He'd made it halfway to the altar when a deep voice yelled out. "Hey!" Reegan caught the flash of a laser sight as it settled on the pile of debris next to him. He threw himself to the ground as it exploded, sending shards of wood and nails sailing through the air.

Choking, he crawled forward on knees and elbows. He'd needed minutes. But he wasn't going to get them. Already he could hear heavy footsteps pounding down the aisle. Another red dot appeared on the floor by his hand. He rolled away as a second shot rang out, splintering the wood beneath the threadbare carpet.

The birds had taken flight at the gunshots. They screeched, their panic carrying them into arches, walls and beams. Reegan rolled to his back, stunned for a span of heartbeats at the image of feathers floating through the air of the sanctuary. They settled in the dry baptismal font and on the weeping statues.

Emilio rushed out of the dark, vaulting a sawhorse to land on either side of Reegan's sprawled legs. His face cracked into an evil smile, stretching the scar across his cheek. "Gotcha."

Reegan gave a weak cough and lifted his hands in front of him, whether to ward off the evil look or the next bullet he wasn't sure. "Took you long enough. Think you might need remedial thug school."

Emilio centered the red dot on Reegan's forehead. "Think so?"

"Asshole, I know so. Where's Silvia?"

The guy laughed, revealing a set of straight, yellowed teeth, then jerked his chin toward the altar. "Taking a little nap before we go. Sorry you won't be joining us."

The irony cut deep. He'd survived everything so far, only to buy it twenty yards from the portal. After the pain of being parted from Saul, the failure felt trivial. But the task he'd be leaving undone wasn't. If he died, Silvia would be left to fend for herself against her husband.

A shadow rose up behind the gunman, moving swiftly and with a preternatural silence. Reegan blinked to clear his vision, heard a startled oomph, and wiped his eyes clear in time to see Saul take Emilio to the floor. One vicious punch to the jaw did the job. The guy slumped to the ground. Using his agile strength, Saul rolled him over and grabbed his weapon before moving to Reegan's side.

His pale face, smudged with dirt, was a welcome sight. He couldn't have looked less angelic, with his wild eyes and disheveled hair. The bruise darkening his cheek was set off with a small splatter of blood drops. But against the vaulted stone ceiling, the stained glass, and the white doves, he seemed heaven-sent.

"You okay?"

Reegan's voice failed him, and Saul grabbed his shirt collar, lifting him bodily from the floor.

"Reegan? Are you okay?"

"Yeah." Coughing, he struggled to his feet with Saul's assistance. "What happened?"

"You were right. It was a trap."

Reegan clung when the world tilted and began to spin. "I haven't had a chance to send the recall signal to the portal. I think Silvia's already in the sacristy, unconscious."

Saul swiped a blood-stained hand across his mouth. "How long do you need?"

"Minutes. Just need to activate the recall sequence and wait for the collider to be ready. Four, maybe."

"Okay. I can give you that." He jerked his chin at the altar. "Can you make it on your own?"

He'd have to. Saul turned at his sharp nod, ready to lope back up the aisle, but Reegan caught his arm. "Wait."

"No time." Saul spun back long enough to press a quick kiss to Reegan's mouth. "Get home safe. Do that for me, okay?" Without another word, he bounded away, toward the sound of more crashing and yelling beyond the narthex doors.

The distance stretched between them, then snapped, and Reegan felt the sting all the way to his toes. Fine. If that was Saul's last request, Reegan would damn well honor it. Garnering the dregs of his strength, he started toward the sacristy, using the rows of pews for balance. The three stairs to the sanctuary tripped him up, but he caught himself on the altar and kept going. His ears rang, and his vision wavered, the fallout from too many blows to the head.

He fought it all back, focusing on the image of Saul's face. Get home safe. Do that for me.

A massive arched wood and wrought iron door guarded the sacristy. Reegan called out as he limped the last few feet and caught himself on the frame. "Silvia?" Cold with dread, he threw his weight against the door, pushing it further ajar and stumbled inside, keying the recall code into his bio bracelet. "Silvia!"

Where had they stashed her? The room didn't lack for places to hide someone. Wardrobes that had once held vestments lined the far wall, and between them lurked space where no light, even diffused light from the high windows, penetrated. He spun at the sound of footsteps. "Silvia?"

