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Something she said sounded strange, distracting me from my pain. Both physical and emotional.
“Blew up.” The building had blown up. Everything I’d read or heard indicated that there had been a fire, but never an explosion.
Cat seemed confused. “Am I wrong? Did I misunderstand Liam?”
I ignored her questions. “Where’s Ava?”
“I don’t know. No one’s seen her.”
“I saw her. In the past. She was standing with a man, watching the lab burn.” Sorrow made my chest tight, and I checked my grief so I could continue coherently. “I thought I recognized him.”
“What did he look like?”
“Tall. Broad shoulders. Light hair.”
Cat’s face remained immobile. “And you recognized him?”
“Yes.” I didn’t think she’d like it when I told her how. “I’ve met him.”
“What?”
I crossed my arms on the table and laid my head down on top of them.
Everyone might think Landers had disappeared because he’d taken off with Liam’s files. But he hadn’t really.
He’d been living in my loft.
The late-morning air was crisp. Somewhere someone burned leaves. Kaleb and Liam sat in glider chairs in the backyard underneath an ancient oak tree. The overhanging branches dropped newly turned autumn leaves like rain. As they fell, the sun touched them from the east, setting them aglow.
It should have been a beautiful day.
“Liam.” Cat approached them, her arms over her chest to brace herself against the chill in the air. Or maybe to protect herself from Liam’s reaction. “I’m sorry to interrupt. We have to talk.”
“It’s fine, Cat.” Something about his face was older than it had been yesterday. He pushed his foot against the ground, gliding back and forth in his chair. “Good morning, Emerson.”
“Morning.” I failed to see anything good about it.
Kaleb offered me his seat. I made a sound of protest, but he took me by the wrists anyway, avoiding my injured hands, and guided me into the chair.
Sparing Cat the difficulty of figuring out how to break the news, I said, “Jonathan Landers has been living in my bedroom.”
No one spoke. Liam froze midglide. Kaleb swung his head around to stare at me.
“I didn’t know it was him. He told me his name was Jack.”
“Jack is his childhood nickname,” Cat murmured.
“I made the connection last night, but it didn’t sink in until this morning. I thought he was a ripple until I tried to pop him and he didn’t disappear. He was … semisolid.”
Liam leaned forward in his chair, placing his hands on his knees. His wedding band was encircled by infinity symbols. That must have been how he got through the bridge last night.
“When did you first see him?”
“The night the restaurant opened. A couple of weeks ago.”
A lifetime ago.
“Living in your bedroom … was he there all the time? How did he appear to you?” Liam asked calmly.
