“I’m fine.” He lowers his voice and leans toward me. “Did you tell anyone at work you were coming here today?”
I shake my head.
“I just saw Candy outside.”
“Candace is outside?” I glance across the huge gym toward the closed wall of doors. No windows to the lobby. From this spot, we have no idea what threats lurk on the other side.
“Yeah, I went to the lobby to talk to Coach and saw her. She’s got two big dudes with her. Doesn’t look like she’s here to watch the robotics final.”
She knows it’s Friday. Does she also know I’m getting closer to figuring out how they set me up?
“She’s probably tracking Mom’s phone.” Erika roughly crosses her arms across her chest.
Clint steps back like he’s been slapped.
“Yeah, Mom just found out my phone’s been hacked. Hers probably too. At least now we know who’s behind it.”
“Let’s not jump to conclusions.”
Erika rolls her eyes like I need to keep up.
“But we should get out of here.” I glance toward Reid, still huddled.
“Maybe we should just call the police?” Clint also glances toward the center arena.
“We could. I was just talking to Komoroski. He offered for us to come in.”
Clint slowly shakes his head. “To tell them what?”
I love this man.
He’ll do the hard thing with me. He won’t give in without a fight.
“Exactly,” I say. “We need to figure out who to trust.”
“Well, I can tell you with certainty it’s not Candy.” Clint puts his hand on my lower back.
“Then let’s go,” I say.
All three of us look over at Reid, who is now standing behind his teammates as they finalize the staging for whatever task their bot needs to run.
“You grab him, and I’ll pull the truck to the back entrance.” Clint pushes me slightly.
“Wait.” Erika grabs both our arms.
“We don’t have time to argue about this,” Clint almost shouts then lowers his voice to a whisper as a few of the parents look over at us. We’re being watched.
“Mom’s phone is likely being tracked and your truck is probably also. Whoever broke in and spray-painted the Range Rover had access.”
Clint stills.
“Maybe that’s even why they did it.” She shrugs. “I watch a lot of true crime shows.”
Clint and I look at each other. This whole thing may be well beyond us. I sigh in surrender. “Maybe the college has security or even police? I can call Komoroski back.”
“I have another idea. Dad, give me your keys.”
Clint shakes his head. “I’m not risking—”
