Because You Exist(68)

“It’s just now when it’s over, you can walk away.”

“Not this again,” I replied, scratching the back of my head.

Time was almost up.

“Whatever, Logan. We done here?”

“Why were you picking up a pamphlet on birth control back at the hospital?” I blurted out.

Where the hell did that question come from?

Jo’s eyes went wide. Her mouth dropped opened. I’d never seen anyone turn the shade of red she was now turning.

I took a step towards her. I looked her straight in the eye. “You can’t be thinking of taking that step with Bentham. Not him, Jo. He’s not right for you,” I pleaded.

Jo brought a shaky hand up and ran it through her beautiful red hair. “I...I...It’s none of your business,” she stammered.

“Jo,” I said softly. I didn’t know what my argument was going to be. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen next. It just felt like whatever was coming was important.

Jo grabbed her hood and pulled it over her head. She looked down at her feet. “I...I didn’t get it because of Ben. I got it because—”

“Damn it! Not now!” I yelled as the hair on the right side of my arm began to stand up.

“Logan. We’re shifting.”

Great.





Chapter 33





“The sooner you shut up the more likely it is I won’t shoot you,” Jo snarled, holding her gun on the Dark Man who welcomed us on our first shift.

When we came to on the other side of the shift, back in future world, Jo grabbed her backpack and we met up with Bentham and Randall. We all agreed that it was a little odd we didn’t have any survivors waiting for us at the school considering the last time we shifted they discovered our point of entrance.

Something had to be up.

And when we saw Mr. Ambiguous waiting for us, we knew we’d been right.

“Your little alliance is really adorable,” faux Don Draper said, not even batting an eyelid at Jo’s gun or the second one pointing at him from Bentham’s direction.

“If you’re here to make some sort of deal, we’re not interested,” Randall spoke up.

The Dark Man merely smiled more. “But you haven’t even heard what I have to offer,” he sang.

Bentham clicked his gun. God, he was so predictable sometimes.

“We saw how your last deal paid off. We saw what it did to that poor girl and her partner,” continued Randall.

Mr. Ambiguous gave a curt nod. “Right. That. Not my fault. I didn’t do those things to those shifters. The survivors did. Totally out of my hands.”

“What’s the deal?” I asked. The others looked at me like I’d suddenly grown a second head. “What? What’s it going to hurt to hear him out? It might clue us in to what game he’s trying to play,” I said.

The ridiculously dressed man winked at me. “Your uncle always did say you were smart.”

“Your uncle?” Bentham asked.

“I’ll fill you in later,” Jo called over to him. She edged closer to Mr. Ambiguous, her gun still fixed on him. “Go ahead then. Talk.”

“In all the time we’ve been doing this, it’s strange that no one has decided to team up until now. It’s pretty ingenious really. You can work together. Share information. But it also makes you weak. It makes you care.”

“What’s your point?” I asked.

“The survivors. They found some of your shifter friends. Four to be precise. Two sets of people just like you. They have them held up at the old Beach General Hospital. I know you know the place. Didn’t you just visit it?” he asked, glancing between Jo and myself.

“The survivors have them. You mean you gave them to the survivors” Bentham charged.

The Dark Man shrugged. “I told you where they were. Go get them if you want them.”

“Like we don’t know this is a trap,” I said.

“Nothing worth obtaining, Logan, is worth a damn if you don’t have to fight for it,” he replied, looking from me to Jo.

“Enough!” yelled Jo.

“You can’t kill me quite yet, little shifter. You can’t be the one to break the rules. You can shoot me but I won’t die.” he sneered.

“Oh yeah? I bet it’ll still hurt.” Before he could say another word, Jo unloaded a bullet right into his shoulder. The man fell to the ground screaming in pain.

I looked over at Jo in shock. But what she did next was even more surprising.

She took off running.

Even though she knew it was a trap.

“Jo!” I screamed out at her. But she didn’t look back.

I didn’t have a choice.

I started to run after her.

We were idiots.