As I watched, Milo put his hand on Garrett’s shoulder and gestured toward the theater doors. Garrett stumbled, his expensive athletic shoes catching on one of the little metal bumps that dotted the slanted floor. Milo caught Garrett’s arm to keep him from falling as he moved with him toward the door. His mouth was close to Garrett’s ear, and even though I couldn’t hear what he was telling the football star, I suspected it was Milo’s personal version of the riot act. In other words, he was letting Garrett know exactly what would happen should he accidentally let slip Dana’s and my secret.
Milo’s quiet intensity had scared the crap out of Garrett the first time they’d met, and it was clear that Garrett was still extremely wary of the older boy.
“I should go to the hospital,” Cal suggested to Dana, even as he motored to follow Milo and Garrett, “and claim Amnesia Guy is my… Well, brother won’t work. He had something of a white supremacist vibe, but—”
“Don’t even think about it.” She cut him off.
“It’s one way to find out fast if he’s lying,” Cal noted. “About the amnesia.”
“And if he is lying, and I’m sure he is,” Dana argued, “then you’ll have just given him another clue to help him track Hoshitski over here.” She gestured to me with her head.
I held the door for Calvin, and after he went through, I stopped Dana with a hand on her arm and said, “For the record, you didn’t have to use blackmail. Saying please and asking for my help would’ve been enough. I know how badly you want to find Lacey. I really do—”
“Yeah, see, with blackmail?” Dana extracted herself from my grasp. “We don’t have to have this conversation. I want to find her. Fast. I don’t have time to cry about it.”
And with that, she walked away, taking her flashlight with her. I had to hurry to keep up and not be left in the dark.
Chapter Six
After dropping off a very quiet and subdued Garrett at the CoffeeBoy, where his car was still parked, Milo and I asked Cal for a ride to the public beach.
Coconut Key Beach had become the unofficial spot to meet for Milo-and-me time. And, considering the day we’d had so far, I really needed some quality Milo minutes.
I knew Cal had a physical therapy appointment that afternoon—PT was a three times a week deal for him, and it would be for the rest of his life. He’d recently started lifting weights to keep his upper body healthy and strong, and it was starting to show. He’d always been wiry and strong, but now his shoulders were filling out.
“Keep your phones on,” Cal warned us both as he pulled into the vacant beach parking lot. “Both your burner and your mom-phone.”
“I will,” I said. Because my overprotective mother sometimes tracked me via my cell phone, I’d gotten a burner like Dana’s and Milo’s. I’d become a pro at juggling them.
“And keep your eyes open,” Calvin added.
“You, too,” I said.
“Yeah, well, I’m driving, not…” He made embarrassingly loud smoochy noises.
Milo laughed as I slammed the car door closed. “Good-bye, Calvin.”
But Cal rolled down the window. “How worried should we be?” he asked. “About Garrett knowing what he knows?”
“I believe him,” I said. “You know, when he says that he wants to find Jilly, that he’s worried about her…? He really cares about her—which is weird, I know, but he’s not going to mess that up.”
“I feel that he took me very seriously,” Milo added.
“So…we trust him,” Cal said.
“We kind of have to,” I said.
“Hell just froze over. Would you rather team up with Garrett McDouche or suck the toes of a swastika-wearing neo-Nazi with a Hitler mustache and an aversion to soap and water?” He didn’t wait for us to respond—he answered it himself. “A few hours ago, I probably would’ve at least considered the nasty toes thing.” Cal pushed the button to send his window back up. “Eyes open,” he said again before it closed and he pulled away.
“Ew,” I said, watching as he drove out of the deserted beach parking lot. No one else was here. It was too cold. “That’s one powerful hatred of Garrett McDouche.”
“It is.” Milo was laughing, and as I met his eyes, I knew what he was thinking, even before I touched him. I had kind of weird, skinny feet, but he claimed that he loved my toes. Elegant, he’d called them once, right before he’d kissed them. In fact, that same day he’d kissed me in a lot of unusual and interesting places. And I knew as he stood there smiling at me, hands in his pockets and shoulders hunched against the ocean breeze, that he was thinking about that, too.
