She sipped more of her drink and wished it had the power to relax her insides.But it was cold and sugary and she needed that right now.
The two men moved on down the street out of sight.It didn’t ease her inner tension or answer any of her questions about why they were here.Were they from the agency or—she didn’t want to think it but she had to.Were they from a different group of time travelers?
But if they were, how had they identified her?The agency insisted their movements through time were untraceable to anyone, well, anyone but them.
Did she believe it?Had she ever believed it was a better question.Did they think she hadn’t seen the photographers at the more modern sites?Or seen the photographs themselves?
What she had trusted was that no one was looking.Why would anyone do facial recognition searches for her?
The air where the two men had been continued to pulse gently.In the past—she bit back a grin because what was the past?—the sight of a disturbance was her signal to find a quiet spot and trigger her recall.
Two problems with that.She had to be unobserved and those two seemed determined to keep eyes on her as much as possible.And her gut was indicating that jumping out was a bad idea.
She also tended to trust her gut more than her orders.Had someone figured that out?
But if she couldn’t jump out…she snuck another look at Red.He was good to look at.No question.But could he help her?How did she even ask him to hide her for a few days?Just until the two guys lost interest or gave up.
Could he do that?Would he do it?
She knew men in this time were apt to assume a lot more than a girl wanted them to.Fighting off Red would be better than the men in black, but what if she didn’t want to fight him?
She sipped more of her drink to cool her cheeks.
That couldn’t happen.Not even a kiss.Not when the waft of a butterfly’s wing could change time.Was that true?Or just a ploy to keep them from kissing the locals?
It was hard to know.The original agents had stomped all over the time line.No one knew what damage they may have caused, so now when they went out, they tended to travel to the same places with a “do no more harm” policy.One of the scientists believed this consistent travel had formed time or transit tunnels that left traces in the fabric of time.
She hadn’t seen him in a while, she realized.She sipped some more of her drink and considered the idea further.As someone who’d used them, she thought of them as damaged flux points.She’d heard that a new destination point wasn’t as bumpy a ride.
As far as she knew, this policy of not going where they hadn’t, didn’t seem to have made things worse—other than spawning a bunch of alien conspiracy theories.Or piggy-backing on them?
She almost frowned but stopped herself in time.
Had those first efforts been to find out about aliens?She’d have signed up for that.But—the frown stayed inner but felt deeper—wouldn’t they know by now?Or by then?
After those first screw ups, the agency had started using Marfa as their main test site.They’d thought it a good choice, since there were no people around in its past.
Only there were.And alien imagery began to appear in the writings of the indigenous people who did live there, just hunkered down to keep out of sight of their enemies.
Since the damage had been done, it was still an important test site.
She hadn’t been to Marfa—in the past or her present.Everyone wanted to see the lights, didn’t they?But they’d kept her busy.
“Are you all right?”Red asked.
She glanced at him, managing a smile.
“Those guys, are they bothering you?”
“Why would you think that?”She didn’t ask the question defensively.It was possible she was being paranoid.Maybe they were after Red.Her gut didn’t agree with her.She fed it more soda.
“Well, I doubt two guys would be following me, not when there is a cute gal around.”
She chuckled then.He was sweet.Dangerous, but sweet.He’d given her an opening, but was it a big enough one for her to crawl through?
Con sipped his soda, trying to think of a response that didn’t involve the words “men in black” or “time travel.”
He might have to go with honesty.