"No." Victor D'arco stepped forward out of the darkness. His gun glinted as he pointed it at Reegan. "I'm afraid she's indisposed at the moment."

Reegan's gaze settled on a limp body in the shadows behind D'arco. Silvia, silent and unmoving. The breath left his lungs all at once.

This eventuality hadn't played into any of the scenarios he'd envisioned. He'd always assumed D'arco would remain in the future, safe. Where he would have his resolution, good or bad, in a matter of minutes. Instead, he'd followed Reegan into the past. Put himself in danger from a potential paradox. For what? Did he mistrust his men so much?

"What did you do to her?" Reegan's voice, through slurred, emerged in a growl. D'arco stepped aside, giving Reegan a view of Silvia's lifeless form on the stone floor. Reegan's anger peaked and threatened to explode. "What the hell did you do to her?"

"Gave her a taste of what's waiting at home." His face rippled with rage. "She won't run off again."

Reegan dipped his head, cradling it in his hands. His bracelet gave a low beep. The collider had received his signal. "She's done with you, you sadistic prick. You'll have to break both her legs."

D'arco picked his way over, stopping in front of Reegan, gun gripped in his hand. "I just might have to take your advice on that. Give me your bracelet."

No need to ask why. Reegan hesitated, and D'arco raised the gun once more. Fuming, Reegan unlocked the clasp and handed it over. D'arco jerked it from his grip, then gestured at a recessed doorway across the room. From Reegan's vantage point, it looked like a broom closet. "Get in there," D'arco said.

The command made no sense at first. "What?" His bracelet beeped again, and D'arco closed his fist around it. Reegan went lightheaded with a rush of fear. "You're leaving me here."

"I'm afraid it's worse than that. Don't worry. The end should come quickly, unless you get buried alive in the rubble. Somehow I doubt you'll be that lucky."

D'arco's words tumbled through Reegan's mind in a confused jumble. He couldn't make sense of them. "What are you talking about?"

Turning to point behind him, D'arco grinned. "I'm not going to kill you now, since there's no predicting how your death will affect the timeline. Instead, I've taken the liberty of making sure you won't follow."

He'd have no way of doing so. Not immediately. Once this loop closed, Reegan would be stuck until Maxie opened another one. One look at where D'arco was pointing made the man's intentions clear.

"Where the hell did you get that?"

The explosive device looked crude. The reason for that was obvious. D'arco couldn't have brought tech through the portal with him, which meant scavenging for supplies to make a weapon here. Supplies probably obtained from the same people who gave him the guns.

D'arco strode to the device and sank to his haunches next to it. "Emilio assembled it for me. It's frightening to look at, isn't it? So vulgar and inelegant. But he assures me it'll do the job. I know leaving you here is no guarantee someone won't try to retrieve you later. That fat pig on the other side of the portal would give it a go, I'm guessing. I'll be sure to let him know there's nobody to come back for."

The device did look inelegant, but that didn't mean anything. Bomb-making, unfortunately, wasn't rocket science. Horrified, Reegan watched D'arco set two switches. Numbers appeared on a small LCD screen and began to tick backward. A countdown.

"You're insane! I haven't done anything to you."

D'arco shot across the room, felling him with a blow he was too slow to dodge. A boot shot out, striking him in the ribs. "It's no less than you deserve, touching my wife."

"You twisted fuck." Reegan shuffled away on hands on knees when D'arco raised his boot again. Beaten and bloody, he knew he was no match for a man with a gun, and D'arco must have known it, too, because he turned his back to fetch an unconscious Silvia.

He carried her to the center of the room and rested her on the filthy floor. Her head lolled as he set her down, revealing a dark, damp patch of hair aside her left temple. Blood. Reegan fought back panic. He needed to keep his wits, but the ticking clock didn't leave him many options.

D'arco smoothed the hair off Silvia's face, the gesture tender and loving. "Almost home, darling." He raised his gaze to Reegan and waved his gun at the closet. "In you go."

"You're not waiting for your men?"

"After they were incompetent enough to let her get away in the first place?"

Reegan gathered the last of his strength. "That's harsh. Bet you have a hard time keeping steady help."

