Page 3 of The Saint

Banana. Light bulb. Chicken. Heart?

“Say it!” Hailey smacked her hand on the railing. “Banana. Light bulb. Chicken. Heart.” Her sister hadneverraised her voice.

Panic closed Amelia’s throat. “Banana. Light bulb. Chicken. Heart,” she managed.

“Good.” Hailey guided Amelia off the stairs. “Remember those words in that order. Say it again.”

“Banana. Light bulb. Chicken. Heart.”

Hailey moved next to her husband. “Call the number. Say those words. Tell them we need help. They’ll handle everything else.”

“Until they do,” Jonathan added. “Stay inside, and stay put. Head down and away from the windows. No lights. No nothing. Wait until they say you’re okay.”

“They who?”

“Whoever answers the phone.” He stared at Amelia as though he wanted to push her out the door. “Go. Now.”

Hailey stepped closer. Her pinched lips rolled together as though too much had to be left unsaid. “Banana. Light bulb. Chicken. Heart.”

“Banana. Light bulb. Chicken. Heart,” Amelia repeated, defeated. “Why can’t you come with me?”

“We have a duty to—” Hailey caught herself with a nearly imperceptible shake of her head. “We just can’t leave. Not yet.”

Duty to what? Serve? Honor? Protect?They worked on antiques, on insured possessions owned by people who managed their own security and protection. Hailey and Jonathan didn’t slink around in dark houses, whispering about danger and demanding Amelia break into someone’s house with a string of random words.

“You’re scaring me.”

“I’m sorry, but you have to do this. I’ll explain as much as I can later—and, Amelia, I love you.”

A strange noise caught their attention. They froze for a nanosecond. Jonathan moved first. He grabbed Amelia and dragged her toward the back door. “Don’t turn around. Don’t look back. Get to the Callaghans’. Leave the book. Keep the lights off. Lock the door. Call the number. Tell them we need help.”

CHAPTER TWO

Jonathan pulled Amelia through the living room. The scent of popcorn still hung in the air from their night watching movies on the big screen, when life was predictable and normal. Hailey and Jonathan were her closest friends, her role models. They were everything Amelia had ever hoped for: stability, comfort, love.

The plush carpet under her feet was a sudden reminder that she didn’t have shoes on. “I need my shoes.”

He grimaced as though they didn’t have time for such frivolity but didn’t stop. “Hailey keeps some by the back door.”

A pair of old running shoes that Hailey used in the garden waited innocently. Amelia shoved her feet into the too large, long-ago-double-knotted sneakers that were nearing their last wears.

He grabbed her shoulder. “This is as serious as it gets. Stay out of sight, and get into the Callaghans’.”

“This is absurd.” Tears sprang into Amelia’s eyes. She couldn’t think straight and didn’t know what to say.

“Do it for your sister.” He opened the door and released her shoulder with a small shove. “Go.”

Amelia tucked the book under her arm and gripped the key chain so tightly that the key’s teeth bit into her palm. The back door shut behind her. She was alone in the cool night.

Moisture hung heavily in the air. The October rain had tapered off, but the haziness of shadows swirled and cloaked the backyard. With a phone number written on her arm and nonsense to remember, she ran from the back of their house and ducked through a neighbor’s yard as though she was a child playing hide-and-seek. The rain-soaked grass coated her shoes. Water sprinkled and sprayed over her arms and legs as she darted too close to shrubbery.

After a quick search for trouble, Amelia sprinted across the street. She was suddenly reminded of years before, when she and Hailey had snuck out of their aunt’s house as teenagers. The sleeping world had been theirs to explore. They’d been through hell when their parents died in a car crash, and their distant aunt, twice removed and somehow related to them, hadn’t been thrilled to take them in. Their parents’ life insurance was the only reason she’d accepted the duty. Life at their new home had been sad and lonely, but when they slipped out of the basement window, they were free to frolic in the night. Tonight was nothing like that.

Amelia saw the house with the ferns on the front porch and hurried across the damp grass, footsteps squishing until she reached the Callaghans’ driveway. Her breaths thundered. She was in shape, a runner by nature, but could barely catch her breath as she skirted around the car parked in front of the garage. Amelia ducked by a headlight, hid, and searched for danger. Nothing was out of place. The dreary night was almost peaceful except for the roar of her blood in her ears. She swallowed and tried to regain her composure. The night’s mundanity was enough to question everyone’s sanity.

She stared across the street toward Hailey’s house. Nothing looked amiss. It certainly didn’t show the frenzy of alarm happening inside. Their house matched the others in their neighborhood. The front porch lights blazed, haloed in the light fog. Nice cars sat in the driveways of well-manicured suburbia. A few parked cars lined the street. Humid condensation and beaded rainwater glazed over their windows—except for one car.

Her pulse stuttered. Amelia ducked lower and studied the vehicle. The water on the windows didn’t match any other car, and—her heart froze.Is someone behind the wheel?She squinted.Maybe? Or maybe not?Her paranoia was causing her eyes to play tricks on her, but no matter the logic Ameliaattempted to apply, she couldn’t shake how out of place the car seemed.

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