She did not respond to his voice, prompting a fear that she had overdosed. He rubbed his knuckles into her breastbone. The distant sound of sirens grew louder. “Avery!”

Jordan crawled toward them, and she took her sister’s limp hand in her own. “Is she okay?”

He did not have the heart to tell Jordan he was not sure. “Avery!”

Jordan squeezed Avery’s hand until her own knuckles whitened. “Open your eyes. Look at me!”

Avery’s eyes slowly opened. Black pupils swallowed up blue irises. She stared at him blankly.

“Can she see us?” Jordan asked him.

“Avery,” Spencer said. “Can you see?”

“I’m not sure.”

Jordan cupped her sister’s face in her hands and turned it toward her own. “Avery!”

Avery’s gaze focused, and she sat up suddenly. “Where is he? He’s going to kill us.”

“He’s cuffed, Avery,” Spencer said. “He can’t hurt you or Jordan anymore.”

Avery’s eyes filled with tears of anger and defeat.

“What did you take?” Spencer asked Avery.

“I don’t know. He shot me up.” Her gaze dropped to the needle mark at the crook of her arm, and she shut her eyes. “He’s killed me.”

“No, he has not,” Spencer said. “Jordan, take care of Avery. The cops are here.”

When he turned back, Jordan had dropped her tear-streaked face to her sister’s. “It’s okay. It’s okay. We will survive this, I swear.”

EPILOGUE

EPILOGUE

Thursday, July 1

1:30 p.m.

Jordan stood in the lobby of the medical building. Today her neurologist had evaluated her recent MRIs and brain scans and updated her on the status of her ocular nerve.

She had not needed a doctor’s test to tell her what she knew. A small amount of vision had returned in the last couple of months. Some of the shadows were not as dark, she could make out people if they were standing in front of a bright window, and her sensitivity to light had diminished. But her vision was not what it had been, and the chances of it improving enough to get back on the force were slim.

She could hope for a miracle. And maybe one day there would be more progress in nerve regeneration. But for now, that was not an option for her.

The front door opened, and determined footsteps moved toward her across the medical building’s lobby. Spencer. He always walked as if he were racing toward a crime scene.

He had offered to attend this meeting with her. “Two sets of ears are better than one” had been his justification. Avery had also offered, but Jordan wanted her sister’s focus to remain on her new fight to remain sober. The poison Rogan had injected in her was a challenge to overcome, and it was taking all of Avery’s mental strength to stay the course.