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When he walked away, I panicked. “Jack…”

He stopped, then turned to look at me.

“What are you doing? You can’t just leave.”

He took a step toward me, then stopped again. “I’m sure you don’t want me around. I just needed to know you were okay.”

“Fine.” I swallowed hard. “But this isn’t about what you want, Jack. I want you. I need you. I can’t deal with us breaking up right now.”

Confusion swept across his brow. Disbelief narrowed his eyes. He shook his head roughly, then slowly walked back to me and sat down heavily. His mouth opened a few times, but after a while he gave up on trying to find words.

I hated to be brutal now, but there was no help for it. Yes, I wanted Jack. I’d never wanted him to just hold me more than I did now. I’d never wanted to comfort him as much as I did now. Okay, I’d never really wanted to comfort him at all before. He wasn’t really that type of guy. But I did now.

The thing is, I didn’t just want Jack to be my boyfriend again. I needed him to be my boyfriend. I needed to stay close to him. To get close to him, so he’d trust me. So I could make him understand what had been done to him. Make him believe in his innocence. So that Chris and I could find a solution, because Jack was still a genetically engineered weapon and what if he tried to kill Chris again?

And another thing, I realised that very moment with a deadening thud in my heart, was that Jack could just go poof at any time. A hundred years away, Drustan still knew the danger, would still be working to keep Chris safe. One of those ways, the only way, according to Callum Jade, was to prevent Jack from being conceived in the first place.

Time was precious. Every second I spent with Jack could be my last.

The door opened and I looked up to see Chris standing there.

“Do you mind?” he said to Jack. “I’d like a moment with Willow.”

“Yes, I bloody do mind,” growled Jack. “What do you want?”

“It’s private,” said Chris, coming inside, leaving the door ajar. He beckoned at the open doorway with a nudge of his chin, inviting Jack to use it.

I tensed. The last time I’d got caught between these two, well, I’d ended up right here. In hospital. “We won’t be long,” I assured Jack. “Please?”

Jack pushed to his feet with a grunt. I sensed an argument brewing inside him, but he leashed it. He didn’t resist deliberately brushing past Chris on his way out.

Chris kicked the door closed with a bit more force than strictly necessary. As he drew close, I saw the storm in his eyes.

I sighed. “You’re mad at me.”

“Why shouldn’t I be?” Fury rumbled his voice. “How stupid are you? How the hell could you put yourself between me and that blade?”

“Don’t worry,” I muttered. “You can thank me for saving your life later.”

“Thank you?” blubbered Chris, scowling down on me.

I knew what he was so mad about, but I couldn’t regret what I’d done. My way, there was a huge mess still out there. Chris’s way - well, Chris would be dead. Not to mention the future of mankind. “I’m sorry about your father, Chris. Really. And I know everything’s still messed up now, with father staying dead and Jack still being stamped and Drustan—”

“I don’t care about that.” His palms thumped the edge of my bed.

My brows went up. “You don’t?”

“Of course I do. But that’s not why I’m mad at you.” He sunk slowly to his knees as the fight left him. “You could have died, Willow.” His gaze met mine. “Don’t- Don’t ever do anything so stupid again.”

“I won’t,” I promised. It was such a lie. With Chris’s mercury eyes heating through me, I crossed my heart and hoped to- well, not to die, obviously, but to do anything within my power to keep Chris right on living with me.

So, here’s the thing. Five weeks and a coma later, and apparently I still had sludgy knees for Chris. Not good. Not good at all.

“What about Callum Jade?” I asked, before I did something really stupid. “And what if Drustan decides to leap back and do something to Jack?” Once started, the questions poured from me. “What if Jack tries to kill you again? You’ll never be really safe until—”

Chris’s hand came to my cheek, shutting me up without the usual command. “I’ve got it sorted, Willow.”

And that’s how Jack Townsend found us. Chris stroking my cheek. Half slumped over me. Gazing into my eyes.

Chris jumped up.

Jack’s chest puffed out.

“Jack,” I said quickly. “It’s not what it looks like.”

“I was just leaving,” said Chris.

Jack stepped aside from the door, glaring at him. “Good. And stay away.”

I didn’t see Chris’s reaction. He left without a backward glance.

“We’re friends,” I told Jack. Because, whatever else was happening, or not (in Chris and my case,) I refused to give Chris up completely. “You can’t go all psycho whenever you see us together.”

“Whatever.” Jack moved across the room and parted the blinds, looking out for an awfully long time. When he turned back to me, his expression was neutral. “But don’t expect me to like it.”

Chapter 24

T
en worst things about my coma:

Self induced

Summer holidays

My pen remained poised above number 3 in my diary, my eyes flitting between 1 and 2. I couldn’t decide what was worse. The fact that I’d actually induced myself into a coma through absolute fear (a major step up, I’m sure you’d agree, from merely fainting) or that I’d slept through the first five weeks of summer holiday.

I mean, seriously, if I was going to be such a dramatic wimp, you’d think I’d time it for the start of term. And what was up with the coma? I hadn’t even knocked my head. And Jack’s blade, apparently, had actually pierced my side and missed my stomach completely.

Ten worst things about my coma:

Self induced

Summer holidays

False hope

My pen lingered again. Maybe that was really the worst. I’d thought Dad was back again, but he’d only stayed on for the further two days the doctor had kept me in hospital. Mum and I had taken him to the station a few days ago, and they hadn’t said a word to each other in the car. They hadn’t given each other a goodbye kiss or hug.

“You’re not going to find any starlets here.”

I snapped out of my morbid contemplation as Chris emerged into the clearing.

