Endless (16 page)

She shrugged. “Sure. Why?”

She felt her cheeks flush as he scrutinized her a little too closely. “I don’t know. You look stressed or tired or something.”

“Maybe a little. I fell asleep. That’s why I was late.”

He led her through the hallway toward the kitchen. “I thought you were going to go sketch?”

She thought about the altercation with the guy—not just any guy, Nikolai—at the Farnsworth house. In the bright sunlight of Ben’s foyer, her conversation with Nikolai seemed like a dream.

But Ben was real, and for a split second, she thought about telling him everything—about the visions she’d had all her life, the dreams she’d only had recently, and the guy who seemed to step from them through some kind of magic.

But it was a lot to say while they waited for Eben.

“I guess I was more tired than I realized,” she explained. “I fell asleep and the next thing I knew, you were calling to tell me I was late.”

They turned the corner into the kitchen and Ben went to the fridge. “Want some lemonade or soda or something?”

She shook her head. “I’m good.”

They talked about the renovation and how hard it was to be surrounded by men hammering nails and stomping across the floors in work boots at all hours. Ben was looking at the clock on the microwave for the billionth time when the doorbell rang.

“That’s him,” Ben said, standing. “Be right back.”

Jenny waited, rubbing her fingertip along the grain of the wood table. She heard the door open at the front of the house and the sound of muffled voices growing steadily louder as they approached the kitchen. A few seconds later, Ben entered the room followed by Eben Wozniak, wearing the exact same outfit he’d had on during their visit to the city.

He carried a briefcase in one hand, the jewels a flash of color in the rings on his fingers.

“Good afternoon,” he said. “Jenny, is it?”

She stood, nodding. “Hello.”

“Um, do you want to sit down?” Ben gestured to the kitchen table.

“Certainly.” Eben sat one chair away from Jenny. He opened his briefcase. “Now, as I said on the phone, I have a very interested buyer for your music box.”

“I thought Ben told you he didn’t want to sell it?” The words were out of Jenny’s mouth before she could stop them.

“Well, yes.” Eben stopped moving. “But in the course of my research an offer was made. Believe it or not, I tried to dissuade the gentleman in question. I remember from our conversation that the music box is a family heirloom.”

“So, what?” Ben asked. “The guy wouldn’t take no for an answer?”

Eben chuckled softly, reaching into his open briefcase for a piece of paper. “I wouldn’t say that. More that the offer was very … lucrative. I didn’t think it fair to keep it from you.”

Ben sat down. “How much are we talking?”

Eben pushed the piece of paper toward Ben. “Why don’t you take a look?”

Ben picked it up, lowering his gaze to read it.

He looked up at Eben. “Ten thousand dollars?”

“That is correct,” Eben confirmed. “You can, of course, counter the offer and I will take your request to the buyer.”

Ben looked at the paper again. “Who is the buyer? There’s no name here.”

“The buyer wishes to remain anonymous for the purposes of our negotiation. It isn’t at all unusual in this kind of circumstance.”

Ben looked at Jenny. “Ten thousand dollars, Jenny.”

“Wow … ” she said.

She wasn’t as panicked as she had been before at the idea of losing the music box. For a minute, she couldn’t figure out why. Then she thought of the man next door. Nikolai. Was she really ready to believe that he was the same one from her dream? That she didn’t need the music box or a dream or anything else to reach out to him because he was right there, living in the Farnsworth house next door?

“I still don’t think it’s enough.” Ben was shaking his head. “And it is a family thing. I think I’d have to talk to my mom before I sold it.” He pulled on his lip ring. “You said I could ask for more?”

“Yes,” Eben said slowly.

Jenny watched as he opened his briefcase. She glanced over at the piece of paper he pulled from it, but something inside the briefcase caught her eye: a business card with the moon symbol peeking out from a slot in the briefcase. A moon symbol she would know anywhere.

“I’m authorized to offer you up to fifteen thousand dollars at this meeting. Anything more would require me to consult the buyer,” Eben continued, totally unaware of the roar building in Jenny’s head, the warning bell clanging in her ears.

