Time Jacker by Aaron Crash (nonfiction book recommendations .TXT) 📕

the side of his head. The guy dropped his gun, fell to his knees, and clutched his chest. He looked at his bloody palm and started screaming.

That only lasted a second. Then he went for the gun.

Jack kicked him in the stomach and sent him sprawling backward. “No, this shit is over, asshole. There will be no bank robbing today. Kyle! Call the fucking police.”

The robber was bleeding, and he might die, but Jack didn’t care. Those fuckers came in to rob the bank and kill people. And maybe not in that order. So they deserved whatever pain they were feeling.

Kyle stood blinking in the doorway of his office.

Annie, though, was on the phone. A few minutes later, Jack heard sirens. It felt like ten minutes had passed since he’d almost died—first in a bank robbery, then because the demon thing was going to cut him to ribbons, but literally no time had passed between the robber pulling the trigger and Jack taking both chuckleheads down. The guy who Jack had clocked was still moaning and holding his head. The gunshot victim bled quietly. Good. The people in the bank, the customers, were murmuring, trying to figure things out but not leaving, just standing there, gawking.

Evelyn was sitting against the far wall, trembling. He marched over to her. “Hey, Mrs. Mundi, what the hell happened?”

She was white as a sheet. “I...you all are dressed...so very differently. It’s very strange. You have little portable telephones. Or are they tricorders? Like from Star Trek?”

Annie called to him. “Jack, the police just pulled up. And did you say Mrs. Mundi? She wasn’t here before.”

“Not sure, Annie. I have no idea what the fuck is going on.” Jack let out a breath. He was trembling and he had that migraine eating his brain, but the roar of the adrenaline was abating. He coughed and cleared his throat.

“No cursing,” Kyle the douchebag bank manager warned.

“Is that Mrs. Mundi?” Annie was pale, but her eyes were full of wonder. “Hugo’s mom? Where’s Horns?”

“That’s the question of the hour,” Jack said.

Mrs. Mundi was chewing on her pearls. Probably a nervous habit.

Jack tried to get her attention. “Mrs. Mundi?”

No answer.

Jack raised his voice. “Evelyn?”

She blinked and looked at him. She dropped the pearls from her mouth.

“What happened to you?” he asked.

“I was...it was April...my job. This thing. Then nothing.” She wasn’t being helpful.

Jack smelled a spicy perfume in the air, something sweet and strong and sexy. There might’ve been a note or two of cinnamon. A second later, Evelyn Mundi was gone. A strange laughter followed, the throaty laugh of a woman who was both amused and a little full of herself.

Before Jack could really process that, the police burst into the bank. The people who had been holding in their panic lost it to screaming. It was like with the police there, they felt safe enough to lose their minds and start sobbing.

Jack holstered his gun. Already, the cops were interviewing Kyle and the other witnesses, and the EMTs followed to cart off the two masked bank robbers.

Jack walked over to Annie, that spicy perfume still in his nose and the laughter in his ears. It wasn’t Horns—no, that thing had the voice of a haunted gravel truck. He went to Annie, who had retreated to her stool. She was sweating, and he could smell her fear.

She offered him a wan grin. “How does it feel to be the hero?”

He shrugged. “I’m glad no one’s hurt. But Hugo’s mom is gone. And there was this demon.” He stopped talking because Annie was looking at him like he was crazy.

“Evelyn Mundi,” Jack said softly. “You saw her, right?”

“What?” Annie asked.

Jack felt his world tilt again. He pointed at the wall near the restrooms. “She was there. Hugo’s mom. You asked about Horns. Don’t you remember?”

Annie shook her head.

Jack stuck a knuckle against his temple. “She appeared, by the plant, and she...”

The bank teller’s curious gaze wasn’t making him feel any less crazy.

He dropped his hand. “You don’t remember anything.”

Annie shook her head. “No, but it all happened so fast. And yet, time seemed to stop.”

That made Jack laugh like a drunk hyena. He was still laughing when one of the cops came over. He was older, with thinning hair and a permanent frown. Jack recognized him.

Officer Mac Satterstrum’s frown seemed like it might make his jaw come unhinged. “We’re going to need you to come down to the station with us, Mr. Masterson, to get your side of things. You okay with that?”

Jack knew the drill. “Sure, Mac. You probably don’t remember me, but I was in the Plum Creek PD cadet program.”

Mac Satterstrum sighed. “I remember you, Jack. And I remember your father was the best kind of cop, as were three of your brothers, but you were always kind of the asshole.”

“Big asshole,” Annie said with a laugh and a wink.

Even though Mac’s words stung, Annie’s wink made him smile. “Okay, Mac, then let’s get this over with. I have to help my mom and my aunt tonight with their bills.” That wasn’t going to help his headache any.

“Aren’t you sweet,” Mac said like he couldn’t care less. “Let’s go.”

“Hold up.” Jack leaned forward, searching Annie’s face. “You didn’t see any kind of strangeness. No sign of the ghost? Evelyn Mundi? Big horned creature? Nothing?”

“Just bank robbery weirdness,” Annie said, meeting his gaze. “Are you feeling okay, Jack?”

He winced. “Bad migraine. Shot a guy. Feeling funky.”

Mac let out a grunt. “Gunshot guy isn’t so bad. Missed all the important bits, which might be a good or a bad thing. You broke the other guy’s face open.”

Jack ignored Officer Mac Satterstrum and spent a second looking into Annie’s eyes, wondering at what happened and if he was going crazy.

He hoped he wasn’t crazy because he and Annie had a definite moment, and with how his life had been lately, Jack needed a long, hot look that promised a future sweating together in bed.

Jack turned. “You don’t happen