“Not to mention teachin’ you about it in the first place,” Donovan murmured.
“—and as you can see, I’ve got somebody else to do that now.”
“Terry.” Donovan shook his head. “As a father, I don’t approve of kidnappin’ kids to rob banks. It’s one thing when they’re born to it.” He glanced at Tegan, who grinned and shrugged.
“Michael.” Terrance flashed his crazy grin, the one that made Jax shiver. “As a father, you should’ve known better than to bring your kid into this. Now I’m going to have to take him out, too.”
“But I never told you everything, Terry.” Donovan’s smile didn’t waver. “And you’re so dense, you never realized my kid . . . is twins.”
Thomas hurtled out of hiding and plowed into Terrance’s back. Terrance went down, firing the revolver as he fell. Jax ducked instinctively. The discharge echoed loudly, accompanied by breaking glass. The shot had gone wide.
Donovan swung the bat down on Terrance’s hand. The bank robber howled, and his handgun spun across the floor. Thomas fished the Taser out of Terrance’s back pocket, jumped up, and fired it. Terrance convulsed.
Tegan hollered at Jax, “Where’s the key?”
“In his shirt pocket!”
Donovan put his foot on Terrance’s neck, pinning him to the floor, the bat hovering just off his head. “Should’ve brought a seven-iron,” Donovan remarked cheerfully. Thomas found the handcuff key and tossed it to Tegan. Then he and his father hauled Terrance to his knees and dragged him into the back of the bank.
The moment Tegan unlocked the cuff, Jax grabbed her left arm and shoved her sleeve up. He got a glimpse of a tattooed crest with what looked like hunting dogs standing on their back legs before she yanked her arm away and glared at him. “You knew about me,” he hissed. “And never said anything.”
“You were an idiot,” she sneered. “Showing people your mark and using your magic openly. Tommy wanted to pound you.” She might have said more, but shouting from the back of the bank caught their attention. “C’mon,” she said, grabbing him by the arm. “They might need help.”
A short corridor led to the vault. Jax and Tegan arrived in time to see Terrance struggle to his knees, only to be brought down by another hit from the Taser. Jax felt sick, watching him flop around on the floor. “Gimme the cuffs,” said Thomas. His sister darted forward.
The elder Donovan knelt in front of the vault with a finger inserted into one of the drill holes. His face was pressed against the vault door, his eyes cast upward with a look of concentration. “I think . . . Ah, there we go.” He jumped to his feet and swung the vault door open triumphantly. “And you thought I wasn’t payin’ attention, Terry.”
Terrance responded with a string of curse words. The twins had managed to cuff his hands behind his back, but he was still struggling. “Are you totally useless?” Thomas yelled at Jax. “Grab some electrical tape from his box and give us a hand!” Jax blinked stupidly for a moment, then fetched the tape and wrapped it around Terrance’s ankles while Tegan sat on his legs.
Donovan examined the door. “It’ll still lock when we’re done. That’s a bit of luck.”
“I’ll kill you,” Terrance growled.
“Hush up, Terry, or Tommy’ll zap you again.” Donovan handed a garbage bag to Tegan. “Since we’re here . . .”
“Yeah, Dad.” Tegan darted into the vault and started filling the bag with bundles of cash from the bins and drawers.
Donovan picked up a fat wad of hundreds and slapped it against Jax’s chest. “Here you go, kid. Your share.”
“No thanks!” Jax exclaimed.
“Suit yourself.”
“You want Terrance in the vault?” asked Thomas.
“You can’t!” hollered Terrance. “I need one of you to get me out of this place!” Jax understood he didn’t mean the bank.
“True.” Donovan and Thomas dragged Terrance into the vault. “You’ll be stuck here till somebody rescues you. Course, nobody opens this vault on the eighth day. They’ll be here on Thursday, but you won’t be. They’ll repair it and lock it. I don’t expect anybody’ll be lookin’ in here on any day you’ll be present . . . although eventually they’re gonna wonder why the place stinks so bad. . . .”
Terrance started cursing foully. Even after Donovan swung the vault door closed, they could hear him faintly through the drill holes.
24
THE TWINS PUSHED Jax down the hall toward the front of the bank. “You can’t leave him there,” Jax protested, feeling nauseous. “To starve to death slowly.”
“What do you care?” Thomas said. “That gun was for you.”
“No worries.” Michael Donovan grinned. “Terrance doesn’t belong in the eighth day. He’ll pop back into his own time, easy enough. The eighth day will spit out any Normal at midnight, whether he’s handcuffed to one of us or not.”
“He doesn’t know anything about the eighth day except what we told him. And we lied a lot.” Tegan grinned proudly.
“Couldn’t have him shooting us in the back, thinking he didn’t need us,” her father explained. “Likewise, he never saw Tommy and Tegan together.”
Meanwhile, Jax had stumbled over his own feet. “What do you mean, that gun was for me?”
Tegan shrugged. “It would’ve been a lot of trouble to keep you prisoner till he wanted another piggy-back ride.”
The entire world pounded in time with Jax’s heart. If the Donovans hadn’t shown up tonight, his life expectancy would have been no more than the duration of Grunsday.
“He’ll transition back to his normal time at midnight,” Donovan said. “And minutes later, the police’ll be haulin’ him out of there.”
“Aren’t you afraid he’ll turn you in?” Jax asked.
Donovan laughed. “He don’t even know our real last name, and we don’t stay in one place for very long anyway. C’mon, let’s take you home. Terrance left us a ride, keys in the ignition.”
Show these people where the last remaining Pendragon lived? That seemed like a very bad idea. “I’m okay,” Jax said. “I’ll call someone to come get me on Thursday.”
The twins exchanged glances, and their father gave Jax a speculative look. “We’re driving your way,” he said. “Why would we leave you here?”
There didn’t seem to be a way to ditch them, especially after they’d saved his life. So he followed them out to the parking lot and named a town on the opposite side of the school district from where he really lived.
A dumpy-looking Toyota Tercel was parked beside Terrance’s van. Michael Donovan tossed a set of keys onto the hood before opening the van and waving everyone inside. Jax wondered why the Donovans were abandoning their car. Then it hit him. The car was stolen.
Donovan drove Terrance’s van into the street. “Steers like a dump truck,” he told Thomas, who was riding shotgun. “The A-Team meets Scooby-Doo.”
“Did you know Terrance had me?” Jax asked.
“We knew he must’ve found somebody to get him into the eighth day,” Donovan said. “He stood us up for a job last week and disappeared. We had to track him down.”
“You didn’t join one of his stupid websites, did you?” asked Tegan. “He’s been phishing for months and months online, but no Transitioner with an ounce of brains would fall for something that obvious.”
Jax sank down in his seat, feeling his cheeks burn. Tegan and Thomas exchanged grins, as if they knew he’d done exactly that and it was no more than they would’ve expected from him.