AllFreeNovel
Share Us
It took something out of Burke to watch it burn, and he’d tried to enter the house. We fought, I won, and we watched th
e fire burn from across the street.
I find the article of the fire, buried in decades of fires in the Phillips neighborhood, and scan it.
Two officers injured in the fire. One died—and fate is cruel when I realize it’s Danny.
And it’s all my fault. No, really it is. Because who else can change time?
Footsteps on my front porch make me look up. Someone is at the door, fiddling with the lock.
My instincts have me on my feet and out into the hallway, and when it opens, I grab the man and push him up to the wall.
“Hey! What—Rembrandt. Sheesh, it’s me!”
The guy is tall, decently built, and is wearing a t-shirt under a suitcoat. Brownish red hair, a little long, and in his mid-thirties. He puts his hands up. “Step back, bro.”
I know I recognize him, I just can’t—wait. “Asher?”
“Who did you expect, Santa?” He puts his hands down. “You need to stop working out so hard. You’re starting to look like the Rambo guy you love.”
I love Rambo?
Asher pushes past me. “I came home to grab an HDMI cable. Wouldn’t you know it? The children we hired at MinneHack think everything happens over Bluetooth.”
He takes the stairs and I watch him go. Then, because I can’t stop, I follow him.
He’s in Ashley’s room. Except the walls aren’t pink. The stuffed animals are gone and it’s been fashioned into a sort of computer hub, with multiple monitors on a standing desk and rows and rows of CPU units, all humming. Asher is searching through a big drawer, pulling out cables.
“What is going on?”
He glances over his shoulder. “Sorry. I know you’ve got that big date coming up tonight. I’ll try not to bother you.” He winks.
Date? Big date? I’m more than a little horrified.
Asher grabs the cable and pushes past me. “By the way, forget what I said about Shelby. She’s great. I’m sure you two will live happily ever after. Just give me a sixty day notice before you kick me out, okay?” He goes down the stairs.
Shelby? The woman from dispatch that Burke dated, eons ago?
I sink down on the top of the stairs, hearing an echo from a past I’d like to grab back. Or maybe you just stay here and try and live with your new reality.
My answer is the same.
Not a chance.
The epic series continues with Rembrandt Stone in two months. Check out a sneak peek of book three. Join us in June for the next installment.
Sticks and Stone - Preview
The True Lies of Rembrandt Stone - Book 3
The pieces of two lives sit in my brain like they should fit together, but no matter how hard I press, I can’t get them to line up.
My life is broken into fragments that no longer match.
All I know is that you can’t escape your past, no matter how you try.
And believe me, I’ve tried.
