Time Thieves (27 page)

The redhead shrugged. “That’s his problem. He’s not going to come back, we know that for sure.”

The two men smiled evilly. “True enough.”

Ward checked his own wristwatch. “Let’s go then. I want to be home in time for dinner.” He shot the two men a confident look.

“Sure.” The redhead smirked. “The boss will be surprised to see you. He’s ‘visiting’ with Sari now.”

Ward muttered under his breath only loud enough for Mark to hear. “Not for long.”

S
ari woke slowly,
shifting her legs and whimpering. Her muscles ached and throbbed. What the hell? What had happened to her? She hadn’t done anything that she could remember to cause these aches and pains. She rolled over slightly and opened her eyes. Her gaze scanned the small closet-sized room and frowned. Where was she? She went to push herself into a sitting position when she realized she couldn’t. She glanced down and froze.

She had straps tied to her wrists with about a foot of play, enough to allow her to move about but not get out of bed. She had a light blanket covering her. She lifted it to see her feet were similarly tied up. She could roll around or scrunch up into a tight ball, but she couldn’t leave the bed. Her heart pounded. She was a prisoner. How and why, she didn’t remember.

Wait. She closed her eyes as images of two men attacking her in her bedroom came to her. They’d done something to her. They had to have. She’d never have gone with them willingly.

She lifted a hand to her throat and realized how dry and sore her mouth was. That’s right. They’d stuffed a cloth in her mouth to muffle the sounds of her screaming.

Ward had been downstairs. With Mark. Had they heard her struggle? Did they even know she’d been taken? God, she hoped so.

Then it hit her. What if she’d been taken through that damn portal? Ward couldn’t come after her. If she’d crossed the portal, then her father should be here.

Her heart lightened and she wanted to squeal. After spending a lifetime looking for him, to think he might actually be on the other side of that doorway made excitement pulse through her. He was here. She knew it.

Now to get free. She studied the odd straps on her wrists. They weren’t a locking system she knew. Neither did they look difficult. She checked out the way they were attached to the bed. That appeared more difficult.

Except her feet were small and the loops around her ankles were slightly loose. Slipping off the sandals, she could just about wiggle her bare feet through. There. Flushed with success, she tucked her legs up under her crossed-legged and returned to studying the bands on her wrist. They loosened as well, but not quite enough to slip her wrist through. She studied the odd knots and frowned. They should just open up. She wasn’t sure if they were meant to keep her as a prisoner or just restrained until she was of sound mind. She played with the closure system a little more and smiled. The band on her left hand dropped off.

Good. Only one more to go. Diligently she went to work on that one. Watching it drop sent her spirits soaring. She hopped off the bed and looked under it. Nothing. Dragging her sandals out from the blanket, she put them back on. Standing up, she surveyed the small room.

There appeared to be a closet of some kind against the opposite wall. Again the opening was foreign to her but once she realized it was a pressure release, she had it open in seconds. There was a second blanket in the closet and that was it. She frowned, closing it. A spare room? A prison. It certainly lacked the homey comforts of a room commonly lived in. Unless one was a slave…

She turned to the door, afraid and nervous but terrified that her father wasn’t going to be here after all. Stupid. After fifteen years, his disappearance still dictated her emotions. Then again, she loved her father.

Taking a deep breath, she reached out and turned the latch on the door. It opened easily under her hand.

*

Ward watched the
sly smirk on the shorter, dark-haired man as the redhead, with a firm grip on Mark’s shoulder, walked through a spot in front of the window and disappeared in front of him. What the hell? He stepped over and ran his hand through the space. Nothing. Nothing to see or feel. The air was no lighter, hotter, or seemingly thinner. How could anyone know it existed? “How?” he asked, “did he do that?”

The man grinned and held up the watch. “It’s a trick of the timepieces to correlate with the GPS location on the other side. That’s what the other markings are on the watch.”

GPS
. It had never occurred to him. “Did you guys make these?”

The other man shook his head. “No. We’ve lost track of how it all started, but someone on your side made the first one. We keep trying to find another family member who could recreate them.”

Ward nodded as if he understood. Like hell. “Is this the only portal?”

“In this part of the world, yes. There are others, but they don’t seem to function the same.”