Why would Eben have the business card of someone at the monastery? She remembered the monks on the train going into the City. Could they be the ones trying to buy the music box from Ben?

“Fifteen … You can offer me fifteen thousand, just like that?” Ben was asking.

Eben nodded. “In fact, a check was prepared in case you decided to accept the offer.”

“Excuse me.” Jenny stood, the chair scraping against the old linoleum on the kitchen floor.

“You’re leaving?” Ben’s face was incredulous. “Now?”

Jenny pulled her cell from her pocket. “My phone’s vibrating. It’s my dad. I’ll be right back.”

She stepped into the hall, texting Ben as she went.
Ask for more money. Will explain later.

Then she called his number and hung up, hoping he’d look at his phone when he heard it ring. She waited a couple minutes before returning to the kitchen. She had no way of knowing if Ben had gotten her text, but Eben was packing up, closing his briefcase and standing.

He held out a hand to Ben. “I’ll be in touch as soon as I’ve met with the buyer, which should be within the next two hours.”

“Two hours?” Jenny asked. “That quick?”

“Eben said the guy’s waiting to hear from him,” Ben volunteered.

“Yes, and I’ll be on my way,” Eben said.

“Thanks for letting me know about the offer,” Ben said as he and Jenny walked Eben to the door.

“It’s no problem. I’ll be in touch soon.”

Jenny waited for the door to close before turning to Ben. “I saw something inside his briefcase. It had the Celestial Retreat Center logo on it.”

“What are you talking about?” Ben asked.

“His buyer?” Jenny reminded Ben. “The one who can offer so much money for the music box? I think it’s someone at the retreat center.”

“Why would someone at the monastery want to buy the music box?”

“I have no idea, but don’t you think it’s a little weird that those monks were on the train the day we went in to see Eben, and all of a sudden, Eben has a buyer willing to offer a lot of money and a business card from the retreat center in his briefcase?”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean that they’re the ones who want to buy it,” Ben said.

Jenny rolled her eyes. “Right.” She pulled her car keys from her pocket.

“Where are you going?” Ben asked.

“I’m going to follow him. If I’m right, he’s going to the retreat center.”

“So?” Ben put a hand on the door to keep it closed. “Even if it is them, what can we do about it? And what would be the point anyway?”

His questions caused her determination to falter, but only for a second. “I’m not sure.” She reached for the door. “But I want to know if that’s where he’s going.”

Ben sighed. “He’s probably long gone, Jenny.”

“If he’s really going to the retreat center, I don’t need to be right behind him to get there.”

“What if you get up there and find out you were wrong?” Ben looked down at her, concern in his blue eyes.

“Then I’ll admit I was wrong and you were right,” she said, yanking the door open. “Now, are you coming or not?”

*

It didn’t take them long to catch up to Eben. At first, Jenny wasn’t sure it was him. Ben had only glimpsed a dark red sedan in the driveway when he’d opened the door to let Eben in the house. But once they left the main road and started winding their way up the mountain toward the monastery, there wasn’t another car in sight. They rounded a corner about halfway up and spotted the burgundy Volvo. Jenny could make out the slight figure of the older man in the driver’s seat.

“Fall back a little,” she instructed Ben.

He eased off on the gas, putting some distance between them and Eben’s car.

They’d agreed to take Ben’s truck because Ben claimed the larger engine would get them up the mountain faster than Jenny’s car. She didn’t care either way. She’d just wanted to get moving.

“So what exactly are we going to do once we get there?” Ben asked, glancing at her before returning his eyes to the road.

Jenny didn’t want to tell him the truth, which was that she didn’t really know. Wanting to follow Eben to the retreat center had been instinctual. She knew that her mother had something to do with the center. Why else would she have the ring?

And if her mother really had a connection to the retreat center, could it be pure coincidence that the monks had followed her and Ben into the City? That they were making secretive offers on Ben’s music box? The very music box that had induced the dream connecting her to both Ben and Nikolai?

Something weird was going on. Jenny just didn’t know what it was yet.

“I’m not sure,” she finally said. “But I’m thinking we should park the car down the road and walk up to take a look. Mostly, I just want to see if I’m right, if Eben’s really meeting with the monks from the monastery.”

