Page 26 of Finding Noah

Dad knew Soldier? I knew that Soldier and Mom had met before somewhere, back in our old town, but Dad?

“That's a nice little souvenir you got there,” Dad said, pointing at the scar on Soldier's face. “Too bad it wasn't a hole in the head.”

I gasped. What did that mean?

“Get the fuck out of here before I kill you,” Soldier warned, his voice deep and cold.

Dad laughed. “You don't have it in you to kill me.”

Then he turned and pointed at me. “Let's go, boy.”

I shook my head frantically.

“Noah!” Dad shouted loudly, and I flinched, shaking beside Mom with the phone clutched in my hand. “You're going to listen to me right now. Get your ass outside. We're getting the fuck out of—”

“You don't have to go anywhere with him, Noah,” Soldier said, and I turned my gaze to his, never letting go. “He's not going to hurt you.”

He can't, I answered silently. Not when you're here.

Dad looked over his shoulder at Soldier. “Who the fuck do you think you are? That's my son. I can tell him to do whatever the fuck I want. Noah! Get the fuck outside!”

“N-no,” I finally said, finding the strength to speak because nothing was going to happen to me as long as Soldier was here. “I'm not going.”

Dad looked surprised for half a second before turning to Soldier and saying, “You just can't get the fuck out of my way, can you?”

“Not as long as you keep showing up.”

He snorted. “And they're afraid of me? Do they know you're a murderer? Does she know”—he pointed behind him at Mom—”that she's fucking a murderer? And she's scared of me?”

I gasped. What? Soldier was a murderer? He couldn’t be.

“Your time is up,” Soldier warned. “Get the fuck out now.”

“You are fucking her, right?” Dad asked as he started to walk to the door.

He was scared of Soldier, I realized. Threatened by him.

“How does it feel, Soldier? Knowing you're just getting my sloppy seconds?”

I didn't know what that meant, and I didn't care. Because all I kept thinking about was what Dad had said. That Soldier was a murderer. Oh my God. I knew he had been in prison. I knew he had been in there for a long time, but … I didn't know he had killed someone.

Did Mom know?

She trusts him.

Mom wouldn't trust him if he was bad, but … murder was bad. And if Soldier was a murderer …

Dad was about to walk out the door when Soldier grabbed him, making him cry out. I couldn't see much because of Soldier’s body, and I couldn't hear any of the muttered words said, but Dad was gone. Soldier had made him leave, and even though Dad had said he was a murderer …

He had still kept us safe, just as he’d said he would.

But Dad will be back, I kept telling myself. Even when we think he won't … he always comes back.

CHAPTER FIVE

RUN

AGE THIRTEEN