Hourglass (19 page)

Chapter 40

W
here’s Kaleb? I thought he’d want to be part of this conversation, too.” Cat’s face registered surprise.

“He went to get the rest of his stuff from the Hourglass.” Michael opened the front door when I knocked without a word. I’d followed him into the kitchen in silence, my heart breaking a little more with every step. “He said to start without him.”

We all sat down around the kitchen table. An empty seat occupied the space between Michael and me.

The little-old-lady glasses Cat had been wearing at the college balanced on the tip of her nose. She pulled out a tiny spiral notebook and opened it flat in front of her. “I did some research, looking at every angle of the Novikov Principle. I have to say, Michael, you really did your homework. I think it’s a possibility.”

Victory.

“Don’t get too excited yet,” she warned, shaking her head and tapping the notebook. The pages were scribbled with numbers and formulas. “There’s more work to be done. We’ve got to get every element down perfectly, so many—”

We all jumped when the back door slammed open, ricocheting against the wall. Kaleb burst into the room. “Cat, Michael, you’ll never … the house … Landers …” He bent over at the waist, hands on his knees, shoulders heaving.

“Did you run the whole way here?” Cat rushed to the fridge to get Kaleb a cold bottle of water, opening it as she handed it to him. He took several long pulls before wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

“No. Ran out of gas. Couple blocks over. Couldn’t stop,” he gasped, shaking his head. “It’s Landers. He’s gone.”

Michael sat up straighter in his chair. “Where?”

“What?” Cat asked at the same time.

“No one knows. Overheard a few people talking.” Kaleb drained the rest of the water and capped the empty bottle. “Arguing about how no one’s been paid in over a month.”

“How is that possible?” Michael asked. “Since Liam died, Landers has taken on more work than the Hourglass can handle.”

“It was so odd.” Kaleb twisted the cap on the water bottle open and closed, over and over, staring down at his tennis shoes. “Like they all realized at the same time that he was gone.”

Michael said, “They shouldn’t have helped him in the first place.”

“You’re missing the point.” Kaleb’s voice grew urgent.
“When he ran, he took the files.”

The tension in the room intensified, pulled tight like a thread.

“But you got them.” Michael’s tone was as fierce as it had been the day he told me to mind my own business when it came to the Hourglass. “Kaleb, you said you’d get them.”

“I planned to. They were in the safe yesterday, when I opened it to get the papers the hospital needed for Mom’s admission.” Kaleb paused and pain flashed across his features for a brief second. “Landers’s guards were in the office, so I had to leave them. Then this morning, the safe was drilled through. Jewelry, stock certificates, still there. Only the cash and the files were taken.”

The thread unraveled, and the room went dead silent. Fear wrapped itself around my heart in tiny tendrils. I closed my eyes, knowing when I opened them that everyone would be looking at me.

I was right. “What’s going on?”

“My dad kept records,” Kaleb answered. I didn’t like the sound of his voice. “He’d save things on computer disks sometimes, but these files … they were hard copy only. He stored them in the family safe. That’s how private he kept them.”

I focused on Kaleb. “What do the files have to do with me?”

“If Dad received information about anyone with any type of an ability, even a hint of one, he documented it. Every incident. Every detail.” Kaleb’s fist crushed the plastic bottle, barely covering my gasp. “Every person.”

“Liam documented me.” I turned to Michael. “He documented me, and you know because you looked.”

“After I met you, that first time. I needed to prove to myself that you were real. I asked Kaleb to open the safe for me. I should’ve taken your file that day,” Michael said.

“It’s not just Emerson’s file. Think about all the people he has access to now,” Cat said. “We have to find him.”

“If the Hourglass can’t, what makes you think we can?” Kaleb argued.

“We have to. Because we all know exactly who he’s going to target first.” Michael’s face was a controlled mask. “Travelers who can go to the past are rare. Really rare. Some physicists believe they’ll eventually be able to travel to the future on their own, gene or no gene. But not to the past.”

“That’s the very thing that makes people like you and Grace so special. And now that Grace isn’t an option,” Cat said, “it only makes sense that Landers would look for someone else with the same ability.”

“If he didn’t know about you before, he will soon. He’ll know you’re in town, close by. You aren’t safe anymore. Not if he has the files,” Michael said deliberately. “He has access to everything: your records, personal information. Your family’s address. My guess is it’s only a matter of time before he comes for you.”

