Chapter Four

 

Noah

 

“So I was thinking we could get pizza at Deltorio’s for dinner. That sound good to you guys? Evening out on the town and all that?”

I looked away from the television as my mom popped her head around the accordion door to the sunken den. With her wavy, blonde hair swinging in her loose ponytail, she waited for our answer.

“Yeah, Sandra,” Baylie replied, shifting position in her place at the other end of the long couch. “That’d be great, thanks.”

I nodded.

Mom smiled and then she disappeared back down the hall.

Baylie propped her head on her hand and returned her attention to the television. She and I had gotten into town late last night, and we’d been here most of the morning, channel surfing for lack of anything better to do.

“I swear,” she sighed as the mid-morning news started, the screen flashing from fuzzy shots of the state capital to reports of some unexpected storm out near Hawai’i. She flipped to a different station. “Cable is so overrated.”

My lip twitched as I glanced to her. “Movie marathon?”

“Please.”

I pushed away from the couch. Stepping around Baylie’s yellow Lab, Daisy, who was asleep in a patch of morning sunlight nearby, I headed for the cabinet below the television. Tugging open the doors, I regarded the rows of movies.

“Comedy… action… what’re you thinking?” I offered.

“Whatever you want.”

I skimmed the titles in the cabinet. It was a tradition with Baylie and me, watching movies when I came to visit. There wasn’t much else to do in Reidsburg, and as activities went, it was a whole lot better than going to the gas station or the other random places people in this small town hung out.

It didn’t hurt that we had pretty much the same taste in films, either.

I tugged out a box set of The Godfather movies, and another of the Lord of the Rings. Either would eat most of the day, which wasn’t a bad thing. I wanted distractions, and we both needed anything resembling normalcy.

“Thoughts?” I prompted, turning to hold them both up for her.

She blinked, pulling her gaze from the glass patio door. I caught the flash of worry in her eyes, though she buried it fast. “Um, Dad and I watched the Lord of the Rings not too long ago,” she replied, her casual tone sounding a bit forced. “So…”

I nodded and turned back to the cabinet, struggling to keep from grimacing. We were right next door to Chloe’s old house and the awareness of that fact had sat between us like the elephant in the room ever since we’d gotten into town. We hadn’t mentioned it. For my part, I’d barely even looked at the house. I felt guilty for being grateful that we’d avoided the topic, but I really didn’t want to think about Chloe. I knew Baylie was worried; no one had explained why Chloe wasn’t home, why she’d really had to leave in Santa Lucina, or why, short of one phone call asking for a ride a few days ago, no one but me had heard from her in a week. We’d only said that Chloe had gone away with some family friends for a while, and that she was safe.

But I couldn’t figure out how to tell Baylie the truth. Her best friend wasn’t human.

And she wouldn’t be coming back.

I swallowed, forcing my attention to the movies. We’d done fairly well keeping up the pretense of things being normal. I wasn’t about to let that go. Not yet.

“Alright, well, you want to grab the popcorn?” I asked without turning around.

“Yeah, no problem. You want–”

She cut off as a knock came on the front door.

“Hey, Baylie, could you grab that?” Mom called.

Baylie sighed. Rising from the couch, she set the remote down and then walked out of the room.

I put the movies aside. Retrieving the remote from the coffee table, I scanned the buttons for the one that would switch the input feed away from cable.

Baylie opened the door. I heard her gasp.

And then the sound cut off.

My brow drew down. “Baylie?” I called, dropping the remote to the couch. “Everything alright?”

She didn’t respond.

“Where is she?” a familiar voice whispered.

My blood went cold. I ran for the hall.

Uncle Richard stood in the front room. He had Baylie pressed to the wall beside the door, one arm holding her there while his other hand was clamped over her mouth. Wyatt and Brock were just inside, and past them, I could see Owen and Clay watching the neighborhood from the yard.

Their mouths curled into smiles at the sight of me.

“Well, look who’s here,” Wyatt commented. “Not hiding or anything.” He chuckled. “Sloppy, cuz.”

