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“Was one of them Rob?” I ask. “That’s Jake’s roommate.”
“Yes, he came later in the day. The other boys were here when Jake arrived.”
“Was it Sean and Leo?”
She nods. “I think that’s right.”
Sean is friends with Troy. Did he know Troy was planning to do this to Jake? If so, he’s not getting near Jake again. If he shows up at the hospital, I’ll drag his ass out of here.
“Do you know who the girl was? The one who was here?”
“She was a tiny thing. Long dark hair.”
“Tara,” I say.
“Yes, that was her name.” The nurse checks her watch. “I need to take care of another patient, but you can stay with him for a few minutes.”
She leaves the room and I pull a chair up next to Jake’s bed.
“You’re going to be fine,” I tell him, but I’m really saying that for myself.
I can’t lose my brother. He’s my only family. I basically raised him since our parents were worthless. I tried to make his childhood better than mine by sheltering him from the hell that went on at our house. I got him out of there when things were really bad while I stayed behind. As he got older, I kept a close eye on him to make sure he didn’t get into trouble. I was strict with him, but I did it to keep him safe. I did everything possible to protect him, but this time I couldn’t. Even though I live in a different state and can’t watch over him like I used to, I still feel like this is my fault. Like I could’ve done more to protect him.
“You’re going to come out of this,” I say, gripping his hand. “And you’re going to be stronger than ever. You hear me?”
He doesn’t respond, but I’m choosing to believe he can hear me and that he’ll get better. He has to. If he doesn’t, I’m going to hunt down Troy and kill him.
29
JAKE
Someone’s talking.I hear a voice, but can’t tell who it belongs to. I try to open my eyes but it’s hard because I’m really tired. There’s a heavy feeling near my stomach, like a dull ache.
An image flashes in my head. I see Troy standing over me, a smirk on his face. He’s holding something. A knife, with blood on it.
He stabbed me. Troy stabbed me. I remember it now. I punched him and he fell to the ground. He held his hand up, but the other one I couldn’t see. He must’ve been pulling the knife out. I bet he had it strapped to his leg. He was talking to me, distracting me, and the next thing I knew, I was on the floor, a sharp pain in my gut.
“He’s showing signs of improvement,” I hear a man say. “I’ll be back later to check on him.”
Using what little strength I have, I force my eyes open and see a man in a white lab coat beside me. Dean is next to him.
Wait. My brother’s here?
“You think he’ll wake up today?” Dean asks.
“It’s possible,” the man says.
“Dean,” I say, but it doesn’t sound like me. My voice is weak. I’m not sure he heard me. “Dean,” I say, louder this time.
He looks from the doctor to me. “Jake!” He grips my shoulder. “Can you hear me?”
“Yeah,” I say. “You’re loud.”
He smiles. “How do you feel?”
“Not great.”
The man in the white coat introduces himself as my doctor and tells me about my injury and what to expect as I recover. It’s a lot of medical talk that doesn’t make sense to me, especially when I’m tired and kind of out of it. I pretend to understand him so he’ll leave.
