I swallowed and nodded. “Promise.”
“Okay.” Natalie unlocked the driver’s side door and popped the locks on the other doors. “Then get in and let’s go.”
“About time,” V muttered as he climbed into the backseat.
“Where to?” Natalie asked as I joined her in the front and she turned the key.
I glanced at V, raising an eyebrow in a silent question. The idea that Zo was listening to us made silence an attractive option.
“It doesn’t matter—just someplace new. Somewhere you don’t usually go. The sooner we get lost, the better.”
I looked at Natalie and took a chance that this version of Natalie remembered the same things I did. “The alphabet game?”
Grinning, she nodded. “Good idea.”
I breathed a sigh of relief and buckled my seat belt.
Long before any of us could drive, Natalie, Valerie, and I would ride our bikes around the neighborhood. The summer of our fifth-grade year, Natalie had become obsessed with maps and mazes. She drew up a plan of the entire neighborhood, marking the fastest routes to various destinations—the school, the church, each of our houses—often finding rarely traveled, winding back roads. That was the summer she also invented the alphabet game. We would ride our bikes to an intersection, and if the cross street started with a letter A through J, we’d turn right; K through S, we’d go straight through; and T through Z, we’d turn left. At the next street, we’d rotate the rules.
We once spent a whole Saturday playing the game until we ended up at least a half mile from home at a small place none of us had ever heard of before: Phillips Park. It turned out there was a much shorter, more direct route to the park, and once Natalie had mapped it for us, Phillips Park became our destination of choice for long summer afternoons.
Natalie stopped at the corner. “Bluebell Avenue,” she read, and flipped the blinker before turning right.
We drove in silence for a while, Natalie making the turns as the game required. I tried to marshal my thoughts and questions into some kind of order. I had so many, it was hard to choose, so I started with what I thought was the most important one.
I twisted in my seat, pinning V with a hard gaze. “What are you doing here?”
He shook his head, glancing over his shoulder as though we were being followed.
“How did you find me?” I tried another one.
He pressed his lips together, clearly unwilling to answer.
“What do you want?”
At that, V’s face closed with a hard snap of repressed anger. His dark eyes seemed even darker and a flush crept up the sides of his neck.
I glanced at Natalie, who was turning left on Tulip Court, and saw a small local strip mall up ahead. I pointed to the parking lot of a tanning salon. “Pull in there.”
She did, sliding her car into a space by the curb. She turned the car off and unbuckled her seat belt. I reached over and pushed the automatic locks; the resulting click sounded loud in the silent car. We both turned to V.
“We’re here,” I said, “at a totally random place we’ve never been before because you wanted to get away from Zo.”
V’s jaw tightened at the name, the flush spreading like a wound.
“We’re as hidden as we can be, I guess. And you said we had to talk. So start talking.”
V looked out the window, down and away. Tension coiled around him like a whip, taut and thick. He clenched his hands into fists and swallowed hard.
After a long silence, I spoke again. “Fine. Be that way.” I turned around in my seat and rebuckled my seat belt. “Let’s go, Nat. This is obviously some kind of game for him.”
“No, wait—” V grabbed my shoulder.
I cocked my head to let him know I was listening.
“I’ll talk.”
I exchanged a glance with Natalie.
“Hey, do what you want. I’m just the driver.” She shrugged. “I won’t interrupt.”
I turned around to face V. “Let’s start with an easy one. What did you mean when you said Helen’s was a lodestone location?”
V sighed, slumping in his seat. The tension was gone, replaced by a visible weariness. “Places where you spend a lot of time are brighter, easier to see from the other side. So are places where you have strong memories or emotional ties. We are drawn to those places—like Helen’s Café—because they provide the easiest access to your specific timeline.”
Natalie leaned forward, but I didn’t look at her. I didn’t have time to answer her questions or try to explain.
“Tell me why Zo is targeting my specific timeline.”
“Stop saying his name,” V growled. “I told you—it’s dangerous.”
I remembered how upset Valerie had been when I’d said Zo’s name and I felt a shiver run through me.
“Fine,” I said through gritted teeth. “Tell me why he is targeting me specifically.”
V shook his head. “He wouldn’t tell me. Just that he needs you.”
I wanted to slap him. Zo had said the same thing to me in the park. I’d had enough of riddles and strange Italian men with their mysterious ways and cryptic comments. I wanted answers. And I wanted them now.
“What does he want? What is he planning to do?”
“I don’t know.”
“Liar,” I snapped. “You’ve been working with him. You do everything he says.”
“Not anymore,” V said.
I drew in a sharp breath. Zo hadn’t mentioned this change. “Why should I believe you?”
V whipped his head back to me. “He ruined my life.”
“Join the club.”
“I suppose I deserve that,” V said, “considering.”
“Considering what? You’ve been doing his bidding all this time and now you want me to talk to you—to trust you—and I’m still not sure I can do either one.”
“I know. It was a gamble to contact you, but the streams were pretty clear. If I wanted to see her again, I had to go through you.”
“See who?”
A smile crossed his face for the first time all day and a softness entered his eyes. “Valerie.”