D'arco ignored the barb, turning to check the flashing numbers on the bomb's timer. No more games or tricks. Reegan's time was up. He waited until D'arco turned his head, then used everything he had left and leaped.

Failure had been almost assured, considering the circumstances. The distance between them. Reegan's sluggish attack. But he'd held out a frisson of hope. That maybe his mission, weighing down the scales of justice, would succeed. He knew the moment he jumped that he'd lost. His injuries made him slow. Next to Reegan's clumsy assault, D'arco looked like a graceful dancer, spinning and bringing the gun up to clip him across the face.

He dropped, choking at the rush of blood pouring across his cheek. The darkness that had been hovering at the edges of his vision for the past ten minutes finally closed in.

His last thought was a prayer. A desperate intercession that Saul wouldn't be in the building when the bomb went off.

Chapter Twenty.

The best-laid plans could go to hell in a hurry. Saul knew that lesson backward and forward, so having his backfire wasn't a shock, but it terrified him as never before. This wasn't a training mission, or an operation filled with faceless people he'd never see. This was life or death for Reegan and Silvia. He couldn't afford a margin of error.

He expected to be jumped at the church door, and D'arco's men didn't disappoint, which said much about their lack of training. If they'd caught Saul in the stairwell, the odds would have been more even. By going after him too soon, they lost their advantage, and, as Saul predicted, their good sense as well. Both chased him out of the building and onto the street. Up until that point, things went exactly to plan. Too well to plan.

Running fast enough to stay ahead, but not so quickly as to get caught would have been easy on a normal day. Today every stride made his vision gray out with pain. The bright midday sun speared straight through his eyes into his brain. Much more and he'd pass out.

One block past the church, he slowed, pretending at a cramp, and limped off the sidewalk into a vacant lot. The sounds of pursuit grew. Saul heard the uneven panting breath of a runner out of shape.

Wait. Only one? He spun round as the first man, tall and thin with a ponytail at his nape. bounded into the packed dirt of the lot and came at him, lips curled back in a growl. The one Reegan called Pigtail. He grinned at finding Saul cornered. Wary, Saul retreated across the scrubby grass as he closed in.

The second man should have been right behind the first, but there was no one there.

Pigtail came at him, fists flying. Saul blocked the first two punches, still retreating, hoping the second guy was just slow, but after several seconds, realized the truth. He'd circled back to the church while this one had given chase. They'd turned Saul's plan around on him, keeping him distracted in order to catch Reegan.

"Son of a bitch." He didn't hold back, taking Pigtail down with one kick to the stomach and two upper cuts. The guy hadn't even hit the ground when Saul sprinted past, arms pumping. As though mired in a bad dream, his feet couldn't move fast enough. The church never got closer. He pushed down wave after wave of fear, anger and pain. Fear for Reegan. Anger at himself for underestimating his enemy. One lesson that never stuck.

He hit the side door at a run, jarring his shoulder, but nobody challenged or tried to stop him. Vaulting up the steps, he skidded onto the dirty marble floor of the narthex as a gunshot sounded, echoing against the high ceiling.

"No, no, no," he chanted, dashing ahead through the nearest door and into the rear of the nave. Dozens of birds, set to flight by the gunshot flapped overhead. Over their frightened squawking, Saul heard Reegan speak and followed the beacon of Reegan's voice to the center aisle. He crept forward, gaze fixed on the man standing over his lover. The small red dot of the laser sight became his sole focus. Crouching low, he used every trick he knew to move quietly. When Reegan's gaze shifted, and Saul knew he'd been spotted, he pounced.

The second guy went down easier than the first, with one punch to the jaw. Saul swept the gun from his hand. "You okay? Reegan, are you okay?"

"Yeah." Reegan swayed in place. "I haven't had a chance to send the recall signal to the portal. I think Silvia's already in the sacristy, unconscious."

Noise in the narthex interrupted what Saul had meant to say. Pigtail, back for more fun and games. That was Saul's fault for not slowing him down more. "How long do you need?"

"Minutes. Just need to activate the recall sequence and wait for the collider to be ready. Four, maybe."

Doable. And Saul had a gun now. That would even the odds. "Okay. I can give you that. Can you make it on your own?"