I fought nausea as terror washed over me. “Oh, no, Michael. Thomas and Dru … the baby.”

My eyes landed on the phone hanging on the wall, and I almost knocked my chair over in my haste to get to it, grabbing it off the hook in a panic. It was the old-fashioned rotary type, the receiver attached by a long spiral cord twisted up in knots.

“You have access to more technology than NASA, and this is your phone?” I asked Michael, shaking the receiver at him. Cat and Kaleb disappeared from the kitchen, the door swinging shut behind them.

“It’s a secure line, so it …” He’d started to answer, but the expression on my face stopped him. I forced myself to concentrate and managed to put the right finger in the right holes as I dialed the number.

One thought pounded against the sides of my brain. If Landers killed Liam to take over the Hourglass, who would he be willing to hurt to get to me and my ability to travel to the past?

I called Thomas on his cell. The clanking sound of machinery muffled his voice. “Em, hold on and let me go somewhere quiet.”

I willed him to hurry and tried to figure out how to tell him that a lunatic was on the loose, and thanks to my freaky ability my whole family had big targets painted on their backs. And wombs. Womb.

“What’s up?”

“Do you trust me?”

He answered cautiously. “In what capacity?”

I twisted the phone cord in my fingers. “The other day at the restaurant, you said I was almost an adult and you couldn’t really tell me what to do anymore.”

“I don’t like where this is going.”

“For reasons I don’t have time to explain, you and Dru need to go somewhere safe. A place where no one can find you. Just for a couple of days, until you hear from me or Michael.” Silence on his end of the phone line. “Thomas?”

“I’m absorbing.”

“We don’t have time—”

“You may not,” he said, sounding exactly like our father would have, “but I’m not making one move until you give me an explanation.”

“The man believed to have killed Liam … Michael thinks he could have a ‘special interest’ in someone with my ability. And now he knows about me. What I can do.
Where I live
.”

“Go home. I’ll meet you there. We’ll all go somewhere safe together.”

“If I go home, I can’t save Liam. Michael believes that’s the only way we can stop this guy.”

“Understand this,” Thomas said, exchanging his parental tone for a panicked one. “You are just as precious to me as Dru and our baby. I get your motivation, but—”

“Thomas,” I cut him off, and considered asking Michael to leave the room so I could be completely honest with my brother. Instead I turned away and lowered my voice. “My motivation isn’t simply about saving a life or a family. The thing is … I belong here. I’ve found my place in the world. If I walk away now, it will be for good, and I can’t do that.”

“Is Michael with you?” Thomas asked. “Are you somewhere safe?”

“Yes.” As safe as I could be. “He’s right here.”

“Put him on.”

He listened to my brother with intense concentration, reaching out to take my hand halfway through the lecture. I was glad the phone wasn’t attached to a power source.

“Yes, sir. Whatever it takes. To save time, if you and Dru head for the airport we’ll make the arrangements,” Michael said. “A guy named Dune will give you a call.” He listened for another minute. “You got it. Here she is.”

“Everything in me screams that I shouldn’t let you do this,” he said.

“Everything in me screams that you should.”

“I know.” A mix of anxiety and reservation strained his voice. “I love you. Be safe.”

“I love you back, and I will.”

I handed Michael the phone, and he placed it on the receiver.

“You know what we have to do,” I said. Nothing like a sociopath on your tail to throw things into a clear perspective. “We have to go get Liam. Now.”

“You’re not ready. We can’t risk—”

“
We can’t risk
Landers finding me before we go back to save Liam.
We can’t risk
Dru and Thomas and their baby.” I wrapped my arms around myself for comfort. “We can’t risk lots of things.”

Michael pushed the heels of his hands against his forehead. “It was so stupid to leave information about you where Landers could find it.”

“There’s nothing we can do about it now.”

“If we’re successful in saving Liam, he can make it all right again.” He lowered his arms. “We just have to protect everyone in the meantime.”

“What about Lily?” I asked. “Would he target her?”

“He could target anyone to get to you. Do you want her to come here?”

I did, but I didn’t think she’d go for it. “No. I’ll call her.”

“I’ll go find Dune. Get him started on the travel arrangements for Thomas and Dru.”

I dialed Lily’s number.

“Lily, it’s me. Something has happened, and I need you to do a couple of things.”

