Timepiece

  I let Abi finish before I spoke directly to her. “What I mean is, if your fear is rooted as deeply as it seems to be, I don’t want Lily to be involved, either.”

  She dropped back into her chair, crossed her arms, and said some more words in Spanish. Then she said, “I didn’t peg you for honorable. Unless you’re playing some kind of game.”

  “I’m not playing a game.”

  “Why doesn’t any of this surprise you?” Lily asked. “I just told you about time travel, and people with special abilities, and rewinding time. You should be shocked, or at the very least doubtful.”

  Abi picked up her coffee mug and sat back in her chair. “There are many things in this world I don’t understand. It doesn’t mean they aren’t true.”

  Fear. Guilt. The guilt confused me. I leaned forward in my chair, concentrating on trying to read Abi.

  “What?” Lily asked, looking back and forth between the two of us.

  Sharing Abi’s emotions with her granddaughter wasn’t my place.

  “I just told her you can sense emotion. So she knows she can’t hide anything.” Lily had covered a lot of information in an hour. She turned from me to Abi. “If you knew something about all this, you’d tell me. Wouldn’t you?”

  More guilt.

  “There’s no reason to discuss it.” Abi’s voice was full of grim determination. “It’s the past, and we left it behind when we left Cuba.”

  “We never discuss Cuba at all. There are things I want to remember. Our home. Our family.”

  “I do remember. And you are better off not knowing.”

  “I don’t accept that.” I saw Abi’s fierceness in Lily’s eyes and anticipated she’d make grown men piss their pants one day, too. “If you know something, you have to tell me. ¿Por favor? Please.”

  Abi put her coffee cup down and walked to the wide, arched double windows that overlooked the town square of Ivy Springs. “People lose things, they look for them. Ask for help. ‘Help me find my house key. Where is the grocery list?’ It was always funny that your grandfather seemed to know where things were. He just … knew. Then your father was born, and he could find things, too. Your father was five when I discovered el truco de magia—that’s what we called it—wasn’t a magic trick.”

  “¿Como?” Lily asked, her face softening with understanding..

  “I asked questions. Women didn’t ask questions back then. I was silenced, and I never got any answers while your grandfather was alive. I didn’t get them until about ten years ago. They came directly from your father, when he started doing survey work.”

  “I didn’t know he did survey work,” Lily said. I couldn’t imagine not even knowing what my father did for a living.

  “Cuba was a trade hub for over four centuries. Ships sank. Many riches were lost. Imagine what someone with a supernatural ability could find with the aid of satellite imagery. Your father saw things he should not have seen, but it was part of who he was. Who he is.”

  “What kind of things?” Lily frowned.

  “The gift seemed to increase in strength with every generation.” Abi returned to the table. She traced the rim of her cup. “One of the first things the realtor gave us when we moved in here was a town map with tiny little cartoon drawings of all the planned renovations. He tried to hand it to you, I guess because it was colorful and he thought you’d like it. I jerked it away, telling him I wanted to make it a keepsake, that you were too little and you’d tear it up. I always taught you to touch the maps in your schoolbooks with the eraser end of your pencil. Remember?”

  “Yes,” Lily answered, remembering. “And when I had to make a topographical map of Tennessee, you wouldn’t let me.”

  “The only time I’ve ever done your homework.” Abi stared into her coffee cup as if it held all the answers. “Your grandfather couldn’t find things on maps, but your father could. I didn’t know what you’d be able to find.”

  “I can find things on maps,” Lily confessed. “And … people, too, I think.”

  “I suspected as much,” Abi said, resigning herself to the truth. “Please understand, my love, I thought by keeping your ability dormant, I was keeping you safe.”

  “Safe from who?”

  Dread settled in the bottom of my stomach.

  “From the people your father worked for. They knew about your grandfather, too. It would only make sense that they’d look to you one day. We considered lying, saying that the gift had skipped a generation, but it was so strong in you. You couldn’t control it, not at that age. So we left Cuba, and I swore I’d do everything I could to make you forget.”

