In the morning, when she was sick and hung over, he just sat by her bed, grinning, and suggested that maybe there was a lesson in this somewhere. He never did anything about it other than to talk with her about alcohol poisoning and addiction patterns. He thanked her for calling him, and for not getting in a car with a bunch of drunks, and that was it.
A couple of months later, when she asked him about why he hadn’t busted her harder, he just looked at her, puzzled. “How can we learn if we don’t make mistakes?” And then he shrugged and said, “I just want to make sure you don’t make any mistakes that are permanent. Keep me in the loop, okay?”
Coolest dad ever.
Jonah pointed out that Dad was never like that for him. But Jonah didn’t seem to be put out about it. After all, Jonah knew he wasn’t trustworthy.
But Alix was. And yet she’d let a stalker inside her house, and as soon as she said even the first part of the truth, she realized how serious it actually was. 2.0 had been looking in their windows, she’d talked to him, and it hadn’t shown up on a single security tape.
Now, seeing her father’s disappointed expression, she realized that she couldn’t bear to tell him the rest. That she’d actually been stupid enough to open the door. To talk to her stalker. She couldn’t bear to see her father looking any more disappointed in her than he already did.
“I’m sorry,” Alix whispered. “I’m so sorry.”
The look on Dad’s face was so shocked and horrified, it made her feel sick. She braced herself for the angry dressing down she knew she deserved.
Instead, Dad reached out to her and pulled her into a hug. “Hey. Don’t cry. It’s okay. Just tell me what happened. Don’t worry, honey…”
He kept comforting her, and Alix started to cry, ashamed that he was still so forgiving, even when she didn’t deserve to be forgiven.
11
“YOU IDIOT!” KOOK SHOUTED AT Moses. “You were at her house?”
“I was scouting,” Moses replied as he dug in the fridge. “Nobody even caught a whiff of me.”
“You don’t know that,” she said. “I can’t hack every damn camera all the time. There’s bound to be new spycams…. Gahh!” She grabbed her blue hair and stalked back and forth in the kitchen. Adam wandered in, huge headphones on his ears, head moving to the beat of his own internal sense of groove. He opened the fridge, oblivious to Kook’s shouting at Moses a few feet away.
She grabbed his shoulder and yanked his headphones off.
“Ow!” He jerked away. “What the hell, Kook?”
Kook pointed at Moses. “You know he was over at her house?”
Adam glanced over at Moses. “Seriously?”
“Doing some kind of Peeping Tom routine,” Kook said. “He talked to her.”
“I wanted to see what they were up to,” Moses protested.
“That’s what you’ve got us for! We’re the anonymous ones!” Kook said. “You’ve got an identity. They’ve already got you on camera.”
“All they’ve got is versions of me.”
“You know what I mean.” She scowled at him. “We shouldn’t be doing this. You’re in too close.”
“I’m not too close.”
“I’ll bet you know what color bra she wore today.”
Moses glared at her. “I know you’re wearing a black one, so?”
Adam watched the two of them arguing. “Nobody ever asks me what color bra I wear.”
Kook shot him a dirty look. Adam raised his hands defensively. “My bad.” He went back to the fridge and started pulling out two-liters of Coke. He peered between the bottles and then pulled out a quarter round of the most expensive-looking cheese that Moses had ever seen.
“What’s that?”
Adam at least had the grace to look guilty. Moses couldn’t believe it. “Is that for the rats?” he asked.
“Just one of them.” Adam opened his jacket, revealing the white rat tucked into his inner breast pocket. “He’s cute, right?”
Moses stared at the ceiling. “I live in an asylum.”
“This from the stalker?” Kook said.
“I am not a stalker,” Moses shot back.
Tank came in carrying a load of pizza boxes and stopped abruptly. He still had on his welder’s helmet; and judging from the look in his eyes, he wanted to slam the welding shield down and hide.
Adam took the pizza boxes from Tank and set them on the huge trestle table that they’d set up in the kitchen. “Come on,” he said, draping his arm over Tank’s shoulders. “Mom and Dad are fighting.”
“Fuck you, Adam,” Kook called after him.
“Not really interested, but thanks.” He ushered Tank out of the room, leaving Moses and Kook to face off.
Moses said, “You want to seriously mess with Tank’s mind any more than it’s already been messed with?”
“Don’t pull that con man shit on me. We’re only fighting because you’re an idiot. The kid’ll be fine as long as you don’t fuck up his entire life because you’re addicted to some chick.”
Moses paused, trying to feel out the edges of Kook’s rage. “What’s getting you? Seriously. So I went and peeked in their windows. You know how good I am. You know Williams & Crowe are nothing for me.”
“Sure sure sure. You come and go like the wind. You’re a real genius at that shit.”
“That’s right. I’m a ghost. They never even know I’m there.”
“Except when you screw up and punch some headmaster.”
“That was one time.”
“What would your uncle say if you gave him that line?”
Moses grimaced. “Well, I didn’t screw up this time.”
“So what about the next—” she held up a hand before Moses had a chance to respond. “No. Don’t answer me. This is getting serious now. That’s what I want to say,” Kook said. “This is getting serious, and we can’t afford a screwup.”
“We knew it was going to get serious,” Moses said.
“Banks pushed the panic button way sooner than we expected.”
“Just because the brother pulled a disappearing act on them. It wasn’t even us. They just overreacted.”
“It doesn’t matter why, does it? What matters is that now they’re crawling with big guns. Williams & Crowe have it out for us. After the rat raid, they’re off the leash.”
“Those rats.” Moses shook his head. “They’re turning out to be a serious pain in the ass.”
“Don’t change the subject.” Kook glared at him. “I’m telling you, don’t get wrapped up in the target. We’ve been planning this too long for you to screw this up.”
“I won’t.”
“You better not. I swear to God I’ll pull the plug on this whole thing and let you burn if I think you’re going to screw it up.”
Moses looked at her. “Come on, Kook. I’m not going to screw it up. You know me.”
“No, I don’t. I used to think I did. But now?” Kook shook her head. “I have no idea who you are.”
Moses could see how worked up Kook was. She looked positively strung out. She was pretty deep into her high, riding the weird, ragged edge of pot and caffeine that she claimed kept her inspired and that also kept her sleepless for days at a time. The high that Adam kept telling her wasn’t healthy, but she didn’t care. She’s exhausted. Moses could see it in her bloodshot eyes and the dark circles under them. Even her goth makeup couldn’t hide it.