“Tell me what you need, sugar.” Leave it to Lily to stay cool and not ask questions. She was my best friend for a reason.

“The biggest thing is that you look out for yourself. This would be a good time to keep the baseball bat that lives by the back door pretty close to wherever you are.”

She let go with a string of curse words.

“And if anyone asks, you don’t know where Michael and I are.”

There was a moment of silence on the other end. “I
don’t
know where you are.”

“It needs to stay that way. No matter what happens.” I was terrified of what might be in the files, not just about me, but about my best friend. “Do you understand me?”

She was silent for a beat. “I understand.”

I didn’t let the tears fall until I’d hung up the phone.

Chapter 41

M
ichael sat at the kitchen table, laptop open, poring over newspaper articles and college records from six months ago. He had set up a timetable and was trying to find any holes. Dune held another laptop on his knees and searched traffic and accident reports to make sure we’d have clear roadways. Nate leaned against the kitchen counter, holding up a map of Ivy Springs for Dune.

I held an extra copy of the timetable, and tried to hold down the vomit.

Cat was as nervous as a mom sending her baby off to kindergarten. Possibly more, which was appropriate, considering what we were doing was way more dangerous.

“Okay, Michael, you have keys to the car, yes?” He held them up and then returned them to the table beside his computer, and Cat made a tick mark on the paper in her hand. “I have the keys to the science department.”

“You need the identification number for the cadaver you need to steal,” Dune said.

I couldn’t help but shudder.

“I’ll pull that up and make a note,” Michael said. “What else?”

“Keys, cadaver—oh, then there’s the …” Cat continued stalking around the kitchen, muttering under her breath.

Dune turned his attention to me. “I’ll check Thomas and Dru’s flight arrival time, too. I know you’ll want to talk to them before you go, make sure they got to the island safely.”

“Thanks, Dune.” I closed my eyes and took several deep breaths. My thoughts kept straying back to Landers and what he was up to. Would any of us ever be safe again? If he were on a power trip of the magnitude everyone thought he was, what would be the retribution if we were successful in resurrecting Liam?

“Hold it. What about money?” When Kaleb spoke, I opened my eyes. “What’s Dad supposed to live on for six months?”

Cat tapped her pencil on the notepad she was holding. “I can liquidate some assets, raise some cash, but we have to make sure we don’t use any bills printed after the date he died.”

“Yeah, I don’t think being arrested for counterfeiting would be a good way to stay under the radar. I can go to the bank,” Nate offered, putting the town map down on the counter. “Use my skills to sneak into the vault and get what we need. That way we won’t have to explain our need for bills with specific dates.”

“Nate,” Cat scolded. “Liam would never approve of your stealing—”

“I know, I know.” Nate held up his hands in mock surrender. “But do we have another option? It’s not like we won’t return the money.”

She shook her head reluctantly. Nate took that as a yes and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

“Speedy,” Michael said. The space on the kitchen table where his car keys had been was now empty. “He’d better not drive like he moves.”

“Okay, what else?” Cat looked at the list in her hand. “I wish we could work out a place for Liam to hide, but I just don’t see how.”

“Stop worrying. He’ll be alive.” Michael sat down in one of the kitchen chairs before his eyes met mine. “That’s all that matters.”

“Wait.” Cat’s eyes lit up. “You can get it!”

“What are you talking about?” Michael asked.

“Liam’s research. You can save it from going up in flames. It’s a miracle,” Cat said, clapping her hands together, her excitement visible. “All you have to do is get the disk. He only had one. It’s in a clear case, and it always sat beside the mainframe computer in Liam’s lab.”

“Sure,” I answered.

“Excellent.” Cat snapped her fingers and pointed toward the living area. “You need coats. If I remember correctly, it snowed that weekend. Michael, come with me. Help me dig some up.”

They left the room just as Dune shut the top of his computer. “Thomas and Dru are in Charlotte. They’re about to board their next plane, if you want to call them.”

“Thanks.” I stepped around the corner, pulled my cell out of my pocket, and sat down on the back stairs. Thomas answered before the first ring had finished.

After I hung up, I looked at the timetable in my hands and tried to wrap my brain around what was about to happen. I jumped when Kaleb stepped around the corner.

“I’m sorry.”

“For what?” I asked, lowering the timetable.

“Not getting the files. What I said to you last night. Am I forgiven?”

I sighed. “Of course you are.”

