Page 43 of Duress (Birch Falls #3)

DANE

I ’m cold. So fucking cold. That’s the first thought that drifts through my mind as I slowly regain consciousness.

I part my lips to say something, but my mouth is so dry it feels like it is glued shut.

I try to open my eyes, but I’m so groggy and they’re so heavy.

They flutter shut again almost immediately.

The only thing I glimpse is white sterile walls and harsh florescent lighting.

A soft, rhythmic beeping is a metronome that prevents me from fully succumbing to the sleep that is beckoning.

That and the pain that rolls through me every time I take a breath.

“Whhhterrr…” My throat burns when I try to speak, the words coming out an unintelligible mumble. Where am I? What happened?

“Dane! Hey, I’m here.” A soft, warm hand finds mind under the scratchy blanket that is doing a pitiful job of containing my body heat. “You want some water?” I move my head in the barest hint of a nod, and I hope whoever is here with me saw it. Why does everything hurt so much ?

“Here, open your mouth. I’ve got a cup with a straw.”

Keeping my eyes shut from the harsh light, I follow the familiar voice’s direction.

I know who this is, but my mind won’t tell me who it is.

Cool water rushes into my mouth, soothing the parched feeling.

I drink and drink, until the straw makes a gurgling sound as air is sucked into it.

Releasing the straw, I let out a relieved sigh, feeling slightly better now that my mouth doesn’t feel like it is stuffed full of cotton.

Slowly I blink my eyes open again, squinting to let in as little light as possible. Serena—with her halo of curls, gold eyes, and exhaustion etched onto her face—comes into view. She’s wearing a BFPD hoodie and looks like she was dragged out of bed in the middle of the night.

“Hey you. Nice of you to decide to rejoin the land of the living.” Her words are joking, but the tremor in her voice betrays how worried she is.

“Where—” I want to say am I? but exhaustion keeps me from forming a complete sentence.

“You’re at Birch Falls Memorial. You were brought here yesterday. Do you remember anything about what happened?” Serena’s tone is cautious, like she is afraid of revealing too much of the circumstance that brought me here.

Closing my eyes, I try to think about the last thing I remember. Everly. Everly was in danger. Bryce was hurting her. I remember punching him. Tackling him. Rolling on the ground. Pain. So much pain. Then Everly begging me to stay with her .

“Everly… Bryce…hurt her…”

“Yeah, you were at Everly and Bryce’s house.

It looks like there was some sort of confrontation, and you got hurt.

You were stabbed.” That explains the searing pain in my abdomen.

Realizing I was injured and incapacitated, leaving Everly alone with Bryce, sends fear straight into my heart.

The beeping of the heart monitor ticks up in rhythm in response.

“Everly…okay?”

“She’s okay. She was checked out when she was brought in yesterday and discharged this morning.

She’s been taken to the station to give a statement.

” Serena hesitates, like she’s unsure of how to continue.

When she resumes speaking she’s using the soft, sympathetic tone she uses when notifying next of kin of an accident.

“Dane… Bryce is dead. He was found at the bottom of the stairs. Everly said he fell down them during the struggle. He hit his head on the marble floor and died from a brain hemorrhage.”

I didn’t think it could be possible to feel colder than I do already, but it feels like someone injects ice water straight into my veins when I hear that my brother is dead. Not out of grief, but fear.

Memories come flooding back. Me smashing my fist into Bryce over and over again.

I was so angry about something. Consumed by hate for him.

Everly stopping me from killing him. The fear in her eyes and bruises on her neck.

Bryce taunting me. Mocking me about something…

His words drift away before I can remember what he said.

Then Bryce was on top of Everly, screaming at her.

Saying he was going to kill her. That’s when I tackled him and got him in a chokehold. Then pain…and nothing. Shit.

Did Everly kill him? Did I? Is she being arrested? Then the memory of why I was so angry hits me. Bryce killed my father. Bryce killed my father, and according to him, Everly knew.

“Everly called 911 at approximately 12:47 p.m. yesterday. She was in hysterics trying to get help for you. She said you were bleeding out, and she couldn’t get it to stop.

She stayed on the line the ten minutes it took the ambulance to arrive.

She held pressure the whole time, begging you to stay conscious.

” Serena’s words mingle with the memory of Everly begging me not to die.

Wetness trickles down my cheek and my vision blurs with stinging tears. Pain unlike anything I’ve ever known grips my chest as her betrayal and sacrifice slices through me.

“You know what she didn’t do during that ten minute phone call?”

I shake my head, eyes squeezed shut, like it can protect me from what Serena says next.

“She didn’t mention Bryce at all.”