He strolled toward me with a lazy grin and indicated at the diary balanced on my crossed legs. “I assume you’re practicing for your illustrious tabloid career.”

“So not funny,” I groused, flipping the diary closed as he dropped to the ground beside me. My frown settled on the Xylex strapped to his wrist. “Shouldn’t you keep that somewhere safe?”

“I want to see when it disappears.”

“Huh?” I gave him a blank look. Apparently it wasn’t enough of a question to deserve an answer. I sighed. Chris and I had gone over the details of our story before the police had interviewed me. Jack was officially cleared of all suspicion. That didn’t mean he was safe. Far from it.

“What are we going to do about Jack?” I asked him for the hundredth time this week.

“I’m working on it.” His gaze slid from me to the ring of trees surrounding us.

“Chris.” I nudged his arm. “Drustan isn’t going to do nothing. He could be undoing Jack’s life right now.”

“No, he couldn’t.” He looked back to me. “As far as Drustan is concerned, nothing has happened. I didn’t die. There’s no reason for him to worry about Jack.”

“But what about TIC? Doesn’t it record discrepancies, documented discrepancies anyway, in every alternate history?” Or, in our case,
present time.

“You mean my death certificate? And the police paper work for Jack?” Chris shrugged. “I suppose he’d pick that up, but it would just a blimp. There and then reversed. He won’t take drastic action on something that’s already fixed itself.”

I met his grey gaze. And then my stupid eyes dropped to his lips. I felt the tug low in my tummy. Couldn’t help myself. I knew how good his lips felt on mine. How warm and melting his kiss was. I also knew how much he liked me. That certainly didn’t help.

“Don’t,” Chris warned in a low voice.

I blinked away the dreamy fuzz warming my blood. Of course I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t do that to Jack. Anymore than Chris would.

Not that Jack would know, whispered my traitorous mind. Jack couldn’t bring himself to set foot in this clearing, didn’t like me coming here either. I found it peaceful, though. I’d sit and stare into the bush where Drustan had first appeared to us, almost expecting to blink and see him here again. Hoped for it. Wished for it. I only needed a few moments of his time, to make him understand that Chris and I would keep Jack under control. That he didn’t need to eradicate or negate Jack’s life, or whatever he was sure to be planning.

Impatient energy buzzed through me. I jumped to my feet. “I feel so useless.”

Chris stood as well. “You’re the opposite of useless, Willow.”

I turned to him. Hadn’t realised he was standing so close.

Chris smiled down on me. “You saved my life. You’re brave and smart and selfless.” His words slowed down as he spoke. “And beautiful.”

“You’re just saying that because I saved your life,” I teased. But my heart was doing some serious thumping.

“Of course,” he teased back. Only, his expression was sombre and his cheeks flushed.

His eyes were on my lips.

Yearning hit me behind the knees. I had no excuse. I was weak and pathetic and out of morals. I went onto my tip toes, reaching for his kiss.

Chris took a sudden step back. “We should go.”

I grimaced. Shut my eyes on a deep breath. And said, “Yes, we should go. Because we can’t.”

“We can’t, ever.”

Said so firmly, my eyes snapped open. Chris was already on his way out of the clearing.

I hurried and caught up to him. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to...”

“Neither did I.”

I gave a jerky laugh. “You didn’t.”

He looked at me as we picked our way over the protruding roots. “Yes, I did.”

I couldn’t draw my eyes from him. There was a thread binding us together, a painful thread stitched straight through my heart and pulling tight as life forced us apart.

It wasn’t fair. But Chris would never do anything about it. And neither would I.

Chris was hung up on never again taking anything away from Jack, whether Jack had tossed it out in the trash or not (me being it).

And I was hung up on keeping Chris alive. Which meant keeping a close eye on Jack, keeping him in my circle of trust. (And, okay, that wasn’t all of it.)

By the time we stumbled out of the woods and onto the green that spread all the way to the gates of Napton College, there were a decent few inches between Chris’s long stride and my sludgy knees.

Just as well.

Jack was slumped on the only bench on the green, his long legs stretched out, his arms folded, his thunderous gaze lifting to me as we came out of the clearing.

“Hey,” Chris called out in a reserved greeting.

Jack grimaced at him. “How about you get your own life and stay out of mine!”

“You boyfriend’s such a charmer,” Chris muttered under his breath to me.

I punched his arm. “Play nice.”

“That’s your job,” said Chris, giving me a parting smile as he headed down the path in the opposite direction of Jack’s bench.

Jack stood as I approached and pulled me straight into a hugging kiss. Urgent and deep, as if he needed to kiss Chris right out of my life. I melted against his chest and into the heat his kisses always spread through me.

I didn’t think about Chris again until Jack walked me home, our arms linked around each other’s waist. Jack was a raging fire that sparked and sizzled my blood. Chris was a slow burning flame that took me by surprise each time I went weak for him. And I don’t know if I liked Jack more because I could never have Chris, or if I liked Chris more because he was forbidden.

Jack was as dark and troublesome and sexy as Chris was cute and perplexing and gorgeous.

And I was half in love with both of them. By that, I mean half of me was totally in love with Jack and the other half of me was totally in love with Chris.

Obviously, I didn’t have enough crap in my life.

I’d only been stabbed.

I’d slept through most of the summer break.

If I cared to sneak a peak (which I didn’t), I’d probably find my parents had already diarised appointments with their divorce lawyers.

This is my life.

It figures I’d be in love with two guys at the same time, one genetically stamped to save the world and the other genetically stamped to destroy it.