“Let her go,” Mac tried. “She hasn’t done anything. She’s sick.”

“Maybe we can come to an agreement.” Josh raised the syringe. “You take this, and I’ll leave her outside the ER. She hasn’t seen my face. She doesn’t know who I am.”

Mac felt defeat flowing over him. The pain in his hand slipped away. “How do I know you’ll actually do it?”

Josh looked offended. “I always keep my word. Why would you even question my offer?”

“Because you’re a psycho killer?”

“I assure you,” Josh gave him a condescending, fuck you smile, “There’s a method to what seems like madness.”

“Let me guess. That’s a fatal dose of heroin.”

“It is,” Josh said as if the conclusion was inevitable.

“Why go to all this trouble?”

“The fallen have to be punished,” Josh said simply. “They have to be stopped. We both know there’s no such thing as a recovered addict. Sobriety is a temporary status. I used to be optimistic. I thought I could save people from themselves. But Gary’s relapse made me realize how dangerous addicts are. Anyone who fails my test needs to be culled from society like a diseased animal. Sooner or later, you’ll all relapse, and when you do, you’ll hurt someone else. The decision is yours.”

“But you’re not giving me a choice.” Mac argued in an attempt to stall for time.

“There’s always a choice.” Josh’s attitude turned pissy, as if he was tired of explaining himself to an intellectual inferior.

“My choice is to sacrifice an innocent girl to save myself. Hardly heroic,” Mac pointed out.

“Your integrity should trump all.” Josh lifted both hands. “She isn’t worth your life. She’s one of the fallen. Her life is misery, hardly worth sacrificing yours to preserve.”

“Says you.” Mac turned the discussion around. “Is this about your brother?”

Josh’s eyes went icicle. “My brother was perfect until she cast him in her spell. Sex and drugs were his end. She was supposed to be recovered, but obviously she wasn’t. There’s no such thing.”

“She?” Mac slipped his first two fingers into his front pants’ pocket. Did he have one of Stella’s hairpins? Please. Please. Please.

“Lucas’s girlfriend.” Josh spit out the words like venom. “She dragged him into her sordid life. She ruined him. My brother was weak, and he followed that whore right into hell.” Josh reached for the needle again. Victory shone like insanity in his eyes.

Mac’s fingers closed on a thin slip of metal. He drew it out slowly, holding it between the pads of his fingertips. Carefully he drew it onto the gurney at his side.

Josh was focused on the tablet. “Just like this piece of trash.”