“Hey, why don’t you let me pick you up tomorrow?” His fingers twitch, and I think he wants to hold my hand too. “I feel weird about you being alone, with assholes like that out there.” He nods at my phone. At the threats I can still see every time I close my eyes.

“Thanks, but I’m fine.” Not at all melting from the inside out, over his offer. “Anyway, I have to have my car, so I can pick Landry up.”

“I could—”

Light flashes through the window, blinding me for a second, and I straighten my shirt out of an old habit, as if Jake’s parents are about to walk in and catch us with his bedroom door closed. But the reality is even more serious than that.

“That’s probably Brother Bill.”

Jake stands and pulls down a couple of the slats in his dusty mini-blinds so he can peer into his front yard. But I know he’s wrong even before he sucks in a sharp breath.

“It’s your mom. And that cop who cleared everyone out of the gym on Friday.”

“Robert Green.” The same officer who escorted me to the library.

A car door slams out front, and a door squeals open at the other end of the house, a warning signal we’re both well attuned to. I mentally track two sets of footsteps into the living room, then one of Jake’s parents opens the front door just as a second flash of light arcs across Jake’s room.

Brother Bill has pulled into the driveway.

I consider trying to sneak out the window, but since Jake’s room is on the front side of the house, my chances of being caught are high, especially with two cops and a youth minister on the front porch. So I stay put, hoping my presence doesn’t make things worse for Jake.

He opens his bedroom door, and my mother’s voice floats toward us from across the house. “Grace. Nick,” she says in greeting.

“Julie?” Jake’s dad sounds wary. “What can we do for you?”

“We have a warrant, and we’re going to need to see your son.”

“Are you going to arrest him?” Grace’s words seem to hang in the air, insubstantial as dandelion fuzz, and Jake turns to me with wide eyes. We hadn’t considered that possibility.

I shake my head. Surely not.

“No, no. It’s nothing like that. We’re just here to ask him a few questions and take a DNA sample.”

“A DNA sample.” Jake’s father’s voice is the gruff rasp of a chain-smoker, even several years after he gave up the habit. “What the hell for?”

“I’m happy to tell you what I can, Nick, but the fact of the matter is that Jake’s eighteen now, and that warrant’s for him. So he’s going to need to be present.”