My heart raced. Of course I hadn’t been hiding – why would I? We were just watching television.

And my psychotic relatives were supposed to be on the coast over sixteen hundred miles away.

I started toward them. Wyatt moved to block me.

“Uh-uh,” he cautioned.

“We just want to know where the girl is,” Richard said. “No one needs to get hurt here.”

Disappointment flashed over Wyatt’s face at the words, as though he’d really prefer someone did.

“What girl?” I asked.

His grip tightened on Baylie. Behind his hand, I could hear her give a stifled shriek, her terrified gaze locked on me.

“You know which,” Richard said. “Chloe. Where does she live?”

I stared at him. “Chloe? You know she can’t be here. She’s not–”

“Tell me where she lives, Noah,” Richard snapped, the threat in his voice more than clear. “Now.”

I shivered, looking from him to Baylie. I couldn’t stop all of them. Not before they did something terrible to her.

And I couldn’t tell them that Chloe had lived right next door. Even if there was no way she could come back here, not now that she’d become one of the dehaian, there was still her family to worry about.

I didn’t want to know how her parents fit into the next step of my relatives’ plan.

Swallowing hard, I shook my head. “Just let Baylie go,” I said, holding up my hands. Cautiously, I moved down the hallway, watching them all. “You don’t need to do this. She–”

“Who was it?” Mom called, coming up the basement stairs.

Richard stepped back, releasing Baylie. She scrambled away from him and around Wyatt, racing to me.

I caught her. Pushing her behind me, I retreated into the front room, not taking my eyes from them.

“Baylie?” Mom continued. “Did you hear what I– Richard?”

I heard her set something down sharply and then come toward us. Taking one hand from Baylie, I reached out quickly, stopping her.

Mom looked furious. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“We just had a question for Baylie and your son, Sandra,” Richard replied carefully.

“Ed!” Mom shouted to Baylie’s dad upstairs. “I’m calling the police,” she continued to Richard, moving away from me toward the phone on the wall. “And you’re going to be hearing from our lawyers after what your boys did to Baylie in California, so you–”

“Wyatt!” Richard snapped as the guy started toward her.

I moved fast, getting between them.

Wyatt stopped. The snarl on his face turned to a disgusted sneer when he glanced at me.

Ed’s footsteps pounded on the stairs. “What?”

“Peter’s brother,” Mom snapped. “Came here to ‘talk’ to Noah and Baylie.”

Ed’s face went dark. “Get out. You get the hell out of my house right now, you bastard.”

He started down the stairs.

“Brock!” Richard barked as his son blocked Ed’s path. He looked between Mom and Ed. “Nothing’s happened here. Nobody needs to call any cops. We just had a question, and now we’re leaving.”

His sons looked back at him, incredulity damn near blatant on their faces.

“Go,” Richard ordered them, still watching Mom and Ed.

Wyatt and Brock didn’t move.

“I said go!”

Brock shuddered and then retreated toward the door.

Wyatt growled. Ed’s eyes went wide at the sound.

“Now!” Richard snapped.

Wyatt paused. “This isn’t over, cuz,” he promised, his voice so low, only Baylie or I stood a chance of hearing. “We’re gonna get that bitch. Just you wait.”

His gaze slid to Baylie. He winked, a smirk on his face, and then sauntered after his family out the door.

Ed hurried down the steps and slammed the door behind them, throwing the lock the moment it closed. Baylie came back over to me and I put my arms around her, holding her while she trembled.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

“You all okay?” Ed asked.

Baylie let out a breath and nodded. Behind me, I heard Mom talking to the local police on the phone.

I didn’t take my eyes from the window. Richard and my cousins were climbing into their maroon SUV. Starting the engine fast, Richard cast a look around the neighborhood and then took off down the road.

“What was wrong with that boy?” Ed continued. “Did you hear him?”

I glanced to Mom warily as she hung up the phone, wondering how she wanted to handle that.

“Richard’s boys have always had problems,” she answered neutrally.