  Lily leaned forward. “Papi looked for things on survey maps. On the ocean floor?”

  “Knowing the history of a piece of treasure, its origin, and the path it’s traveled can increase the worth by hundreds of thousands of dollars. Priceless to museums, collectors, historians, or anyone with money and interest.”

  “Lily’s father can trace provenance?” I asked. “Can Lily?”

  “I don’t know.” She was lying.

  If Lily could trace ownership of artifacts, it would make the artifacts more valuable. It would make Lily more valuable.

  “Did Lily’s father”—I hesitated, meeting Abi’s eyes—“did he have to know what the things he was searching for looked like?”

  “How could he? They’d been on the bottom of the ocean floor for decades….” She trailed off. “You didn’t know that.”

  Lily’s shock coursed through my body as if it were my own. “I thought I had to have seen a thing before I could find it.”

  “No, my love. No,” Abi explained wearily. Defeated. “Not if you’re searching on a map. Touching it.”

  “Abi, I have to help Kaleb find someone. So many bad things could happen if we don’t.”

  “So many bad things could happen if you do. They think we died on a raft in the ocean. But what if they found out the truth? We’ve been safe for a long time in America, Lilliana, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t been found out.” Abi held her fist up to her mouth and paused for a few seconds. “Any suggestion that you are alive and have a hint of your father’s ability, and the people he works for will be here on our doorstep.”

  “Maybe things have changed.” Lily didn’t want to believe her.

  “Do you think your father works for them because he wants to? The government forces him to work for them, or the highest bidder, and then he watches money go into the pockets of others.” Abi’s voice got louder and louder. “What do you think these men would do if they could double their intake? What makes you think you’d be treated well, alone on a boat with so many men?”

  The thought made my skin crawl. I leaned closer to Lily, resting my arm on the back of her chair.

  Abi stared at me for a moment before turning her attention back to her granddaughter. “It’s not like it is here. It’s not the same.”

  “I understand that, and I’m so grateful for all you’ve given up for me.” Lily paused, trying to gain control of her emotions. She wasn’t having a lot of luck. “But I need you to understand that what I’m asking to do could make the difference between life and death—”

  “No.” The force behind Abi’s answer wasn’t just strong, it was harsh. I could tell Lily wasn’t used to being spoken to that way, the same way I could tell Abi wasn’t used to Lily challenging her.

  “Fine.” Lily stood, crossed the kitchen, and took her bag and jacket from the peg by the front door. “I’ll be home for dinner.”

  “You no longer ask permission?”

  I hated the hurt I felt between them, wished I could erase it and make everything right.

  “May I leave?” She didn’t meet her grandmother’s eyes. “With Kaleb?”

  Abi looked at me. “You care for my granddaughter?”

  “Yes, ma’am.” More than care.

  “Then you will not let her do anything that would put her at risk?”

  “No, ma’am, I won’t.” I stood up. “I
promise.”

  “Fine, then.” Her eyes were dull. “I love you, Lily.”

  Lily didn’t say a word as we walked out the front door.

  Chapter 35

  We strolled.

  I’d never really taken a leisurely trip around downtown Ivy Springs, and definitely not with a girl. Lily’s spikes of emotion told me that she was processing all the things her grandmother had told her. I knew that when she was ready to talk, I’d be the one to listen. She trusted me.

  That pleased me in ways I couldn’t explain.

  A pumpkin carving contest took up most of the town square. People were everywhere, spilling out from cafés and sitting on benches. I didn’t want to be in a crowd and neither did Lily, so we ended up at Sugar High, a candy shop decorated like a high school hallway. Pep rally and prom ticket posters decorated the wall, there was even the occasional announcement over the loudspeaker. The locker doors were clear and showcased row after row of any candy imaginable. I was currently making my way through a half pound of Atomic Fireballs. Lily watched, drinking mint hot chocolate.

  “She loves you,” I finally said.

