Pushing the Limits - McGarry Katie. Страница 64

And it happened. After years of holding it in, the grief within me snapped. All of the anger and sadness and hurt I’d stored away in my quest to never feel those emotions burst through to the surface. “I want my mom and dad.” I couldn’t suck in air. “I just want my family back.”

Mrs. Collins wiped her eyes and crossed the room to me. “I know,” she said again and pulled me into a hug.

“THANKS AGAIN, NOAH.” JOE SHOOK my hand for possibly the fiftieth time since I told him and Carrie I was no longer pursuing custody after I graduated. “I promise you’ll see them whenever you want.”

I nodded and glanced over my shoulder. Mrs. Collins and Carrie stood near the stairs at the end of the second-floor hallway. Mrs. Collins sent me an encouraging smile and I took a deep breath.

Joe opened the door to Jacob’s room and the two of us entered. “Boys, Noah would like to talk to you.”

“Noah!” In Batman pajamas, Jacob raced across the room and rammed into me. “You’re still here!”

“Yes,” said Joe. “And he’ll be here a lot more.” With eager eyes, Jacob marveled at Joe. “You mean it?”

“I swear to it.” Joe patted my shoulder. “I’ll give you guys some time to talk.”

And just like that he walked away, closing the door behind him. I hadn’t been alone with my brothers in over two years. With my hand on Jacob, I stared at the picture of my parents. They weren’t coming back and I could never re-create what we had, but I could move forward.

I sat on the floor and my heart floated when Tyler, in footed pajamas, inched closer to me and placed his small hand in mine. His thumb in his mouth. A blanket in his fist.

Jacob superglued himself to my side. “Dad never swears unless he means it, Noah. He says it’s a sin to lie.”

I nodded. “It is. Our mom used to say that, too.” I cleared my throat and began the hardest conversation of my life. “A couple of years ago, I made a promise to you. At the time I meant it, but now I don’t think it’s the best thing for any of us.”

I looked at Tyler. He was too young to remember the way Mom laughed when Dad tried to dance with her as she washed the dinner dishes. Too young to remember Dad showing him pictures of buildings and explaining how his sons would know how to hammer in a nail correctly before the age of ten.

And Jacob. Old enough to remember, but too young to fully understand everything he lost. He’d never know the pride of walking in with Mom on parent appreciation night. He’d never know the explosion of joy when Dad told him that he was a natural when he used his first power tool.

They’d never know that they lost the two most amazing people on the face of the planet. They’d never know how the loss had torn me up every single day of my life.

I took a deep breath and tried again. “How would you feel about the two of you living here forever and me just coming to visit?”

MRS. COLLINS RAN THE STOP SIGN at the end of Jacob and Tyler’s street. I sat in my car, alone.

Echo.

I had let her walk away and it wasn’t over custody of my brothers. Mrs. Collins was right. Deep down I’d thought loving her was a betrayal of my parents and my brothers.

But I loved Echo. I needed her. And I was going to win her back.

I turned on the car and the engine sputtered to life. Foster care was educational—in a “five to seven years with the possibility of parole” kind of way. The question was what to do with all of the information I’d gathered.

Echo

“He’s where?” I screeched. I turned off Aires’ car and flew out of the seat. The entire world had gone insane. First Ashley went into early labor. Now Noah insisted upon being crazy.

“Dammit, Beth. I told you not to smoke that shit. Noah is going to be pissed.” Isaiah rubbed a hand over his buzzed head. For once, I was glad that Beth was stoned into near-incomprehension and rambling.

“What exactly does he think he’s going to get?” I asked. “He already knows everything about his brothers and he told me that he’s following the letter of the law. Breaking into Mrs. Collins’s office is not following the letter of the law!”

Isaiah clapped his hands together. “Let’s take it for a ride.”

Had Isaiah also lost his mind? “Your best friend … your brother is going to break into school and then break into Mrs. Collins’s office and you want to take the car for a ride?”

Isaiah rubbed his hands together in mock excitement, but frustration marred his eyes. “Yes.”

“No.” I waved my hand in the air. “No. We’ve got to stop him. He cannot be caught or he’ll lose his brothers. Oh, my God, he can be such a stubborn idiot. What could breaking in possibly accomplish?”

“He wants you back,” slurred Beth.

Lightning bolts could have flashed out of the cloudless night and set my tennis shoes on fire, and I would have been less surprised. “Excuse me?”

Beth sat on the concrete and rested her head against the workbench, eyelids fluttering in exhaustion. “He’s in love with you and wants you to be his one and only. And some other bullshit about you not being in second place and proving you wrong.”

Ding, ding. Noah wanted my file and he wanted me back. My heart squeezed in warmth and joy then dropped and became cold. No, he couldn’t risk anything for me—not when it could cost him his brothers. I turned to Isaiah. “We have to stop him. When did he leave?”

“He wanted to wait until it got dark. Noah came home all messed up. I assumed he saw you and you guys had a fight. Babbled on about how he screwed things up with you and was determined to set it right. He asked me to come here, fix the car and then to keep you here until he showed.”

“Why didn’t you stop him?” I dug my keys out of my pocket.

“You don’t stop Noah.”

Guess again.

ISAIAH SLID HIS CAR INTO A spot at the supermarket across the street from the high school and cut the engine. I tried Noah’s cell and for the millionth time it went to voice mail.

“Why don’t you park at the school?” I asked.

Isaiah gave me an are-you-a-moron glance. “Police patrol the school grounds every two hours. They’ll know something is up if there’s a car in the school’s lot.”

Sure enough, Noah too had parked his car at the supermarket. “Done this before?”

“Just for kicks to play ball in the gym, but never to break into an office.”

I squeezed the door handle and eyed Beth, who was passed out in the backseat. “She okay?”

“Yeah, just fucked up.” He pulled at an earring. “I can’t leave her in the car like this and if we wake her up, she’ll make enough noise to raise eyebrows. Odds are Noah would have picked the side entrance nearest to the main office. He’ll place something small in the doorway to keep the door from relocking him in. Make sure you keep that there. Grab him and tell him you two can argue later.”

“Thanks.”

I ran across the street and tried to keep my lungs from exploding. Good God, I was breaking and entering to keep my stupid, stubborn, sweet-as-can-be—boyfriend? Ex-boyfriend? Maybe boyfriend again?—out of jail.

Just like Isaiah said, Noah had left the side door next to the office propped open. I slipped in, making sure I kept the door exactly how I found it. Mrs. Collins would love finding the two of us locked in her office.

I had that eerie horror flick feel as the lights flashed on ahead of me with every step I took. My heart flew up to pound in my throat. I kept looking over my shoulder, waiting for someone to rush up from behind me and suck my blood or drag me off to prison.

At first I skulked against the lockers, then realized what a fool I was. The freaking lights were already on and would turn off once all movement stopped. No more skulking—I ran.

Thank God, the office lights were switch only. I’d had enough of motion sensors. Problem? Mrs. Collins’s office door was closed and no light shined from underneath the door. Had Noah already left?