“You okay?” He lowered his body onto the step below me, then scooted down one more so that we were at eye level. “Tell me the truth.”

“You know I’ll tell you the truth. If I can be real with anyone, it’s you, and not just because you have a built-in bull detector.” I rested my chin in my hands. “The truth is, I don’t know. I thought I’d have more time to prepare.”

“Are you sure you want to do it?”

“What does your built-in bull detector tell you?”

“That you do.”

I nodded.

“Well, since you’re going anyway, the computer disk case Cat mentioned …”

“Yes?”

“The formula for my meds went up with the lab, too.”

I looked at Kaleb, really looked. Tiny lines were etched in the skin beside his eyes; the creases on either side of his mouth were deeper than they’d been even two days ago. “You said your dad made some for you just before he died. How long have you been without it?”

“I’ve been tapering off for a while now. I ran out completely a few weeks ago. It only got bad today, with everything going on.” The past few hours, all the emotions flying around—and Kaleb with no way to filter it all.

“Why didn’t you tell anyone?”

“What could anyone do?” He shrugged.

“I’ll get it. Where can I find it?”

“His bottom right desk drawer. It’s in a hanging file folder with my name on it. Looks exactly like his research disk.”

“Anything else you want me to get?”

“Just my dad.”

I looked into his eyes and hated the rawness I saw there. I could only imagine what it cost him. “Is that why you could feel my emotions so clearly when we met? Because you didn’t have a filter?”

“Yes. But—” He focused on the floor, and his long lashes cast a dark shadow on his cheekbones. There was no evidence of the playful, flirty Kaleb. “I’m pretty sure I would’ve connected with you anyway.”

I didn’t know the appropriate response to that statement. He seemed to have that affect on me. Fumbling around for words, I asked, “Um … hey, does everyone think that Landers is the one who killed your dad?”

“There weren’t any other suspects,” he answered, seeming grateful for the subject change. “The police questioned a few people, but they had no logical explanation for the fire, so ultimately they called it an accident.”

“Was Landers questioned?”

“Briefly,” Kaleb scoffed. “He had an iron-tight alibi.”

“I cut my teeth on murder mysteries. Alibis can be faked.”

“There was no way the authorities could have proved he did it. They don’t even know about places like the Hourglass—how could we explain his motive?”

“I’m worried.”

“I know,” he said, not bothering to hide his grin.

I smacked his gargantuan bicep. “Don’t tell me Michael won’t try to get proof about your dad’s murder when we go back.”

“Okay,” Kaleb said, raising his eyebrows. “I won’t tell you that.”

“But …” I motioned to the timetable on my lap. No room for error.

“He’s not going to do anything to put you at risk. I’m not going to deny that if he gets the chance to find out who did it, he’ll take it. But not if it puts you in danger.” Kaleb took my hand, rubbing his thumb across my knuckles. “He’s going to take care of you. That’s what Michael does.”

“I’m not worried about me.”

“I am.” He reached out with his free hand to tuck my hair behind my ear, and I froze. The tenderness in his touch threw me off. “I want you back in one piece.”

I wondered what kind of emotion Kaleb felt coming from me now. Maybe he could help me identify it.

“Em?” Michael called out, breaking the tension. I let go of Kaleb’s hand, jumped up, and almost tripped down the stairs. I pretended not to hear Kaleb laughing behind me.

“Hey,” I said to Michael as I rounded the corner into the kitchen, sure my face was bright red. “Did you need me?”

“Can you come here a sec? I want to talk to you about something before we go.”

“Sure.” I followed him up the same—now empty—stairs I’d just been sitting on with Kaleb on rubbery legs. So many sources of anxiety were doing a number on my nervous system.

Michael went into his room, leaving the door open and sitting down on the edge of the bed. I leaned against his desk. I had no idea what else we could say to each other. I hoped he wasn’t going to lecture me about Kaleb again. He looked down at his hands almost absentmindedly, clasping and unclasping them in his lap. “Are you scared?”

“A little.”

A lot.

“Keeping you safe is as important to me as saving Liam. You know that, don’t you?”

“I do. But I want us both kept safe. Listen,” I said hesitantly, “I want you to promise me that you won’t do anything stupid when we go back, like trying to find out who killed Liam. If we save him, it won’t matter who did it.”

“It will always matter who did it.”

