White Space Season 2

excuse Milo, “It’s alright. We can do this another time. Maybe tomorrow, and I’ll take you to the doctor’s afterward.”
    “Sounds good,” Milo said.
    He spun around, eager to get outside and onto his bike. Before he hit the front door, Milo again thought of how hard his dad was trying, and then about how he’d just lied to his face, manipulating his father’s love to flee the house.
    Milo went back into the kitchen and hugged his dad.
    “Thanks, Dad. I appreciate you coming home. I swear, we’ll do this tomorrow. And thanks for understanding.”
    His father hugged him, hard, like Milo had just come home from camp. Milo was surprised, and touched. Parting from the embrace, he swore tears were forming in the corners of his father’s eyes.
    As Milo raced from front door, he almost wanted to come clean, tell his dad the truth, about everything. But a bigger part wanted to reach Don and Houser as soon as possible. There were all sorts of things that could go wrong if Milo wasn’t there as a buffer between the paranoid Don and Houser. It could get ugly.
    Milo hopped on his bike and raced away as fast as he could pedal.

    **

    Milo reached the meeting spot with five minutes to spare.
    Don was standing behind a tree, looking even more frazzled than usual. His hair, beneath his Mariner’s cap, was wild, eyes darting from branch to branch then tree to tree, as if a group of Paladin officers might spring forth at any moment.
    “You’re here; I was worried something happened,” Don said.
    “I’m early,” Milo said. “Man, what’s got you so spooked? I said we can trust Houser.”
    “Dude got a friggin’ robotic leg from Conway! Don’t you think he might be a bit indebted?”
    “I don’t know. I know he got me out of the Heller house. He didn’t have to do that. Man, why are we even talking about this again? I thought you already agreed to trust me on this?”
    Don nodded, “Yes, trust. Trust but verify!”
    “So, you’re here to verify? ” Milo asked. “And what if I’m wrong, and this guy brings the entire Paladin army?”
    “Then,” Don said, patting his jacket, which Milo just noticed seemed puffier than usual, draped on the man’s lank frame, “I blow them all up with me.”
    “What?” Milo asked, taking two steps back. “Are you saying you’ve got a … ?”
    “Shh!” Don raised his index finger to his mouth, nodding.
    “Holy shit, you are crazy!” Milo said, starting to turn around. “I’m not sticking around for this.”
    “Don’t leave!” Don shouted. “You’re in this shit deep, same as me, Milo. If it goes south, you go, too.”
    “Dude, you’re gonna blow yourself up? Over what? Even if Houser was bad, even if he brings Paladin with him, what does it solve to blow yourself up, and maybe a handful of them? You’re still dead. They still win!”
    Milo wasn’t even sure who they were, and even less sure now that Don was about to go all suicide bomber that there was a they , at least not in the way Don thought. Milo wondered if all the weirdness of the past few months could, in fact, be nothing more than coincidences, misinterpreted by a man gone mad over losing his family.
    Milo started feeling sick to his stomach, wishing he’d stayed home with his father. Suddenly that final hug, squeezing so hard, seemed almost prophetic.
    Milo felt like he was about to die.

    * * * *

CHAPTER 4 — Cassidy Hughes

    Cassidy was curled on the couch, waiting for Jon to get off the phone so she could break the news: She wasn’t going to dinner at his father’s tonight.
    She’d been feeling more anxious about the dinner as the morning unfolded, an anxiety worsened when she arrived at Jon’s house that morning, to find him freaking out after Paladin officers had come and arrested Houser during the night.
    She wasn’t sure how he could sit at dinner through all the drama. The thought of sitting with the Conway family, the people who used her as a wedge between Jon and Sarah, made Cassidy sick to her stomach. She didn’t think she could stand seeing Warren’s smug face without telling him and his shrew harpy bitch cunt of a wife to go get stuffed with something veiny.
    But as she listened to Jon, while he sat at the bar speaking to Houser on the phone, Cass wondered if now was the time. She wasn’t sure what was happening with Houser, and if it was bad, Cass didn’t want to throw a log on the fire.
    She looked at the clock — only a couple of hours before she had to pick