Fallen Crest Public (Fallen Crest High #3)(59)

Logan frowned. “What are you doing here?”

He gestured to the girl who had followed behind me. “She got my mom.”

Logan and I turned to regard her.

“Uh …” She wavered at our attention. “Um …” Clamping her mouth shut, her cheeks got red, and she began pulling at one hand with the other. “I just found the first adult who looked …” She shrugged. “I don’t know why I picked her. I didn’t know her.”

I didn’t care. I turned back to Mark. “Where’s Sam?”

She finished, “She looked capable. That’s why I picked her.”

Logan grunted. “No one cares anymore.”

“And she was standing next to the principal,” she added. “That was another reason why I picked her.”

“Mason.”

We whipped around. David Strattan was coming towards us. His hair was sticking up, there were bags under his eyes and his Fallen Crest Academy athletic jacket was wrinkled. Blood was smeared all over it.

I faltered. There was not much that scared me, but I was scared now. I couldn’t look away from the blood on Sam’s dad’s shirt. That was her blood. It had to be. I was gutted at what they had done to her.

“Where is she?” My voice came out hoarse. No way could I be weak. Not now, that’s for damn sure. “Where is she?”

“The doctor is with her, but I’ve been told that it’s not as bad as it looks.”

I growled. That didn’t make it better.

“They think,” David moved to stand between us and the hallway. His hand lifted in the air in a calming motion. “They think she’ll have a few fractured ribs, but most of the damage is superficial.”

“What’s that mean?” Logan demanded.

“It means she looks awful, but it’s mostly bruising. Her face is swollen. She couldn’t open one of her eyes when I was with her, but they’re sure it’ll heal on its own.”

“Where is she?” The need to see her was too powerful. I could barely hold it in, and I looked down the hallway. I’d go from one room to the next to find her. “Where is she?!”

“She’s with the doctor, Mason.” Mark moved forward.

I jerked my head to him. “Who’ve you told about this? If that f**khead Adam walks through here, I’m laying him out. I won’t tolerate him coming in here and acting all buddy-buddy with her. Not now.”

“Mason—”

“Not now, Mark,” I interrupted him.

Mark lifted both hands in the air and took a step back. “I didn’t call anyone. I swear. I wouldn’t do that to Sam.”

“Fuck this,” Logan bit out before he shoved past the older Strattan. He started down the hallway and I went right after him. We weren’t getting answers, not the ones we wanted. We’d find her ourselves.

“Boys,” David called after them. “Mason, I really need to discuss something with you before seeing Sam.”

I shoved open a door. “I really need to see Sam first.” She wasn’t in that one. I moved to the next.

“Mark, maybe you can take the girl to the waiting room?”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. I’ll show them to her room and then I have some things to discuss with them after. Go. I’ll send your mother in a moment as well.” I heard the exhaustion in David’s voice.

Logan was further down the hallway. He’d open a door, poke his head in and leave. A few people came to the hallway and watched as he repeated the process, but I stopped. I twisted around and saw David at the end of the hallway. He was waiting for us and he was too patient about it. I sighed as I went back to him. “She’s not in this hallway, is she?”

Logan was at the end of the hallway now. He circled and started opening doors on the side I had stopped.

“As soon as the doctors will let us see her, you’ll be the first one in.” David frowned as he rubbed a hand over his face. His eyes opened and closed, as if trying to focus on me. Then he began rubbing them with the palm of his hand. “I never thought I’d be here again.”

“Again?” I went cold. “Again? You mean without Analise being in the equation.”

David hesitated before saying, “Mason, son—”

“I’m not your f**king son. If you’re going to throw the father term around, start acting like it with the one person who’s still hurting because you left her.”

“I didn’t …” His face paled.

I watched as the blood drained from Sam’s father’s face. I didn’t care. I was being kept from seeing her. It was driving me nuts. David knew it. Noticing a sign for the emergency room further down an adjourning hallway, I knew where she’d be. “Screw it. She came in on an ambulance. She’d go there first.”

“Mason.”

I hauled ass down the hallway.

David jogged to keep up. “Mason, I really do need to talk to you before you go in there.”

He could talk all he wanted. I wasn’t slowing down.

“Because you need to be on board before you go in there.”

“Be on board with what?” I got into the emergency room section. This floor was different from the one we were just in. The walls were painted an off-white color. I headed towards the main desk, but began glancing into each room I passed.