Secret Page 2

  He wasn’t responsible for all social media. Clearly the kids hadn’t utilized his Secret app. If they had, the messages would have been untraceable within minutes of the file opening. No one would have been able to track the messages no matter how hard they tried.

  “Sir, I have a question.” Teri clearly hadn’t picked up the no-questions vibe the guy was putting off. She raised her hand high in the air to draw everyone’s attention.

  “Yes, ma’am,” the officer drawled, his Texas accent thick on the ma’am. Well crap, that ma’am and tone he used would grate on Teri’s nerves because as far as his wife was concerned, the officer might as well have called her ‘little lady.’

  “What exactly did the children do that was illegal?” Dylan lowered his head. Here we go. Of course, she would go there right now. Just make this whole thing worse by fighting it out right there in the lobby in front of fifty or so other parents. He wanted to get his daughter out of there.

  “This is not the time,” he pleaded quietly in Teri’s ear. She shooed him away with a backward motion of her hand.

  “They were on private property and didn’t leave when instructed.” The officer’s dismissive tone and body language made it clear her question didn’t warrant a look in her direction.

  “Excuse me, Officer McDaniel, but I believe there’s some question whether the stadium grounds constitute private property if it’s owned by the city-wide public school district,” Teri continued, her tone hardening.

  “Not now. Do this tomorrow. Let’s just go home,” Dylan tried again, whispering in Teri’s ear.

  “Sir, do you have something for all of us to hear?” the irritable officer asked, dodging Teri’s question completely, but looking directly at Dylan as if he were the mastermind behind her words. Teri would take that to mean a woman wasn’t smart enough to come up with a challenge on her own. When she looked over at him, the arch of her brow told him he’d hit her thoughts dead on. She was ready to blast this guy.

  He quickly jumped in.

  “No, sir, I’ve got nothing to say. We’ve got nothing to say. We just want to collect our daughter and go home.” The officer had grown visibly angry. Surely his pit bull, do-good attorney wife would have all this brought to a head in no time, but that needed to wait until morning. He worried that antagonizing the already pissed off officers would end in them keeping the kids overnight. His wife needed to stop.

  Just as he’d done over and over through the years, Dylan hooked an arm around Teri’s waist and dragged her through the small crowd in the lobby, guiding her out the front doors. He would gladly clamp a hand over her mouth if needed.

  “Dylan, they didn’t have the right to arrest those children.” Teri pushed out of his arms and faced off with him once outside.

  “Didn’t you hear him? They didn’t make an arrest.” Dylan tried to make her see reason.

  “They can’t give a punishment if there’s no violation. The kids should have never been taken off that property. Those children’s civil rights were violated tonight.” Teri was on a roll and in his face, so Dylan lifted up two fingers to close her lips to stop the flow of words he saw coming.

  “Which are all things you can deal with tomorrow. Tonight let’s get our girl and go home. Focus, Teri. No matter what, Chloe shouldn’t have driven all the way back here during mid-term week. Agreed?” Dylan asked, and she glared at him before finally giving him an impatient nod. Dylan slowly lifted his fingers from Teri’s lips.

  “How about this? Why don’t we blame this whole thing on social media and you play a huge part in that blame…” Teri started, but Dylan placed his fingers back over her lips again.

  “No. Not tonight. Again something we can discuss after we get our daughter.” He didn’t care about civil liberties or the impact of social media at the moment. This was about Chloe and getting her away from the police station and home where she belonged, safe and sound. They could deal with the rest later.

  Teri actually stomped her foot. She could have easily gotten out from under the slight pressure of his fingers as he held her lips together, but if nothing else, over the last nineteen years of their marriage, they’d become friends as well as each other’s sounding board. They respected one another.

  When he heard their name called, he lifted a brow, but kept his fingers over her mouth. “I’m walking inside to get our daughter and then coming back outside where you’ll be right here. Correct?”

  “Go, before I change my mind,” Teri said, stepping back as she crossed her arms over her chest. A last call came with their name again being yelled out into the masses. Dylan entered the lobby, and there stood Chloe, right beside the officer from before. He saw the apprehension in the officer’s scowl, but he ignored that and scanned his daughter to make sure she was in one piece. Besides the worry on her face, she looked okay, perhaps a little tousled, but in good shape.

  “I’m Dylan Reeves,” he said to the officer, keeping his eyes on Chloe.

  “Sir, you need to sign this paperwork saying you aren’t contesting any part of this.” Dylan quickly scribbled his name on the bottom of the form before Teri heard the rumor of this part of the deal and went nuts. There were so many issues with this night, the first being, technically, their daughter wasn’t a minor anymore. They held no responsibility.

  “Thank you,” Dylan said and took hold of his daughter’s arm, pulling her along with him out to meet her mother. Out of all his children, Chloe was most like Teri. He could see the indignation forming on her face as the fear of being picked up by the police started to subside.

  “It’s so stupid that the cops found out about this. I’m gonna strangle the person who posted this on Facebook,” Chloe said the second they got outside and she walked into her mother’s arms. Dylan didn’t have time to register those words as Allison broke free of her parents. The girls ran to each other, hugging out their frustrations. By the time he and Teri walked the distance to the girls, there were tears and rambling bits of an angry conversation shooting out between them.

