Cheating Time (45 page)

We were both so far gone that when he used
his other hand to stroke my upper arm—rubbing the side of my breast
as a byproduct—I wanted to take his hand and put it on top of said
breast and let him cup it, massaging it until he was brave enough
to take our inappropriateness further.

As if Thorne knew what I wanted, the
knuckles of his hand buried their way into the side of my breast,
stroking from side to side and incrementally making their way
closer and closer to my nipple, which was noticeably hard.

I'd read lots of books about women who felt
wanton. Until this very moment with Thorne's intentions very
obvious, his breathing ragged, and my needs burning through me like
a raging forest fire, I had no idea what that term really
meant.

The only break the two of us caught was
Jayden's intensity as he tapped on the computer very noticeably,
not looking up from the keyboard. If I were in my right frame of
mind and had not been hypnotized by the flashing images, I'd have
wondered what his experience with these sites had been. With
Thorne's knuckle just centimeters from my nipple, my thoughts were
too one-dimensional and too focused to process cognitive
reasoning.

One second before I pulled Thorne onto me
and let him have his way, the holographic image before me turned
into one that snapped me out of my hypnotic state and back to the
here and now and a state that would be considered more embarrassed
than mesmerized. As if popping out of his own enthrallment, Thorne
snatched his hands off me and stepped away.

He and I would definitely have to talk about
what happened, but right now, my attention was focused on Gran's
hologram. He was standing before us and bowing his head toward
Jayden.

"Congratulations, Surrogate. I wondered if
you'd ever remember the code necessary to reach me," Gran said,
turning around and seeing Thorne and me.

With a chuckle, he said, "Based on the
ragged breaths and facial flush coming from the two of you, it
seems Jayden forgot to warn you not to watch the images. Actually,
the fact that you two are standing apart tells me you have great
restraint. The images are meant to catch anyone watching them off
guard and take them down rabbit holes that prevent them from making
their way to me. There are few people besides Jayden who would have
been able to ignore the almost compulsive images…
it seems
."

While I was irritated that I'd not been
warned about what to expect, I jumped up and off the stretcher and
dashed toward Gran's hologram as if he himself were standing before
me, and I could hug and kiss him.

"Gran… oh, Gran! You're okay. I've been so
worried about you. How's Tawney? Is she with you? Where are
you?"

I fired my questions in rapid
succession.

Gran put his hand up and laughed his very
reserved scientist laugh. "My dear, it's good to see you, too.
Selma swore you were getting better, but seeing you gives me a
level of comfort I couldn't get with inanimate MicroPharm readings.
I'd get Tawney for you, but she's asleep. She's had a rather trying
day and went to bed, claiming tomorrow will be better."

Seeing Gran and hearing that Tawney wasn't
doing well reinforced my decision to make my deal with Barone.
Mentally, I cursed myself for ever pretending as if I'd walk away
from the only chance she had. Before I could tell Jayden I had no
intention of following through with his plan… no matter what Gran
said, he stepped in front of me.

"Sir, it's with a purpose that I contacted
you. I'm in desperate need of a voice of reason. It seems that
Carles is not nearly the advocate for herself that she is for
others," Jayden said.

Gran nodded in agreement. "That's a very
accurate assessment of my oldest granddaughter. She's always been
the most altruistic person I know. The world definitely needs more
like her. Tell me who she's helping and at what cost to herself,"
Gran ordered with the pragmatism of a man who had all the time in
the world to sort out messes.

"Barone came to the camp…" Jayden began.

I stepped around him, put my hand on his
forearm, and took over telling him what I now knew to be true.

"Gran, he told me he has the power to put
Tawney in a state of inertia, one that will prevent her disease
from progressing, and she can stay in that state until the cure for
lymphoma is found. He explained very carefully to me that he can
and will order every capable scientist in the nation to focus one
hundred percent of his or her attention on finding that cure… if I
do something for him," I explained.

By then, Thorne was standing at my side. The
one opposite where Jayden was standing, just as close, interested,
and prepared. There was no way to describe Gran's reaction to my
news. His shoulders lifted naturally and in a way that made me
think there'd actually been bags of concrete pulling them down
toward the ground before that instant. If I didn't know better, I'd
have sworn he actually giggled before he did a little Irish jig,
something I'd never seen him do and something I was sure he'd never
do again.

"This is the best news I've ever heard,
sweetie! The best, I tell you," he exclaimed. "Give me a second.
I'll be right back."

Jayden, Thorne, and I exchanged glances
until Gran came back into view of the camera and became the
holographic man he'd been a few seconds ago. In his hands, he
carried a bottle of his lab-created scotch.

"This calls for a real celebration,
sweetie," he said, pouring himself a giant highball glass full of
the dark caramel-colored drink.

After he slung back the drink, he released a
howl that was loud enough to scare anyone near. Him or us. A
quick-thinking Jayden quickly muted my normally meek and quiet
grandfather so the entire camp wasn't disturbed and Barone wasn't
made aware that we were in contact with Peter Panzali.

More irritated than I'd been earlier when I
snapped out of my hypnosis, Jayden took back control of the
conversation.

"Are you not interested in what Carles is
going to have to do in order to save Tawney's life?" Jayden
asked.

Sobered only the slightest bit and pouring
himself another celebratory drink, Gran shrugged and said, "It
doesn't matter what she has to do. If she'll still be alive and
Tawney'll still be alive, her sacrifices will not be in vain."