  “Of course she does. She sacrificed her life, her family, her homeland, just to bring me here. To keep me safe.”

  I gathered up the empty wrappers on the table and leaned my chair back to drop them into the closest trash can. “There’s not an ounce of regret in her, Tiger. She’d do it a hundred times over.”

  “I know that, too.” She stared off into space, twisting the Styrofoam cup of hot chocolate around in her hands. I jumped when she slammed it down so hard on the table the contents sloshed over the sides. “But she’s still forbidding me to use my ability. This whole thing blows.”

  A mom shot Lily a mean look and covered her son’s ears before scuttling him to the other side of the store.

  “Abi’s not being reasonable,” she said a few seconds later, wiping the spilled hot chocolate up and shoving the dirty napkin in her cup. “She knows how important it is to me, or I wouldn’t have asked. She knows how much I care about Em, and I told her how I feel about you—”

  “Me?”

  “I … I mean, about how I felt … like finding Jack was the right thing to—”

  “No.” I grinned. I couldn’t help it. “You told your grandmother how you feel about me. How do you feel about me?”

  “We’ve already established that I don’t like you.” Her voice was haughty, but her heart wasn’t in it. She sighed. “You’re exactly the kind of boy my grandmother has always warned me to avoid.”

  “‘Boy?’” I sat up straighter, sticking out my chest. “What kind of man would I be, exactly?”

  “A temptation.” She threw her cup at the trash can, sinking an impressive three pointer.

  “Like the snake in the Garden of Eden?”

  “No. More like the apple.”

  “The apple?” I asked.

  “Yeah. I’m pretty sure Eve never considered taking a bite out of the snake.”

  When I realized my mouth was hanging wide open, I shut it. “Okay.”

  “Back on task.” She banged her fist on the table, like a judge calling a courtroom to attention. “Why haven’t you asked me to break Abi’s rule?”

  I tried to refocus. “Your level of respect for her, and how much she adores you. I think because of the life she gave up, you feel you owe her. You only owe her your well-being.”

  Lily stood up, dissecting the statement as we walked outside to continue our stroll. “How do I owe her for my well-being?”

  “Parents, grandparents, whoever—they do what they can to keep us safe. Sometimes that involves secrets.” My dad kept the Infinityglass from me because my mom had forbidden it. He’d left Memphis to protect us, as well as his interests. He served as a guardian to every person he’d researched. By letting Jack Landers get away with Dad’s personal files, I’d failed to protect the very same people. “Abi thought she was doing the right thing by keeping the truth from you, she honestly did, and you know I know.”

  “You sound very mature.”

  I shrugged. “What she said about your dad and the people he works for made me realize how bad things could be if you went back to Cuba. She’s not just scared that could happen, she’s bone-deep terrified.”

  So was I.

  “And you don’t feel the same way about what could happen to you? To your dad?”

  “We still have some time. We’ll find another way.” I didn’t even want to think about putting Lily in danger. It twisted my stomach into knots. “So. I’m an apple, huh? The apple of your eye?”

  “Kaleb.” She stopped walking and her cheeks turned bright pink. “I’m uncomfortably aware that you know how I feel right now.”

  “I do?”

  Hope. Anticipation. Uncertainty.

  “Yeah, I do,” I admitted. My heart sped up in my chest. “But I try not to rely on my … ability in situations where a misread could be fatal.”

  “Fatal?”

  I was losing cool points so fast I was running into negative numbers. “What if I read you wrong?”

  “Pretty sure that won’t happen.” Her expression was as direct as her words. “I was thinking about something last night right before I fell asleep. When people feel emotions, you feel them, too. So it’s a … mutual experience kind of thing?”

  Her perceptiveness was unnerving. Almost as unnerving as the fact that she thought about me while falling asleep. In her bed.

  “Mutual. Yes. I mean … it … it’s complicated.”

  Intrigue. “So how would you feel right now … if … we touched?”