Ben turned to look at her as they reached a straightaway near the top of the mountain. “And what if you are?”

“I haven’t figured that out yet,” she admitted.

“Okay,” Ben said softly. “I just hope you know what you’re doing.”

Jenny ignored the comment, watching the road as a fork emerged in front of them.

“Stay to the right here.” She looked out the window, craning her neck to see the church-like monastery, now closer and just above them. “I’m not positive, but it looks like that road winds right up to the center.”

Ben followed her instructions. The cathedral-like structure came into view atop a steep hill that descended to a stone retaining wall at the side of the road. They passed a dirt driveway, but if Eben had turned up it, he was too far gone to be seen from the road.

“I think we passed a turnout or something,” Jenny said. “Go back a little. We can leave the car there.”

Ben turned the truck around and they came to a narrow path surrounded by trees. He pulled onto it and parked the car off to the side of a small dirt clearing.

They got out and headed for the road, walking as far to the side as possible. With all the twists and turns, someone would have to be right on top of them before they came into view.

It was nearly sunset. The sky stretched above them, graduating from orange and pink to a darkening blue. Stars already shone in the twilight. Jenny watched them for a few seconds before she had to look back at the road. There was just too much sky up on the mountain. It was dizzying.

“I think we’re almost there,” Jenny said when they came to the retaining wall they’d passed in the car.

Ben nodded. “It’ll be dark soon. I wonder if we’ll even be able to see anything from here.”

Jenny was betting they wouldn’t, but she needed Ben to see that for himself before she suggested sneaking all the way onto the grounds of the monastery. She had a feeling he wasn’t going to be thrilled with the idea.

Her arms were starting to get cold when they finally came to a break in the wall. The driveway was hardly noticeable. Just a gravel road ascending into the trees in the distance. Peering upward, she couldn’t make out anything beyond a few feet of path sheltered by forest on either side. It was too dark.

She stopped. “This must be it.”

Ben followed her gaze. “I told you. The center is way up on the hill. We’re not going to see anything from down here.”

“I agree.”

It took him a few seconds to understand what she was suggesting. He shook his head. “You said we were going to see if Eben came here. You didn’t say anything about trespassing.”

“We won’t be
trespassing
,” she said. “There’s not even a fence or anything.”

He pointed to a tree just beyond her head, an orange sign with the words
NO TRESPASSING
nailed to its trunk.

“Okay, so we’d kind of be trespassing. But it’s not like we’re going to vandalize the place or steal anything. We’re just going to look. See if Eben’s up there. Besides, it’s a monastery, not a prison.”

His face was impassive as he studied her. She stepped toward him.

“I need to do this, Ben. I know it sounds crazy, but all of this stuff that’s been happening? It’s connected somehow. And it’s connected to my mother, too. I need to find out what I can.”

He started to interrupt her but she stopped him.

“Hear me out, okay?” She didn’t wait for him to answer before continuing. “I just want to get to the top of the hill. To see the place up close. After that, we can leave, I promise.”

“It’s not going to solve anything, Jenny.” His voice held a tenderness she hadn’t expected. “I know you’re curious about your mom and the ring and everything. But spying on Eben and the monastery isn’t going to give you the answers you need. You’d be better off calling the center and making an appointment. Find out what their story really is.”

She shuddered at the thought, shaking her head. “I can’t do that. Those monks don’t—”

“Right. They’re
monks
,” Ben interrupted. “It’s not like they’re going to kidnap you and hold you for ransom.”

“What kind of monks, Ben?” Her voice rose as she tried to make him understand. “There’s no mention of the Celestial Retreat Center anywhere on the Internet except their website. I checked. For all intents and purposes, it doesn’t even exist. We call them monks because of the robes, but the truth is, we don’t know anything about them. They could be some kind of cult for all we know.”

Ben considered her words. “Okay, we go to the top of the driveway and take a look, but that’s it. Then we’re out of here. Deal?”

“Deal.”

“I just hope you know what you’re doing,” he said as they started up the gravel road.