Page 12 of Unhinged Kallie

“No, I want to blend in. A cape would make me stand out,” I said, going with the spin on my work. “Tell me, Carter, how did you get through the door?”

He gave a little shrug, and I decided to play on his fantasy. “If you tell me how you did it, I might be able to make you a secret member of my team.” His eyes lit up.

“Reawee.”

“Really,” I corrected. He struggled with certain letters, and even though the school insisted it was normal, I chose not to ignore it and made him correct his speech. I also worked on full sentence structure, math, science, computer skills, or whatever other topic the school was pathetically trying to teach him. When he got home from school, he had chores and studied with me for an hour. Then he could watch television or play his games.

His face contorted as he tried again. “Really.”

“Much better. Continue.”

He ran from the room like a spooked deer but came racing back a second later and held out his game controller.

“I used this,” he said. I frowned at Carter. “I made this into a remote.”

“You made this into a remote for my workspace door?”

He nodded and smiled.

“So you hacked into the system,” I asked, suddenly very impressed.

“What is hacked?”

“You wrote new code inside the game to use?”

“I read the numbers and letters and knew what it said. I just changed them.” Carter shrugged again. “Do I get to be on the team? Do you have a superhero name?”

I rubbed my chin and stared at him. He had created my new persona—solving that issue—and had become a larger problem. If he did that with a controller, what would stop him from hacking government agencies or homeland security once he got his hands on a computer? What would prevent him from turning over all the information I had on my kills to the authorities with a click of a button?

But, for now, he was team Super Cain, and if it meant Kirby and I were no longer at odds about the situation, I would take the win. Kirby slid her hand into mine, and I looked at her. She was silently pleading with me, and taking a breath, I nodded.

“My name is Vindicator, and yes, you can be on my team.”

He cheered and jumped in the air. “I need a new name. I need a cool sidekick name.”

Carter ran out of the room before we could finish the conversation.

Kirby stepped in front of me and wrapped her arms around my neck. “Thank you. I love you, never doubt that, but I love our children too, and I need to protect them the same way I protect you.” Rising up on her toes, she kissed my cheek. “As soon as they’re asleep, I plan on doing some very naughty things to my superhero.”

“I could get into roleplaying, but I think I make a better villain.”

* * *

ONE YEAR LATER

“Yes, I understand. I will speak to her. Violence is never the appropriate option,” I said but rolled my eyes. It was absolutely the appropriate option when someone touched you after you asked them to stop. The principal was very close to learning what real inappropriate touching was. No one put their hands on my daughter and told me she should allow it.

I glanced over at my Angel sitting at the kitchen table, smiling and coloring with Carter. She was pointing out that he’d used the wrong color shade for whatever image they were working on. One thing I appreciated about Carter was that he never lost his temper or yelled at Kallie.

Growing up with Abel, I was well aware of what one’s sibling could be like when they had an explosive personality. But Carter was steady, and even when Kallie lost her cool, he found a way to calm her down. I was quickly learning that he was a good influence in that way.

I tuned out the principal as he once more went over what happened and how they would suspend her for the remaining two days of the week like a hardened criminal, but she could return on Monday.

Was it possible to hate the school system any more than I already did? I hadn’t thought so during my time there, but I was wrong. Being at school was tough on Kallie. She didn’t socialize like other children. Only Troy and Carter understood her and let her be who she was. It always amazed me when I learned something new, and despite my reservations about him living here, he was proving to be an asset, at least for now.

“As I said, I will speak to her. I do hope you plan on speaking to the student who was inappropriately touching and bullying my daughter. I’d hate to see the school’s name on social media tarnished by condoning bullying,” I said, clenching my teeth together as I pictured laying the man out on my table. He was lucky I had different goals now, but if he pushed it too much, I would make an exception.

Hanging up the phone before the windbag could spew more worthless information and waste my time, I walked over to the table and sat down.