Reegan nodded, and Saul turned away.

"Wait."

He couldn't. If he did, he might be able to let go. "No time." He indulged himself with one more kiss, the barest brush of lips. Any more would cripple him. "Get home safe. Do that for me, okay?"

He took off up the aisle at a stumbling jog, the best speed he could manage at this juncture, abandoning all efforts at stealth. Pigtail couldn't have missed his approach, a key point Saul counted on. He needed the man's attention on him and off Reegan.

They met at the threshold to the nave. Bloody and snarling, Pigtail surged toward him. Saul ducked and rolled away, an instinctive maneuver that had his stomach rebelling the moment he regained his feet. Vision wavering, he retreated deeper. He couldn't pass out now. In a few minutes, yes. But not now. Reegan needed him. Saul girded himself and lifted a hand, beckoning Pigtail with two shaking fingers. "What are you waiting for?"

The man answered with a howl and sprang. Again, Saul dodged the attack, slipping sideways, farther into the narthex. Farther away from Reegan and Silvia. He snorted laughter as the man picked himself up off the floor. "That the best you got?"

Wiping a hand across his mouth, the guy straightened and reached inside his jacket pocket. "Nope." He spat a wad of blood on the floor and grinned at Saul with red-stained lips. "I've got my best right here."

Saul didn't wait for the gun to clear his pocket. The weapon he'd taken off the first goon felt heavy and warm where he'd tucked it against the small of his back, but he opted for something less deadly. He shifted his weight to his back foot, kicked with his front, and the guy's head flew backward. Blood splattered as he fell heavily to the floor. The gun clattered away under a pile of rotting lumber.

Saul came to stand over him, listing under a wave of dizziness. "We done here?"

Weak, wheezing laughter met his question. "Sure. I figure the boss has dealt with your boy by now."

Icy dread locked every muscle in Saul's body. "What are you talking about?" But he already knew. Again he'd been one step behind instead of one step ahead. And he'd sent Reegan into an ambush. He stumbled away, that gurgling, amused laugh following him as he entered the nave and rushed down the aisle. He dodged obstacles with careless abandon, and by some miracle reached the steps to the altar without falling.

A figure appeared out of the darkness, stepping to the pulpit to stare down at Saul. "You're persistent, aren't you?"

No need to ask who this guy was. He carried himself differently than the others. Blatant self-importance radiated from his posture and voice. Saul clenched his fists. "What have you done with them?"

As though Saul were a troublesome gnat, D'arco waved him away. "You have four minutes. Enough time to clear the building. Go now. I don't have any reason to harm you."

"Why not?"

"You've done nothing to me personally."

While Saul hadn't expected a trivial answer, the sheer coldness of the one he heard stunned him. This was the facet of Silvia's husband that made him an effective political weapon. The ability to reason, even when lost in the depth of his own agenda.

"Where's Reegan?"

D'arco lifted his hand, and Saul's breath caught when he saw Reegan's bracelet dangling from his fingers. D'arco peered at the display. "Three minutes, forty-five seconds."

The man expected him to turn and run. Wanted him to, in fact. Why? Unless...killing Saul risked a paradox. For the first time that day, he realized just how fully he had the upper hand. "I'm not leaving."

Alarm flickered across D'arco's face. "You have a death wish?"

He supposed he did. It wasn't exactly breaking news. He stepped onto the first riser. Hissing, D'arco lifted the hand he'd kept hidden behind the altar and waved a gun at Saul. "Leave!"

Feeling more empowered than he had in months, Saul climbed the next riser. If this was his day to die, then so be it. If it wasn't, he'd push until D'arco couldn't help but pull the trigger. What happened when he tried was the variable that would decide everyone's fate. Maybe Saul was nobody. Expendable. But perhaps his life had more meaning than that. Perhaps he had a mission.

Time to find out.

"Three minutes, thirty seconds?" he guessed when D'arco threw a nervous glance at the bracelet. Less than ten feet separated them. Stalling any further was out of the question. Saul dispensed with any verbal warning, the words would be wasted anyway, and started up the last two risers to the pulpit.

D'arco's eyes widened, his nostrils flared, and Saul saw his finger twitch on the trigger.