“Dad!” I called out.
His head snapped my way, and I saw instantly that it wasn’t frustration on his face. It was worry.
He came over to the edge of the fence and looked at me.
“Perry’s gone,” he said. “We can’t find her.”
I felt something, a sick knot of dread, fill my stomach.
“Did you try calling her?” I asked.
He shook his head. “Looked through her bag. Her phone and wallet are in it. Didn’t know her number.”
I looked along the row of kids milling about and spotted Rebel.
“Hey, Rebel!” I called.
Rebel turned and smiled, jogging toward us. “Yeah, Banner?”
“You seen Perry?” I asked.
She shook her head. “No, actually. We were all looking for her. She’s not answering her phone.”
My dad then went on to explain that he hadn’t seen her in a while since she’d gone to the bathroom by herself. Like I’d told her not to do.
I swallowed hard, then jumped the fence in the next second.
“Let’s look for her. She’s missing,” I ordered.
“Spurlock!” Coach called.
I stopped and turned to find him staring at me with annoyance.
“Perry’s missing,” I said. “No one can find her. She went to the bathroom and never came back. Her phone and wallet were with my parents. It’s been twenty minutes.”
Coach’s face immediately went worried.
“She got into a tussle with Vance before we got here,” I said. “That was why I left during your talk.”
Coach’s face went murderous. “Let’s look. I’ll get the announcer’s box to make an announcement.”
I heard the announcement being made, but I was already shoving my way into the women’s bathroom.
After a quick check in there and finding nothing, I went into the men’s. Then the concession stand.
It was only as I was coming out of the back that I looked under the dark bleachers and got a really bad feeling.
Reaching out to some freshman that was waving his phone around, I yanked it out of his hand and said, “I’ll be back.”
Then I flipped his phone’s flashlight on and walked farther into the darkness cast by the bleachers.
I heard people following me, likely Rebel and my dad, but didn’t bother to slow down or look behind me to make sure.
A cup fell from above me, and I sidestepped it and kept walking, farther and farther.
I swept the phone back and forth, heart in my throat.
“Son of a bitch!”
I turned just in time to see my brother haul ass in the opposite direction of where we were standing.
He must’ve entered from the other end of the bleachers because I hadn’t seen him or heard him until he’d called out.
My eyes training on where he was going, I found him standing over an unconscious Perry.
She was on the ground, in a fetal position, and naked from the waist down.
I cursed and went to rip off my shirt, but couldn’t get the damn thing off.
My father came to the rescue and handed me his light jacket.
I yanked it out of his hands and covered her up with it just as I bent down and pressed my fingers to her neck.
“Baby,” I said as I cradled her head into my hands. “Perry, wake up.”
She moaned and rolled her head in my hand. Which was when I realized that my hand was now wet.
With her blood.
“Son of a bitch,” I said as I shined my light.
Yes, my hand was covered in it.
“There’s an ambulance at the front gate,” Dad said.
“She has a head wound,” Ford said. “They’re gonna need to come to her. I don’t think it’s a good idea to move her until we know what’s going on with that head and neck.”
My stomach was rolling as I got down low and pressed my mouth to her forehead. “Perry, wake up.”
She didn’t wake up.
Not when the paramedics got there.
Not when I got in the back of the ambulance with her and rode to the hospital.
And not when I got to the hospital and met her father as I hurried along at Perry’s side as they wheeled her into the emergency room.
I wasn’t sure who called him, but I was glad that he was there.
Perry would want to see him.
“What’s going on?” a doctor asked as he came up to Perry’s side once they rolled her into a room in the ER.
“Seventeen-year-old female found unconscious under the bleachers at school,” the paramedic said. “Obvious head trauma. Pupils equal and reactive. Started an IV in the back of the box. Blood pressure is good. Everything is good. Possible rape.”
My stomach sank.
I mean, the thought had crossed my mind when I’d seen her there naked.
I’d just been doing my absolute best at blocking it out.
But the paramedic explaining that to the doctor? Yeah, that made it all the more real.
Her father heard, too, because I heard the animalistic growl start up behind me.
“Please, back away.”
I did, backing toward the back of the room until I was standing directly next to her dad.
Who was pissed.
And by pissed, I meant he was seething with anger.
Perry’s mother, who I hadn’t seen until now, was silently crying right behind him, her hand over her face as she stared at her daughter on the gurney in front of her.
“Anybody know exactly what happened?” the doctor asked.
“No,” I found myself saying. “We found her like that underneath the bleachers. She was sitting with my parents when she went to the bathroom. My dad said she was missing for about ten minutes before he went to look for her. It was about twenty before we found her underneath the bleachers.”
A lot could happen in twenty minutes.
I knew that the doctor knew that, too.
I saw his eyes take in Perry, then he nodded.
“I think that it would be best to perform a rape kit on her,” he said. “I’m going to recommend a female registered nurse and a female doctor to perform this.”
Things happened fast after that.
Just after I was kicked out of the room, I schooled my features and did what I knew I had to
