Drop of Doubt (39 page)

In the dimness, arms caught me around the waist and pulled me into the doorway of a darkened classroom. I was drawn into someone, held up against their chest. Fingers covered my mouth, smothering my attempt at a scream.

I was about to bite, about to stomp and kick my way out of being held captive again, until a familiar scent of moss and berries filled me when I inhaled. I stiffened, stilled, aware now that I was meant to keep quiet and trust the person holding on.

I was drawn further into the doorway, deep in the shadows of the classroom. I was pressed against the wall near the door. The fingers over my mouth stayed, but he adjusted me until my back was up against the wall.

Victor’s face hovered over mine in the dark. His fire eyes were ignited, telling me what I needed to know:
keep still. Keep quiet.

I didn’t think we were hiding well enough. I was sure Eric had seen us duck into this room. I was sure Victor didn’t realize he had a gun.

I was sure if Eric didn’t find us, he’d go back to Greg, looking for Gabriel.

I wanted to say all this, but bit my tongue. Too afraid to say anything or make a sound in case Eric was nearby.

Instead, I focused on Victor’s T-shirt. Without being able to look through the open doorway, it was the only thing that caught my attention. Victor never wore T-shirts. At least I’d never seen him in one. It was blue, and was a bit big for him. I was wondering if he borrowed it from Kota.

No matter how hard I listened though, I couldn’t hear Eric. There was no way to know if he was still in the hallway close by, or if he’d wandered off.

Victor released his hand from over my mouth. He silently dipped it into his pocket, picking out a phone. He used his body and mine together to hide the glow and punched at the screen.

After a few taps, Victor had a glowing image of a school hallway. He tapped again and another hallway was displayed, also empty. A third tap and there was Eric’s back at the end, and he was walking off toward the stairs.

Alarm seized me. “The guys are on the stairs,” I croaked out in a harsh whisper.

“They’re not now.”

“The other students...”

“Princess,” Victor said. He pushed another button to show the stairwell Eric was taking. This one wasn’t crowded at all and the hallway it spilled out into was unfamiliar to me. “He’s taking the back way out.”

“What about other students?”

“He’s leaving. You don’t run after someone when he’s got a gun and he’s trying to run away. We can deal with him later if he’s trying to leave campus.” He punched buttons on the phone again, redirecting the camera to follow Eric. We watched as he made a dash for a path that lead off campus and toward the shopping center. “His house is a mile in that direction. I bet he’s going there.”

“We have to find Gabriel,” I said. I wanted to ask him a million other questions, like how he knew I was there, but there wasn’t time. “Greg had a knife.”

Victor punched his fingers at his phone again. He found what he wanted and nodded. “Come on.”

Victor grabbed my hand, tugging me along behind him. I followed on his heels. He hadn’t shown me his phone, but the urgency in his voice and the way he squeezed my hand told me what I needed to know: we had to hurry.

“Where have you been?” I asked him as we dashed down the corridors.

“It’s a long story,” he said. His thumb traced over the back of my hand. “Sorry I missed your birthday party.”

I huffed, wanting to tell him that wasn’t important. The boys were impossible to reason with.

And how did he know about the party? He was gone.

Two hallways away, Victor slowed, looking left and right down the corridor as if to get his bearings.

At the end of one hallway, a figure loomed over another slumped on the floor.

“Get off of him!” Victor’s shout echoed. “Stop!” He released me, running down the hall. The figure that had been standing started running down the hallway. Victor ran after him. The phone he’d been using dropped from his hands into my path “Sang!” he called out.

I dashed forward, and then ran faster when I recognized Gabriel on the floor. I don’t know why I hadn’t seen him before. My wild, tired brain didn’t want to register the sight.

I cried out his name, but my voice was so choked up that all that came out was a broken rasping. I cut it off quickly.

I dropped onto my knees next to Gabriel. He clutched at his bloody thigh, his fingers hovering around a knife sticking out of his flesh.

Wet tears blurred my vision. “Gabriel...” I managed to spit out.

Gabriel grunted. “Sang,” he said, his voice gruff and pinched with pain. He sucked in a breath. “It’s not that bad. He only got me in the leg. It just hurts like a bitch.”

“How bad?” My fingers tingled, hovering over his body, wanting to help but I didn’t know how. “Tell me what to do,” I squeaked.

