“You got him. He won’t hurt anyone else ever again.”

“Did I kill him?”

“Yeah. You got him.”

Emotions pummeled her like a tsunami, the most surprising of which was an immense feeling of sadness. Not necessarily that Ethan Grice was dead. He was evil and cared nothing for others. But for the fact she’d been forced to take his life, to commit violence in a place that had already seen so much suffering.

Shane started coughing. Smoke was filling the corridors.

The fire. She’d forgotten about the fire.

She could hear a siren in the distance now and she found herself trying hard to stay in the present.

“Laura? Is she alive?” Her mouth was so dry she could barely speak.

“She’s unconscious but alive. I don’t know if she’ll make it. She lost a lot of blood.”

That made her want to weep. Her dear, wonderful, vibrant friend. Shane took her hands in his and tried to tug her to her feet but the pain was so intense she cried out.

“Are you hit? Fuck.” Shane’s voice went from deep to high-pitched so fast she would have laughed if her entire side didn’t feel as if she was being stabbed over and over again with a very sharp blade.

She groaned in answer and found herself roughly rolled onto her front. The cold floor cooled her burning skin.

Shane started muttering more curses than Yael had heard in her lifetime. “Alex, Ashley. Yael’s been hit.”

“We need to get out of here. The whole place is going up,” Alex shouted.

“Let’s get to the SUV and try to keep them warm there,” Ashley suggested.

“Keys in my back pocket,” Yael croaked.

She felt him reach in and grab the keys, then move her clothes and press something warm firmly against her bare skin. She flinched. Her vision was getting spotty. She could feel the blood draining from her body and remembered how Lloyd Zenko had looked in the moments before he died.

The bullet was still inside her. She raised her one hand and edged Shane’s hair off his forehead.

“Sorry I dumped you. I was scared of falling for you. I didn’t want the heartbreak of being left behind. I should have trusted you. I’m not very brave.”

Shane hoisted her into his arms. Alex had Laura over his shoulder. “Not brave? What the fuck are you talking about? You’re brave as hell. I’m the one who’s scared of commitment.”

She wanted to laugh but her world was going dark. She felt herself moving through the air, passing through these old familiar hallways that still haunted her dreams. Wondering if this had always been her fate.

35

“Don’t you dare close your eyes,” Shane yelled at Yael.