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“Tell me what happened,” I begged.
“Leo was found this morning,” Kane revealed.
Oh, God. He wasfound. It sounded so much like the news stories I’d been hearing lately regarding Jimmy, Xavier, and Archie. They had all been found.
Bile rose in my throat, and I wasn’t sure I was going to keep it at bay.
“He was in the parking lot at the Steel Ridge Shopping Plaza,” Ellery chimed in. “One of the business owners found him and called 911. Fortunately, he was still alive.”
“Is he going to be okay?” I asked, my question sounding more like a desperate plea.
“We don’t know,” Kane answered. “He’s alive now, but from what we could gather, he suffered serious head trauma.”
I couldn’t keep up with the tears that were continuing to roll down my cheeks, so I stopped trying.
“Isn’t that how they all died?” I asked.
I didn’t think I needed to add any clarification. I was certain both Kane and Ellery knew that I’d been referring to Jimmy, Xavier, and Archie.
“They all suffered blunt force trauma to the head, but they were then strangled to death,” he explained. “If the same person that did this to them also did this to Leo, for some reason, the entire plan wasn’t carried out. We don’t know what that reason is, but we’re working to find an answer. Our best bet would be him waking up and telling us who we have to go after.”
“Do you think he will?” I pressed, only caring that he survived this.
Kane pulled his truck into the lot at the hospital and drove me right up to the front door. When he pulled up there, he looked back at me and answered, “I hope so.”
My belly clenched painfully.
Kane gave me a few seconds to take that in before he said, “I’m going to let you off here, so you can go right in. They aren’t going to let all of us in to see him at one shot anyway. You can take the elevator up to the fifth floor. He’s in room 502. Ellery will go in with you while I park.”
“Thank you,” I whispered before I curled my fingers around the handle and opened the door.
The walk to the elevator and the ride on it were filled with silence. Stepping off onto the fifth floor, I felt more and more fear consuming me.
It was a good thing Ellery was with me, because I wasn’t managing to pay attention to anything happening around me. If she hadn’t been with me, there was no question I wouldn’t have been able to find my way to him.
The next thing I knew, we were standing outside the room.
“I think Royce is in there with him now, and there can’t be more than two people in at a time, so I’m going to stay out here,” Ellery said.
I nodded slowly, feeling a mix of emotions.
On the one hand, I wanted to go inside and see him. And the other, as long as I stayed outside this room, it felt like it was all still just a dream. Maybe it wouldn’t be real if I didn’t see it.
But I knew that wasn’t an option.
Especially not when a moment later, a man walked out of the room. “I thought I heard your voice,” he said to Ellery.
“Hey, Royce,” Ellery returned quietly. “Any change?”
He shook his head.
“Royce, this is Hanna. Hanna, Royce.”
He dipped his chin before he jerked his head toward the room. “You should go inside and be with him for a bit. He’d want you there with him,” he urged me.
Hearing those words, I had to wonder if Royce knew what I’d said to Leo just days ago. Maybe Leo hadn’t shared the status of our relationship with everyone. Maybe Ellery and Kane knew, but nobody else did.
Unable to speak, I nodded and moved past him.
