A smile spreads across his face. “Except for Charlie. He chose me. He saw me for who I am, for who I could be. To him, I was more than just a son to brag about, like I was to Dad. More than a brain to solve his research snares, like Zeke believes.” His lips tighten. “I was even more than just some clueless guy who needs his sister to take care of him.”

“That’s not what I think!” I protest, even as my mind whirls. When did he meet Charlie? Is this why my brother’s been so preoccupied these last few months? Is Charlie’s cabin where he goes for his research trips?

I glance wildly around the basketball court, as though my answers might be hidden in the shadows, and my gaze collides with Bandit’s. He looks about how I feel, like someone just punched him in the gut.

Now what? I can’t tell Archie that Charlie was using him, too, in his own way. That will really send him over the edge. I have to appeal to him the only way I know how—as his sister.

My skin prickles, coming alive with the force of my emotions. I will him to listen. I will him to believe. “I love you. With all that I am, with everything I’ll ever be, I love you. That’s never going to change.”

Archie gazes back at Bandit, who’s no longer moving, and then returns his attention to me.

The breath gets pent up in my lungs. He wants to trust what I’m saying. I know this to the core of my being. Archie’s not interested in destroying the world. He doesn’t wish to decimate entire towns and regions and countries. All he wants is to feel a connection with someone, and that’s what Charlie gave him.

That’s what I could give him. If only he’ll let me.

The seconds tick by as we stand on the precipice of this decision point. The fork in this road could take us onto an entirely new time stream—or keep us on the same one.

“You’ve always been good at saying the right thing, Alice,” my brother says sadly. “But it’s no longer enough.”

He raises the gun so that it’s pointed directly at me for the first time. He might’ve been testing the waters before, when he swung the gun in my direction. To rattle my composure, to shock me into a confession.

To flirt with the idea of taking a life.

But this time?

This time, I can tell by the determination in his eyes, by the concrete in his voice, that he is committed and ready.

“It doesn’t matter how close you get to me, Bandit,” he rasps. “Alice will be just as dead if I pull the trigger. Put down your gun now, or I will kill my sister.”

Chapter 55

Chapter 55