Call It What You Want(55)

For a moment, nothing happens, and I’m worried I’m going to have to make good on that threat. But then the little dots appear to let me know she’s typing.

SAMANTHA: I’m surprised you haven’t called Mom already.

The words hit me harder than her slap did. I hadn’t considered Samantha doing the same thing, hiding out because she’s afraid to go home. I slide my fingers across the screen quickly.

MAEGAN: I’m not trying to hurt you. I’m trying to be your sister.

SAMANTHA: I’m fine. Craig is taking me to Taco Taco so I can sober up before he takes me home.

Craig. My eyebrows go way up. I read that out to Rob.

“Huh,” is all he offers.

“Do you think she’ll be okay?”

“He seemed like an all-right guy.” He pauses, then looks over again. “Your sister is pretty good at getting people to do what she wants, huh?”

I snort. “That’s a nice way of putting it.”

We fall into silence again, but now that I know Mom and Dad don’t have the Maryland State Troopers out looking for us, we relax into the white noise of the highway. My hand still tingles from where he kissed it. Every time my brain replays the feeling of his hands and mouth on my body, my cheeks warm and I have to look out the window. I’m glad it’s dark and he can’t tell.

I want to know how long he plans to drive around, but I’m worried he’ll think I’m ready to go home. I’m not. Not by a long shot.

Eventually, I glance over. “What did Connor’s dad want to talk to you about?”

“He wanted to make sure I’m staying on the straight and narrow.” His hands flex on the steering wheel again. “Said he was trying to look out for me. Yeah, sure.”

I know what Mr. Lachlan did, of course, but I don’t know enough about the details between the Lachlans and the Tunstalls to figure out the dynamics of what that means. “You don’t like him?”

Rob glances over in surprise. “Bill Tunstall is the one who blew the whistle. He figured out what Dad was doing.”

Wow. “I didn’t know that.” I pause. “Is that why you hate Connor so much?”

“Yes.” He flinches. “No. It’s complicated.”

He says nothing more, so I say, “It’s just you and me in the car.”

He’s quiet for a while, the car eating up the miles. His silence is weighted this time, though, so I wait.

Finally, he speaks. “I don’t hate Connor.” Rob pauses and runs a hand through his hair. “Sometimes I do. I don’t know. He was my best friend.” He laughs without much humor. “That sounds so stupid. Like we’re in third grade, right?”

I think of Rachel, who hasn’t spoken to me since the night it all fell apart at Taco Taco. “It’s not stupid.”

“Dad and Bill were always close. I wasn’t kidding when I said I practically grew up in that house. We were always over there—or they were at our house. Dinner parties, cookouts, you name it. We used to have a vacation home right on Bethany Beach, and we’d spend half the summer there.”

I don’t ask him what happened to the beach house. Dad once said that anything Mr. Lachlan had bought with stolen funds would be seized by the FBI.

“I don’t know how Bill figured it out. They were both financial planners, but they weren’t partners or anything. They didn’t even work for the same firm.” Rob rubs a hand across the back of his neck. “I used to intern for my dad, so everyone always thinks I knew what was going on, but I didn’t. I didn’t realize until tonight that even Bill thought I knew.” He glances over. “I’m not really even answering your question.”

“It’s okay. Just talk.”

“Mom thinks Dad confessed to Bill. She didn’t know anything either, but she says the guilt had to be tearing him up. She thinks they were probably shooting the shit over a few drinks, and Dad probably gave it up.” He hesitates. “Bill called the authorities the next day. I didn’t even know what was happening. The FBI dragged me out of school. I remember thinking—”

His voice breaks. He stops talking. I don’t even think he’s breathing.

Eventually, he clears his throat, but his voice is still rough. “I remember that the week before, there was this story in the news about a guy who walked into his broker’s office and shot up the place. Mom and Dad talked about it at dinner. She said something about how people lose their minds when it comes to money. When they called me to the principal’s office and there were all these FBI agents there, I thought—I thought that’s what had happened. But it wasn’t. I mean … obviously.”

“Yeah,” I whisper.

“They arrested him. They froze everything. Mom had a trust fund from her parents, so they couldn’t touch that, but that was complicated. It took a week for Mom to be able to bail Dad out of jail. Even when he got home, we had no access to anything. Everything of value in the house had been taken. Computers, jewelry, you name it. But that’s not the worst.” Rob’s voice hitches, but he gets it together. “People started showing up at the house.” He glances over. “People who lost their money to him. They would bang on the door at all hours of the night. Once, they broke in and came after Mom—it was awful. She had to call nine-one-one, and one of the cops made a dig about how she shouldn’t be too surprised that people wanted their things back. Like she was the one who stole everything. Once he was out of jail, Mom stood by him in public, but inside the house, she was always screaming at him. On the last night, she was raging out so hard that I couldn’t even understand what she was saying. He was crying. I could hear him through the wall. I’d never heard my father cry before. I put a pillow over my head.”