worth. Three months out of the academy and you're saving the day. You're like the poster child for how successful their training program is."
"But I didn't do anything!" Lara smashed a clove of garlic with the flat edge of a knife. "Jack did it."
"You know that. I know that. But nobody else does." LaToya leaned a hip against the counter. "Now don't look at me that way, holding a knife, girl."
Lara snorted as she scraped the smashed garlic into the potatoes. After a few hours of filling out forms and being interviewed by the detectives that had taken over the case, then another two hours spent at the hospital to check on Harvey, Lara had finally dragged home to her Brooklyn apartment about eight-thirty in the morning.
She'd recounted the story to LaToya before her friend had left for her job in the twenty-sixth precinct. Then,
Lara had showered and climbed into bed. But even in her state of exhaustion, she'd had trouble sleeping. Gunshots and screams bounced around in her head along with visions of Harvey, bleeding on the floor.
And she'd kept wondering about Jack. She'd decided the best way to thank him for charging to the rescue was a home-cooked meal, Louisiana style. She'd called his number, but he hadn't answered the phone. She left a message inviting him to dinner, then headed to the grocery store. She tried calling again about five p.m.
He never called back.
"What's in this salad?" LaToya studied the wooden bowl as she carried it to the table.
"Spinach, fire-roasted tomatoes, and pine nuts."
"Ooh, fancy." LaToya's gaze wandered over their best china, cloth napkins, and candlesticks. "You went to a lot of trouble here."
"I was bored." Lara loaded up two plates with fish and potatoes. "The captain ordered me to take some time off."
"With pay? You lucky dog." LaToya struck a match and lit the candles. "Even so, this seems awfully... romantic."
"Let's eat." Lara set the plates on the table.
LaToya's brown eyes narrowed as she blew out the match. "You did this for Jack, didn't you?"
Lara heaved a sigh as she sat at the table. There was no point in denying it. "All-right. I invited him to dinner, but he never returned my call. That doesn't mean I wasn't planning to eat with you."
Latoya sat across from her. "Girl, I know when three's a crowd. I would have left you alone with the mystery man. But you say he never called back?"
"Nope." Lara heaped some salad into their salad bowls. "And I left two messages on his voice mail."
"Maybe he didn't get them."
"I'm not calling him again. That would sound desperate. And I'm not desperate. At all." Liar. She had really wanted to see him again.
LaToya drizzled balsamic vinaigrette over her salad. "That jerk. I'm tempted to call him myself and give him a piece of my mind."
"No!"
LaToya smirked, then strode toward the refrigerator. "I have the perfect solution for this. Wine. It's multi-purposed. We can toast your heroic feats and drown our sorrows over disappointing men all at the same time."
"I'll drink to that." Lara stabbed at her salad. The food looked and smelled great, but her appetite was lacking. Damn that Jack. He didn't make any sense. He'd risked his life to help her, and now, he couldn't even return her call?
LaToya brought two glasses filled with white wine to the table. She sat and raised her glass. "A toast. To my best friend, a real hero."
"I'm not a hero. It's bad enough to hear it at work, but I don't want to hear from you, when you know the truth."
LaToya scowled at her. "Yeah, girl, I know the truth. If it wasn't for you, I'd still be a clerk in a convenience store in some town no one's ever heard of. You kept me going when I didn't think I could. You are my hero."
Lara's eyes misted with tears. She'd first met LaToya when they'd shared a hospital room together after her car accident. LaToya had been shot during a robbery at the convenience store where she worked. Whereas Lara had lived a pampered life before the accident, LaToya had struggled to survive years of abuse. "You hated me at first."
LaToya smiled. "I thought you were a spoiled little white girl. Miss Teen Louisiana."
Lara winced. "And I'm sure it didn't help matters when my mom came to visit wearing a tiara and sash."
LaToya laughed. "Your mom is wack, girl."
"That's for sure." Lara's mom was still entering beauty pageants at the age of fifty-two. "You helped me, too, you know. It would have been so much harder to rebel against my family and follow my dreams if I'd been all alone. I don't know what I would have done without you."
"To us." LaToya tapped Lara's glass with her own. "The two most bad-ass rookie cops in the big city."
