My dad and Stephanie both snickered.
“Nah, they let me out!”
His eyes shifted from side to side. He looked dirty, and his hand came up to scratch his arm in that junky way I recognized from having grown up with one.
Bullshit.
“They, uh, they let Steph out too.”
Stephanie giggled this horrible, screechy laugh like it was some sort of inside joke.
“So, how’s living with my rich brother?”
My dad shot a look past the gates.
“That who’s buying you all those nice clothes? Who bought you that nice—”
I gasped as he lunged, his arm shooting out and snagging the phone Wilder had got me from my hand as I tried to pull it out of my back pocket.
“Who bought you this fancy fuckin’ phone?”
I trembled, taking a step back and shaking my head.
“Dad, you guys are injail. What the hell are you doing here?”
“I told you!” he snapped, his eyes looking wild. “They let us out!”
Stephanie tittered again. “Oh, yeah, they let us out.”
Everythingabout her lame sarcasm said otherwise. I didn’t knowhowthey’d managed to get out, but there they were, and thereIwas, feeling more and more trapped, without a phone and without any help.
We stood there for a second or two, my eyes darting between them and them glancing at each other in that sketchy junky way.
“Why don’t we go for a drive, huh?”
I shook my head. “No thanks.”
“What, you don’t want to hang out with your dad?”
“No,” I spat. “I don’t.”
My dad’s eyes narrowed. “Get in the car, Mackenzie.”
“No,” I hissed, backing into the iron bars of the gate. My hand crept up next to me, blindly looking for the code box and wondering if I could punch it in without looking.
“I saidgetin the car!”
“No!”
“Listen to your father, you little bitch!” Stephanie screeched, looking more manic than I’d ever seen her.
“I have to go, okay? They’ll be looking for me?”
My dad scowled. “They?”
I pursed my lips, but Stephanie hooted.
“Jesus, does he have his little boyfriend Lincoln living here too?”