I fumble in my pocket. But my brain’s not working properly, and I reach into the wrong one with the wrong hand. Instead of the gun, I pull out the spindle, the one inscribed with my mother’s customized words of wisdom. I look down just as a blanket of blue light washes over the room. The words carved into the spindle come into focus, and I read them for the first time.

Hope must be strongest when hope appears lost.

I frown. The statement jostles something in my brain. Not just because it contains my daughter’s name but also because the saying is familiar. Too familiar. I’ve heard it somewhere before. Or read it…

My hand falls open, and the spindle slips through my fingers and thunks onto the floor. That’s it. I remember how I know that sentence.

I read it in a note to Lalana from her secret admirer.

Chapter 37

Chapter 37

My brain explodes with a million questions, a gazillion ramifications. I don’t get it. How can the line from Lalana’s secret admirer be engraved on this spindle? How?

I press my hands against my temples, but it does nothing to calm the tornado swirling inside. I almost can’t think. I almost can’t go down the rabbit hole to the logical conclusion.

But there’s a gun in my pocket. I was seconds away from shooting Bandit. So I have to do this. I have to follow this path to see where it leads.

Tilting my face to the ceiling, I take a long, slow breath, focusing on the ballooning of my abdomen. And then another. And another, until I’m capable of basic analysis again.

Archie’s been carrying around the spindle since my mother left…the same saying appears in Lalana’s note…therefore, Archie must be Lalana’s secret admirer.

Not Bandit.

And if Archie is Lalana’s secret admirer, then that means the Voice was trying to separate her from my brother. So that he wouldn’t feel so betrayed. So that there would be one less way for him to lose touch with reality. And that means…that means…

This is where I falter. This is where my mind shuts down, erecting a wall so impenetrable that my thoughts can’t go any further.

I sway. The room spins dizzily around me, the blue light messing up my sense of direction. I stumble, and my knees crash into something hard and metal. I pitch forward and—

OOMPH.

I land in a heap on top of solid muscle and taut skin. Bandit.

He jerks awake, and then I’m flying through the air, my back slapping against the firm mattress. Within seconds, he’s got my wrists above my head and the rest of my body pinned underneath him. Good instincts, this guy.

His mouth drops when he gets a look at me. “What the…? Alice, what’s going on? What are you doing here?”