“Heim?” I said, wishing the threat of a gun in my face would clear the drugs out of my brain. I was thinking too slowly. Still a step behind her. “Lila didn’t kill Heim.”
“No,” Margot said, shaking her head with little jerks. “She didn’t have to. I love her. Iloveher,” she snarled. “Nobody hurts her again.” She raised the gun.
My head suddenly cleared. Nothing like a bucket of fear to get the brain working.
“If you shoot me, they’ll know you did it. My sisters are police officers. They won’t stop until they find you.”
“They won’t even look for me,” she sneered. “They’ll think you let Dan Perkin out of his cell and he shot you before he committed suicide.”
This was it. No more time for talking.
The front door swung open with a bang.
I lunged for her.
Margot pivoted, gun swinging with her, leveled at the man who strode into the room.
Ryder Bailey.
No, no, no! He will not be shot before I get a chance to be mad at him for dumping me.
“Down!” I yelled. I jammed a shoulder into Margot’s back. We crashed to the floor. I landed hard on my bad side and yelled. I grappled with her, scrabbling for the gun.
She twisted under me, threw an elbow at my ribs. I didn’t have room to break away, didn’t want that gun in her control, and took the hit. It felt like half my body was on fire. Silver lights bashed and broke in front of my eyes. I slammed her hand down and the gun skittered away.
“Donotmove!” I growled and yanked her arm back. I used my weight and leverage and straddled her as a bloom of fresh blood poured down my side.
It had all happened in a second.
“Freeze!” Ryder barked. “Now!” The slide and clack of a gun was louder than the roaring in my ears, louder than my own heavy breathing, louder than Margot’s swearing.
I stilled instinctively, and so did Margot.
“Delaney? Are you hurt?” Ryder asked.
Other than that knife you buried in my heart?
“Get the handcuffs in the desk drawer next to you.” I shoved up onto my knees and dragged Margot’s arm behind her until she hissed. I rested one knee in the middle of her back.
“You have the right to remain silent, Margot,” I said between hard breaths. My entire left side felt like a beast was sinking teeth into me, chewing and chewing. Hot blood trickled down and soaked the waistband of my pants. My vision was still star-studded.
Power, which had been of zero use to me, rolled and screamed through my headache.
The combination of new pain, old power, and Ryder’s voice—“Are you hurt?”—made me want to barf.
I swallowed until I got my nausea under control and patted Margot down one-handed, making sure she didn’t have any other weapons on her.
She struggled a second, and I was more than happy to lean a little harder on her. “Just settle down and let me finish. Then you can call your lawyer.”
I glanced up as Ryder gave me the handcuffs.
He had a Sig Sauer in his other hand, held down and to his side like he was comfortable holding a firearm. I frowned up at him, at his calm confidence in a situation any normal person would consider highly charged and should maybe be nervous about.
He was as cool as a trained veteran.
“Thanks for the assist.” I clamped the handcuffs over her wrists.
“Was she alone?”
