Glimpse (The Tesla Effect Book 1) by Julie Drew

serious, older than she’d thought before, and she could see that a purplish bruise had already appeared on his cheekbone.
    His warm, gold-brown eyes went immediately to Tesla, then slid to Lydia.
    “How is she?” he asked, as if Tesla wasn’t even in the room.
    “I’m okay, thanks,” Tesla retorted before anyone else could speak, annoyance plain in her voice. In her peripheral vision she noted the sudden grin on Joley’s face. “Any sign of my father?” she continued, this time without the sarcasm.
    “No,” Finn said. “But I couldn’t get in the building, and the police and fire marshal aren’t saying anything yet about what happened and why.” He paused, as if he was unsure how to proceed, and though she didn’t really know him, even Tesla knew this was highly unusual.
    “There’s something else,” she said tersely. “Tell me.”
    He looked at her for a moment. “Keep in mind that we don’t know if your dad was even there tonight—as far as we know he was at home. But I spoke to the two campus security guys on duty tonight, and we pieced together, based on the floor plan of the building, where the explosion occurred. It was your dad’s office.”
    Lydia smoothly took over before Tesla could respond. “We’ll likely hear from him tomorrow. My guess is that he saw the explosion on television and realized that it might have been intended for him, as a warning at least, and he has gone into hiding, temporarily, for everyone’s safety. He knows your brother is safe with friends, and he has confidence in you not to panic—he knows that you saw him at home, and there is no reason to assume he was anywhere else. I see this as a very good sign.”
    “Maybe,” Tesla said uneasily. “But didn’t you have someone on the house tonight, watching it? Watching him?”
    Finn’s head whipped around toward Lydia, and she put up a hand to stop him.
    “Finnegan, we’ve explained the basics to Tesla. She had a right to know,” she added firmly when Finn began to protest. “We’ve told her we watch over her family, due to the sensitive nature of her father’s work, and that others are watching as well.” She turned, then, to Tesla. “We had actually called it a day, dear, as we thought all three of you would be in for the evening, celebrating his birthday. No one was watching the house once your father got home this evening.”
    “Well, you obviously had the right idea spying on us, even though it didn’t work in the end,” Tesla said.
    No one responded, though Bizzy looked down at her shoes and Joley seemed to be inordinately interested in the photographs on the mantel. Tesla sighed. I guess I can’t be mad at them for watching us and mad at them for not watching us at the same time .
    “How long have we been under this microscope—Max and I?” she asked Lydia.
    “Less than two weeks,” Lydia answered without hesitation. “And it hasn’t been around the clock, obviously. When your father’s at the lab Elizabeth is usually there anyway, so he’s almost always covered. Once you’re all in the house at night we don’t always stay, but when we do, we’re focused on the house more than you, anyway. We don’t really get that close, my dear.”
    “Finn won’t let anybody else watch you,” Bizzy said with a wide grin. “Ow!” she suddenly exclaimed when Beckett punched her in the arm. “Well, it’s true!” she hissed.
    “Who are you people?” Tesla asked again, inexplicably angry, a feeling she had already come to associate with Finn and his friends. “I mean, if there are bad guys out there who want the scientist’s top-secret work or whatever, why haven’t you called the police, or the FBI, or, I don’t know, Jack Bauer?”
    Bizzy laughed, but no one else did. “Tesla,” Lydia said calmly. “I understand the shock of all this. You’re still reeling from the incident at your house earlier tonight—and medicated on top of everything else. We don’t want to alarm you. It would