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Luckily, the doorway is shadowed by an awning, so the Bonys haven’t noticed us yet. We do as Rain said and move Quint’s lifeless body inside. The first empty store on the left has its metal gate down and locked, but the third shop is wide open. We shuffle inside and set Quint on the floor behind the checkout counter.
A faded sign on the wall announces that this place used to be called Savvi Formalwear.
Formalwear. In Pritchard Park. No fucking wonder this place went out of business.
Lamar kneels next to his brother and holds his hand while he feels for a pulse, and the sight of them knocks the air out of my lungs. I know that fucking feeling. I know what it’s like to lose your only sibling. To find her quiet and cold in her crib. The moment I see Lily’s blank, bluish face in my mind, I feel like I’m being choked. Strangled. I can’t get out of there fast enough. I mumble something about guarding the door as I stumble backward out of the store.
Rain calls after me, asking for her first aid kit, so I tear her backpack off my shoulders and toss it onto the floor as I bolt.
I don’t stop until I get to the entrance, bracing my forearms on the metal door handle and sucking in lungfuls of humid air through the broken glass.
Fuck, I hate it here.
The Bonys—or whatever they’re called—are still tearing it up outside. I watch them in a jealous rage. Carter seemed afraid of them, but they look like they’re having a good fucking time if you ask me. Not a care in the—
Suddenly, the entire mob takes off toward the road in front of the mall. It’s so dark that I can’t make out what triggered them to leave until their headlights close in on a dude riding a bicycle with a backpack on. Even from across the parking lot, I can see the terror on his face as they descend upon him like piranhas. His screams are loud enough to rise over the roar of their engines, and when they finally race off, there’s nothing but some twisted metal and a fleshy lump in the road where a living, breathing man just was.
“Oh, good. They’re gone.” Rain’s breathy voice sounds like heaven compared to the noises I just heard.
I tear my eyes away from the cadaver in the street and turn toward her, relieved to see that she’s alone. I open my arms and hug her—I don’t know why. I guess I just need to hold her before the next thing comes to try to take her away.
Rain hugs me back, and for a minute, we just stand there and take it all in.
“How’s Quint?”
Rain sighs. “He’s alive, but I don’t know how long I can keep him that way. If I take the glass out, he’ll lose too much blood, so I just cleaned him up and left it in. I’m hoping his body will push it out on its own. I heard that’s a thing.”
I force a reassuring smile and kiss the top of her head. “Yeah, that’s a thing.”
“Lamar’s gonna stay with him tonight.”
“Good.”
“And Carter went back to his post by the fountain. He said he’s on guard duty tonight.”
“So, he’s watching us right now.”
Rain nods against my chest. “Probably.”
I let her go and take a step back, searching her face for signs of sincerity. “And that whole thing about us being engaged …”
Rain blushes and drops her eyes. “I had a dream a few nights ago that we were lying in Old Man Crocker’s field, and you made me a little engagement ring out of a blade of grass.” Rain lifts her left hand and stares down at her empty finger. “It seemed so real, you know? Until you turned into a scarecrow and the four horsemen of the apocalypse came and set you on fire.”
“You sure you weren’t just trying to make your boyfriend jealous?”
Rain drops her hand and looks at me as if I just spat on her shoes. “Are you serious right now?”
“As a fucking heart attack.”
“I said it because that’s how I feel, Wes. I don’t want to call you my boyfriend. I’ve had one of those, and it didn’t feel like this.” Rain casts a glance over her shoulder at the dark hallway stretching out behind her and the man-child sitting in the shadows beyond. “But considering that you didn’t even fight for me back there, I’m guessing that you don’t feel the same way.”
I grab Rain by the jaw and pull her into the shadows of the storefront doorway right next to us. I hate the way her eyes go wide in fear, but it’s taking all of my self-control not to scream in her face right now.
“Listen to me,” I hiss through gritted teeth. “When I found you last night, I thought you were fucking dead.” I spit the words out, remembering how heavy her lifeless body felt in my arms. How her hands dangled at her sides and her head fell back as I clutched her to my chest and cried against her cold, slack cheek. “For the first time in my life, I thought about killing myself. If I hadn’t finally found your pulse, I was prepared to lie down right next to you and blow my own fucking brains out, so don’t tell me how the fuck I feel.”
Rain’s mouth falls open in my palm as her eyebrows pull together in pain. “Wes …”
“I’ll fight to keep you alive. I’ll fight to keep you safe. But I will never fight to keep you, or anyone, from leaving me.”
