AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Cole…” I hear my brother’s voice, and the weakness in it sends chills down my spine.
“Listen, I’m tailing Dalton, they were stuck at the railroad crossing for a while so we’re not far behind.”
“Good we’re coming in from the East Road, Wade’s behind us. We’ll see you there.”
“Wait, don’t hang up. Garrett, I don’t know what’s goin’ on but Dalton ain’t heading for the hospital,” I inform him.
“What do you mean he ain’t headin’ for the hospital? My little girl ain’t breathin’.”
“Garrett, what’s happening?” I can hear Maisie crying in the background.
“I don’t know what the fuck’s goin’ on, but he took a left at the junction and now it looks like they’re heading toward you.” I look at the GPS and see Wade and Garrett’s dots beeping a few miles down the road
“Cole, that makes no fuckin’ sense, there are no hospitals this way, none that are close anyway.”
“There must be a diversion or somethin’. Have you spoken to him?
“We’ve tried but there's no answer from him or Mom.”
“Hang on,” I tell him when I see the car that's stopped near the railroad crossing up ahead, they've got their hazards on and a woman in a long brown coat has her phone pressed to her ear.
“There’s something happening by the tracks, looks like a woman’s hit a deer or somethin’.” I pull the truck to a halt and get out and as I get closer, I can see that somethin’ ain’t a deer.
“He’s dead. Looks like he’s been shot in the head,” I hear the woman tell the operator she’s on the phone with. She has blood on the hand she’s holding up in front of her in shock and as I rush past her and the full beam of her headlights shine on the man sprawled out on the road, my heart drops into my stomach like a lead fuckin’ weight.
“Cole, what the fuck’s happening?” Garrett yells down at the phone as I stare at the lifeless body that belongs to my brother.
“Dalton’s not driving.” Somehow I manage to form words as I fall onto my knees.
“What do you mean, he ain’t driving? Cole, what’s happening?”
“He’s dead.” I drop the phone out of my hand and crawl toward him, my own hands trembling with shock as I lift his head up from the tarmac and see the hole in it.
“No. No… NO!” I scream up at the black starlit sky, dragging my brother's limp body to rest on my lap. “No.” My hands keep shaking as I touch his face, his eyes are still open and staring up at me. “Dalt… No.”
“Cole.” I look up when I hear Savannah’s voice and watch the horror spread over her when she realizes who it is.
“He can’t be dead?” I look up at her and shake my head.
“Cole.” Her tears stream out over her cheeks. “I’m so sorr—”
“He’s not dead, he can't be. He’s our brother.” I shake my head firmly and tap his cold cheek.
“Dalt, wake up. Come on,” I tell him, and when I get no response I grip his shirt and shake him real hard.
“Dalton. Wake the fuck up,” I yell at him angrily, and Savannah sinks to her knees beside me to try and comfort me.
“Cole we need—”
“Get off me.” I push her away and focus on the brother, the brother we only just realized we had. Not that it mattered, we’d watched him grow up and teased him the way big brothers should have anyway. He was one of us.
“Dalton, wake up. Please wake up.” My own tears blur my eyes as I realize there's no hope, not with a bullet to the brain. “Dalt…” I drop his head back onto the tarmac and stand up, biting on my fist as I look down at him. I don’t know who the fuck did this, but I’m gonna kill ‘em. I don’t care about reputation no more. People keep comin’ at my family and it needs to fuckin’ stop.
“Cole, come on, we need to find your mom and Breanna.” Savannah tries to drag me away.
“I ain’t leaving him here.” I reach down and lift Dalton into my arms, his head flopping back and his arms splayed out as I start carrying him toward the truck.
“Cole, I don’t think you should.”
