Page 175 of Paranoid

“You okay?”

“Yeah, it’s nothing.” But there was an unspoken message in her eyes and he knew she was thinking of those she’d lost.

“So.” He looked at his two kids. “You two—stop giving your mother any trouble, okay? You’re both going back to school tomorrow.”

“We know,” Harper said.

“And, Dylan, no more selling any spy stuff—yeah, I heard about that. Get a regular job if you want. And you, Harper, I expect you to do what Mom says, if you ever want to get a car.”

Harper glanced down at the floor before meeting her father’s eyes. “What about Xander?”

Rachel opened her mouth, but Cade said, “I heard about him, too. He gave a statement. He explained what happened, that Lucas, using Violet Sperry’s gun, forced him to give him the keys to his Jeep and his cell phone. After he did, Lucas shot him, point blank, to make sure he wouldn’t give him any trouble. I figure the only reason he kept Xander alive was as bait, for you, Harper, just as you were bait for your mother.”

“I hate him,” Dylan said, his face pulled into an expression of disgust. “I know it’s bad to say with him dead and all, but I hate him.”

“Me too,” Harper said. “He was awful.”

Rachel opened her mouth to protest, then shut it.

Cade, hating how the conversation had turned, said, “Hey, come on, you two, give your old man a hug.” They came close to the bed and he held them for a second before the pain was too much.

“You look weird,” Harper said.

“Super weird,” her brother agreed, “but kinda cool, too.”

“Nah.” Harper shook her head. “Not cool at all.”

“Speaking of ‘not cool,’” Rachel said. “I got a call from Mrs. Walsh at the school today.”

Dylan groaned and Harper’s eyes rounded.

Rachel continued, her gaze focused on their son. “There seems to be some suspicion that you might have hacked into the school’s grading system.”

Dylan turned as white as the sheet on Cade’s hospital bed.

“She’s being lenient, I think, because of everything that’s happened to us,” Rachel said, “but when you go back to school she wants to talk to you.”

“Oh, man,” Dylan said and sent a beseeching glance at his father.

“Uh-uh. You know how I feel—‘you do the crime, you do the time.’”

Dylan looked like he might be sick. Cade added, “Serious stuff, son,” then shifted on the bed, his ribs and nose beginning to ache as the pain meds were wearing off.

“I told him he would be in trouble,” Harper said.

“Oh, like you’re so innocent.”

They started bickering and he expected there was more to the story, but obviously Rachel was on it and would bring him up to speed. Right now, he didn’t much care, was just grateful that they were safe, that the terror was over. “Now, give me a second with Mom, okay?”

They slid out of the room and he motioned Rachel near. She stepped closer, placing her hands on the bed rails. “I don’t know if you know about Ned,” he said.

“I heard. Kathy, his neighbor, called.” Her eyes grew moist and she had to look away for a second.

“You okay?”

She let out a disbelieving huff as she looked at him again. “No.”

“I’m sorry.”