Troy put his hands on her shoulders and looked her in her the eye. “You can’t do that. It’s not like you could’ve changed it.”
Oh, hell, the tears were coming. “That’s not true. I knew something bad was going to happen. I had a really bad feeling that morning before she left. I tried to talk her out of it…” She clenched her jaw to kill the sob in her throat. “But she went anyway.”
“You can’t torture yourself with the past.”
The images were torture. Something tickled Summer’s memory as the quick flashes she saw if she let her guard down started up—but there was something new, in the far corner of her mind. She almost had a grasp of it, then Troy spoke again. “So are you going to tell me what’s going on with you?”
His features came back into focus, the streetlight casting them in sharp relief. “I’ll tell you my secret if you tell me yours.” As much as she wanted to know his, she’d have to edit several details out of hers. In fact, she couldn’t really tell him. He’d think she was insane.
A slow grin spread across his face. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Sunshine. I’ll save you your usual spot in chemistry. We both know that trying to sit away from me didn’t work.”
There was no way his secret was as awful as hers, yet he seemed as reluctant to share it. “Goodnight, Mister Bond.”
After his taillights were lost in a sea of others, she hurried back to the house, eager to have some time to focus on her last memory of Mom. As soon as she was inside her room, door closed securely behind her, she sat down on her bed.
Usually, she avoided the memory. Now she forced herself to plunge on in.
The temperature in Chicago had hovered at the ninety-nine degree mark that day—they’d broken the previous record-high for August. Mom was at the door, getting ready to head out.
“I’ve got to go, Summer,” she’d said.
“Oh wait.” Summer got up from the couch, abandoning her television show. “Can I get some money before you go? The girls and I are going to grab lunch.”
Mom reached into her purse and handed her a twenty.
“Thanks, Mom.” Summer leaned in for a hug.
Mom hands her cell phone to an unfamiliar red-haired woman. The woman pushes several buttons and holds the phone up to her ear. Aisles of candy are lined up behind her, a magazine stand is off to the right.
A large, mangy-looking man standing near the cash register pulls a gun from his hip and aims it at the cashier. “Give me the money! And don’t do anything stupid or everyone in here will die!”
He turns and swings the gun in Mom’s direction.
Mom holds her hands up in the air.
“Get off the phone!” The man yells at the woman behind Mom, leveling the gun on her. The woman’s lips are moving quickly, speaking into the cell phone.
“She’s almost done,” Mom says in a soothing tone.
The man pulls the trigger, and the woman talking on the phone goes down. He shoots again. Mom falls back into the candy-filled shelves and tumbles to the ground. Blood pours from the wound in her chest.
“Mom, don’t go,” Summer said as she released the hug, her heart racing, her mind swimming. “I’ll blow off lunch with my friends and go with you somewhere. We can see if there’s a dance class we can slip into, or catch a movie, or hit the mall. Whatever you want to do.”
“Don’t be silly,” Mom said. “I’ve got to go, and I’m in a hurry. I’ll see you when I get back this afternoon.”
“Mom, please. Please don’t go.” Summer had had the flashes before and nothing had ever happened—well, not that she knew of. This was her mom, though. She wasn’t willing to take any chances. “I really want you to stay with me today.”
“I’ve got to go do my job.”
“I thought you had the day off,” Summer said, desperate to keep her here no matter what she did. “Just stay here. Please!
“Someday, you’ll understand. You’ll see you can’t help when you have to go.”
Summer’s heart thumped faster and faster, harder and harder. “But I need to tell you something, and it can’t wait.”
“It’ll have to wait. This is something I can’t be late for. Now, be good. You’re awesome. I love you.” Mom blew her a kiss, then walked into the garage and pulled the door closed behind her.
Summer bit her lip, debating what to do. I’m going to have to tell her. Even if she doesn’t believe me, even if she thinks I need to be put in a mental institution, I can’t let her go. She heard the garage door close and ran for the front door. By the time she’d unlocked it and stepped outside, Mom was already driving away. She pulled her phone out and called Mom’s cell.
No answer.
She called five more times.
Mom never picked up.
It made sense now, why Mom insisted she had to go. Why she said Summer would understand someday. Mom had been going out on a Cipher job, Summer was sure of it. And Mom had been killed trying to do that job.
Summer hadn’t saved Mom, and it had eaten away at her every day since. But she was going to save Ashlyn. There had to be a way, and she was going to find it.
Because Summer couldn’t have another death on her conscience.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Summer bent down to pull on her boots. When she straightened, Gabriella was there. “Oh, holy crap,” she muttered. “I mean—Just crap. Not holy. But seriously, you scare me every time.”
“It’s been over a month, Summer,” Gabriella said, ignoring the popping-up-and-scaring issue. “You’ve got to know it’s drawing near.”
Bile churned in the pit of Summer’s stomach. “Just tell me when exactly. It’s driving me crazy.”
“I don’t even know for sure—those orders go out last minute. I do feel the urgency of the situation, though, which means you must, too. Those instincts were given to you for a reason. You can’t delay any more, or the only result you’re going to get is horrible guilt for you, Ashlyn, and Pamela.”
Ashlyn. Who might still be mad at her. She was going to fix that at school first thing, but while she had Gabriella here, she wanted confirmation on her theory. “My mom died on a Cipher job, didn’t she?”
Gabriella sighed. “Yes. That one came down to the wire. It was literally seconds before her death that your mom got her to call and talk to her husband. I’m not sure why she didn’t get there earlier.”
“That call cost my mom her life. I saw it. The man with the gun got mad because that other woman was on her cell phone.” The realization of what had happened hit Summer, knocking the air out of her. If I hadn’t delayed Mom, she wouldn’t have been in the store when the gun went off. She would’ve done her job before the woman went inside. Her head swam as she tried to put together words. “Does anyone die on accident?”
“Summer, this is complicated stuff. I can’t reveal the secrets of the universe to you. I’m here to do my job, which is to get you to do your job. I will tell you that Ciphers have failed before. Sometimes they’re too late—it’s not a perfect science. There are ways to get past it for the deceased and the family members, but it’s much more extensive and emotionally scarring. Some people never come back from it. That’s why it’s so much easier if you do your job now. Before it’s too late.”
Summer grabbed Gabriella’s hand, desperation throbbing through her veins. “Just tell me if some deaths are accidents.”
Gabriella’s watch chimed. “I’ve got a tight schedule, Summer. I don’t have time to keep coming down here, so please put a little more effort into this.”