We were alone at last, so I reached for Milo and he extracted a hand to intertwine his fingers with mine. And, yes, we finally shared that Hollywood kiss, as Dana had called it back in the Twenty. And no, despite Calvin’s grim order, we didn’t keep our eyes open.
Because sometimes you just have to let the entire world fade completely away.
————
This close to the water, the breeze was relentless, and the wind chill brought the temperature down well into the low fifties. Which meant, here in Florida, that it was time to light your hair on fire and collapse sobbing on the ground before going inside to huddle beneath fleece blankets and turn on the stale-smelling electric heat.
But Milo and I didn’t mind the cold. The sunlit and sparkling ocean, the cloudless blue sky, and the white sand were as gorgeous as ever. More so without the vacationing throngs to block our view. We sat on our favorite bench swing in a secluded little area that held picnic tables and ancient, boxy charcoal grills. Even though we held hands, we both just sat in companionable stillness and silence, our feet swishing back and forth as we both gently pushed the swing. But as the breeze gusted, I shivered a little bit despite my sweatshirt.
Milo peeled off his hoodie and wrapped it around my shoulders.
Won’t you be cold? I asked.
His answer was immediate. I’m good, although I also picked up a stray thought that maybe I wasn’t entirely meant to hear. Maybe it’ll help. I always run a little too hot around you…
Is that a bad thing? I wondered as he gently ran his hands up and down my arms in an attempt to warm me more quickly.
Milo smiled ruefully and maybe even blushed a little. Sometimes. Yeah. It can be.
My boyfriend was impossibly handsome, especially when he was smiling. The dimples on either cheek only added to what was, in my opinion, an already perfect face.
As soon as the thought crossed my mind, I knew that Milo had caught it, too.
His smile broadened, and it’s possible that he blushed again before leaning in to kiss me. But it was a quick one. He pulled away almost immediately, and although I felt a burst of that heat he’d mentioned, I caught his pointed Got a few things to talk about as he settled comfortably back on the bench, his arm still around me.
I nodded. The drama at the Sav’A’Buck, although I wasn’t sure what more I could tell him. I certainly wasn’t going to apologize for doing what we all knew was the right thing. But then my thoughts shifted to darker things, and I exhaled.
“Dana’s crazier than usual,” I said out loud, sending him a memory burst of the conversation I’d had with her in the movie theater bathroom. Setting up meetings with Destiny addicts? Forget about what I’d done as a knee-jerk reaction in the Sav’A’Buck parking lot. A scheduled heart-to-heart with a D-girl was beyond dangerous.
“I know.” Milo’s smile turned sad as he pushed a strand of hair back from my face. Can’t really blame her this time…
As long as I’d known her, Dana had been intense. But last fall, when Sasha had looked up at Dana and called her by the name of her younger, long-ago-abducted-and-believed-to-be-dead sister, Lacey…
Dana’s initial reaction had been one of sheer disbelief. She’d worked hard through the years to deal with the grief and the l
oss—and to put it behind her. But now…
She really thinks Lacey might be alive? I asked Milo. Has she found any hard evidence?
He shook his head. None. He smiled at me again. I think she decided to go with her gut.
Inwardly, I nodded. Greater-Than powers were so weird and mysterious, and often involved things like sometimes sensing snippets of the future. And even though Dana didn’t include prescience on her personal talent list, it was a given to have faith in a G-T who was trusting her instincts.
If Dana really believes Lacey’s out there, she’s not going to rest until she finds her.
My thought penetrated Milo, who gazed off into the distance as he slid his hand down my arm and grabbed hold of my hand. I know, Sky.
She really didn’t have to blackmail me to get me to help. I was still feeling wounded by that.
I know. He met my eyes. And Dana does, too. But she knows how much you love Sasha, and she knows you don’t want to bring any more trauma—even memories of trauma—into that little girl’s life. If Sasha gets upset by triggering her recall of her abduction, it’ll be Dana’s fault, not yours.
