Incarnate: Mars Origin "I" Series Book III by Abby L. Vandiver Read Free Book Online

the
space where the SUV had been parked.
    It
wasn’t there anymore.
    I
didn’t see the men either.
    Maybe they left.
    I
sighed in relief. They hadn’t followed us into the museum.
    Maybe, Justin, I quipped quietly, no one
was really following you in the first place. I shook the thought off. 
I swear this was like déjà vu. It was the same as the “Pizza Fiasco” as
my husband, Mase, called it when I thought someone had followed me home from
the pizza shop. And, it was the same as when Nikhil Chandra had told me that a
man in a blue ford Taurus was always parked in front of my house. I began
seeing that car everywhere.
    That should have been a clue that the men with the Ford Escape weren’t
following me. It wasn’t possible that everybody that was after me drove a Ford.
    I
sucked my teeth. I was too paranoid for my own good.
    I’m really going to have to get a hold of myself.
    I
headed to the back of the museum to the elevator and pushed the ‘Up’ button.
    “Where
you going?”
    I
turned around to see my son. “I told you, Micah that I was going to see
Johanna.” I figured I’d better go ahead and really see her. Micah was already
questioning my sanity. Better try to hold on to my integrity.
    “I
thought you were just saying that to get away from the people who were
following you.” He curled two fingers on each hand, indicating that the word
‘people’ in his phrase was in quotes.
    Okay,
so maybe I had already lost my integrity with him.
    “She’s
one of the curators here.” I said.
    “Yeah
and?”
    I
didn’t have an answer for that. Still didn’t even know what I was going to say
to Johanna. Thankfully, he ignored me and looked over my shoulder. “I’ll wait
in there,” he said and pointed to the MOCA Store. “That is, if you’ll be okay?”
    “Yes.
I’ll be okay. I think they’ve gone.”
    “The
‘people’?” He raised an eyebrow.
    “Yeah,
the people.” This time I made the air quotation marks.
    I
heard the ding for the elevator and told Micah I’d find him in the store when I
came down. I smiled at him as the doors closed.
    When
I got up to the fourth floor Main Gallery, I found Johanna in speaking with
someone. I peeked my head in through the glass doors.
    “Justin!
C’mon in.”
    “You’re
busy.”
    “This
is King Magnum. He’s got an exhibition here starting tomorrow. We were just
looking over everything.”
    Swinging
the door open further, I propped it open with my hip and stuck my hand in to
shake Mr. Magnum’s. “Pleasure to meet you.” My eyes scanned the room.
“Everything looks great.”
    “Thank
you,” he said.
    “And
this is Dr. Justin Dickerson. She’s an archeologist at the Museum of Natural
History and teaches it over at Case.”
    “Nice
to meet you,” he said, and smiled.
    “I’ll
wait out here for you,” I said to Johanna. I didn’t want to get in her way
especially since I really didn’t have anything to say to her. Anything
important leastways.
    I
went back in the hallway and sat down on the bench. The MOCA is an odd-shaped
structure, small, with little spaces and nooks. In the hall where I sat, there
was a stairwell that led up to landings where there was no art It seemed to me
to be a bad use of space, When I had said that to Johanna, she had assured me
that the design was art itself.
    Evidently,
modern art was not my cup of tea.
    I
sat between the elevators and four rectangular windows. The two glass doors
that led to the small Main Gallery and the bench were all that made up the
fourth floor.
    I
put my hands in my lap and twiddled my thumbs. What was I going to say to
Johanna? I sighed. And so did my belly. My stomach had started to grumble. I
rubbed it. I was sorry we were missing lunch as Club Isabella’s . Maybe we
could just eat at one of the restaurants near here , I thought. The guys are
gone. We’re safe now.
    Feeling
kind of claustrophobic, wondering which restaurants were close by, and not
wanting to appear impatient, I walked