“So if this one is closed, you guys can’t come back and forth.” Ward grinned.

“True. But you can’t close it. The controls are on our side. And to close it means you can’t get back either.”

Damn. Didn’t that figure?

“Now let’s go.” The other man grabbed his shoulder and shoved him into the portal.

S
ari stepped out
of the tiny quarters into a large circular room where all the walls were made from wood. Around the perimeter were many other small doors leading, she presumed, into other small rooms like the one she’d woken up in. Like prisoner or slave quarters. Would her father be in one of those rooms? Should she check? She stood, undecided, when she heard noises behind her. She slipped to the door beside hers and opened it. Sticking her head inside and realizing it was empty, she slipped inside, leaving the door open a crack. She glanced around the new room. This one looked lived in. Books were on a shelf. The bed was made with several blankets. The closet door was open enough to see that there were items inside. Nothing she recognized, but nothing so far different as to be foreign.

Someone lived in this room.

She peered through the crack left by the open door. She couldn’t see anyone, but voices were getting louder. Mark? Maybe. She hunched her shoulders. She had no doubts she had traveled to the other dimension. Now if only she knew how to get home.

The voices became louder, clearer.

“Work will continue later. I want you to stay in your room for the rest of the day. We have visitors, and I need to deal with them.” The strong, arrogant voice jarred her. She didn’t recognize it, yet in a way she did. She frowned and strained to hear his next words. She missed the early part of his statement, hearing only, “Mark is returning now as well.”

“And Madge?”

Sari stiffened, shock and delight making her gasp. Was that her father? She squinted, trying to make out the faces to go with the voices.

“Haven’t heard yet.”

She heard sounds of muffled murmurs; whether they were of assent or dissent, she didn’t know. The doors opened and closed, followed by retreating footsteps. She pulled the door open wider, catching sight of a large man leaving through a larger door at the end of the room. She hadn’t seen it earlier. Now which door had the other person gone into? She eyed the ones to the left of her. The first one was the room she’d woken up in; after that was a second and third. Had she heard one or two voices?

She slipped out to the common area and headed to the first door. Placing an ear to the closed door, she listened for sounds within. Nothing. She hadn’t expected there to be as that had been hers. She walked to the next one. A muffled rustling said someone was inside. Would they help her or turn her in? She didn’t have much time. She knew the portal would be at prime position tonight and after that, she’d be stuck here. And that she didn’t want to happen.

She opened the door softly. An astonished face peered at her. An older man. Sari slipped inside his room, her finger to her lips to keep him quiet.

“Sari?” the shaky voice whispered.

Oh my God!
She opened her mouth to answer, only no words came out.

Mute, she nodded. Tears collected in the corner of her eyes as she stared at her beloved father. She whispered, “Hello, Poppy.”

Tears ran down his face. He opened his arms.

She ran into them, grateful to feel the rough fabric under her cheek, the warmth and strength she so remembered of those arms as they held her tight against him. Memories and emotions washed over her.

It was true.
This really was her father.
Alive and holding her.

She closed her eyes and burrowed deeper, the young child still looking for reassurance.

After all these years, she’d finally found him.

*

Ward kept his
eyes opened, knowing he might or might not survive the journey. Yet for all that he could tell, crossing into another dimension was akin to walking into another room. He didn’t feel any air pressure change. His breathing wasn’t affected, nothing. He looked down at his hands and feet. Normal. If they hadn’t said that he’d crossed a dimension, he’d never have believed them. Even now he wasn’t so sure.

Except…he looked around. There was no way they were still in Sari’s attic. He was in a long hallway space. Bare, no windows and with wooden floors, he could see nothing to identify his new location. He watched as his companion checked his watch, clicked an odd pointed button at the top of it, and then put the item away in his pants pocket. Ward filed that information for later.

“Move. We’re here already, so stop your gawking and get going. The boss is waiting for us.”

Ward obliged by taking several steps, waiting for the other man to lead the way. The boss, huh? Good – that’s just the man Ward wanted to see.

They walked down the long hallway and into a chamber type room with a tall ceiling. This room was furnished with couches and desks. A comfortable working room. At the end, seated behind a large desk, sat a man. Large, swarthy, likely related to the man beside him and scowling.

“Jordan. What is the meaning of this?”