Pulse pounding, nerves shaky, she waited while Cord confirmed that Joe and Tony were ready. The second they radioed back that they were in place, Alyssa shifted her focus to the doors in front of her. Taking a deep breath in an effort to calm the bees swarming her insides, she hit the button on the wall and waited only long enough for her to squeeze herself through the door, aware that Cord was right behind her.

Her head pivoted left and right as they moved along the hall. At the first nurses’ station, she flashed her badge and ordered one of the attendants to stop any more visitors from coming through and to keep others in whatever rooms they were in. It took one look at her face for the nurses to grasp the gravity of the situation, and several staff members scattered in different directions to do as directed.

Just as they turned the final corner of the patient wing, Alyssa watched the girl known as Anna enter Jersey’s room. Her breath caught in her throat as time slowed almost to a standstill. Holly was in that room.

In the next second, commotion erupted everywhere. Something that sounded like someone gasping for air reverberated out into the hall from Jersey’s room, someone yelled for a nurse… no, not someone, Holly… and then two nurses raced from behind the counter and headed straight for Jersey’s room, ignoring Alyssa’s shouted commands to stop.

Even as she rushed forward, her mind processed things in slow motion. Nick Otis exited his sister’s room, his head swiveling down the hall, his brows arched high, forehead wrinkled in concern. And then Anna was there, backing out of Jersey’s room slowly, apologizing as she turned to leave.

Only to pull up short as she spotted Alyssa and Cord. ‘Mrs. Wyatt?’ Leigh Ann said. ‘If you’re here to talk to Jersey, you might have to wait.’ She whipped her head toward her friend’s door. ‘She’s having a bit of an episode, I’m afraid.’

Holly poked her head out the door, and her wide-eyed, scared gaze landed on Alyssa and Cord before she swung it back to Leigh Ann. The hair on the back of Alyssa’s nape lifted, and she had to bite the urge to snap at Holly to get back inside. A tear trailed down Holly’s cheek as she tipped her head forward in what Alyssa recognized as defeat, and then eyes boring into her mother’s, she slowly backed into Jersey’s room, closing the door softly behind her.

Alyssa released the breath she’d sucked in when Holly had poked her head out, secure in the knowledge that, for the moment, she was safe. Careful not to shift her eyes away from the person in front of her, she took two small steps forward. ‘Hello, Leigh Ann. I’m glad to see you here.’ In her peripheral vision, she noticed Cord slowly inching his way between Leigh Ann and Jersey’s room. As soon as he was in place, the elephant sitting on Alyssa’s chest moved, and her smile turned more feral. ‘I’m sorry – should I have addressed you as Anna instead?’