Jin peered into the back of the van and then clambered up into the shadowy space to shift around some of the pieces already inside. “There should be some way to make enough room,” he murmured to himself. “I packed everything as close as I could.”
I cocked my head. “Maybe we’ve got to take the rest out and start with this piece?”
“That’ll take forever. And it doesn’t do me any good if I still can’t fit everything and have to leave something else they wanted for the exhibit behind.” Jin let out a bit of breath in a huff. “Itmightwork if we tip it upright… Let me get some drape cloths to cushion it before we try that.”
He headed back into the gallery, leaving me alone with the van and the massive, bizarre sculpture. I eyed the thing, and a sliver of pain jabbed through my arm from my scar. If I kicked it into the heap of junk it looked like, then it’d definitely fit. An itch to do just that ran down to my leg.
I tensed the muscles there and studied the van again. I didn’t think the piece would fit no matter what way we angled it. Why the hell were the people in L.A. so keen on this thing anyway?
And why the hell was Jin galivanting off there when his supposed “family” was here? When he’d announced the show to us yesterday, he’d said he was going to be gone for a week. Even Rose hadn’t taken off for more than a couple of days at a time since things had gotten somewhat back to normal, and she was never more than a few hours’ drive away. But no, Mr. Artist thought getting some adulation for his masterpieces was more important than sticking around.
The jabbing in my arm turned into more of a burn. I dragged in a breath and willed down the anger that had stirred it up. Ididwant us to be more of a family, for Rose’s sake above everything else, even if it meant biting my tongue over things I disagreed with now and then. How could I turn this energy into something more productive?
Well, if we couldn’t get the sculpture to fit into the van, could I make the van fit the sculpture?
I reached forward and grasped the edge of the back door. It wouldn’t really take much. Just a half a foot or so longer… If the company Jin had gotten the vehicle from noticed, it wasn’t as if they could accuse him of misusing their property somehow. If I could make apples ripen weeks ahead of time and fix pipes I couldn’t even see, I should be able to stretch a little steel.
Closing my eyes, I focused on the searing prickle in my forearm and then the smooth surface against my fingers. Quickly now, before Jin got back and wondered what the hell I was doing. My teeth gritted. If he was going to go jetting off like this, might as well get it over with. Come on, van. Grow.
Heat washed through my hand into the cool metal. It shivered against my skin. I tugged it toward me—and it came, one inch and then another and another, my breath becoming shaky as more energy rushed through me and into the van…
A tearing sensation sliced through my chest like a razor, and a squeal pierced the air. I jerked my hand back just as the end of the van sagged toward the ground. What the fuck?
The tires. Both of the back ones were deflating with a shriek of loosed air. The rubber gaped where it had split open—like it’d felt as if my ribs were doing just a moment ago.
I swallowed hard, staring. Jin tramped out of the gallery just then with a heap of fabric in his arms and stopped dead.
“Crap,” he said. “What happened?”
“I don’t know,” I said, almost completely honestly. “I was just standing here trying to figure out how we could reorganize things, and they blew.”
For a second, I thought Jin might not believe that story. That he might wonder if I’d taken a knife to the tires. But the guy was more generous to me than I’d really been to him. Even though Iwasresponsible, if only by accident, he didn’t look at me with the slightest hint of suspicion.
“They must have run over something sharp on the way here and it took a while for the hole to completely break open.” He sighed and ran his hand over his streaked hair. “I guess we’re unloading everything anyway. I’ll have to call for another van.”
I offered him a pained smile. My arm was still crackling with energy beneath the skin, and my stomach was listing queasily. But at least I’d given him a sort of solution. “Make sure you ask for a bigger one this time. I’ll stick around until the new one’s all loaded.”
* * *
It was full night by the time Jin and I arrived back at the manor. Kyler came out the front door as we were emerging from the car, the light from the hall silhouetting him.
“Hey, dinner’s been ready for half an hour. We waited for you, though.”
“You didn’t have to,” Jin said. He’d texted them to let them know we’d be late.
He smiled. “No big deal. The cook kept it warm. But come on. I’m starving.”
It was an even smaller group of us around the table tonight, with Rose gone again until tomorrow. We always left the spot at the head empty for her as if she might turn up after all. The second Jin and I sat down, the cook whisked in with our plates of shrimp fettuccine. Attempting to swirl the noodles around my fork in a somewhat elegant way gave me a good distraction from the knots lingering in my stomach.
Until the other guys started talking, anyway. “This show is a pretty big deal, huh?” Ky said, always the chatterbox.
“I don’t want to assume so,” Jin said. “But it’s a respected gallery. There might be some big buyers who check out my work. Whether they like it as much as the gallery owner does…” He shrugged, but the hope shone through his grin.
“Between this and the gazebo, you’re on a real roll lately.” Gabriel waved his fork at Seth. “What gave you the idea to put that thing together anyway? Was it something Rose mentioned that you ran with?”
The big guy shook his head. “No, I just figured—I mean, knowing her tastes.” He paused. “It’ll probably sound a little crazy, but I’m finding the memories of what we’ve been through—all the bad stuff from last year—are hitting me harder now and then. Almost like I’m back there. It made me want to do something new, and also to reconnect with my dad while I was at it. I hadn’t let myself think much about how I’d been keeping my distance after he got hurt.”
Ah ha. So, my rant about how the other guys had been covering up the problems in their own lives hadn’t been totally off the mark.