“I think so. Look inside.”
She used her thumbs to push open the lid and slide it back slowly, almost like she was afraid of what the box might contain. I’d cleaned out all the empty tissues, leaving only the three bundles of cash and the lock-pick multitool. I watched quietly as she went through them, letting her have whatever kind of moment would suit her best.
She tore open only one bundle before pushing them aside to seize the lock pick. One by one, she opened the tools. She nodded at most, but a few of them seemed to be new to her, and she didn’t close any of them until they were all out of their hiding places looking like a tiny metal arm topped with a dozen frightening claws.
When they were all put away again, she flipped the tool over in her hand a few times before pulling the cash free from its tissue.
“Do you ever wonder what it was like?” Lily fanned the money so that only her eyes could be seen above the edges of the bills. Still, I could tell she was smiling.
“Does the money make you that happy?”
She shook her head. “It’s not the money.”
“What then?”
She dropped the notes into her lap, reached into her purse to pull out her father’s lucky clover coin, and then met my eyes. “We should start again. Sorte Juntos. We should do it again.”
It was a ludicrous idea, but my heart still began to race. “So it is the money?”
“No. Not money. Legacy. We could revive our parents’ greatest years. We could immortalize them by continuing their work.”
I stared out at the gathering shadows. It was impossible. I didn’t have the time. My priorities were protecting the boys and finding a way to keep my father from torturing us from his prison cell. All of that, while trying to keep out of prison myself, was far more important than some pipe dream from my mother’s wild years. But still, a spark of something had ignited in my mind at Lily’s suggestion. I didn’t care about legacy or immortality. I didn’t much care for amassing great sums of money, either. But the idea of re-creating a network, of the power and freedom that could bring. Something about that felt right.
“You’re thinking about it,” Lily teased.
“It’s ridiculous.” Only it wasn’t.
“But you want to. I can tell.”
If I’d sent someone else to the lake that day with the sword, I’d be untouchable just now. If I’d sent a team of somebodies to take care of my father problem, he’d probably be dead. If I could sit back as the mastermind and send others out to do the work of it, never knowing why or how, just that they’d be paid.
“We don’t have the skills,” I made myself say, though I wondered if that was really true.
“I know how to use this.” Lily held up the lock pick and flicked open one of the tools with her thumb. “I also have access to copies of keys to every important building my dad’s ever serviced.”
Mr. Patel, the locksmith. Yes. That could be useful.
“And you can be our leader, just like your mom.”
I didn’t bother to hide my surprise that she’d worked out which of the women in the picture was my mother, but it couldn’t have been too hard of a deduction. “The pictures.”
“You look just like her. Not necessarily in feature, but your expressions are identical to your mother’s.”
I nodded and looked back out at the shadows.
“She was beautiful,” Lily said.
I should have said something. My silence was giving away too much about how I felt right then. I wanted so much to see those pictures. I just didn’t know how to ask, and I didn’t trust Lily not to ask for something in return. I didn’t want to owe her.
“My dad told me that she was the cleverest person he’d ever met. The way her mind worked, yours is like that too, isn’t it? I know it is. You were the one who figured out the truth about your dad, not Sherlock like they said. I’m right? It was you?”
I looked up and Lily’s expression had darkened. She was suddenly greedy, maybe. But for what, I couldn’t say. I was almost sure it wasn’t about the money, however.
“I had more information than he did.”
She wouldn’t look away from me, and her expression was unnerving, but when she pulled her dad’s coin out of her handbag and held it in her palm, she seemed suddenly very pleased with herself. Like she’d been proven right about something. We stared at each other quietly for a few beats, before I realized that her greed was for me. She wanted something from me—or, rather, she’d just figured out a way for me to be useful to her.