“You want to see her again?” I asked in disbelief, hearing a soft gasp of amazement from Natalie. “After what you did to her?”
“I didn’t do anything to her—”
“As I recall, you were the one who pushed her into the river,” I pointed out.
“You know what he can do on the bank. You were there. You know. You remember.”
I did remember—that loose-limbed sense of well-being, the urge of instant obedience, the gratitude at being able to serve—and I shivered a little inside.
“I didn’t have a choice,” V said, a muscle tightening along his jaw.
“And if you did have a choice?” I asked. “What then? What would you have done?”
“I would have gone with her.” V’s voice was low and confidential. “I would have taken her away from all . . . this. I would have protected her.”
“The way you protected her before? You knew what kind of person you were dealing with. You knew what he was planning. You must have known there was the chance Valerie wouldn’t survive—” My voice broke, but I forced myself to continue. “And now she’s his—body and soul . . . and what mind she has left.”
“It wasn’t supposed to be like that.”
“Then what was it supposed to be like? What was your big plan, if not to take her to the bank like you did?”
“The plan was always to go back. All we wanted was to go home. And he said Valerie wouldn’t get hurt.”
“And you believed him?” I rocked back in my seat from sheer astonishment.
“You went to the bank and nothing bad happened to you,” he retorted. “It was a reasonable promise to believe.”
“Nothing bad happened to me on the bank?” I repeated. “My whole life changed there—and not all for the better.”
“But some of it did change for the better, right? It wasn’t all
bad—not like for Valerie.”
“Stop saying her name.” My voice shook in my throat. “You’re not her friend. You don’t know anything about her—”
“I know I loved her,” he said quietly. “I know I would give anything to take back that moment. If it meant she would be well again . . . I’d do whatever I could to make it right.”
“You couldn’t have loved her. You hardly knew her,” I
stammered. I risked a glance at Natalie, but she was as surprised as I was by the news. The conversation had taken an unexpected turn, and I cast about for something solid to hang my swirling thoughts on. “She was his girl . . .”
“But originally she wanted me. Before anything else happened, she was interested in me.”
I heard the fierce pride in V’s voice then, the confidence and certainty. It was like a layer had been peeled away from V and I could see him with new eyes. He wasn’t as charismatic as Zo. He wasn’t tall or suave like Tony. And he knew it. He knew he was a rather average-looking guy, with dark hair and a build that was more stocky than stout. I had always thought of him as the thug who carried out Zo’s plans. And maybe he had spent most of his time in the background, but Valerie hadn’t seen him that way. She had seen him as the most interesting member of Zero Hour. The one she wanted to get to know better. Not Zo, with his good looks and snake-charmer’s way. Not Tony, with his quick wit and ready smile. The bright star that was Valerie had been attracted to the pale moon of V. And for V, her unexpected attention must have been as surprising as waking up one morning to see the sun rising in the west.
“If you loved her,” I said, “then why did you let her . . . ?” A memory of Valerie rose up in my mind—her sitting in the plastic chair next to the hospital window—and I couldn’t finish.
“I hated what he did to her—”
“What you all did to her,” I interrupted. “Zero Hour wasn’t a one-man band, after all.”
V grimaced. “I know. And I take full responsibility for my part in what happened. That’s why I’m trying to make it right.”
“Then why don’t you? I thought the whole point was that you guys could go back and change things. Make things the way you wanted them to be. Someone else certainly has been exercising his power, reshaping things however he wants.”
V sighed and looked down at his hands. “It’s not that easy—”
“Why did you bother to come to the café today?” I demanded. “You show up, spin some tale, tell me you’re in love with my friend, and what? You’re going to leave without giving me any answers? What was the point?”
“The point is that Zo deserves to die for what he did.” The words slid from his mouth like oil. “For what he made me do.” He finally looked up and met my eyes. I recoiled at the hardness I saw there, the pitilessness. “And I need your help to kill him.”
Chapter
15
Natalie whistled low, under her breath. “Okay, this conversation is officially over. I don’t have a clue what you guys are talking about, but killing someone is out of the question.”
I couldn’t look away from V’s dark eyes. Conflicting emotions stormed through me. Instinct said no, with horror, but my anger leaped at the chance to say yes.
“I thought you guys couldn’t be killed,” I said slowly. “I thought that was one of the benefits of having gone through the door a second time.” I nodded at the gold bands around V’s wrists, winking from the dark cave of his sleeves. They were identical to the ones I’d seen wrapped around Zo’s arms.
“The only person who can kill a master of time is another master of time,” V said.
“So why do you need my help? You’re as strong as he is. Why don’t you do it yourself?”
V’s mouth turned down. He leaned forward, wrapping his hands around the posts holding up the headrest. “I’ve tried. More than once. But every time I get close, he slips away. I need you to help me get close to him. That’s all. Just a chance to get close to him.”
Natalie started the car. “Seriously, guys. We’re done talking about this.”
“I’d be the bait?” I asked in disgust.
“I’m the bait,” V said, shaking his head. “You’d be the trap.”
“What?”
“He’ll come for me, but he’ll stop for you. And when he does, then you can hold him in place.”
“And why would he come for you?” I asked, cautiously.