  “It’s just not fair. That stadium has been here since my granddaddy was a boy,” Allison exclaimed. For Dylan, that was a solid reason to destroy the old crumbling building. It had safety hazard written all over it.

  “I know, and it was the stupid seniors from this year that put that post up on Facebook. We had it perfectly quiet on your dad’s network. No one would have known, and we would have been chained in before the wrecking crew got there in the morning!” That sent a whole new round of tears between the girls with Teri turning to glare at him. Great.

  “Come on, you two. Let’s get you home. We can talk in the morning.” Holly wrapped an arm around Allison, guiding her toward their car.

  “I have to get my car or they’ll impound it,” Chloe said after a big sniffle.

  “Allison, where’s your car?” Jack asked.

  “I rode with Chloe,” Allison answered.

  Again, another great moment in this night from hell. Turned out, his daughter had been the instigator between the two of them.

  “We’ll stop by and get your car, honey, and your dad can drive it home,” Teri said, wrapping an arm around Chloe.

  “I’m sorry you had to come to the police station. I knew you were packing for your trip, that’s why I asked them to call dad,” she explained, hugging her mom tight. Dylan and Jack traveled a step or two behind them toward their parked cars.

  “Call me about tee times this weekend.” Jack pointed toward Dylan as they walked toward their respective parking spaces. Dylan was smart enough to keep his mouth shut as Holly slapped at Jack’s arm.

  “It’s not time to talk golf, Jack. This is serious.” Dylan smiled at their exchange and looked up to find Teri and Chloe already waiting by the car. She still looked mighty angry, with it all directed toward him.

  He used the key fob to unlock the doors and held a finger up at Teri as they stared at one another over the roof of the car. Chloe’s eyebrows rose, and she quietly got inside the b
ackseat and shut the door. “You and I will talk about this later. This is about her right now.” Teri kept that angry, focused gaze directed toward him. Her eyes spoke volumes and her stance never changed, but she didn’t say anything when they got inside the car.

  Dylan started the engine and began to back out. “Where’s your car, babe?”

  “We left it at McDonald’s and walked to the stadium to try and keep it more secret,” Chloe said, the tears had slowed as she stared out the backseat window. He braked the car in the middle of backing out of the spot.

  “You walked almost a mile down Lovers Lane by yourselves? Chloe, do you have any idea how dangerous that is?” Dylan scolded, placing a hand on Teri’s seat as he turned fully back toward his daughter. Or someone that looked a lot like his daughter because no way any child he raised would be this reckless.

  “Daddy, I’m sorry!” The tears started again and Teri placed a hand on his thigh.

  “Remember, we’ll talk this through in the morning. We need to get her car.” Teri gave a firm nod, and all of a sudden, he hated his own words being turned back on him. “Besides, all I’m going to say is that reality television and all this access to each other on the internet skews a child’s reality.”

  Of course she got her dig in. Dylan sighed and turned back around in his seat. He backed the car out, got honked at, let the other car pass, and then kept going. Maybe he’d wake up to this being a somewhat funny, but not really, bad dream.

  “Whoa there,” Dylan called out, stopping Chloe as she sneaked toward the garage.

  “Dad, I’m gonna be late for class if I don’t leave now.” Chloe came to an abrupt stop in the middle of the kitchen. Funny, since she started college, she’d never voluntarily gotten up this early.

  Under normal circumstances, he’d already have a run in before breakfast, but since his jailbird daughter wrecked their evening last night, he’d planned for her attempted escape this morning. He’d have tried exactly the same thing at her age.

  “Turn around, take a seat. If you could miss class for a stadium, you can miss class for your mom and me to have a word with you.” Dylan poured coffee into his travel mug.

  “Busted!” Chad, his middle child, laughed, walking into the kitchen and grabbing the breakfast sandwich Dylan had made for him.

  “There’s a bottle of orange juice in the fridge,” Dylan said absently, reaching for the wallet in his back pocket before Chad could utter his next words.

  “Ten-four, Dad. Do you have any money?” Chad asked, his head stuck inside the refrigerator.

  “What do you need? I have a five and a ten.” Dylan thumbed through his cash.

  “I’ll take the ten,” Cate, his youngest shot out before Chad could respond. She came through like a tornado, dropping her heavy backpack to the floor with a loud thump.

  “No, I’ll take the ten. You take the five,” Chad shot back, plucking the ten dollar bill from Dylan’s hand.

  “Dad, that’s not fair. Why does he always get the most money?” Cate whined.

  “Because I’m older and wiser,” Chad answered for Dylan, never breaking stride as he walked out the back door toward his truck. This had been his new attitude since the beginning of his senior year of high school. “Come on, Cate! We’re gonna be late.”

  “Get your breakfast, honey.” Dylan pulled a small plastic bottle of orange juice from the refrigerator and handed it to Cate. She pouted and dragged her backpack on the floor behind her as she came around the center kitchen island.

  “No, ma’am! Go change your skirt. No way that skirt falls in dress code,” Dylan said once he got a good look at his daughter. There wasn’t three full years age difference between his oldest and his youngest, but Cate was still his baby. Cate loved fashion and always pulled this stunt.

