Momentum (23 page)

“We have to go back and help them.” I sobbed into his shirt. People stared at me, and no wonder, I must have looked a mess. They probably thought I had lost my life savings or something. It was much worse.

I buried my face into David’s chest, feeling his hands slide up my back, rubbing it with gentle circular motions.

“Let’s walk to a less crowded place,” he whispered. He led me, still attached to him, and I followed, not having any idea where we were going. “Here, sit down.” David guided me into a padded seat. It was still busy around us, but he’d found a place where we could at least catch our breath for a moment and think. We sat next to each other, in silence.

I looked up at David. He wore a blank expression. “What are you thinking?”

His lips twitched. “You used to always ask me that when we were in elementary school, remember?”

I nodded.

His eyes turned very soft, and he lowered his head to brush his lips against my forehead. I turned my face upward and brushed my nose against his neck, breathing him in.

His muscles tightened, and he brought his hand up behind my neck, gently guiding my head down onto his chest. I lay against it listening to his racing heartbeats.

“Mm, Poppet,” he moaned. “We can’t do this.”

“No?”

“No. You need to regain your memory. A lot of things have happened in the past year….”

“Things that make us impossible?”

He didn’t say anything, but I could feel his chin nodding against my head. I felt hollow.
We
felt so right. How could it not be the natural thing to happen? We were meant to be together, weren’t we? I looked around. The middle of a busy casino was probably not the right place to try and figure out our feelings. David was probably just tired. I decided to put it out of my mind for now. I was with him; that was really all that mattered. We were together, but we couldn’t sit here forever. We needed to find Harry and Kellan.

I lifted my head and looked into his eyes. They looked slightly sad. I smiled and pinched the corner of his lips up into a smile until he laughed. “Come on, David. Let’s get out of here.” I had so many questions buzzing around in my head, and I was sick with worry for Harry and Kellan, but decided to wait with more questions until we were on the plane. We needed to get back home as quickly as possible to be able to help them. David seemed agitated as we left the Cosmopolitan. I’d have to make sure not to push him too much; he was only trying to help.

We walked through the main entrance and hailed a cab. We rode straight to McCarran Airport.

“Do you think any other airport in the world has slot machines in the terminal?” I asked, trying to lighten the mood as we walked to our gate. I had to get him to ease up a bit before we got on the plane so I could get some answers from him. He seemed so morose at the moment.

“Good question. I have no idea. Here’s our gate. Looks like they’re boarding. Ready?”

David had splurged on first class tickets. I sat down beside him and was handed a drink right away. I gulped it down, my stomach growling like a sleepy lion just waking up and realizing it hadn’t been fed in ages. I needed food. That wasn’t likely to arrive for a while, I guessed.

“Here, have some peanuts.” David pulled a pack from his pocket.

“Thanks! Doing the mind-reading thing again?” I moved slightly away from him.

He just smiled.

I wasn’t able to hold back any longer. “How are we going to help Harry and Kellan? How are we going to find them again?” I was frantic with worry. “And what was Justin doing at the casino?”

“I wish I knew. I’ve been racking my brain trying to come up with something. Much as I hate thinking it, it’s most likely that Harry and Kellan got taken. There were quite a few of Potomal’s group there. And whatever Potomal wants, Harry would be just as effective for leverage as you. Soon as we get back, we’ll contact Mom and let her deal with it. My job is to keep
you
safe.”

“That seems to be everyone’s
job
.” I was irritated that I had been reduced to being a chore. “Why?”

“Uh?”

“Kellan said the same thing, that it was his job to keep me safe.”

“He doesn’t mean it in the same way I do.” David ran his fingers through his hair. “I’m assigned to you, like I explained before. It really is my job.”

“Is that the only reason you’re here? Because you’ve been told to protect me?” I felt stabs of disappointment sear through me.

He curled his fingers through mine, squeezing them gently. “Of course not. I’d be here regardless. You mean a lot to me.”

I nodded; deep down, I knew that. No point acting like a drama queen. “David, what was Justin doing at the casino? How did he even get there?”

“Justin’s dad is a Wanderer.”

“Wow, really?” I was stunned. It seemed everyone around me was a Wanderer.

“Yeah, but as far as I know, Justin can’t wander. Potomal tried to recruit him, along with Simla, but again, as far as I know, that didn’t work out. You and Kellan rescued both of them from Potomal. I guess you don’t remember any of that?”

I shook my head.

“Well, you did, and at the time it seemed fairly clear that Potomal had decided to dump them. Now, I’m not so sure.”

“David, I’m not following.”

He raked his blond strands back with his hand. His sparkling blue eyes seemed lost in thought as they gazed into mine. Then he abruptly threw his head back, turned, and sat back in his seat.

“What?”

“It had to be a ploy, to catch us off guard.”

“Take who off guard for what?”