"To us. Live long and prosper." Lara recited their favorite toast, borrowed from the Vulcans on Star Trek.
They ate in silence for a while, and Lara's thoughts drifted back to Jack. The rascal had altered Mr. and Mrs. Trent's memories so that their statements made her sound like a hero. And she had to make sure her story matched theirs. "I have to go see the department shrink."
"That's probably routine procedure." LaToya scooped some potatoes into her mouth.
"I suppose." Lara pushed her fish around the plate. "I'm kinda worried about it. I mean, what if I tell the doctor my story, and he realizes I'm lying?"
"He won't question it. Not when it confirms everything the Trents said."
Lara sighed. "I'm not at all comfortable with everyone thinking I'm a hero."
"Get over it already. That's why we wanted to be cops, remember? We wanted to catch the bad guys and make a difference. Besides, no one's going to believe that some strange guy magically appeared to save the day."
Lara set down her fork. "You believe me, don't you?"
LaToya's brown eyes softened, and she reached forward to touch Lara's hand. "I do. I watched you in the hospital when you struggled to learn how to read and write again. I was with you when we both struggled through classes at LSU. And I survived the academy with you. I know you're not going to lie to me, no matter how strange it sounds."
"Thank you." Lara squeezed her friend's hand, then picked up her fork. "I have to be very careful talking to the shrink. I don't want him thinking that I'm still suffering from my brain injury."
"You're not. That was six years ago. You're over it."
"How can you be so sure? No one remembers seeing Jack but me. What if he's a figment of my imagination?"
"Then who knocked down Mr. Trent? And what about that business card he gave you? His phone number worked."
"That's true." She hadn't imagined the business card.
"You saw him at Ian MacPhie's wedding," LaToya continued. "And I know Ian MacPhie is real. I called him when he was on that dating website."
"You didn't."
"I sure did." LaToya took her plate into the kitchen. "Some lady took my message, then Ian called back really late, about midnight. I was kinda pissed, especially when he said he was already taken, but his accent was really cute."
Lara shook her head. "I can't believe you called him."
"I can't believe you didn't take me to his wedding." LaToya planted her fists on her hips. "I would have loved to see him. Is he as good-looking as his photo?"
"I didn't actually see him."
"Are you crazy? The guy is hot!"
"And taken, remember?"
LaToya sighed. "Yeah, I know. So how does this Jack look? Is he anywhere as cute as Ian?"
Lara couldn't quite recall how Ian had looked. It didn't matter. There was no way he could look better than Jack. She brought her dishes into the kitchen. "Jack is the most gorgeous man I have ever set eyes on."
"Really?"
"Which probably means that I am imagining him." Lara wrenched open the refrigerator door. "How about dessert? I made a Mississippi mud pie."
"Damn, girl, you went all out."
Lara set the pie on the counter. "I wanted him to answer my questions."
"Fine food, candlelight-sounds to me like you wanted to do more than just talk."
Lara shot her friend an annoyed look, then sliced two pieces of pie. "I was merely trying to set the mood so he'd be comfortable enough to spill all his secrets."
"Right." LaToya grabbed a fork and a saucer of pie, then headed back to the table. "Where I come from, Mississippi mud pie means let's get down and dirty, honey."
With a snort, Lara set her plate of pie on the table. She went back to the kitchen for a glass of water. "I'm afraid he's avoiding me 'cause he doesn't want to divulge his secrets."
"Hmmm." LaToya considered with a mouth full of pie. "We want to be detectives, right? We'll just figure out his deep dark secrets on our own."
"I've been trying to do that for a week." Lara sipped water on her way back to the table. "All I can figure out for certain is that he's psychic."
" 'Cause he messes with people's minds?"
"Yep." Lara sat. "But he's got other powers, too, that I can't explain. Like super speed."
"Then he's a superhero. You know, faster than a speeding bullet." LaToya shoved some pie in her mouth.
"This is the real world, not a comic book. How could a normal guy suddenly become a superhero?"
LaToya's eyes twinkled with humor. "Maybe he got zapped by lightning or fell into a vat of acid." _
Lara laughed. "He might look delicious, but he doesn't look deep-fat fried."
"Then he's got to be an alien. That's how Superman got his powers."
