She didn’t blame Alice for calling the police that morning three months ago. She could only imagine how shocked the poor woman was when she saw the news and realised that her new girlfriend was an infamous killer.

Despite what happened, Rosa knew that Alice would forever have a place in her heart.

When she got back to her cell she sat on the edge of her bed and buried her head in her hands.

An image of Alice flared in her mind and she thought about the first time they’d made love. Before long she was sobbing loudly and her face was wet with tears.

‘Cheer up, luvvie,’ someone said, and Rosa looked up to see a fellow inmate standing in the doorway with her hands behind her back.

The woman’s name was Olivia Todd and she’d been part of a notorious drug smuggling gang before being locked up for murder.

Rosa’s heart lurched, not because she was scared of the woman, but because a bunch of other inmates were gathered on the landing right outside her door. And whenever that happened it usually spelled trouble.

Rosa sprang to her feet, but before she could prepare to defend herself, Todd was across the cell and ramming into her, shoulder first.

Rosa fell back against the wall and her legs gave way. In the split second before she fell to the floor she glimpsed the makeshift knife in Todd’s right hand and felt the blade being plunged into her side.

‘It’s a gift from the cartel,’ Todd said. ‘Carlos Cruz wanted you to know that he hadn’t forgotten you.’

Rosa drifted in and out of consciousness. She was aware of her assailant running out of the cell and the group outside suddenly dispersing, having provided cover for the attack.

The cell door had been left open and she was dragging herself towards it when the guards appeared.

The next thing she knew she was on a stretcher and could hear snippets of a conversation.

‘An ambulance is on its way. It’ll need an armed escort.’

‘It’s a knife wound. She’s losing blood.’

‘The wing has been locked down, but I guarantee we won’t find the knife or any witnesses to what happened.’

She blacked out for a while then and when she regained consciousness she was in an ambulance. A paramedic was treating her wound and she could hear the siren blaring. Thankfully the pain in her side had been dulled by drugs.

‘We’re about to arrive at the hospital,’ the paramedic said. What seemed like just a few seconds later the ambulance stopped and the back door was opened.

She managed to stay awake as she was stretchered out of the ambulance.

She saw the entrance to the hospital’s emergency department and there were two armed cops standing in front of it.