I shook my head. So…you’re saying that Dana’s being cruel to be kind.
Maybe a little.
Also, this way, she doesn’t have to ask for help—she just demands it. At virtual gunpoint.
Milo smiled. Better than at literal gunpoint.
I had to smile, too, but it wasn’t quite because what he said was ha-ha funny. We both knew that Dana was capable of making demands at literal gunpoint.
I spoke out loud. “If Sasha was traumatized by just a few days of being chained to a bed in a Destiny farm, isn’t Lacey likely…” I couldn’t say the words, but I knew that Milo could read my thoughts. To be badly damaged? A little, innocent girl, held captive for years? I mean, wouldn’t she be completely traumatized? I searched Milo’s face as he continued to focus on the shoreline.
Everyone’s different, he told me. Everyone’s got their own personal breaking point. He glanced at me. And she is Dana’s sister.
I forced a smile, but he wasn’t fooled. He knew that I was worried about what we might find.
We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it, Milo reassured me. Right now we have to focus on locating and rescuing Lacey. Gotta do that before we fix her, right?
His thoughts blurred into more of a feeling than words—he was thinking again about how glad he was that I was safe after today’s snafu—but somewhere in there I heard the phrase needle in a haystack.
He was right. Even if Sasha suddenly remembered everything about her abduction—including the exact location of where she’d seen Lacey—the odds of Dana’s sister still being there were slim to needle-in-a-haystack.
I sighed because Dana was right. I was reluctant to bring turmoil back into Sasha’s life. I just don’t want to make things worse for Sasha.
What if we could make things better for Sasha? Milo asked me. And before I could ask what he meant, he explained by opening up and letting me see a memory of a recent conversation he’d had with Calvin.
It was weird how he could do that. It was kind of like he mentally lifted the lid of a closed box. I felt a sensation not unlike falling—but in a good way—as I passed through his carefully organized recall. Milo and Calvin were in the CoffeeBoy, and Cal was wearing a blue shirt. This memory was from yesterday afternoon, well before Dana’s oh-dark-hundred “test.”
Huh, I thought I’d gone inside the shop with them, too. No wait, this must’ve been when I’d hit the extremely grotty bathroom.
I focused on Milo’s memory instead of mine, and as I watched, Cal leaned forward and conspiratorially said, “You know the thing I’ve been working on? Urban Legend Trackers R Us?”
It was weird seeing Cal through Milo’s eyes and feeling the sensation of speaking through Milo’s mouth as he responded with, “You mean Morgan.”
As Cal nodded, I had a rush of my own memory of Cal finding information on the Internet about a legendary Greater-Than named Morgan, who apparently had world-class telepathic powers along with a crazy ability to shape-shift, if you can believe that. But she was best known for her ability to help people with PTSD—post-traumatic stress disorder. She would, supposedly, go into their minds and help them process the trauma. She was also known for helping people with repressed memories. Cal’s hope was that she could two-birds-with-one-stone it and get the info about Lacey that was locked away in Sasha’s mind, while simultaneously helping the little girl recover.
Dana, of course, had rolled her eyes and announced that the Great and Powerful Morgan was nothing but a myth. Cal might as well attempt to find Johnny Appleseed or the Wizard of Oz while he was at it.
Still, apparently he’d continued his quest. “I think she might be up in Tampa,” he’d said to Milo in the CoffeeBoy. “And better yet, I think I’ve found a way to contact her. I posted this kinda cryptic message on a forum, and if I did it right, Morgan’ll email me sometime in the next few days. I wanted to update you, but I don’t want to tell Sky or Dana until I know for sure.”
He didn’t want to give you false hope, Milo interjected into the memory. But he told me today…
I now saw a flash of Calvin and Garrett at the movie theater, and Calvin nodding as Milo closed the door behind me and Dana, and saying briefly, “Got an email. I’m still working to verify it’s really from You-know-who.”
