More bullets were fired around her. But she couldn’t let that slow her down.
She quickly ducked into a short side street before turning right at the end.
Two shops down she saw the florist.
The key…Mildred had told her about a hidden key. She could call for help.
She reached inside the hanging potted plant and wrapped her fingers around the rock. Beneath it, she found the key.
The first time she tried to get it into the lock, she missed, the trembling in her fingers too violent. She tried again, and the key slid in and the door opened. She dove into the shop before slamming the door and clicking the lock. Quickly, she raced to the counter and dropped behind it.
Then there was silence, just the sound of her heavy breaths soaring through the room. She dropped her head into her hands and felt the world sway around her.
Phone. She needed a phone to call for help. But the possibility of coming out from behind the counter and Briar seeing her through the glass made panic burn through her limbs.
A few more minutes, then she’d search.
She was just closing her eyes and focusing on her breaths again when the rattle of someone trying the doorknob sounded.
Her heart stopped.
No. It was fine. She’d locked the door. She was safe.
Suddenly, the shattering of glass filled her ears, almost making Clara scream. Then the click of the door opening and closing.
Her heart stopped, an icy dread filling her belly.
Briar was here.
“When I saw you run onto this street, then lost you, I knew you’d be here.” Footsteps sounded. “You think I don’t know Mildred lives across the street from you? It’s a small town,Clara. Everyone knows everything. Did she give you a key? Come out before I start shooting. If you’re behind the counter, these bullets will go straight through the wood.”
Clara winced, then rose to her feet. Her body swayed, but she grabbed onto the counter to stay upright.
Briar stood a few steps inside the shop, gun raised. “Good choice.”
“I’m not telling you where the USB is.”
“Of course you are. Because if you don’t, I’ll go back to your house and shoot your brother in the head.”
She could have laughed. “You and I both know you don’t have the skill or training to get the jump on him.”
Her eyes narrowed.
Shit. She shouldn’t be making Briar angry. She needed her to talk. To waste time and pray that someone saw either the crashed cars or broken shop glass and alerted the sheriff’s station.
“So, you’ve been behind everything?” Clara asked, trying to keep the fear from her voice. “Lauren and Scarlett’s deaths…the sick patients.”
“Lauren was awhore. I left my husband for Malcolm, and what does he do? Sleeps with his massage therapist! She deserved to die. And Malcolm deserved to be blamed for it, and for every other patient who got sick. He needed to learn that actions have consequences.”
“So you poisoned his patients?”
“Kind of brilliant, huh? All I had to do was steal drugs from patients’ medication carts and replace them with saline. Some I managed to inject into IV bags. Others, I just snuck into patient rooms and injected.”
God. This woman was a monster. Some patients didn’t even get their medication because of her. “You took drugs thatpatients needed and allowed other patients to get sick and almost die because you wereangryat Malcolm?”
“Blamehim. If he hadn’t cheated on me after I left my husband for him, I wouldn’t have needed to do any of it!”
She didn’t blame him. The blame was solely Briar’s to bear. “And you killed Scarlett.”
