Deceptions (Cainsville 3)

There it was: that watch.

"It was my dad's," I'd told James when I'd given it to him.

"I know."

"I don't expect you to wear it. It's just a keepsake. Something to say thanks. For getting me through . . ." My voice caught, the grief surging fresh.

His arms wrapped around me, and when I pulled back, the watch was on his wrist. And from then on, it was always on his wrist.

Now I was seeing my father's watch . . . on a bare arm, lying on the floor of an abandoned house, blood congealed in a pool--

No, not him.

You know it is. You know that arm. Look.

No, I won't. I--

I looked.

It was James. Lying on his stomach, head turned to one side, his back bloodied, his face and shoulders battered, his lips split, his eye black. His eye . . . open. Staring. Empty. Dead.

CHAPTER TWENTY

I fell to my knees and doubled over, screaming until my throat was raw, every muscle shaking as I crouched there.

I heard Gabriel shout my name and footsteps pounding toward me. I staggered up and stumbled into the library as he came through the door, breathing hard.

"I was looking for you," he said. "I heard you scream. What--?"

"Nothing," I said, grabbing his sleeve and tugging him across the room. "A vision. I just had a vision."

"Of what?"

I shook my head and kept pulling him, desperate to get him out of there, to get us out of there.

He stopped me. "What did you see, Olivia?"

"Lots of things. Mills. Letitia. Writing on the wall. Let's just go--"

"What made you scream?"

"I--" I took a deep breath. "I imagined I saw James . . . James's body."

"What?"

I pulled out of his grasp. "It was a vision. Or a hallucination. Like Letitia. I just want to get out of here. Now. Please."

I ran for the opposite doorway. When I reached it, I realized he wasn't with me and turned to see him walking in the opposite direction.

"No!" I said. "Don't you take another step, Gabriel Walsh."

He turned, slowly, and the look on his face . . . I wanted to see doubt and confusion and disbelief and skepticism. Even a look that said he thought I'd lost my mind. But that's not what I saw.

"Stay where you are," he said. "I'm going to--"

"He's not there," I said, my voice barely above a whisper. I wrapped my arms tight around my chest, but my legs were still shaking. "It's not really him."

Gabriel didn't say a word, just turned and went through the doorway. I followed him.