Page 154 of Paranoid

“Why? Age has nothing to do with it,” Dylan said. “Anyone can own a camera or a microphone or a recorder—just ask anyone who has a cell phone, which has all of those capabilities.”

“It’s different!” Lila insisted. “Those listening devices, they’re for spying, invading a person’s privacy.”

“Then that’s the owner’s issue,” Dylan said, thinking aloud. “Not mine.”

Lila stepped closer to the couch to glare at him. “You’re the supplier!”

“No, no. He’s right,” Harper cut in, defending her brother for once. “It’s not like he’s over twenty-one and selling beer to kids, right? It’s not between him or you or even you”—she motioned from Lila to Rachel—“to try to police what his ‘clients’ are doing.”

She had a point.

“The parents need to know!” Lila insisted, though her outrage had begun to evaporate a little. To Rachel, she said, “Look, I wanted you to know what was going on.”

Rachel forced a smile she didn’t feel. “And now I do.”

“Can we go now?” Dylan asked.

“Yeah, fine.” Lila made a little shooing motion with a hand and all three kids clambered off the sofa and hurried down th

e hallway, Reno tagging behind. They holed up in Dylan’s room.

Lila, who had watched them disappear, sighed. Her slim shoulders drooped. “Oh, man, sometimes being a mother sucks. Lucas is driving me crazy with his moods. When Chuck banished Xander, you would have thought it was the end of the world.” She bit her lip, her eyebrows knitting as she stared down the hall. “He’s got his father’s temper.”

“Or maybe his mother’s?” Rachel suggested. Luke had been a lot of things, but aside from a few shows of aggression on the football field hadn’t been volatile. Not that she remembered.

“I guess,” she acquiesced. “Were we this deceptive and secretive?” she asked, then shook her head, thinking. “Don’t answer that. We were worse.” And there it was again, the past, their own teenaged years and more specifically the night that had changed their lives when they’d snuck out and Luke had died. “I could be overreacting.”

“Ya think?”

Lila sent her a look, then one side of her mouth lifted. “Okay, okay. I know I’ve been accused of sometimes being a bit of a drama queen and God knows I’ve been on edge ever since Violet was found. First her, then Annessa and now Nate . . . God, I hope he’s okay.” She threw up one hand. “I just can’t imagine what happened to him. Where the hell is he?”

“He could turn up. Maybe he’s with a girlfriend.”

“Annessa was his girlfriend.”

“Maybe he had another.”

“Then why isn’t he showing up? It’s all over the news that he’s missing.” She rubbed her arms as if experiencing a sudden chill. “It’s all so unnerving, you know? So damned scary.” Another thoughtful glance down the hall. “And it’s hard to believe that it’s been less than a week since all this started happening. I mean, what if it continues? By the time of the reunion, half of the class could be killed.”

“Don’t even say it!”

“I know, but it’s true! Just think what’s happened since last Friday!”

Since the anniversary of Luke’s death, she thought, but didn’t say it, just silently agreed with Lila about how strange and eerie life in Edgewater had become.

Lila glanced at her watch. “I’ve got to run. I just wanted to let you know in person what Dylan has been up to.” Then she walked down the hallway. “Lucas! Come on. We’ve got to roll!” She tapped lightly on Dylan’s door and reached for the handle just as the door opened, Lucas filling the doorway.

“Yeah, I know,” he said and there was something in the tone of his voice that reminded her of someone . . . Luke? No, she didn’t think so, but she couldn’t put her finger on it, tried and failed to make the connection. But it was nothing. Just her mind playing tricks on her.

Harper glanced at her cousin and said a quick, “Bye,” then went into her bedroom and shut the door. Lila and Lucas left in Lila’s new Mercedes. Rachel watched her drive away, then turned off the porch light and silently wished Cade would return. The house had always felt safer when he was around.

As she closed the door and shoved the dead bolt into place, she remembered their last kiss, so light and tenuous.

Her throat went dry for a second and she let herself recall deeper, more sensual kisses with open mouths, quick tongues, and anxious lips. Bodies hot and sweating. Hearts beating wildly, hands exploring, breath in short gasps.

“Oh, wow,” she whispered, feeling a warmth course through her bloodstream and the tiniest of aches beginning to grow deep inside. An ache she hadn’t experienced for a while.

It had been so long....