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“But I don’t even have a car!”
The same old argument. “We said we’d consider it when you graduate, that we would help you.”
“ ‘We’? Since when is it ‘we’ again?” she demanded, seeming horrified at the prospect of her parents standing together on anything.
“Xander’s got a car,” Cade pointed out.
“So if he came up here, he could stay with us?” Hope rose in her eyes.
“I don’t think that would be a good idea,” Cade said.
“I agree.”
Harper’s eyes narrowed. “Well, what’s he going to do? He can’t stay with Lucas anymore. Grandpa would have a fit!”
“I’m sure he can figure something out.”
Tears threatened ag
ain. “I thought you might understand, but I guess you don’t!” With that, she turned and fled back to her room.
Rachel took a step toward her, but Cade grabbed the crook of her arm just as the door banged shut. “I need to talk to her.”
“We both do, but let her cool off and think about it,” he suggested. “Anything else is going to blow into a major fight. Now, tell me about Bruce Hollander.”
“Right. God, I’d nearly forgotten about him with all the drama. I have the information,” she said, and was one step ahead of him. At the stairs, Cade, spying Dylan in the living room watching TV, hesitated.
“Hey, bud,” he said.
“Hi.” Dylan rolled his eyes. “I heard what was going on in the kitchen and thought I’d, you know, let the storm pass.”
“Good thinking.”
“Hey,” Rachel said, “let Reno in, would you?”
“Yeah.” He didn’t move.
“Now?” Cade added.
“Oh. Yeah. Sure.” He actually climbed off the couch and turned off the TV before heading toward the back of the house. Rachel continued leading Cade to her office. For a few minutes she’d been caught up in her daughter’s teenaged angst, but now, the threat of Hollander returned. Full force.
In the office she rolled out her desk chair and clicked on the information she’d gathered on Hollander, including his picture before and after being photoshopped. Cade told her the department was already searching for him and how Cade himself had run into the guy who posed as someone named Frank Quinn who claimed he’d been searching for his missing dog.
“I was talking to him. Let him go,” Cade said, “even though initially I had a bad vibe from him.”
“So you were here then, and again last night?” Dear God, had it been less than twenty-four hours since Harper and Xander had found Annessa? It seemed like a lifetime. “Watching my house?”
“Yeah.”
“Did you ever think to tell me?”
“I figured you’d be pissed.”
“I would have been, but wouldn’t I have seen you and thought someone was watching the place, you know, casing it or me or the kids?”
“Okay, that would have been a problem.”
“To put it mildly.”