“I understand that, but we can deal with it when we’re not in a life-or-death situation. Promise me.”

“I won’t try to find out who killed Liam.”

“You didn’t promise me you wouldn’t do anything stupid.”

He answered me with a tight smile. The weight of all the things that were unspoken between us pressed down on me. I couldn’t make another move until I cleared one thing up.

“Michael—”

“Em, I—”

“You go first,” I said. He had on a pale blue shirt, and the first few buttons were undone. A white T-shirt peeked out from underneath, and the collar was stretched just enough for me to see his collarbone. Something about it seemed so vulnerable.

“About last night,” he said. “Grabbing you like that was wrong. What I said to you was wrong.”

“No, it was right.”

He stared at me in surprise.

I stared at his T-shirt collar. “I should probably thank you for not using the way I felt about you to sway my decision.”

“The way you
felt
? You don’t feel anything now?”

“It doesn’t make a difference.” I wondered if he could hear me over my erratic heartbeat. Did I look as anxious as I felt? “You’ve made your boundaries pretty clear. And then there’s Ava.”

“Ava?”

“I mean, because of your relationship.”

He stood up and took a step toward me. “We don’t have that kind of relationship. She might want one, but I don’t.”

I stared up at him, my heart bouncing off my ribs so hard I expected to go into cardiac arrest any second. “You don’t? But you—she came to your room last night—”

“She’s been playing that game ever since she moved in here. Trying to convince me she was the girl for me.”

“Fun game.” I was caught somewhere between relief and fury, thinking back on everything I’d seen. Realizing how much of my jealousy I’d projected onto the situation. Feeling like a total ass.

“She never won.” He took one more step. “Never even got close. Ever since the day I got a voice mail and met up with a slightly older woman at Riverbend Park, the title of ‘my girl’ has been reserved.”

“So you like older women?”

He lifted his hand and gave his bedroom door a solid push. A soft
snick
told me it had closed behind me.

“I like
you
. And I see now that I should have cleared that up a long time ago.”

“This can’t be a good idea,” I whispered, not trusting my voice. Frozen. Afraid to touch him. Afraid not to.

Slowly, so slowly it made me ache, he placed one hand on the side of my neck, tracing the curve of my cheekbone with his thumb. I trembled. “I’m sorry. I want you to feel comfortable with me.”

“I do.”

“Then why are you shaking?”

Gathering all the bravado I had, I reached up to touch the center of his bottom lip. His eyes went dark with need. I moved to the slight cleft in his chin, wondering if the tiny prickles I felt came from his stubble or the ever-present electricity between us.

I got my answer when the lightbulb blew in his desk lamp.

“We do have one problem,” he said, his voice deep, almost sleepy. “I still work for your brother.”

“Just one problem?” I traced the line of his lower lip. I wanted to put my mouth there.

“At least. I’d hate to betray his trust. Wouldn’t you?”

I pressed my palms against his chest, trying to still them, and wondered if my hands felt like charged up defibrillator paddles to him. “No.”

For one second Michael hesitated. One crucial second when everything hung in the balance. Then he bent down, and my hands fisted in his T-shirt. He brushed his lips across mine.

Once.

I inhaled sharply.

Twice.

Nothing from me. Except maybe a whimper.

Three times.

“Michael?” His name came out in a whisper. I could tell by his breathing that his control was slipping. I stood on my tiptoes and reached up to tangle my hands in his hair. “You are
so
fired.”

All the electrical tension that had been building between us exploded into heat the second his touch became more than whisper light. He took my face into his hands, using them to control the intensity and depth of our kiss, which quickly moved from sweet to reckless. It was the most lovely of assaults.

One second he was kissing me as if I was as essential to him as oxygen, and the next it was over. He stepped away, looking haunted.

“Did I do something wrong?” I touched my mouth, missing the heat of him.

“No.” He shook his head and shoved his hands deep into the pockets of his jeans.

I didn’t want his hands in his pockets. I wanted them on me. “Why did you—”

“Not because I wanted to stop kissing you.” He looked at my lips. My pulse sped up, but my blood felt like lava moving through my veins. “Timing. My timing sucks.”

Circumstances. Not because of me. I couldn’t keep myself from grinning. “Would you like to try this again then, another time?”

“I’d very much like to try this again, another time.” He grinned, but it carried a touch of sadness. “I’ll give you a second to … uh … fix your hair.”