Page 6 of Safe
“I don’t know. She’s in surgery. I have to go.” I hung up before he could say more.
What began as a dull ache of grief turned into something darker. Rage. I needed a plan. As long as Danielle was under hospital care, I could keep her safe. Landon might be reckless, but even he wouldn’t dare show his face here. Not if he knows we found her.
I went back to waiting, pacing back and forth, my steps quickening as I tried to piece together options, desperate to find a way forward before I finally gave in and allowed myself to rest in one of the chairs.
Five agonizing hours crept by before a surgeon emerged from the operating room. I shot to my feet as a sick feeling rose from my stomach, the same sickness I felt at Danielle’s apartment. I braced myself for whatever news would come next.
“Doctor, how is she?”
“She’s alive,” he replied. The tension broke all at once, and the air seemed to loosen. “We had to put her into a medically induced coma. Danielle suffered multiple severe injuries, and her body needs intensive time to heal without the strain ofmovement or pain. When she wakes, the trauma may cloud her memory, so don’t try to push her for information right away. The best thing you can do now is hope and pray for her recovery, and that she remembers something useful.”
The edges of my rage had been smoothed over by the doctor’s report, but the rest of it still burned like magma begging to erupt. The wordsshe’s alivekept repeating in my head as I contemplated my next move. Losing our parents had almost destroyed me; if I lost Danielle, too, there’d be nothing left.
For a moment, I just stood there feeling my heart pounding before I forced my hand into my pocket to find my phone and call the chief.
He answered on the first ring. “Chief here.”
“Danielle made it out of surgery. She’s alive. But she’s in a coma while she heals.”
“Thank God,” he let out after a long, burdened sigh. “I’m relieved to hear that. And you, Trase? Are you okay?”
“I will be once I find that bastard.” My reply was cold and sharp, as if I wasn’t myself. I could feel the hatred beneath my skin now, red-hot and uncontainable. If I ever crossed paths with Landon again, I wasn’t sure I’d be able, or willing, to hold back.
“Slow down, Alex.” Chief was firm enough with his tone that I knew he wouldn’t let me get away with anything unless it was exactly by the book. The last thing I wanted was him taking me off my own sister’s case. “There will be a time and a place for all of that. Right now, we’re doing everything we can to find him. Your place is there with Danielle. No matter how long it takes, you have my blessing to stay. We’ll handle the rest.”
“Thank you, Chief. I’ll check in later.”
As I ended the call, a nurse approached and motioned for me to follow her. As we reached Danielle’s room, my feet halted at the threshold, unsure if I could handle what waited forme inside. The nurse noticed my hesitation and offered a steady, reassuring hand. I took it, allowing her to lead me in.
Danielle lay motionless, almost at peace, yet her body told another story—bruised, bandaged, broken. She looked both resilient and fragile at the same time. The only comfort I could find was knowing she didn’t feel the pain right now.
As the nurse slipped out of the room, I pulled a chair up beside the bed and cupped the exposed fingers that peeked out from beneath her cast. Lowering my head to rest beside her, the weight of the unfolding events broke through like a tidal wave. I wept aching sobs that she’d never hear. Words of apology and regret stopped uselessly at the tip of my tongue, stopping themselves from leaving my mouth, and the fear that I might never get the chance to say them to her gnawed at my chest.
-
The days started to blur together as I kept vigil at Danielle’s bedside, not once leaving the hospital. The sunlight crept into the room, but I was too exhausted to welcome the day.
I just need a few more minutes of sleep.
Before I could drift back into the inevitable, uncomfortable sleep, a faint voice broke my will to drift off.
“Hey, bro,” Danielle’s unmistakable voice whispered as she tried to turn her head toward me.
My chest tightened until it felt like my heart would shatter beneath the sudden, fierce pressure before undoing me. All week, the doctors kept warning me that it could be weeks or longer before she would wake. Yet here she was, greeting me with easy humor, as if she hadn’t been dangling between life and death.
I yelled for the doctor, then slipped out into the hallway to make a call to the precinct. My hands wouldn’t stop shaking as I dialed.
“Chief here.”
“She’s awake.” That’s all I could say as my throat tightened around the words. “Is there any news on Landon?”
“We don’t have much to go on yet,” Chief admitted, frustrated. “We’re trying, Alex. It’s like the kid just fucking disappeared off the face of the earth.”
I clenched my jaw in an attempt to contain my anger. “Are you serious? It’s been a week, and we know as little as the day it happened? How the fuck am I supposed to keep her safe, Chief? How can I promise her this won’t happen again? Give me something…anything.”
“We did speak to Landon’s brother, Liam. Thankfully, he’s not cut from quite the same cloth as Landon, and he’s done everything he can to help. He saw Landon the night it all went down. Landon stole his car and gave him enough cash to buy another, but he didn’t say a word about where he was headed or what he planned to do. There was one thing he gave us to go off.”
The Chief went silent for a beat, and I knew he was hesitating. Instinctively, I knew whatever came next would be something I didn’t want to hear.