Gabriel sucked in air through his teeth, gripping and regripping at his thigh just above where the knife was. “Call the doc,” he said. “Don’t know if I should pull it out.”

I ran back for the phone on the ground. I fumbled with it, punching at the screen and stabbing at Dr. Green’s app, pushing the green button. Did he have his phone with him now? I wasn’t sure this would work.

“What’s wrong?” Dr. Green called into the phone after the second ring.

“Gabriel’s been stabbed,” I said. “We’re upstairs on the second floor. He’s still got the knife in him.”

“I’ll track you. I’m on my way,” Dr. Green said. “Stay on the line with me, Sang. Where’s the knife? Tell me exactly.”

My hands flexed open and hovered above Gabriel’s leg, wanting to help and afraid to hurt. “It’s a couple of inches above his left knee, outer thigh.”

“Like with Marc?”

“About.”

“Is he bleeding out?”

“He’s ...” I couldn’t figure out what he meant. Of course there was blood.

“Is there a puddle?” he asked. “Is the floor covered?”

“His jeans are soaked. No puddle.”

“Go ahead and pull the knife out.”

“Shouldn’t I wait?”

“Do it now. If the knife is heavy, it’ll tear him up if we try to move him with it still in his leg. Wrap up his leg to stop the bleeding as best as you can until I get there. Give the phone to Gabriel.”

I passed Gabriel the phone. He shook his head. “I don’t want to talk right now.”

I stabbed the button that put Dr. Green on speaker, dropping it on Gabriel’s slumped chest.

“Gabriel,” Dr. Green said. “Let her pull out the knife.”

“Like fucking hell!” Gabriel cried out. Tears dampened the corners of his eyes. “No one’s touching it.”

“Let her do it. That’s an order.”

Gabriel whimpered. He sucked in through his teeth several times in short breaths.

“Stop hyperventilating,” Dr. Green called through the phone. “Pull the knife, Sang.”

“Sean?”

“Do it.”

I moved my hand to Gabriel’s upper thigh to hold on to him. Gabriel put his hand on mine, gripping it as if wanting to pull it away. I hovered my other hand over the knife, but Gabriel knocked my hand back.

“Meanie,” I called to him. “Let me do it.”

“Fuck, Trouble. It hurts,” he cried out. “Don’t touch it.”

“Please,” I begged.

“Don’t—“

“I swear, Gabriel,” I snapped at him. “If you don’t let go, I’ll tell Adam to cut off all my hair.”

Gabriel grunted loud, yanked his hand away and released me. I wrapped my fingers around the handle of the knife and yanked before he could change his mind,.

Gabriel howled. He ripped his hands away and covered his wound protectively. He seethed.

“Good,” Dr. Green called through the phone. “Sang, check the wound. Make sure there’s no piece of his pants in the way and then tie his leg up tight. I’m almost there.”

I lunged for Gabriel’s tie, tugging at the knot and releasing it from his neck. He sat back against the locker breathing deeply and watching me as I wrapped the tie around the deep gash.

“Tie it off tight,” Gabriel said.

I yanked on either end of the knot I made. Gabriel cried out as I did, writhing underneath.

He drew in heavy breaths, as if trying to steady his breathing and ease the pain. I checked his arm, and while it had bled, that cut wasn’t nearly as deep. He must have just nicked him there.

I wanted to talk to him. I wanted to say something to him. I hovered over him, wanting to help, wanting to take the pain. I wanted to run after Victor, too. And Greg was still running around somewhere. And what about Eric. Would he come back?

Mostly I wanted to apologize to Gabriel. I wanted to tell him I wanted to go out with him. I wanted to go back and make a protest to Kota. Maybe if I had, if I’d spoken up, Gabriel wouldn’t have run off and wouldn’t be hurting now.

Before I managed to say anything to Gabriel, Kota came flying down the hallway, trailed by Luke and Silas. Dr. Green and Nathan appeared behind them.

Dr. Green knelt down, nudging me aside. “Let me see,” he said.

Kota tugged my arm, getting me to stand. I wanted to watch Dr. Green, but Kota redirected my attention. “Who did it?”

“It was Greg. Victor’s chasing him now. Eric was here, too. He ran out the back door. Eric had a gun.”

Kota nodded. He snapped at Silas. “You and Nathan follow Eric. Keep at a distance. Don’t let him see you. If Hendricks has a tail on you, lose it. I’m going after Greg.”