Lara ate some pie while she mentally pictured Jack in a latex costume with a cape fluttering in the wind. Damn, he looked good. "I wouldn't be entirely opposed to a superhero if he looks like Jack. But it doesn't explain how he can appear and disappear at will."
"That's a tough one." LaToya stuffed more pie in her mouth, then her eyes lit up. "I got it! Astral projection."
"What?"
"It means he stayed in one spot while his spirit-"
"I know what it means, but Jack wasn't a spirit. He slammed Charlie Trent onto the floor and cuffed him."
"Okay." LaToya frowned. "Then he can't be a ghost."
"No." Lara recalled the way she'd rubbed against him in the church closet. "He is totally solid."
"You've touched him?"
Lara shrugged. "In the process of interrogating him."
LaToya snorted. "I bet. So the only explanation for the disappearing act is the guy knows how to teleport. Like on Star Trek."
"It would appear so, but teleportation hasn't been invented yet."
LaToya pointed her fork at Lara and gave her a knowing look. "That's what they want us to believe."
Lara grinned. "You think NASA or some secret branch of the government has discovered how to teleport?"
"Yeah. And this Jack is one of their secret agents."
"Hard to believe," Lara mumbled with her mouth full.
"I've got it!" LaToya's face beamed with excitement. "He's a secret agent from the future."
"Right. Teleportation and time travel together. That makes it much more believable."
LaToya glared at her. "Hey, it makes sense. People don't know how to teleport now, but they will in the future. Ipso facto, he's from the future."
"And he traveled back in time to throw a bachelor party at the Plaza hotel."
"All right, mock me all you like." LaToya took her empty plate to the kitchen. "But you won't like the alternative. Since humans don't know how to teleport, then your Jack has to be an alien."
"You can't be serious."
LaToya pointed a finger at Lara. "This is the second train of thought that's ended up with him being an alien. A coincidence?" She wagged her finger and her head. "I don't think so. Does he spell his name with an apostrophe? Like J'Ack instead of... Jack?"
"Why would he do that? It sounds exactly the same."
"All the aliens do it. It's part of their code."
Lara snorted. "He seemed awfully human to me."
"He wants you to think he's human, but it's all a fa?ade. He's playing with your mind, making you see him as a human, when he's really a slimy creature with tentacles. And then, he'll impregnate you with his alien baby, and it'll rip right through your stomach-"
"Enough!" Lara took the rest of her pie to the kitchen and dumped it in the trash. "I just lost my appetite."
"Has he made a move on you? Has he tried to kiss you?"
"Not really. Well, sorta. But I asked him to." Lara chafed under the look of horror LaToya was giving her. "I didn't mean it. It was an interrogation technique."
LaToya scoffed. "I must have missed that lesson at the academy. But now that I think about it, you do need to make a move on him. Get him to take his clothes off."
"Why would I do that?" Although the prospect did sound rather appealing. "I have no interest in him that way."
LaToya gave her a skeptical look. "Are you going to tell me you never thought about jumping his bones?"
Lara's face grew hot. "Fine. But if he's really an alien, then we're probably not biologically compatible."
"Oh good Lord, you're right. He might not even be a mammal. He could be a reptile and have two... hearts."
Lara grimaced. "You've been watching too much science fiction. Just because Jack can teleport, that doesn't make him some kind of lizard."
The phone rang.
Lara jumped. Was Jack finally returning her call?
"It's the lizard," LaToya whispered.
"Don't be silly. He's as human as you and me." Lara hurried to the phone, then hesitated. "No, you answer it."
LaToya lifted both hands in the air. "I ain't talking to no alien."
"He's not an alien." The phone rang again. "I need someone else to hear him, so I'll know I'm not crazy."
LaToya heaved a sigh. "Okay. I'll do it for you." The phone rang again, and she grabbed the receiver. "Hello? You have reached the Boucher and Lafayette terrestrial home."
Lara groaned.
"You want to talk to Lara?" LaToya spoke with a high-pitched sweet voice. "May I ask who's calling? Why yes, Jack, I'll fetch her right away. Just a moment, please." She covered the receiver with her hand. "It's the talking lizard. And honey, he ain't selling insurance."