Page 72 of The Silent Note

“If someone has to go with Grey, I’ll go,” Cadey says. “After everything with mom, I know my way around a station.”

“I can go alone.”

“You go with Cadey or you go with me.” My voice is hard.

Noticing that I won’t budge, she gives in. Hurling an angry ‘fine’ at my head like it’s a dagger on a dartboard, she stalks to the door.

“Don’t worry. I’ll go with them.”

I nod.

Dutch follows both Cadey and Grey. My wife doesn’t so much as give me a backward glance.

Finn must pick up on her disinterest in me because he takes the water that Grey never accepted.

Unscrewing the top, he starts, “You two were…?”

I’m surprised he’s curious.

“Believe it or not.” I drain the rest of my water and then crush the plastic. “Good ole’ Principal Harris. Always a buzzkill.”

“You realize he’s… dead, right?”

“Exactly. Once a buzzkill, always a buzzkill. Guy couldn’t even go quietly.”

Finn rolls his eyes.

He thinks I’m being dramatic, but I’m dead-serious, no pun intended. I’m starting to think there’s some kind of curse on us. The world is conspiring against my marriage. I just want my wife groaning in satisfaction for one night. Can’t I have one uninterrupted night, dammit?

“Sol is texting the group chat,” Finn declares, eyes on his phone. “I think he just found out Harris is dead.”

Finn’s mention of the group chat reminds me I don’t have my phone on. I need to make sure Grey can text me if she’s in trouble.

Bounding away from Finn without explanation, I throw my bedroom door open and power my phone back on.

As I wait for it to go through its rebooting procedure, I return to the kitchen.

Finn is still there, texting.

“What did Sol say?”

“You have your phone. Find out yourself,” he says.

“Aren’t you in the group chat?” I crane my neck to see what’s on his phone. Finn presses a button and the screen goes black.

“What are you hiding, Finny?”

He bristles. “Call me that again. I dare you.”

My brothers really shouldn’t dare me. I was never the type that could walk away from a challenge. No matter how stupid.

“Finn—”

A new message on my bright phone screen catches my eyes.

I stop mid-tease and scoop it up, tapping on the message. “Freaking hell.”

Finn runs around the counter. Although he almost bit my head off for looking athisphone screen, he has no problem staring at mine.

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