I played it out in my head.

I would reach for the door, and she would stab me in the back. She could get to me. I had to knock her out, or knock her back.

Scream, Sheldon!

I frowned. Where had that come from? I wasn’t in my crazy/shocked state anymore. No more Grace talking to me, but damn, that sounded like her. No, I couldn’t scream. I didn’t want anyone coming in. She could swipe at them too, or my god, they would step in front of me. She would kill them instead. Bryce. Corrigan. I couldn’t risk them. It was her and me.

“Look at you,” she murmured in a soft soothing tone.

I gritted my teeth. I was scared, and she sounded in complete control now. This bitch was going to win. I knew it then. My mind was scrambling, but I was going to lose. I had nothing to unbalance her. My card was Guadalupe, and I used it.

Physical force?

Did I dare?

That damn knife. If I missed, I was dead.

I glanced at the door again. It was my only shot.

“Lupe’s gone.”

I looked up. Maria was gazing away from me, lost in her thoughts now. Okay, I just got lucky. She continued, sounding sad, “She killed her. I didn’t. I never wanted anything to harm Lupe. She was my light. If she wanted something, I got it for her. I made her happy. That was my job. You wouldn’t understand. Your job is to kill. You bring darkness everywhere. You brought darkness to us, to me. I’m full of it now. Only dark. Only death. Lupe’s eyes, they were so lifeless.”

Her voice started to slur, and I realized the drugs had kicked in again. I started for the door again and this time, she didn’t notice. She stood still, looking at the knife like it was a new invention, suddenly placed in her hand. She turned it upside down, looking at the handle, then the tip, and then she leaned forward and smelled it.

She murmured to it next, “You’re my last. I have to kill one more, and then I’m done. Then I can join her.”

I was almost to the door. Her voice turned chilling, and I stopped. My hand was about to reach for the doorknob. I turned and she was right behind me. Gasping, I jumped to the side. She hadn’t stabbed me, but Maria wasn’t Maria anymore.

She was gone. All sanity had left her.

She pointed the knife at me. “You killed her. It’s because of you that she’s gone. We were both taken. We were drugged, that’s how we were taken. I woke up from the poison, but Lupe didn’t. She was beside me. She was gone, but she wasn’t. I saw her beside me and she talked to me. She told me things. That she loved me. That she wanted to be with me too. I should’ve told her. I lost my chance, but I have one more to do, and then I can be with her. Lupe and I will be together again, forever this time. Just one.”

Her eyes were roaming over me and paused on my throat.

It was coming.

I felt it in my gut—FIGHT, SHELDON!

I stopped thinking and my elbow rammed up, hitting underneath her chin. She was stunned from the hit, but she twisted to the side. Her hand started to swing around. I saw the knife poised, ready to slice into me, but I grabbed ahold and tried to kick at her arm. My foot hit the underside. It was a clumsy hit, I got lucky, then I heard her grunt right next to my ear, and I looked again.

BAM!

I was hit across the cheek. A blast of pain blinded me, and I couldn’t move for a second, then I felt her coming and she was on me. I was pushed down to the floor, and her knee hit me in the chest. Oomph.

I couldn’t lie there. I heard yelling, and I looked around, trying to see who it was coming from, but it was me. I was the one yelling, and she was dead silent. Her elbow rammed into my head again, and this time the pain more than blinded me. It knocked the breath of out me. I looked up—here it was—it was coming.

Maria was half sprawled over me, but she tightened her hold on the knife, and her arm started coming toward me. The edge of it was going to slice open my throat.

I closed my eyes.

I love you, Corrigan.

BANG!

Maria stopped. The knife dropped. Her arm dropped, and a gurgling sound came from her. She looked up to the doorway then her eyes widened, and she started to point. “She—”

BANG!

BANG!

She was shot two more times. This time I watched as the bullets tore into her. The first one got her in the throat. The second one hit her in the chest, and the third was right in her forehead. She dropped after that one.

Then I looked up—Mena stood in the doorway holding a handgun.

Then everything went dark.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

I awoke in a hospital bed, and my hands were interlaced with Corrigan’s. He was sleeping in the chair beside mine with his head resting on my bed. I became aware of two things right away. One, my body felt like it was being burned alive and two, I was damn thirsty. I looked around, but the movement had me gritting my teeth. Pain sliced through me. I was afraid to even think about moving, and I sighed in frustration. What the fuck? The room was dark. The door was open, and I heard soft conversation from down the hallway somewhere.

Call lights.

I was in the hospital. They had those magical buttons.

“You’re awake.”

I glanced back to the door. Bryce was there now. He ran a hand over his face, then let it drop to his side with a heavy thud. In his hand was a coffee.

My nose twitched. “If you wanted to torture me awake, you’re spot-on. Coffee’s the way to go. And you look like death.”

He grunted, moving around my bed and perching on the window frame. “Speak for yourself. You got stabbed by a crazy woman.”

“Hey.” I tried to smirk. It hurt too much so I grunted instead. “I took that bitch down.”

He laughed softly. “Uh, Mena took that bitch down.” The grin fled, and he grew somber. “Of which I’m always going to be grateful to her and I,” he cringed, “can’t believe I just said those two words in the same sentence. Mena. Grateful.”

“Hey. She turned out okay.”

He nodded, lifting his coffee for a sip, but he stopped. Then he put it on the nightstand between us. “She did.” He gestured to the door. “Do you need me to get a nurse or something?”

“No.” I glanced around, saw that I was hooked up to an IV pole and knew this was going to be a new form of torture, but I peeled back my bed sheets and started to push myself to the edge. “But I’ve gotta pee. Badly.”

Yep. I gritted my teeth again. Pain. Agony. I was being stabbed all over again. Then the cold air blasted my back, and I wanted to groan. First things first: pee, then complain. That’s what I did. When I came back from the bathroom, Corrigan was gone. I frowned. “Where’d he go?”