101
THERE WAS NO ONE AT the Outsider hideout, which meant we had biked for half an hour for nothing. Becca scratched a coded message next to a hay bale on the floor, basically saying Call me. Everyone might have decided to wait for Nate to get better, or they might be off doing other things, or they didn’t want anything to do with me and Becca.
Nate. I hoped he was doing okay. I didn’t dare call him. Later today, when I went to the hospital to see Pa, I would find him and say hi.
We biked home. I thought it was so weird that we had disappeared and come back, and no one was taking any notice. It left me with the uncomfortable feeling that they were just biding their time, coming up with a plan to really get us.
I gritted my teeth and pedaled harder. I was different than I had been before prison. They would be dealing with a different Cassie now.
When we rounded the Henrys’ field, we saw the SAS van parked in front of our door.
“So they do know we’re home,” Becca said drily.
“Let’s get this over with,” I said.
We dropped our bikes in the yard and Becca strode up to the front porch, where the SAS agent was waiting.
“What do you want?” Becca snarled, stomping to the front door and yanking it open.
The agent looked calm and capable, like they always do. Confidence-inspiring.
“Girls,” she said. “I’m afraid I have some bad news. Your father passed away this morning.”
Whatever we’d been expecting, it wasn’t that. I actually staggered backward and fell against a porch post. Becca clung to the door as if it was propping her up.
“What?” Becca said.
“Your father was called home to greener pastures this morning,” the woman said.
“May I come in?” She deftly eased past Becca and sat down on the settee Ma had refinished years ago. I followed them in, my mind spinning.
“How?” I managed to get out.
The woman looked at me with sympathy and smoothed her navy-blue uniform over her knees. “It’s been a long, slow process, as you know,” she said. “Anyway, this morning it became critical. The hospital informed me that they tried to call you.”
I looked at the black phone sitting on the small table, as if it would still be able to tell me something. “We weren’t here this morning,” I said. We’d been at the Outsiders’ hangout, which had done us no good at all. Pa had died. He’d died without us there.
“I’m so sorry, dear,” the woman said. “I know it’s always hard to lose a parent, even when it’s a blessing.”
Becca looked at her sharply. “Excuse me?”
“A blessing,” the woman said, lowering her voice. “Of course you loved your father, but the way it all happened…” She let her voice trail off, as if we would acknowledge the shame of my father trying to commit suicide by himself.
“Why are you here?” I asked, my voice as cold as a winter storm. My heart felt like ice. While we’d been bicycling halfway across the cell, Pa had drawn his last breath. A deep pain grew in my chest until I thought I was going to be sick.
The SAS officer gave a delicate sigh and shook her head. “The nurse at Healthcare United asked me to tell you about your father, since I was coming here anyway.”
“Coming here anyway?” I asked. “Why?”
“My dears, I’ve come to offer you the benefit of our complimentary service,” she said, as if surprised it needed explaining. “You can’t keep this farm up by yourself. Your parents are now both gone. Without schooling or a vocation—”
She was saying the same things I’d been thinking myself, but hearing them from her enraged me.
“Get out,” Becca said. Her nose was pink and her jaw was quivering.
“What?” the SAS officer asked.
I stood up. “Leave now, and don’t come back.”