Page 4 of Timeless

I shook my head and rolled my eyes and twisted back to watch the television. I sipped my wine and listened to the documentary, closing my eyes briefly and thinking over what Dad said.

He told me Troy was sick. He told me they still had private detectives looking for me. Not that any private detective would find me. I used a fake last name. Even a fake passport for when we travelled overseas.

I covered my tracks well.

But with Jack’s birthday coming up quick, dread filled me. Because I knew Jax’s sentence was coming to an end. Which meant he would be out soon. Which meant one day, I would have to come out of hiding and let Jack meet his dad.

My eyes widened with fright. God. I didn’t want that day to come. Jack would hate me if I kept him from his father forever? I couldn’t do that to Jack.

One day I would have to face my fears. But today was not that day.

* * *

“I’m goingto kill that cat!”

“Amber,” Will groaned, having heard of my unhealthy hatred for the cat called Tinks.

“No, Will, I mean it. It’s four in the morning!”

“Just go down.” Will rolled over.

Our fucking neighbors! And their stupid fucking cat!

“If they wake up Jack, I will make sure that cat is dead if it is in our backyard,” I said, getting up. Four in the morning! And my neighbors thought it was acceptable to wake us up, all because their fucking indoor cat had escaped, yet again, to our backyard.

Tinks, my mortal enemy, loved to hide under our BBQ, every time he escaped and made my life a living hell, trying to get him out. He always bit me.

“This time, they can get the fucking awful thing out. I’m not touching it,” I said firmly to Will, who was already back asleep.

The doorbell rang again, just as I hit the stairs. I might mention to Tae how much I hate my neighbors. He would do something about them and their awful cat.

Our long-standing friendship, should be enough for him to do it.

I had just gotten to the bottom of the stairs when the doorbell rang again. God! Did they not have a life? Not everyone cared about their fucking cat!

I started cursing when I tripped over Will’s suitcases in the foyer and flicked on the foyer light.

If they wanted their fucking cat alive, they better not ring that doorbell again. I unlocked the front door, ready to face the elderly couple who had an awful habit of leaving their back door open.

I opened the front door. “I’ll go have a look for Tinks,” I automatically said.

Then I made out four large figures on our porch. They turned, and there were no words to describe how I felt.

It couldn’t be. Someone had to be playing a trick on. Maybe I was having a nightmare.

My eyes ran over each one of them but this wasn’t a nightmare. It was real.

I stared in disbelief. How the hell did they find me? I swallowed sharply as I looked at my brothers for the first time in nearly six years.

“Who’s Tinks?” Adam grinned at me. Like it hadn’t been six years since he’d seen me.

My mouth just dropped open. It was the first time I had seen my brothers in six years.They were just as I remembered them, though slightly bigger. They took up all the room on my porch.

“How the hell did you find me?” I hadn’t slipped up on anything. My licenses were fake. So, I knew when I got pulled over the other day, it couldn’t possibly have resulted in them finding me.

Cole pushed Adam out of the way, looking furious. “Tae got a speeding ticket on the tunnel on his last visit. You were photographed in the front seat.” Cole sneered at me, like as happy as he was to see me, he also couldn’t stand the sight of me.

“Can we come in, Amber? It’s starting to rain?” Tyler poked his head over Cole’s.

---