AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Adam had shown up at some point this morning, bringing bags of pastries and a box of coffee that was ten times better than the crap in the hospital cafeteria. He’d spent the day here, too.
As the day had worn on into afternoon, Hannah’s worry had begun to turn to dread. Michael’s brothers should have heard something by now. Her father still wasn’t answering her calls.
So she’d found a deck of cards. Poker was the first suggestion that had caught their interest. And held it.
Chris was still watching her with something like a glare on his face. “Can’t you use some of your connections to find out what’s going on?”
Hunter kicked him under the table. “Can’t you stop being a dick for five minutes?”
Chris shoved out of his chair and went after him. Gabriel got a hold of him, but not before pretzels and playing cards scattered everywhere.
Hunter hadn’t moved from his chair. His expression was full of derision. “Can’t you grow up?”
Chris’s breathing was too quick. “Fuck you, Hunter. What are you even doing here?”
Gabriel pushed him back in his chair. “Come on, Chris.”
“Come on, what? He doesn’t need to be here.”
“Oh, because you give a crap?” said Hunter. “Sure looked like it when you were roaming the woods the other night.”
Nick was picking up the fallen pretzels. “Stop,” he said, his voice tired.
“Forget it.” Chris jerked free of Gabriel’s hold and walked away from the table. “I’m done.”
They all picked up cards and pretzels in silence for a moment. “Should we go after him?” said Adam.
“Nah,” said Gabriel. “Chris gets buried in his own thoughts sometimes. Leave him alone.”
He’s scared, thought Hannah. She knew guys like that, other firefighters who would lash out in anger when they were really scared shitless. But she didn’t want to say it, not in front of his brothers.
“I’ll go,” she said. “Make sure he doesn’t kill someone between here and wherever he’s going.”
No one stopped her, so she walked out of the cafeteria and into the main hallway. Since it was a Saturday afternoon, the hospital was crowded with visitors and staff, but she caught sight of Chris’s angry form pushing through the double doors to the outside.
She hustled to catch him, expecting him to keep walking, but he dropped onto the painted bench just outside the doors and stared at the sky.
Hannah stopped beside him. November air bit her arms and tried to convince her to go back inside, especially when the clouds released a few droplets to sting her cheeks.
“Freezing rain,” she said. “Want to come back inside?”
“No.”
He wasn’t looking at her, and she didn’t know him well enough to know how far she could push. Crystalline droplets were collecting in his hair and on his jacket, melting where they found his face and hands.
If she had to put money on it, she’d say he was sitting here trying not to cry.
“Can I sit down?” she asked.
He looked away from the sky and met her eyes. “Is my brother dead? Is that why they won’t tell us anything?”
His voice was so bleak that it caught her by surprise. She sat beside him. “No. He was alive when they pulled him out of the rubble.”
“Then why can’t we see him?”
“I don’t know.”
“Your dad is the fire marshal, right?” he snapped. “And you have no idea?”