Ed’s eyebrows rose and fell. “I’ll say.”

“That was Chief Reynolds,” Mom continued. “He’s sending an officer over.”

Ed nodded. “You sure you’re okay, honey?” he asked Baylie.

“Yeah,” she said, trying for a smile. “Yeah, I’m alright.”

“You kids just head back to what you were doing,” he continued. “We’ll keep an eye out here and let you know if the cops need to talk to you, okay?”

Baylie glanced to me and I could read the hesitation in her eyes. “Yeah,” she agreed. “Okay.”

Letting me go, she started back to the den, her gaze still twitching toward the front window.

I looked to Mom, questioning.

She gave a tiny nod.

Taking a breath, I followed Baylie.

She was waiting for me.

I paused at the door, suddenly wishing I could have stayed out in the living room to help Mom.

Though she probably would’ve just had questions too.

Cautiously, I took the two steps down into the den and then pulled the door shut behind me.

“What the hell?” Baylie whispered, her quiet voice breaking. “What the hell, Noah? They’re here? They followed us back here? For Chloe? What in the–”

She cut off when I looked away. A breath left her.

“What is going on?” she demanded.

“They’re crazy.”

A scoff escaped her, the sound harsh. “No kidding.”

I grimaced as she waited. I couldn’t figure it out either. They were insane. Certifiably, utterly, and completely insane. And coming to Kansas looking for a dehaian? That was a whole new level of madness. No one in their right mind would– My breathing stopped. No one would. Not unless they knew something I didn’t. Not unless they’d seen her, or heard something about her…

She’d lived like a landwalker before she became dehaian. She’d survived when everyone else had sworn her heritage would kill her.

Maybe she could come back.

And maybe… maybe I could explain…

I turned to Baylie. “Look, my family is nuts, okay? They… they’re fixated on Chloe. But if what they’re saying is true,” I released a shaky breath, “she might be on her way back here.”

Baylie stared at me.

I glanced toward Chloe’s house, focusing briefly on suppressing the burning, furious energy inside me that let other greliarans tell where I was. “You stay here,” I continued. “Watch for her. I’m going to keep an eye on my cousins, just in case… you know.”

Without another word, I headed for the hall.

“But why are they fixated on her, Noah?” Baylie cried, struggling to keep her voice down as she followed me. “You said she wasn’t like you, but what’s this about then? Why do they want to hurt her so much?”

I paused by the den doorway. I didn’t have time for this. I needed to get out there. Make sure they didn’t find her first. “They just do.”

Baylie made an angry noise.

“Please,” I insisted. “It’s important. Just keep an eye out for her. I’ll explain, or, you know, maybe she will once she’s safe. But Baylie, these guys…” I exhaled. “They’re dangerous. You know that. And the cops… they’ll just tell my relatives to stay away or something else useless. There’s nothing to arrest them for yet. Not where Chloe’s concerned. So please just watch the neighborhood, watch her house, and if there’s anywhere else you can think of that she’d go, watch that too. We have to help her.”

Baylie stared at me for a heartbeat. “O-okay. I will, but… Sandra and Dad aren’t going to let you just stay out there. And what about the cops? What do I tell them?”

I could feel the seconds ticking away. “Tell them… tell them I needed some air.” I scowled. That’d only work for a bit. “Or that I’m exploring the area. I’ll try to stop back in when I can, just to keep them from getting too weird on you, but otherwise, I’m exploring, eh?”

Despite her worry, she looked skeptical. “Exploring.” She drew a breath. “Fine. But the minute Chloe’s safe, you’re telling me what’s going on, understand? I’m done with this secrecy crap.”

I nodded.

“And Noah?” she called when I started down the hall.

I glanced back.

“Be careful?”

I hesitated. “Yeah.”

I headed for the front door. Reidsburg wasn’t huge by any stretch of the imagination, and their SUV wouldn’t be too hard to find.

And with any luck, Chloe wouldn’t be either. For me, at least.

I drew a breath, trying to calm the hope that choked me at the thought of actually seeing her again.