Saving Rain(112)

But forty minutes after I started playing, during a tense trip down Rainbow Road, Noah looked to me with widened eyes, a strange look on his face as he allowed Toad to run straight off the track.

“Do you hear that?”

My brows pinched as I paused the game and looked at him curiously. “Do I hear wha—”

But then I heard it. An engine rumbling in the near distance. Loud and obnoxious, coming closer by the second.

I knew that sound, and so did he.

“Noah.” I dropped the controller to the coffee table and grabbed the remote, turning the TV off and shrouding the room in darkness. “Get to your room.”

He sprang to his feet, ready to move, but still, he protested. “Wait. I—”

The truck rolled closer and closer.

“Now. Go. Get your shoes on.”

He was running down the hall. “What? Why?”

I was on his tail and thinking quickly as he stuffed his feet into his shoes, questioning me all the while.

There were two windows in his room. One that faced the front of the house, one to the side and hidden from the street. I glanced out the front-facing window as Seth’s big, loud pickup truck rolled to the curb, running over the Belgian blocks I’d laid around the garden in the spring. I watched him get out of the truck and saw the coal-black metal gleaming in his hand, glimmering in the downpour.

Breathe.

Breathe.

Don’t panic.

I reluctantly tore my stare from the window and saw Noah standing beside me, his frightened expression aimed where mine had just been.

“I-is that a gun?”

“Look at me.” I took his shoulders in my hands.

He was trembling, shaking his head involuntarily. “Soldier, w-why does he have a gun?”

I glanced out the window, praying we had time, and saw Seth climbing the porch steps to the empty house next door.

He thinks they’re in there.

It was obvious when I saw the gun in his hand, but it was even clearer now.

Seth was here for one reason, and it wasn’t to talk.

“Noah. Listen to me right now.”

He looked at me then, his eyes rounded with fear and too petrified to cry, even as his bottom lip quivered.

“You’re going to climb through the window, you’re going to stay hidden and get away from the house, and when you turn the corner, you’re going to run. Do you know the way to the police station from here?”

He nodded frantically.

“Good. You’re going to take my phone, and when you get to the next street, you’re going to call 911. Okay? Keep running. Run as fast as you possibly can and get to the cops. Do you understand?”

I pushed at the window at the side of the house, finding it stuck. I cursed loudly, then grabbed Noah’s baseball bat. Terrified Seth would hear the shattering glass, I winced as I swung, just as a crack of thunder crashed overhead.

“Thank you,” I caught myself saying out loud—to who exactly, I had no idea.

As I pulled the blanket from Noah's bed and used it to push away the jagged shards of glass jutting out from the window frame, I said, “Noah, tell me you understand.”

“I understand.”

“What are you going to do? Tell me.”

“Uh-uh … stay hidden until I get to the end o-of the street, c-c-call 911, then run.”

I grabbed his shoulders, guiding him to the window. “And where are you running to?”

“The police.”

“Good. O—”

My words were cut off by a loud crash coming from next door. I turned to look out the other window, knowing Seth would be coming any minute.

“You have to go,” I hurried to say, draping the blanket over the bottom of the window frame. “I'm going to help you out, and you're going to drop down. Ready?”

He could barely nod as the tears began to stream down his face. He threw his arms around my waist, holding on for sweet life.

“I love you,” he cried. “I-I didn't say it before, but I do. I-I love you.”

“I love you too, buddy.” A blinding pain seared through my chest as I took his wrists in my hands, knowing I had to get him away from me while wanting to hold on tighter than I’d held anything before.

“N-no, y-you come too,” he begged, his sobs growing stronger. “G-get Mom. We … w-we can—”

“We don't have time,” I told him gently, prying his arms from around me and stuffing my phone into his hand. “Come on, buddy. Take a deep breath. You gotta do this for me, okay? Go get help.”

I didn't wait for his response as I maneuvered him toward the window, easing him out into the downpour.

My hands were under his arms, ready to let him go when he said quietly, “You're gonna save Mom, right? You're not going to let him—”

“Nothing is going to happen to your mom,” I whispered, meaning every word. “Now, remember what I said, and go.”

He dropped to the wet grass and held tight to the wall of the house, crouching in the shadows, and I nodded to myself, knowing he had this. He was going to be okay.

I couldn't spare the time to continue watching him. With the bat in hand, I hurried to the room next door and shook Ray awake before running to the closet.

“Soldier?” she asked, her voice groggy. “What … what are you doing?”