As in Morgan. But he didn’t say more because Garrett was there.
Whoa. I felt Milo laughing a little as hope now literally roared through me. False or not, the idea that we could enlist the aid of another powerful G-T who’d help us find Lacey and heal Sasha…? That would be a win/win/win/win/win!
What it might be is a scam, Milo cautioned me. Whoever emailed Cal might be looking to make money from just the promise of Morgan and her alleged powers.
I know that. Still…
It might not work out, he told me.
But it might, I countered, and Milo smiled.
He was back to gazing out at the water. If I hadn’t had access to his thoughts, it would have been difficult to read him, since his default expression was one of almost saintlike calm. I felt another wave—this one of gratitude—rush through me. Our telepathic connection meant that I was closer to Milo than I could otherwise ever hope to be, by a long shot. And since I’d never met another human being, besides Dana maybe, with such a huge wall built up when it came to showing emotions, this was a very precious ability.
Although, despite her tough exterior, even Dana was relatively easy to decipher. She had three basic settings that she allowed others to see: focused, semi-pissed, and flat-out furious. And it didn’t take psychic powers to figure out where she was.
Milo, on the other hand, rarely exhibited any kind of anger. Still, I knew that, deep inside, there were so many complex thoughts looping through his mind. And, because of my telepathy, I now owned a precious key that allowed me access to at least a few of those hidden compartments inside him. He still managed to keep fairly large puzzle pieces from me—I wasn’t quite sure how. For example, everything that had happened to him before he and Dana left their foster home and struck out on their own was a major mystery to me. There was a lot about Milo that I didn’t know, even with my telepathic access key…
“An access key, huh?” Milo’s spoken response was enough indication to me that when my own mind had wandered, his had followed.
It was my turn to blush. “Yeah, well. You know.”
“I do,” he said, smiling. “And I like that I do.”
I shrugged and inhaled before beginning to more clearly explain what I’d meant.
But Milo moved faster than my words, and before I could form a single sentence, he cupped my face, leaned in, and kissed me again.
It was heaven.
There was no better word to describe it, although when
ever Milo and I kissed, words were lost entirely, replaced instead by the rush of our emotions swirling together in a perfectly reciprocal pattern. It was weird and wonderful—I sometimes couldn’t tell where I ended and he began.
I let him pull me closer, so I was almost sitting on his lap, and his heart beat even faster than my own. I knew this not from physical feeling but from knowing, from our unique connection.
I knew, too, in that moment—as Milo’s sweet kiss continued, his hand running down the length of my side and then resting on the small of my back—that despite my sudden surge of hope, there was a deep sadness inside him today.
The moment I sensed it, I pulled away. That was always hard to do, but I wanted to gaze into his eyes. “What is it?” I asked. I reached up and held his face with both my hands.
Milo’s smile was tinged with an almost-imperceptible melancholy. It’s nothing serious. His thought was deliberate. Reassuring me. Just…Lacey. And now this girl that Garrett’s looking for…
I nodded. Jilly, yes.
And there’s also that little girl you saved today. It makes me crazy that you put yourself at risk, he told me, but I’m also glad you did. Proud, too. But sometimes it seems that for every girl we save, a hundred more go missing.
Milo exhaled loudly. He pulled me in close, his arm encircling me, so that my head rested on his shoulder. The bench swing rocked us forward and backward.
I just get sad sometimes, Sky. I wonder if what we do makes a difference. I know it’s a terrible thought, but—so many G-Ts are out there being abused. Harmed. And most of them are just kids.
I was careful to keep concentrating on his thought until it was complete. I’d learned how to be polite and not interrupt—which was possible, even in telepathy-speak. When the last of his intentionally delivered words were through, I broadcast my own thoughts: I get sad sometimes, too. But we have to believe that what we do makes a difference. All those girls in the barn? We made a huge difference for their families. You know? Sasha’s parents. Think about how different their lives are, now that they have their daughter back again. We did that.
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