Little Deadly Things by Harry Steinman Read Free Book Online

lent a slight S-curve to her spine. On the days when it was difficult to stand, she used the herbs Abuela showed her in El Yunque, the rainforest.
    Jim embraced her again and the two stood silently, each drawing strength and comfort from the other. “Don’t just stand there. Kiss me again,” Jim said, parroting his wife’s command. He held the embrace and pressed his face into her hair and inhaled. Then he kissed her again.
    “Well, big boy, you’re in a good mood. Did you have a good day at work?”
    “In fact, I did.”
    “Something special?”
    “I have something exciting to tell you. But I want you to keep an open mind, okay?”
    Marta stiffened in his arms. “Does this something have anything to do with Eva? Did she come to see you today? Friend in need?”
    “Marta, please. Just listen.”
    “Every time you ask me to keep an open mind, it’s about Eva. That woman is toxic. Did she say that you owed her?” Marta looked at him and shook her head. “You don’t have to say a word. I can see it in your face. Well, you’ve paid your debt just by being her friend.”
    “She’s changed. Just hear me out.”
    “Changed? I doubt it. The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. And I don’t trust her when she’s around you.”
    “Marta—”
    “Sorry, but that’s how I feel.”
    “If it weren’t for Eva—”
    “I know that. But she’s a thief and she’s carrying a torch for my husband. You expect me to welcome her back with open arms?”
    “I’m hoping that, finally, you will. What she did was wrong, but she was young.”
    The room went silent. Presently, Marta drew in a deep breath and exhaled slowly. She pinched her ear. “Okay. Tell me what she’s up to. Tell me why I should ever work with her again.” Her voice sounded resigned, but she stilled herself and listened.
    He began, “You have to admit you two made a formidable team in college. Your work in biology, her work in chemistry, and her business skills? You did some good science.”
    “I’m not sure it makes up for the rest. What makes you so sure that Eva won’t do the same thing all over again?”
    “There’s no guarantee,” he conceded, “but Eva seems more mature than she was at Harvard. Maybe running a business helped her control herself.”
    “No, that was the problem. She wants to control everything, and I don’t want to have to be looking over my shoulder again.”
    “Look, Eva is the most driven person we know. When she puts her mind to something, watch out. All we have to do is keep her pointing in the right direction.”
    Marta considered. “It’s tempting. Like a jewel heist is tempting. Okay, what’s her grand scheme this time? No promises. Just tell me.”
    As Jim started to explain, Marta thought back to Harvard, to Eva, and everything that threatened to take her away from her rainforests.
Oh, Abuela, things haven’t gotten much clearer since our summer together. I wish you could tell me what I should do now...

       03
    ___________________________________________
    TAÍNA
    LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA
EL YUNQUE, PUERTO RICO
APRIL 2022
    T he night before she left for Puerto Rico—the day after the funeral—thirteen-year-old Marta Cruz asked her father about the old woman’s prediction.
    Rafael Cruz didn’t seemed to hear her or had chosen not to answer. Marta thought he looked lost in his own kitchen, gazing without focus around the East Los Angeles apartment. Marta’s awards, drawings, and report cards covered one wall. A montage of photographs of a tropical forest covered another. Father and daughter sat at a worn grouping in the tiny kitchen, a table and three straight-backed, caned chairs. One chair was empty.
    Marta moved with grace despite her limp, open-faced despite her sorrow. A halo of glossy black curls framed her pale skin, a remnant of the Spanish conquistadores who mixed their blood with the conquered—her father’s caramel-complected people of Mexico’s northern mountains,