Always and Forever (41 page)

The man's hand shook as he lifted the phone and after a short, muffled conversation, he replaced the receiver and gestured to the elevators.

"Sixth floor, room 605."

Nick's smile was more a sneer, "Thank you."

Derek pulled the door open and cleared his throat. "Please come inside."

Derek looked to Quinn once they were settled in his spacious living room.

"I'm sorry, Quinn, I really am. Who would have thought there was such a hornet's nest waiting?"

Quinn held his gaze. "What do you mean?"

"I just wanted the treasure, some invaluable Scarcliff treasure that was about to be unveiled. Yes, I know that's stealing and I'll admit to being a thief but I'm not a murderer." He turned from the group before he continued, "When I spoke to Constance after her return to the present, she told me she was afraid for herself and for Archer and Nickie. She mentioned that Bryon disliked Morgan, and blamed Archer for marrying her and bringing down the Scarcliff name, but he didn't act on his feelings until the woman arrived. She knew just what to say, knew how to incite his dislike to full out hatred. It was the woman's idea to have that doctor, Jenkins, murder Morgan."

Then it came to Quinn where she had heard that name before. "Jenkins!" she cried out. "That was the name of Nickie's nurse."

"Yeah, she was the daughter of the doctor and she was a mean-spirited person but she wasn't crazy. Not like the other."

"What other?" Gabriel asked and though his voice sounded calm he was anything but.

"Katherine."

Quinn's jaw dropped at that. "What?"

"Katherine. She approached the father, wormed her way into his life, and put the idea into his head to rid Archer of his wife. It didn't take long and when Morgan was dead, Katherine wanted Archer for herself and got Bryon to agree to push Archer in her direction. But after Morgan's death, the Earl had a change of heart and I guess decided he didn't want to link his family to Katherine since she was just as common as Morgan but was also clearly insane. No one knows for certain but I think it was Katherine who killed Bryon."

"And then you linked up with her?" Quinn accused.

"I didn't know any of this at the time, didn't know it was Katherine that Constance feared. I needed access to Whispering Winds and Katherine wanted Archer so we teamed up since we had a common goal. It wasn't until my last trip into the past that I started putting it together."

"But then you left without warning anyone," Quinn hissed.

Derek leaned up in his chair as his face flushed with his own temper. "Who do you think notified the Danvers of the squatters in their home?"

Quinn fell silent at that.

"Look, I wanted the treasure but I never wanted to get wrapped up in murder. Even had I not gone back, the events would have still played out. But something had to have triggered it because the future, before Constance and I traveled back, was very different. Morgan and Archer had lived their entire lives together, had several more children, so why the sudden plot to kill Morgan?"

Quinn leaned back in her chair as Cole spoke what she was thinking, "We thought you triggered the events."

"No. And neither did Constance."

Nick stood and started to pace. "What the hell? Something had to have triggered it; someone wanted to change the past to alter the future. But who?"

Gabriel spoke from his spot against the wall. "I think that's the important point." He looked to Quinn and she noticed that there was something different about him, something dangerous. She had the sense that what he said wasn't all that he was thinking. "Katherine instigated it so I think it's fairly safe to say that she may have spent time in the past. But I would bet my bank account that Katherine came from the future. Tessa's research goes public in the future and many, including the USA and Chinese governments, invest billions into research to be the first to make time travel mainstream."

"So it's possible that Katherine learned the secret and sent herself into the past," Cole summarized.

"Yes," Gabriel confirmed.

"But for what purpose? What's her motive?" Charles asked.

"Okay so, if she can travel through time then did she really hang for her crimes in Archer's day? And if not, where is she now?" Quinn asked but the question was answered with silence.

"So what's up with you digging all around my property?" Nick asked Derek pointedly.

Derek stood and reached for something on his book case then turned and handed it to Nick. When Nick opened the file, he saw the old parchment with what looked like a treasure map drawn in a child's hand.

"What is this?"

"I found it. I had buried some of Archer's valuables but someone replaced them with rocks, which I obviously didn't learn about until I came back to the present." He looked at Quinn but it wasn't anger in his expression, only a reluctant humor. "Anyway, I went back to the spot where I had buried the stuff in the past hoping I had missed one and found this. Despite the hand that drew the map, there are notations along the sides written in a primitive sort of shorthand that alludes to the whereabouts of the Scarcliff treasure. I started digging immediately but since I wasn't entirely sure in what direction, I dug in the correct distance in every direction."

Quinn walked over to study the map and laughed out loud as soon as she saw that it had been Nickie and Archer. To think of them, so proper, playing a joke on someone from the future! It was subtle but silly and so very much like them.

"Clever boy, Nickie." She looked up into Nick's face. "You are very much like him."

He reached for her hand and squeezed before he whispered, "Thank you."

"Why did you come see me at the Foundation?" Gabriel demanded of Derek.

Derek's face turned serious. "The accident, the one that put Quinn in the hospital, it wasn't an accident." He turned his attention to Quinn.

"How did you go back in time?"

"I don't know. I was sent."

He pulled a hand through his hair as he started to pace. "Unreal is what it is."

