His breathless command had all three of them looking at him, but Neil had eyes only for Betsy. He'd wanted to hurt her in the car for reinforcing the awful rules of Andrew's medicine. She hadn't defended herself because she knew she didn't need to. She knew just like he did how cruel it was to keep Andrew on his drugs, and she'd already reached out to the people who could help him.

Betsy's smile was small and approving. "I promise I'll try. Wish us luck?" She plucked a new chocolate bar off the counter and led Wymack and Abby upstairs.

Neil didn't really believe in luck, but he watched them go and hoped for it anyway.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Nicky's bedroom door was unlocked, so Neil let himself in without knocking. Nicky and Kevin were on Andrew's bed, but they weren't speaking to each other. Kevin sat rigid and silent at the foot of the bed and Nicky was stretched out on his back down the middle. Neil looked from one haggard face to the other, then set his racquet off to one side and closed the door. Kevin's stare went immediately to the racquet. Nicky didn't notice, too busy staring at the ceiling.

Neil sat on the bed between them. It was pointless to ask if Nicky was all right; anyone with eyes could see he wasn't. The best he came up with was an insubstantial, "Hey."

"We shouldn't have come here," Nicky said, sounding as wretched as he looked. "I should have listened all those times Andrew told me to give up on them. If I had we wouldn't be here right now. Andrew wouldn't—" Nicky closed his eyes and sucked in a deep, unsteady breath. "What have I done?"

"You didn't do anything," Neil said. He searched for words, but the ones he found weren't his. They were Wymack's, shared with Neil to ease Neil's guilt over Seth's death. "You didn't know this was going to happen. None of us did. If we'd known, we wouldn't have come."

"Betsy said that, too, but do you really believe it?" Nicky asked. "Can you? We knew Andrew didn't want to come but we made him anyway. I should have just trusted him. I should have known it was something big if he could hold a grudge through all those drugs."

"This is your father's fault," Neil said. "He set Andrew up."

"With alcohol," Nicky said, with a broken laugh. "He told me and the police last night. He talked to Andrew knowing it was going to end with an argument. He promised Andrew alcohol as a peace offering. Drake's idea, see? Dad just had to tell Andrew the bottle was upstairs, and Drake and Andrew would have all the privacy they needed to 'work on their issues'." A savage edge crept into Nicky's voice as he mocked his father's words.

"There was no bottle," Neil guessed.