  “Daddy, it’s in dress code. Look.” She slid her hands down the sides of the skirt and her fingertips did reach the hem. She’d pulled out the big guns by using the word Daddy. Cate was his baby and she worked that role very well.

  “Then lift your arms in the air to make sure your T-shirt doesn’t show any belly,” Dylan fired back. Her clothes were way too short and tight. He didn’t like it at all.

  “Caty, kiss me before you go.” Teri came in the kitchen, completely dressed in full makeup, hair styled, and wearing a trendy Tori Burch design. “I’m going out of town today. You’ll have to Skype me tonight. Where’s Chad?”

  “Mom, Dad thinks my dress is too short, but look, it comes to my fingertips.” Teri kissed Cate on the cheek and walked past her toward the backdoor.

  “It does come to her fingertips, Dylan.”

  “It does, Dad,” Chloe added as if her declaration would help anything.

  “You sit over there and wait your turn,” he said to Chloe before turning to Cate. “I’d feel more comfortable if you changed.” The skirt looked short even if it wasn’t. She’d almost reached his six foot height, and he could see entirely too much of her long legs. He really wanted her to change that skirt.

  “But, Dad, this matches my bow and my shoes,” Cate reasoned, pointing to her head and sticking out her foot. A honk came from the garage.

  “Dylan, she needs to go. They’re going to be late,” Teri said, coming back inside the kitchen.

  “Thanks, Mom. Don’t work too hard and try to have some fun!” Cate grabbed the five dollar bill and darted out the door.

  “Teri, she needed to change that skirt.” He’d lost the fight, but couldn’t let this go. They were supposed to be a unit, a team. They were to stick together on all things.

  “You treat them like you did when they were little. They’re becoming adults,” Teri countered as she poured herself a cup of coffee.

  “They aren’t adults. They’re still little,” Dylan said, defeated because she was absolutely right.

  “No, we aren’t, Dad,” Chloe added from her seat at the kitchen table.

  “Did I tell you to sit over there and be quiet?” he asked, grabbing his travel mug to join her. “You’re the prime example of why age has nothing to do with being an adult.”

  “My car’s arriving in fifteen minutes. Can we get on with this?” Teri asked, giving Dylan a very clear we-need-to-move-this-along expression.

  “Where are you going this time, Mom?” Chloe asked.

  “Chicago, on a business trip.” Teri easily deflected the question. She took her coffee and toast to the kitchen table where Chloe and Dylan now sat. “We need to talk about this problem of you driving back here without letting us know.”

  “We actually need to discuss the whole thing. But first, I want to know who organized this,” Dylan asked, pushing a breakfast sandwich in Chloe’s direction.

  “Dad, the stadium means something to me and you always say we need to be true to ourselves and fight for what we believe in.” Probably as close to a confession as he was likely to get. So she had been the mastermind behind last night. He’d pretty much come to that conclusion about five thirty this morning. He let it pass that those weren’t his words at all, those were her mother’s. Conviction and passion were fine, as long as they didn’t put any of his children in danger.

  Chloe had always been his little go-getter. She was class president, head cheerleader, and in the top ten of her graduating class.

  “Honey, your dad’s right about his biggest concern. You took too many risks on this one. Leaving school during mid-terms, driving so far on your own without telling us, and organizing something that got so many kids in trouble may not be the most effective way to accomplish your goals.” Teri ticked off the points on her fingers as she spoke.

  “I know. I do, I just didn’t find out about this until yesterday. I thought the school had to publically announce these things? And I didn’t want anyone in trouble. I wanted to exercise my civil liberty to protest the stadium coming down. I thought maybe ten kids would show up. All those kids being there wasn’t my fault. I made it clear that we had to keep all communication on Dad’s network. None of the authoritie
s would have known if they would have followed the rules. Stupid Jake put the announcement on Facebook for the world to see.” Chloe sounded disgusted.

  Dylan carefully hid his pride in her words.

  Teri had lost two cases over the last ten years when the opposing side presented old social media posts from My Space and Facebook casting doubt on the character of the person she represented. She had long since forgotten that was the entire reason Dylan had created the no-paper-trails social media network called Secret. People shouldn’t be held responsible in their thirties for some silly post made when they were fifteen. That was just dumb.

  Unfortunately, Teri’s thoughts on the computer hadn’t evolved. She didn’t see the value in anything that allowed people to hide behind a screen. “Dylan, this is exactly what I’ve been saying for years. You take blame in this too. Companies like yours that give these children so much access but don’t teach them to be responsible with it are fundamentally at fault,” Teri stated, looking straight at Dylan.

  “I’m not doing this again with you,” Dylan said firmly, though he realized when his creation had turned into a worldwide revolution, and even his children started using the application, it had probably been the beginning of the end of their unified parental front.

  Dylan turned toward his daughter. “Chloe, you need to keep us better informed as to what you’re doing. We aren’t asking you to lose your convictions, just be smarter about them. We’ve taught you better than what your actions reflected yesterday. We need to be able to trust you will use your very smart brain in the future.”