Mara holstered the pistol—yes, she had lifted the holster off Kellen’s body and strapped it on her own—wandered to the desk, opened Ruby’s diary and fluttered through the pages.

Kellen measured the distance between them, took stock of her own uncertain strength and saw the way Mara kept her hand close to the black-and-yellow Taser.

Kellen wasn’t helpless. She used her words to give herself time to recover. She used her words to dig at Mara, undermine her, make her snap. “Why me? Why out of all the people in this world have you gone to such dramatic lengths to hunt me down?”

“You know.”

“I know? Why would I know?”

“When we were at Yearning Sands Resort together, we were one mind. One heart. We ate together. We trained together. You pushed me hard so I could participate in the International Ninja contest. I could have won!” Mara held up one hand, as if grasping the trophy, and gave her best beauty pageant smile. Then the smile faded. “You stole the opportunity from me.”

“How did I do that?”

“By trying to kill me.”

“To stop you! You killed people. A lot of people.” Kellen found herself wildly waving her hands. As if that was going to help. “You almost killed me!”

“We were like sisters.” Mara crossed her fingers to show how entwined they had been. “We understood each other.”

“I didn’t understand you.” How could Kellen find the words to explain madness to a madwoman? “You were pretending to be someone you weren’t.”

“How could you say that? I was the Yearning Sands spa manager.”

“And you were running an international antiquities smuggling operation!”

Mara burbled on. “I finally figured out why you were so jealous. I was always the leader. What I said, we did. You resented that.”

Four years ago, when Kellen had taken the job at Yearning Sands as assistant manager, she had been newly discharged from the Army. She had been a captain, in charge of transportation in a war zone, a leader who brought the friends she trusted to Yearning Sands to give them jobs. She was the kind of leader who never worried about looking back to see if people were following her. They just always were. There was no explaining that to Mara, though. For all that Mara comprehended, Kellen might as well be speaking Klingon. “You’re…delusional.”

Mara didn’t react.

Kellen realized Mara was trying to read her mind. No—she thought she was reading Kellen’s mind. That was the delusional part. But in a way, Mara was right. They had been friends…of a sort. Four years ago, at Yearning Sands, Kellen had had no suspicion of Mara’s criminal activity, and never had she suspected Mara happily murdered to maintain power.