“That’s what I can’t figure out. I mean, it’s clear that Potomal’s plan is to gain control of the Sigma-W. Or we assumed that was the case. Maybe he has bigger plans. Whatever they are, the first step seems to be to get rid of Spencer, your Granddad. So he kidnapped you to blackmail Spencer into handing over power.”

“He kidnapped me? When?” How could I not remember something like that? Was it so traumatic that I had buried the memory somehow?

“Yes, last week.”

I shook my head. This was unbelievable. “Were you with me? Can you tell me what happened?”

“I wasn’t, though I did help rescue you. I’m your knight in shining armor.” His eyes twinkled.

I liked the sound of that.

“You were kidnapped, along with Simla and Justin.”

“Really? Why them? It sort of makes sense that he took me, since I’m the granddaughter, but why Simla and Justin?”

“Potomal needed to strengthen his group; he needed more recruits. I guess he felt that Simla and Justin were suitable in some way. They both have Wanderer parents, both are
defiant,
and therefore probably up for joining his group.”

I rolled my eyes. I found it hard to believe, but then I wasn’t aware of all that had gone on in the past year.

He continued, not noticing my doubt. “I don’t know what happened at Potomal’s, obviously, but Simla and Justin wanted to come home, so you and Kellan, along with a Sigma-W team, rescued them.”

“And now they seem to be working with Potomal, after all,” I added.

“Yeah. Which makes me think that the whole thing about them being abandoned by Potomal–or whatever–was to throw us off track, to buy them time to regroup and plan their next attack.”

“So their plan of attack seems the same,” I mused.

“Well, no. Not really.”

“What do you mean?”

“This time, Raj seems to be involved. I’m sure he had nothing to do with the initial plan. I wonder what’s changed?”

“Raj was going on about the blueprints to the portal,” I offered. “At the beach, I mean, when he took me to the Bahamas.”

“He’s been after those blueprints for a year. What’s that got to do with Potomal, though?”

I had no idea, except that Raj needed the blueprints so he could sell them and buy himself that mansion he’d been whining about. “Who was Raj selling the blueprints to? Potomal?”

David’s eyes flickered, and the already creased line on his forehead deepened.

“David?”

He rubbed his palm against my forearm, his eyes beseeching me to give him time to think. I nodded, sat back, and waited for him to talk.

When he finally did, I jumped a little. The hum from the engines had lulled me into a semi-dream state.

“Sorry, Poppet. Were you asleep? Your eyes were open.”

“No. I was just daydreaming. What did you say?”

“I said, you may be on to something.”

I raised my eyebrows.

“Maybe Potomal is Raj’s buyer. I can’t for the life of me work out why Potomal would want those blueprints but, if he does, the rest makes sense.”

“How so?”

“Well, he would help Raj get them, if he ultimately wanted them.”

/o:pWhy wouldn’t he just get them himself?”

“Raj probably set the wheels in motion first and, when he went looking for a buyer, Potomal must have heard about it and got interested. Potomal would never sully his hands in a dirty scheme like that; he’d happily let Raj do the legwork. Why would Potomal want blueprints to the portal, though? It’s just a machine that does what he can easily do himself anytime he wants to.”

“Maybe he needs it so he can transport other people easier. I mean, you guys get exhausted wandering, right?”

He nodded, smiling like I had cracked the code to life. “Sheesh, Poppet. You could be right. It would give him tons of power.”

“And that’s what he wants.”

“Please fasten your seatbelts,” a flight attendant interrupted, walking by our seats.

We remained engrossed in our own thoughts for the rest of the flight. I stared out the window admiring the view as we came in for the landing. In the terminal, it definitely felt like a déjà vu situation when we spotted Morena waving at us.

“How’s Dad?” David asked, as soon as we got close enough to her.

 
I felt guilty that David had taken time to come and find me when he should have been with his dad. I really sucked as a friend.

“No, you don’t,” he reassured me. “You’ve just had a lot of stuff going on.”

I looked down at our entwined fingers. I needed to be more careful with my thoughts.

Morena motioned for us to follow her. “Kevin’s okay. He’s at my house. He wanted to come, but I told him to stay put. He had some minor injuries, just some superficial scrapes, but I took him to the hospital to have him checked out. He’s fine, just a bit bruised. Arizona, David told me we need to stop by the hospital to have you checked out as well.”

“No–” I started to protest.

“We’re having you checked out,” David said firmly. “Besides, Morena can take you to visit your mother while we’re there. I would, but I can’t until I rest for a while.”

I was going to insist on not stopping at the hospital, but if it meant that I could visit Mom, then I’d put up with having my shoulders looked at. They were still sore, but I could move them just fine.

On the way to the hospital, Morena filled us in on what had happened to Kevin. I just sat and listened, not interrupting even though I wanted to.