She was here again, but this time she had so much more to lose. She wouldn’t see Armie or Noelle again if she died. This time she wouldn’t simply die. She would lose the life she longed for. Why had she walked away? Why hadn’t she told Armie that he wasn’t ever allowed to leave her again, that they could fight but they couldn’t be apart because they were supposed to be together? Come what may.

God, it was worse when she had so much to lose.

The danger was real, but she wasn’t in the same place. She had to remember that. She was in Papillon, and she had to deal with this because she wasn’t going to lose Mabel.

“Lila, I thought you were gone.” Mabel held her hands up as Bobby moved in behind her, wrapping his arm around her throat. The gun was against her temple.

There would be no coming back from that shot. There wouldn’t be time to fix Mabel if he pulled the trigger.

“We thought you were both gone,” Bobby said. “The clinic is supposed to be closed this time of night. You close at six today. It’s seven thirty. You should both be at home.”

“I stayed to do the inventory on the exam rooms so you didn’t have to do it in the morning,” Mabel explained. “But I turned out the lights. They thought we were closed. I didn’t hear them until I came out to pack up and go home.”

“It’s going to be okay. Bobby, I need you to stay calm. You can still get out of this.” Each word was a struggle, the desire to scream profound, but it wouldn’t help her. Rage wasn’t her friend at this point. That could come later. For now she had to stay calm. “You haven’t hurt anyone yet.”

She was so happy she’d left Peanut with Remy today. Peanut would have barked and tried to protect Mabel, but Remy had convinced her to let the dog go fishing with him and his friends.

Donnie Petrie was dressed in all black despite the heat of the evening. She would bet he’d come in the back way. It was secured, but a desperate man could find a way around most locks. “Get on your knees. If you even think about moving, I’ll fire. I can set this whole thing up to look like a burglary.”

She had to stay calm. “You need to think this through. You kill the two of us and there’s no going back from that. Like I said, you haven’t hurt anyone yet.”

That gun didn’t move and she held her hands up, but she wasn’t getting on her knees until she absolutely had to.