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I nodded, though I knew in my heart that she wasn’t there. Still, he was right. We needed to be sure. I pulled back onto the road and was in my driveway five minutes later. I bolted from the truck, calling out her name as I ran inside. It didn’t take me more than thirty seconds to see that the trailer was empty. Her backpack sat on her bed, untouched. She always dropped it off after school before heading to the gas station.
I walked over, swallowing the lump in my throat as I reached out with a shaky hand and touched the rabbit’s foot that dangled from the zipper. She spent every last penny she had to buy it at the kid’s fair at school when she was in fifth grade. Despite the fact that it was just a dyed piece of fur, she said it was her lucky charm. It didn’t feel very lucky right now.
I walked back into the other room and picked up the house phone,calling Bruce. The phone rang twice before he answered. “Is she there?”
“No,” I croaked out. “Just her backpack. She always drops it off before heading to work.”
“Alright, stay there in case she comes home. I’m calling the Chief right now to get more units out here.”
“I need to be out there. She’s my responsibility.”
“Son, I know how much you love Hannah and want to help her, but let us do our job. If she walks in the door in the next five minutes, you need to be there to let us know.”
I hated that I was being sidelined, but he was right. Someone had to be here. “Fine. Call me as soon as you know something.”
“I will.”
I hung up the phone and walked over to the couch, slumping down on the ratty, brown fabric. My knee bounced in time with the seconds passing. I passed the time by trying to think of anywhere she might have gone. Maybe she went to a friend’s house to piss me off. I forgot her. This had to be a trick.
After only five minutes, I couldn’t sit still any longer. I paced the small space of the trailer, cursing my parents for allowing us to live in such a hell hole for so long. If only they’d gotten real jobs, we might have actually had something growing up. But the drugs were always more appealing to my father. He didn’t use, but he did his best to get anyone he could hooked. That’s why so many people in this town hated us. It didn’t matter that we were only kids when he went to prison. We were tainted because of him.
Lights flashed in the driveway, and I rushed to the door, yanking it open. Running out into the night, I was relieved to see Bruce getting out of the car. He must have found her and brought her home. But when he shut the door and turned to me, I knew that wasn’t the case. I stumbled to a stop, waiting for him to tell me the worst.
He didn’t need to say a word. The look on his face said it all. I felt everything tilt around me as he walked closer. I didn’t want to hear what he had to say. Hannah was the last of my family. I couldn’t lose her.
“Just…tell me,” I managed to get out.
“We found her. She’s in the hospital and she’s in pretty bad shape.”
There were so many questions on the tip of my tongue, but when I opened my mouth, I couldn’t say them. His hand clasped my shoulder and as I looked up into his eyes, my own filled with tears. I had let her down.
“Let’s get you to the hospital.”
The beepingof the monitors echoed in my ears through the glass separating my sister from me. She was barely recognizable laying in that bed. Her face was cut up and bruised, leaving only small patches unmarred. The doctor said she was in critical condition—that the next twelve hours would tell us if she could survive the injuries she sustained. The mental issues she’d have would no doubt take longer to recover from. As if being beaten wasn’t bad enough, whoever did this took something from her that wasn’t his to have.
I hung my head, sucking back the tears before they could fall. I had to be strong for her. I couldn’t allow myself to fall apart when she was depending on me to take care of her. But I didn’t even know how to start. If she survived this, she’d be in the hospital for weeks. Her spinal injuries were so severe that the doctors said we had to wait for the swelling to go down before we knew if she’d ever walk again.
And this was all because I stayed to finish a job that should have belonged to someone else. I turned around, resting my head against the window. I couldn’t keep looking at her, knowing how badly I failed her.
“Hey,” Bruce called out as he walked off the elevator. He glanced into Hannah’s room before stopping beside me. “How are you holding up?”
I huffed out a laugh. “Me? I’m not the one unconscious in a hospital bed.”
“You can’t blame yourself for what happened.”
“I was supposed to pick her up,” I said, finally looking up at him. “She’s in there because I didn’t protect her.”
“She chose to walk home,” he argued. “We both know how dangerous the streets are.”
“Yeah, and I made it worse by staying late and then forgetting to pick her up. I was supposed to be there for her. My parents aren’t around anymore and she’s relying on me. I failed her.”
His hand clasped on my shoulder, but I shrugged him off. I didn’t need his sympathy. I needed to rewind and start the day over, but that wouldn’t be happening.
“Did you catch him?”
His lips tightened as he stared at me. “We did.”
“Who is it?” I knew it was bad the moment he looked away from me. It had to be someone I knew. “Tell me who did this to my sister,” I snapped.