“Because he doesn’t take betrayal lightly,” V said, slumping back into his seat. “Especially from those he was close to.”
I knew that was the truth. The last person who had betrayed Zo had been Leo, and Zo had repaid him by implicating Dante in his traitorous conspiracy and sentencing them all to a trip through time.
“He’s hunting you, isn’t he? That’s why you wanted to leave Helen’s. It wasn’t because you were afraid for me. You were afraid for you.”
V looked out the window and pulled his sleeves down over his wrists. “You said I’m as strong as he is, but you’re wrong. I’m not. I don’t know if anyone is. Maybe if Tony was here, we’d have a chance to stop him together. But he’s gone and I don’t know where he is. I’ve tried to find him, but I can’t. I’m the only one left.”
I knew where Tony was, but I hesitated to tell V. There was nothing Tony could do to help. As it was, I’d be lucky to save Dante. No, I told myself. Don’t think that. You will save him. You will.
“What did you do?” I asked quietly.
V shrugged. “I told him no.”
“That’s all?”
“That was enough.” V sighed and ran his hand through his hair. “He has been targeting you—”
“Yeah, I noticed.”
“—and he wanted me to do something that would hurt you. To test my loyalty, he said. I said no. I walked away.”
My blood turned to ice. “Why would you do that for me? You hardly know me.”
V turned his dark eyes to me. “I didn’t do it for you. I did it for Valerie. She’s been talking to you, hasn’t she? Telling you stories?”
I nodded.
“He doesn’t like anyone telling his secrets. He told me to take care of it. He said he didn’t care what I did to her, just so long as she was unraveled from your timeline.”
Unraveled. The word sat in my mind, refusing to be shoved aside. Several threads had already been pulled out of the tapestry of my life: Hannah, Dad, Jason. Even Dante was coming loose, fraying at the edges as the darkness between doors closed in around him. Valerie may not have been the strongest thread, but her life didn’t deserve to be unraveled just because she was my friend.
When V spoke again, his voice was surprisingly gentle. “I didn’t want to hurt her again. I couldn’t. And now that I’ve walked away from Zo, he’s punishing me by keeping me away from her. I can’t reach her even though all I want is to see her, talk to her, tell her . . .” V met my eyes again. “Please, Abby. I can’t do this alone.”
I could see it so clearly then: Zo was working to isolate me. His efforts had been focused on making changes that would take people away from me, divide me from those who might help. He needed me alone and vulnerable.
He wasn’t going to get it.
I reached for Natalie’s hand. I still had her on my side. And Leo. And Dante—once we broke him out of prison. And with V defying Zo’s wishes, it meant I still had Valerie with me. Plus, V had come looking for me, asking for my help. It was starting to look like Zo might be the one left alone and vulnerable.
Zo had been running free for too long. If V had a plan to trap him, stop him, then now might be the best time to make a stand.
“I have as much reason to hate him as you do—maybe more—so I’ll make you a deal,” I said slowly. “I’ll do what I can to arrange a meeting between you and Valerie.”
“And?” V asked, both hope and hesitation in his voice. “What do you want me to do?”
“I want you to build me a new door for the time machine.”
“What? Are yo
u crazy?”
“I have the plans. But the building schedule is on a strict timeline and I need you to figure out how to get it built now. Not in two months. Not in two weeks. Now.”
V shook his head. “I’m not sure that’s possible—”
“Zo doesn’t seem to be letting something as trivial as the impossible stop him from doing what he wants.”
V flinched, his expression etched with anger.
“It’s simple. You help me with the door and I’ll help you with Valerie.”
“And Zo,” V added. “You’ll get me close enough so I can kill him.”
“It’s in everyone’s best interests for him to be stopped,” I replied diplomatically. Stop him, yes. Trap him, yes. Help to kill him? As angry as I was with Zo, as sweet as my hate for him tasted, I didn’t think I would be able to do that. I didn’t want to be the kind of person who could.
A grin spread across V’s face. He held out his hand to me, the gold chains bright against his flushed skin. “Deal,” he said.
I slipped my hand into his, abruptly remembering Leo’s hand matching mine, Dante’s hand caressing mine, Zo’s hand capturing mine, and I wondered if I was doing the right thing.
“Deal,” I repeated.
***
I offered to have Natalie drop V off somewhere, but he shook his head. “I can get where I’m going easier than you can,” he said as he got out of the car. “I’ll be in touch.”
He waited on the curb as Natalie pulled the car away. I watched him in the side mirror as he turned and began crossing the parking lot. Somewhere between the light post and the far edge of the building, he simply disappeared.
The air where he had been rippled ever so slightly—if I hadn’t been watching for it, I would have missed it—and deep in my inner ear I heard the shivering chimes of time ring. The barriers between the river and bank were thinning; there was no doubt about it.
I glanced at Natalie to see if she had noticed V’s unusual departure, but she kept her eyes fixed on the road, her hands wrapped so tightly around the steering wheel that her knuckles turned white.
“Who was that guy?” she said, more of a demand than a question. When I hesitated, she whipped her head toward me. “You promised me the truth. What have you dragged me into?”