Under Threat by Robin Stevenson Page B

something? Making a fuss about
nothing?”
    “Not exactly,” he says. “But—”
    “Doctors get killed ,” I say. “For taking care of patients. For doing a procedure
that, regardless of what you think about it, is legal and safe.” I glare at him.
“At least, safe for the patient.”
    He sticks his hands in his pockets. “Well, at least now you know it wasn’t me.”
    He’s right. Which means I ruined my relationship with Leah for nothing. Because I’m
an idiot.
    I turn and walk away. I’m half-hoping Leah will stop me—come running after me—but
she doesn’t.
    She just stands there beside Jake and watches me leave.
    My parents are both in the kitchen when I get home. Mom’s grating cheese; Dad’s stretching
out a lump of dough.
    “Hello there, Franster,” Dad says. “You’re home early. Buddy okay?”
    “Fine.” I burst into tears.
    They both stare at me. “What is it?” Mom asks, sounding alarmed. “Rich said he spoke
to you. They arrested the guy, Fran. It’s all over.”
    I shake my head. Dad leaves his pizza dough on the baking tray and puts his arms
around me. “Come here, Franny-bear. It’s okay.”
    I’m crying in great heaving sobs. “Sorry,” I say. “Sorry.”
    He just holds me, my face against his chest.
    I sniff, pull back and wipe my nose on my sleeve. “I’m probably getting snot all
over your sweater.”
    “No worries,” he says. “I’ve got pizza dough all over yours.”
    I laugh through my tears.
    “Franny?” Mom says. “Did something happen? Or…”
    “Me and Leah,” I say. “I think maybe we just broke up.”
    After I explain everything that happened—the things Jake said, how I snooped around
his room, what I told Detective Bowerbank—Mom looks as if she might start crying
herself.
    “You poor kid,” she says. “Your dad and I—well, you know why we do what we do. Why
it’s important. But we didn’t want all this to affect you.”
    “Seriously?” I roll my eyes. “How could it not, Mom?”
    “I know, I know. But…” She shakes her head. “I wish you’d talked to us.”
    “You had enough to worry about.”
    Dad has returned to his pizza, stretching the dough, spreading pesto sauce on it
and slicing mushrooms as we talk. “So are you going to apologize to him?”
    I stare at him. “To Jake? You’ve got to be kidding.”
    He shrugs. “Well, you did suspect him of doing some terrible things.”
    “Because he said some terrible things,” I say. “He’s the one who should apologize.”
    Dad just sighs and shakes his head.

Chapter Fourteen
    I’m undressed and crawling into bed when my phone rings. Leah.
    “Hello?” I say.
    “Hi. Uh, it’s Jake.
    I sit up, my heart instantly racing. “Jake?”
    “Don’t hang up.”
    “I wasn’t going to,” I say. “What is it?”
    “Look. Uh, I just wanted to say sorry that I flipped out about you telling the cops
about me.”
    I don’t say anything for a few seconds. When I told Dad I thought Jake should apologize,
I never in a million years thought he actually would.
    “I get why you did it,” he says. “If I thought my mom was in danger, I’d probably
have done the same thing.”
    “Yeah.” I pull the covers up around my bare shoulders, shivering in the cold air.
“I knew I was probably being crazy and paranoid, but—”
    “You couldn’t risk not saying anything,” he says. “In case you were right.”
    “Exactly.”
    “Anyway,” he says, “that’s all I wanted to say.”
    I think of what my dad said. “Um. I’m sorry too. That I suspected you of doing that
stuff.”
    He clears his throat. “I think it’s wrong. Abortion, I mean. But that guy showing
up with a knife…that’s really twisted. Like, that’s way more wrong. It kind of freaked
me out, actually. That someone would do that.”
    I can’t make sense of Jake. I can’t figure out how the nice guy fits together with
the guy who called my parents murderers. The guy who called me a crazy dyke. “Did
you tell