  “I guess it would depend on how you felt about me. There are a lot of triggers with touching. Intensity, circumstances.” I lost track of what I was saying when she smoothed her hand across my chest and halfway down my stomach. Her touch made my toes want to curl all the way through the soles of my shoes, and not for purely physical reasons. “I don’t … I’m not sure.”

  Smiling, she pulled her hand away and started walking again. No one had ever caught on to this part of my ability before. Except my mom. And that was a whole different thing. We shared happiness when we made cookies together.

  Lily was not referencing cookies.

  I realized she was ten feet away and I caught up.

  “It would depend on how I felt,” she said. “If I felt good, you would, too?”

  “Yup.”

  “If I felt good physically, or emotionally?”

  “Yup. Either. Both.”

  “Am I making you uncomfortable?”

  “Yup.” I didn’t know why, exactly. It’s not like I was shy. Or innocent.

  “Knowing that things rebound back to you has to be addictive.” When we reached Murphy’s Law, she stopped at the stairs leading up to her apartment. “I’d be spending a lot of time making people feel good.”

  “The appeal of making a lot of people feel good isn’t what it used to be. I think maybe I’d just like to focus on one.”

  “You sure about that?”

  “Yup.”

  And it shocked the hell out of me.

  A faint hint of a smile touched her lips.

  “Are you going to be all right?” I asked. “Do you need me to go in with you?”

  “No. Abi and I have a lot to talk about.”

  She stood up on her tiptoes to kiss my cheek.

  I watched her until she stepped inside, and I knew she was safe.

  Chapter 36

  The next morning when I woke up I went straight to the pool house. I had to tell Michael that we’d lost our direct connection to Jack, and that using Lily was no longer an option.

  I had Jack’s watch in my jacket pocket. The morning air was crisp, and steam rose from the pool in a fog. Leaving the heater on and paying the service was such a waste. I didn’t know if I’d ever swim in it again. I knocked lightly, but no one answered. Probably still in bed.

  After debating whether or not I should wake Mike up, I decided it was too
urgent to wait. I turned the knob, and then froze when I heard his voice.

  “… last time I saw you, you were pointing a gun at me. I have no reason at all to trust you.” So much rage. Not a common feeling from Michael.

  “He used me.” Nothing.

  “He’s still using you, Cat, and you’re letting him. He’s traveling, and the continuum is getting worse.”

  Cat.

  She’d been like a sister to me before she turned on my family and actively participated in my dad’s death.

  My rage blew Michael’s out of the stratosphere. I slammed the door open so hard it bounced off the wall. “Why haven’t you broken her neck yet? She’s a waste. There’s no way you’re going to get the truth from her.”

  Cat’s arrival must have surprised Michael. His hair was still wet from the shower and he didn’t have on a shirt. He stood on one side of the couch and she stood on the other, next to the open sliding glass doors and the snack bar. Her mahogany skin looked ashen, her brown eyes dull. Her short hair had started to grow out, sticking up in awkward angles from her head. She hadn’t been taking care of herself. Jack hadn’t been taking care of her, either.

  “I’m here to ask forgiveness,” Cat said, her eyes widening as she looked up at me. An act, just like our entire relationship.

  “Don’t.” I held up my hand. “Don’t even open your mouth. If I didn’t know Mike would stop me, I’d choke you to death with my bare hands right now.”

  “Go ahead,” Michael said. “My superhero cape is at the cleaners.”

  “Just listen,” she pleaded, holding up her hand, edging closer. “I have information. I can help you.”

  “Does he know you’re here?” I asked. “Does he know you’re about to sell him out?”

  Sudden movement behind Cat caught my attention.

  “I know everything.”

  Jack, looking pampered and perfectly healthy.

  We locked eyes for two seconds before he lunged and grabbed Cat. I rushed him, with Michael right behind me. Propelling myself forward, I reached for Jack’s shirtsleeve, my fingers just missing it as he kicked the stools from the snack bar into our path. I smashed into them, Michael ran into me, and we both went down.