Saving Rain(114)

“Because you have been a pain in my fucking ass your entire fucking life,” he said, raising his voice. “David—you know about him now, right? Diane told us you did. He was a goddamn idiot for getting involved with your whore of a mother, and when he knocked her up, he became so … so”—his jaw clenched, and his head shook—“consumed by the idea of getting you back and being a dad. But your fucking mom, man … she wouldn't give him that. She refused, but he sure as shit died trying. Did she tell you that too?”

She hadn’t mentioned that. The information was all news to me. News that I might've taken to heart under different circumstances.

“Why do you even care?” I asked, shrugging. “Why does it even matter to you?”

“Because he was my cousin!”

He dropped his gun-holding arm and shook his head, turning away. It was an opening. I could've rushed him, taken him down. But I didn't. I couldn't risk a slip of his finger on the trigger. I couldn't risk letting down my guard before the cops were at least within earshot.

“His parents raised me. He was like my fucking brother, and when he died, shit fell apart. My aunt and uncle lost their goddamn minds, and Levi was so fucking obsessed with getting back at your piece-of-shit mother. But he always wanted to keep your ass out of it. He always said you were just a kid, and I went along with that, even after they hauled your ass away, but …”

He turned back to me, shaking his head. “You just couldn't leave shit alone, could you? And you just kept coming back, over and over and over again, like a goddamn cockroach. No matter how many times we thought you were gone, there you were. And then you ruined everything.”

“How the hell did I ruin anything for you, Seth?”

He barked a bitter laugh, tapping the barrel of the gun against his thigh. “Are you serious? Come on, asshole! Of all places, you ended up here, next door to the bitch and my kid. Then, you just had to swoop in and get to them. You had to be the fucking hero.”

“As if you wanted them.” I snickered, shaking my head.

Seth lifted the gun and aimed it at me again. “Don't you fucking tell me what I did or did not want. That's not up to you to decide.

“And anyway, I got the fuck over that. I let it go. But you … you couldn't just stop. You had to go back to your little mommy. You had to ask questions, give her your fucking number—oh, she told us all about that. And we had a good thing going with her, too, Levi and me. She did her job, fucked us—”

“You fucked her too?” I couldn’t help but ask, my nose wrinkling with disgust.

“Yeah, and she didn’t fight it like that little bitch, wherever she is. Your mom, she was good for something—I’ll give her that. But then she saw you, and she lost that goddamn script, and we knew—we just knew you had it. We could only guess what you were gonna do with it or who you were gonna tell. She fucked up, so—”

“So you killed her.” My hands tensed around the bat, holding on so tight that they ached.

Seth nodded, an air of pride emanating from his apologetic grin. “Had to, man. Should've done it a long time ago, to be honest, but Levi kept finding reasons not to.” He shrugged, as if to say, What can ya do? “And the thing—the real kicker—is … we would've stopped there. You would’ve gotten the message, and that would've been the end of it. But …” He blew out a breath and shrugged before raising the gun once more. “You just had to go ahead and give the cops Levi's name.”

“You would've done the same thing,” I argued, shaking my head as I stared down the blackened barrel of the gun. “You can't blame me for that.”

Seth slowly nodded his head. “No, I guess not. I guess I should be more pissed that Levi gave me up—family shouldn’t stab each other in the back like that. But”—he shrugged again, this time with more nonchalance—“he's the one behind bars now, and … well, you're not.

“So, listen, this is what's going to happen. You're going to tell me where that little shit and his mother are,” he demanded, his eyes cold and devoid of any moral soul. “Then, you're going to watch me kill them before I kill you. Simple, right?”

“Or you could just kill me and be done with it,” I offered, desperate to buy more time.

Where the hell are the cops?

Did Noah even make it there?

“Tempting, but, no, sorry. Eye for an eye, man. You took everything away from me, so you’re gonna watch as I take everything from you. Now, let's go.” He took his first steps, moving toward me.

I shook my head. “Then, you'll have to get through me to get to them,” I said, backing up to block the hallway entrance.

Seth pursed his lips and nodded. “Okay.”

He aimed low and fired.

A blinding pain seared through my thigh, spreading down my leg and up into my hip. I gasped against the urgent need to grant my leg the permission to buckle and give out from beneath me as I held tight to Noah's bat and my resolve, raising it up higher and swallowing the bile that threatened to corrode my throat.

“Who the hell brings a bat to a gunfight?” Seth asked, chuckling good-naturedly as he walked closer. “I mean, seriously, man, you could've been a little more prepared.”