"What do you mean it wasn't an accident?" Gabriel bellowed.

"I came back to see Quinn at Whispering Winds a few days after I left her and when I found her stuff but not her, I knew she had somehow gone back in time. I followed her but I didn't do it to be chivalrous -- I wanted the treasure. When everything started going south, I went into hiding until I could jump back. The next thing I know Quinn and I are in London getting ready to head for Whispering Winds as if the previous months never happened. I don't know how the hell that happened but it freaked me out. Anyway, I was a bit out of it so it wasn't until later that I realized the car that hit us, I swear it was aiming right at us. Since the accident, I've had the sense that I'm being followed which is why I rarely leave my apartment. And when I do, I make a spectacle of myself so everyone is witness to my comings and goings."

Derek looked back at Quinn. "If they're following me, they are no doubt following you, too."

"But who is it? Who tried to kill us?" There was a note of desperation in Quinn's voice.

"I don't know," Derek answered honestly.

Quinn looked over at Gabriel who remained silent but she knew that he was thinking a great deal.

"I guess we're done here. Thanks for explaining, Derek," Nick said as he started for the door.

"I want to help so anything I can do, please let me know."

Gabriel helped Quinn to her feet and they headed for the door behind Nick but Derek's voice stopped them.

"I'm really sorry it's gotten so out of control," he confessed, "But it's nice to see that all the plotting hasn't kept you two apart."

They both turned to look at Derek and he added, "It's not often one gets a chance to witness true love but when you have you never forget it. I've seen it before and I'm looking at it again. And that is no coincidence."

That night after returning to Whispering Winds, Quinn retired to the rose room, but sleep wouldn't come since her mind wouldn't stop.

Gabriel had taken Derek aside before they left his loft, and though she didn't know exactly what they discussed, she suspected it had something to do with what was going to happen in the future. Had Derek seen the person who had killed her? Had he followed that person? Was that why Gabriel saw him fleeing the scene?

Time travel was enough to make a person crazy and to think the powers that be in the future were thinking about making it a mainstream activity was just insane. How would they prevent the past from being messed up irrevocably with all those people moving through time?

Suddenly Quinn sat up in her bed. If Tessa's work fueled what came later, she was going to have to bury her work -- leave it in the temples with the Mayans where it belonged.

She climbed from bed and grabbed her robe before padding downstairs to the great hall where the men were playing a game of billiards. Gabriel was leaning against the wall, his cue stick in front of him, but his eyes were on the staircase when she descended as if he knew she was coming. His looked her from head to toe and back again before a slow, smile curved his lips.

"Quinn, couldn't you sleep?" Cole asked.

"I think we need to pay a visit to the Yucatan," she said.

"Why?" Gabriel asked and was already replacing his cue stick and coming around the table toward her.

"Everything that has happened is because of time travel. Tessa has to bury her research for good. If we stop Tessa's work then the future will be different. If we take away the means of sending people back in time then everything else that happened, won't."

"Makes sense. Do you think your friend will be willing to do that?" Cole asked.

"I do, yes."

Gabriel wrapped his hand around hers and said, "I still want to know who is behind all of this."

"Agreed," Nick jumped in. "I'll make the arrangements. We can take my plane."

Gabriel started pulling Quinn towards the stairs. "See you in the morning. Say good night, Quinn."

But her mind was already filled with all the magical things this man was going to do to her body. Gabriel lifted her into his arms when they were out of sight and pressed his lips to her neck before he whispered, "I am so going to enjoy this."

Quinn's thoughts were on Tessa during the car ride to the temples in Mexico. It wasn't fair to ask Tessa to give up her research but it had to be done. Time travel was just too dangerous -- especially in the hands of people out to intentionally cause harm. The cab pulled up to the double-wide and when Quinn knocked, it only took a moment for Tessa to appear in the doorway.

"Quinn!" She jumped down and hugged Quinn hard.

"Why didn't you tell me you were coming?" Tessa's pale eyes looked from Gabriel, to Nick, before returning to Quinn. "This isn't a social visit, is it?"

"No. We need to talk."

"Okay, come in." Tessa headed into the trailer and once they were sitting in her office Quinn looked to Gabriel who explained what awaited both Quinn and he in the future. Tessa sat quietly and listened and when he was done she stood and walked to an adjoining room moments before the sound of her vomiting carried through the trailer. After a few minutes, she reappeared in the doorway.

"My God. I know what I'm studying is dangerous, the Mayans buried it so deeply because of that, but my studies are all theoretical. I would never actually attempt to create practical applications. I should have known that others wouldn't be so careful." She paused and pulled a hand through her hair before she added, "Yes, absolutely, I'll bury my work and not just bury it but destroy it so no others will find it and take up where I left off. We're going to need that necklace from Derek because that's a piece of it and we need the Codex because that's the map."

"Where is the Codex?" Nick asked from his spot against the wall.

Tessa met his gaze before she answered rather cryptically. "Well, that's where it gets a little complicated."

"Meaning?"

"It's in the State Library in Dresden, Germany."

Nick's disbelieving laughed filled the silence. "Perfect! Stealing from the Dresden State Library, yeah, that shouldn't be too hard at all."