“Let’s get him to the hospital,” Dr. Green said.

––––––––

I
rode next to Gabriel in the back seat inside Kota’s sedan. Victor had returned to us after Kota caught up with him. He drove now. I was pressed against the door as Gabriel slumped against me. Dr. Green was on his other side, propping up Gabriel’s legs. Luke was in the passenger seat. Nathan and Silas had taken Victor’s cell phone and were out trying to locate Eric. They wanted to confirm his location and make sure he didn’t return to school with a gun looking for any of us. They were to detain him if they had to.

I didn’t like Kota going off alone but the others listened to him without question. There was no mention of calling the cops. During the drive, I wondered if anyone else heard the gunshot I was sure Eric had fired. Within the maze of corridors, with the crowds and everyone being downstairs, unless a teacher had lingered upstairs, maybe no one did. Or maybe if they did, they hadn’t realized what it was. The distance may have masked the sound somehow since we were down several hallways. If Eric had shot me, if Victor hadn’t caught up with me, or if he hadn’t followed me at all, I could have died up there and no one would know.

The closest hospital was a small one in downtown Summerville, just off the interstate exit. Victor pulled up right to the emergency room doors. Gabriel mumbled incoherently. Dr. Green had given him a shot of some kind, and now he kept passing out.

Luke hopped out when the car stopped, rushing inside the sliding glass doors of the emergency room entrance. Dr. Green got out and came around to my door, easing it open. He caught me when Gabriel’s weight shifted and threatened to push me out of the car.

Luke returned with a stretcher. I wondered how he knew where to get one from.

I eased myself out from under Gabriel. Victor and Dr. Green together pulled him from the back of the car. his head rocked back, his eyes half open. Whatever Dr. Green had given him, it was working too well.

Luke clutched my hand as Victor and Dr. Green strapped Gabriel to the stretcher and sent him wheeling into the hospital. We followed behind them. I let Luke guide me through into the lobby, but he stopped short when Dr. Green and Victor disappeared beyond a doorway marked off for doctors only. I was surprised Victor went with him, but if he was with Dr. Green, any nurse or security paying attention must have thought he was permitted.

“He’ll be fine, Sang,” Luke said softly. He squeezed my hand. “It’s not that bad. I’d go back there with them if it was worse.”

I wanted to respond to him. I wanted to make similar promises. Of course he’d be okay. Of course they’d take care of him. Of course it could have been worse.

But my nerves had caught up with me. I shivered where I stood. Gabriel
wasn’t
fine. He’d been stabbed by someone we didn’t see coming. I’d left him alone. I’d run the other way. Maybe I didn’t have a choice, but everything inside of me at that moment blamed me and only me for Gabriel’s blood on my hands and clothes, for the pain I saw in his eyes, for making him cry and curse at me as I pulled out the knife.

“Sang,” Luke soothed. He pulled me in. His body was the stillness to my shaking. His arms clutched at my back. “He’ll be okay. I swear.”

I tried to swallow back my tears, but Luke’s arms and words made the sorrow worse. I couldn’t hold it together anymore. It was like having nothing to but wait left too much room to examine everything, and I was at a loss. I was surrendering to the only thing I had left. Pity. Sorrow. Worry. If I hadn’t punched Greg at all, if I just listened to them, this wouldn’t have happened.

North had told me everyone had a breaking point. I believed I had just found mine. Only what was breaking was my heart rather than my anger. Why didn’t I call Gabriel? None of this would have happened.

Luke sucked in a breath by my ear at my shuddering. He hooked an arm around my thighs, picking me up off the floor. I held on, burying my head into his shoulder as he walked.

“Excuse me,” a woman’s voice called. “You can’t take her back there.”

Luke ignored this. I wanted to look up and see what was happening, but I couldn’t get my body to move. My hands cupped the back of Luke’s neck and at the base of his head, gripping. My tears smeared on the material of his white collared shirt. Gabriel was hurt. He could have died if Victor hadn’t shown up. I wouldn't have been able to find him. He wouldn’t have chased Greg off.

And Greg was still out there. Would he hurt Kota?

Luke walked a good distance. He paused and turned, pushing with his back to open a door. He angled us inside.

“What’s wrong?” Victor’s voice echoed from around the room, and I couldn’t pick out his direct location. I couldn’t move my head from the sanctuary of Luke’s shoulder.