Page 65 of Run to Ground
Turning her head, she saw Viggy had her forearm caught in his jaws. She vaguely felt betrayed, but her urgency to get back up and to the barn overrode everything else. Before she could try to pull free, there were human hands on her, pulling her back, dragging her away from the barn. With a boom that felt and sounded almost as loud as the original explosion, the roof caved in, sending flaming beams and shake shingles crashing down, burying the spot where Jules had just stood. Hopelessness flooded her, and Jules started to cry.
“Viggy, release!” It was Theo. Theo was the one keeping her from saving her family. She barely noticed that her arm was suddenly free. “Good boy. Jules! Talk to me. Where are the kids?” His hands were turning her over and pulling her into a sitting position. “Jules!”
“In there!” she sobbed, renewing her struggles. Maybe it wasn’t too late. If she told him, maybe he’d understand she needed to get into the barn to save them. “They’re in there!”
“Jules, no.” His voice had changed, the urgency shifting to shock.
“Let me up,” she demanded, trying to pull away from the gentle, yet relentless hands holding her. “I need to get them out!”
His grip didn’t ease. “There’s nothing left.” He pulled her against his chest, wrapping his arms around her, even as she still fought to get free. “The building’s gone, Jules. There’s nothing left of it.”
He was wrong. He had to be wrong. If the building was gone, then her family was gone, and she couldn’t allow herself to believe that. Shoving at his chest with both hands, she managed to wrench herself out of his hold, only to be caught again.
“J-J-J-Ju!”
The stuttering shout made her freeze, terrified to hope she hadn’t imagined it, until it came again.
“J-Ju! W-w-we’re h-here!”
Her head whipped around, following that wonderful, wonderful yell, and she saw Sam and Ty and Tio and then finally Dee running out of the trees. She pulled away from Theo’s slackened hold and ran, not toward the burning skeleton of the barn, but toward her sister and brothers, her beautiful, living, not-burned, not-dead, not-even-hurt family.
They crashed together, falling as they collided, each one joining until they were in a five-way hug. Jules clutched them to her, her hands running over each precious head and back, pressing kisses on any place she could reach, letting her touch reassure her that they were truly alive and in her arms.
“That’s it!” she cried, her voice thick with tears. “I’m never letting y’all out of my sight ever again. Forget school. Forget going to the bathroom by yourselves. Y’all will be within reach and in view at all times, got that?”
“I like the no school part,” Ty said. “But hell no on the supervised showers.”
Jules gave a soggy, shaky laugh and kissed the top of Dee’s head. “Language.”
“Your arm is bleeding,” Tio said, and they all looked at it.
“Oh, right.” She wiped at the small trickle of blood. “That’s just where Viggy bit me.”
“Hebityou?” Dee repeated, her eyes wide. “Why? What did you do?”
Her laugh came a tiny bit easier that time, although she couldn’t stop patting and squeezing the kids. “Why do you think I did something?”
“Because he wouldn’t bite you for no reason.”
Not really wanting to explain that she’d tried to run into the burning barn, Jules changed the subject. “Are y’all okay? No one’s hurt, are you?”
“W-w-we’re f-f-fine,” Sam said.
“We were far enough away to be out of the blast radius.” Tio sounded calm enough, but he leaned against her side like he used to when he was eight years younger and needed comfort. He lowered his voice so only she could hear. “We waited for you for fifteen minutes, and then we took the emergency money and started walking through the woods toward our meet-up spot, like we planned. We heard the explosion, though, and were worried that it was the house, so we ran back here.” His even tone shook slightly on the last word.
“You should move farther away from the fire,” Theo said from where he was standing a few feet away. Viggy sat next to him.
As they climbed to their feet, Jules smiled at Theo, trying to show him the heaping piles of gratitude filling her heart. His face was sober as he moved forward to help her stand on shaky legs. Now that she knew the kids were safe, her body felt limp and heavy, and she knew she was one what-if away from bursting into tears again.
The kids rushed toward the house, staying well away from the fire even as they watched it in fascination. Theo and Jules followed more slowly. When Jules tripped for the third time, Theo wrapped an arm around her back, and she leaned into him, grateful for the support…and for so many other things.
“Thank you,” she said quietly enough that the chattering kids couldn’t hear. “If you—and Viggy—hadn’t stopped me, I’d have run right into that fire.”
He pulled her even more tightly against him, and she felt the pressure of his lips on her hair.
“I’m just glad you got here in time.” The nightmarish thought of what would’ve happened if he hadn’t arrived in time made her shiver.
“Me too.” His voice was raw, hoarse, and he kissed her head again. “Me too.”
