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Dad folds his arms in front of his chest as I continue. “Not even you, Dad. You ignored my calls. Central was being attacked.”

“Do you think I’m an idiot? Do you think I didn’t know about the attack?” He makes air quotes around the last word. “The entire event was planned by yours truly.”

“It was a … setup?” I don’t understand. There was an alarm. There were villains. I fought them.

“That you are so quick to dismiss your father as incapable of running the entire Super community astounds me. Of course it was fake. We’ve had numerous villain attempts to break into Central and this was a way to catch them.”

My jaw falls to the floor. Details of last night come back to me—the first villain’s fancy BEEPR and shiny new suit. How he was so hesitant to fight back when I attacked him. “How did you know it would work?”

He lets out a sigh like he shouldn’t even waste his time explaining such a resolute fact of life to me. But he does anyway. “We have reason to believe they’re able to intercept our Hero alarms, MODs, and god knows what else. Tonight was a test. If we released a private Hero alarm saying the south door was wide open and a villain was listening, they’d be all over it.”

“And they were,” I say, hanging my head in shame.

“Because of your stunt last night, that villain got away.”

“I was only trying to hel

p. To—to prove myself.”

“You embarrassed me.” The tone of his voice implies so many more words than the three he just said. Disappointed, angered, humiliated, shamed.

“Why didn’t you just follow the rules?” Dad’s icy glare bores into my soul as he points a finger at Jake. “You could have lived a respectable life as a Retriever.”

Jakes lips press into a thin, reverent smile. If my head wasn’t in so much pain, I’d probably be able to feel my cheeks burn with embarrassment right about now. Dad drops something on the bed in front of me. My MOD. Held together with a strip of duct tape.

I pick up the device and turn it over in my hand. The rectangular screen has a red border several pixels thick around it. I’ve never seen it do that before. I look questioningly at Dad.

“Your MOD has been reprogrammed. That thing has no more functionality than a human cell phone.”

I place it in my lap, knowing I deserve as much. Dad holds out his arm to Jake, who immediately returns the gesture so Dad can swipe his BEEPR to Jake’s. “Thank you for bringing my daughter safely home.”

“Thank you, sir,” Jake says quietly. “For the opportunity to.”

With a turn on his heel, Dad stares pointedly at me. “You are to go home now. Do not let that woman take your blood. Do not let anyone take your blood.”

“Yes sir.” I push the thin sheet off my legs and start the painful and slow process of climbing off the bed. Dad watches without offering to help and even puts a hand on Jake’s shoulder to prevent him from helping. So much for chivalry.

“Jake will escort you home and he will not leave your side until you check in with the home MOD and lock the door.”

Jake beams with pride. I groan.

Dad steps forward. He’s not nearly as tall as Max so when he looks me in the eyes he doesn’t have to lower his head. For some reason this makes him more intimidating instead of the other way around. “You are to go home. You are to stay home.”

His breath has a slight scent of coffee. I nod. I don’t roll my eyes even though I feel like it. I deserve this, and I’ll stand straight and take it like a Hero.

Dad’s eyes bore into mine. “You will stay home no matter what. I do not care what the MOD says—you will not leave our house. I don’t care if your brother and I are in trouble. I don’t care if we die—you are not to leave. Do you understand?”

I nod. And swallow.

“The house could catch on fire and you are still not allowed to leave. All of Central can burn to the ground and you will burn with it. Tell me you understand.”

My stomach flips. “I understand.”

His face softens. “The house will not burn down, Maci. But you are not to leave until you get permission from me or Hugo Havoc. In person. Not through the MOD.”

The knots in my stomach twist themselves into knots. Hugo Havoc is Dad’s replacement were he to die. Dad never talks like this. Like—like something bad could happen.

“Can we have a signal?” I ask, grasping for some kind of redemption. “Like, a secret signal where maybe I do get to leave? Like maybe you could call me on the MOD and blink three times or something?”