Jayden had had all he could bear. "He wants
her to marry him and have his children," Jayden said with as much
disgust and contempt as he felt.

Gran cleared his throat and had the good
sense to at least look ashamed, but I'd known him my whole life and
knew he wasn't happy about what I was going to have to do, but he
wasn't going to encourage me to turn away from the contract.

"Listen, Surrogate, I know you want me to
take the moral high ground here and tell Carles that Tawney
wouldn't want her to give up her life for her, and truth be told,
Tawney wouldn't want that. The problem is that's not what I want.
I've been working on a cure for lymphoma since the day Christi told
me she was pregnant and I learned of her husband's genetic
predisposition for the disease.

"I couldn't save Christi's life. You can bet
your bottom dollar I'm going to do everything in my power to save
my granddaughter's life. I'd sacrifice myself if I thought it would
work, but Barone has had his sights set on Carles for as long as
I've been working on my lymphoma cure. Say what you like about us,
but we're both determined to see our projects through. Mine is that
of curing lymphoma. Barone's is that of creating the closest thing
he can to immortality.

"In the end, it's the two of us who are
selling our souls to the devil. Not the people we take along for
the ride." Gran concluded, and his voice was hoarse with unshed
tears.

"Gran… you're not making me do this. I'm
doing it because I want to. I've already signed the agreement, one
that keeps everyone safe and a cure for lymphoma our government's
number one priority. After we get back to the capital, I'll have
Jayden contact you so that we can get Tawney put into the inertia
state as soon as possible," I explained.

When someone cleared his throat near the
tent's door, all of us, including Gran, twisted in his
direction.

Barone! Dammit!

I suspected the gleeful facade he was
displaying was one geared toward covering up the anger he felt over
seeing that we were actually able to contact Gran.

"Peter, imagine my surprise." Barone offered
a glance toward Jayden, one meant to dare him to ever lie to him
again. "I'm so glad to see you are alive and well. I take it Carlie
asked that you be notified of our agreement so you could begin the
arrangement of getting Tawney to the capital and into the state of
inertia sooner rather than later," he said with so much sugary
sweetness I almost gagged on the bile it caused to erupt from my
stomach.

Gran, completely sober, stood tall and
proud. "Yes, John, that is exactly what Carlie was doing. I've been
asking for years that this become a priority for your
administration. I'm glad to see you've finally been able to strike
up a deal with someone in my family that could help this initiative
see the light of day."

Barone sighed heavily. "Peter, it's never
been a situation where I didn't want to help. I've never been in
exactly the right position to help. Not until now. Carlie and I
have agreed upon some things that have put me in the position to
help." He cleared his throat and glanced around the room. "I'm
assuming everyone here knows about the agreement, and I'm going to
insist it be kept completely confidential. If it's not… if the
first word of that contract makes its way out to anyone besides the
four of us, all bets are off. I'll not save Tawney, and each of
you—with the exception of Carlie—will be running for your lives
toward the Shadow Nation. If everyone keeps that agreement quiet,
Carlie will live the life of a queen. If anyone shares its
existence with anyone else, she'll live the life of a prisoner… one
that'll be praying for Tawney's merciful death. Do I make myself
clear?" Barone asked with the maleficence of Satan himself.

The promise embedded within his threat had
me cowering behind Thorne only because he stepped protectively my
way when Barone suggested he'd imprison me.

No one responded.

"St. Romaine, do you understand me?"

The angry Surrogate, one I'd never want to
go up against, nodded and spit is acquiescence. "Yes, sir. I
do."

Barone turned to Thorne. "I suppose it's
good you found out about this since I was going to have to do
something to officially dissolve your engagement to the woman
who'll one day be my wife. Do you understand the importance of
keeping all of this quiet?" he asked, looking over Thorne's
shoulder, obviously threatening Rorie, who was standing wide-eyed
watching the scene before her.

Thorne glanced back and understood the
unspoken warning. "I understand, and neither of us will ever
mention it, sir."

Finally, he turned to Gran. "Now, Peter, you
and I both know that Sam and Selma wouldn't agree to this. They
love Tawney, but Carlie… Carlie's their daughter. They think she
has her whole life ahead of her… that marrying a man as old as her
father will shortchange her youth. They don't understand that with
Carlie's and my life expectancies nearing two hundred, the
twenty-five years between us will mean nothing in a few short
decades. It'll be your responsibility—after a few years where
Carlie and I are inseparable—to convince them that our marriage
will be one made in heaven."

One made in
hell!

"I'm committed to doing whatever I need to
do to save Tawney and Carlie. I'll tell Selma and Sam whatever you
want me to tell them, but I can't guarantee they'll listen to me.
You know them both well enough to know they form their own opinions
about things… and do what they want."

Barone chuckled. "Sam's always been like
that. Even when we were boys playing soldiers of war, he'd refuse
to follow the orders he disagreed with. He'd kneel before me and
let me pretend to shoot him in the head before he'd do anything
that compromised his morals or ethics."

Barone stared toward the neon shimmering
hologram before him, but he wasn't seeing the here and now.
Instead, he was remembering the past, one where two neighbors grew
up together, learning to accept the other's flaws, forgiving
weaknesses, and growing into mature men who were charged with
leading our nation. From my point of view and because Barone was
morally barren, Dad had to do a lot more accepting and forgiving
than Barone.

"Sam has never trusted me with his wife, and
Selma has never trusted me with their daughter. Both have been
right to trust their instincts," Barone said unapologetically.