Before either of them could say anything else, there was a knock at the door, and Noah rushed in, his face pale with worry.
"Mom, you're finally awake," he said, his eyes bright with unshed tears as he moved to her bedside and carefully took herhand. "You can't do this to me. This is the second time in less than two days."
"I'm fine, sweetheart," Lacey tried to assure him, but even as she said the words, she knew they weren't entirely true.
As flashes of what had happened rushed through her brain. The deliberate trapping, the coordinated attack, the intent seemed clear. Lacey realized with cold certainty that someone had tried to hurt her. June had been right after the car accident. Lacey did have an enemy who wanted her gone, and the question was who and why. As far as Lacey knew, she hadn’t hurt or angered anyone; she had to figure out who. Her eyes moved toward Dean, who was listening to something Noah was telling him, and an idea formed in her mind as she decided to quietly ask him to help her find out who disliked her so much.
11
JUNE
The sterile fluorescent lighting of Margo's hospital room cast harsh shadows across the pale green walls as June paced the small space between the bed and the window. Her footsteps created a steady rhythm on the polished linoleum floor, the sound somehow both comforting and irritating in the oppressive quiet of the medical wing.
Margo lay unconscious on the narrow hospital bed, an oxygen mask covering the lower half of her face and various monitors tracking her vital signs with soft beeping sounds. The steady rise and fall of her chest provided the only reassurance that she was going to be all right, but June couldn't shake the images of what she'd witnessed at the veterinary clinic just hours earlier.
Lucy was somewhere down the hallway, making her rounds and tending to a firefighter who had been injured while trying to force open the clinic's front door. Dean was with Lacey in another room, and June had volunteered to stay with Margo so she wouldn't wake up alone and confused in an unfamiliar place.
But sitting still had proven impossible. June's mind was racing through everything she'd observed at the scene, trying to piecetogether the fragments of information she'd been able to gather while emergency responders worked to control the situation.
Unlike Dean, who had been able to get close to the building in his firefighter's gear, June had been kept at a safe distance by the police barriers. But she'd heard enough radio chatter and witnessed enough of the rescue operation to understand that this hadn't been a simple fire or accident.
Dean had mentioned that the clinic's front door had been barricaded from the outside. It wasn't so much the fire spreading that caused the rescue problems, but the gas inside the building that made it nearly impossible for the firefighters to gain safe entry.
Gas. Someone had deliberately gassed the veterinary clinic.
June found herself doing something she hadn't done since law school finals week, unconsciously chewing her thumbnail as she paced from the window to the foot of Margo's bed and back again. The nervous habit was a throwback to her most stressful periods, and she forced herself to stop, folding her hands tightly together instead.
What on earth was happening in Sandpiper Shores?Her mind felt like it was spinning in circles, trying to make sense of the escalating pattern of attacks and incidents that had been building over the past week.
Initially, she'd been willing to consider that Victoria Morrison might be behind some of the harassment, driven by jealousy over Holt's attention or some twisted need to eliminate perceived threats to her relationship with Clive. But this level of violence, this calculated attempt at what could only be describedas murder, was far beyond anything a jealous woman might do out of romantic desperation.
Victoria might be capable of petty sabotage or intimidation, but gassing a building with people inside? Setting coordinated fires to block escape routes?That required a level of planning and ruthlessness that suggested something far more serious than personal vendetta.
So who was systematically targeting the people connected to their investigation? June was now convinced that Lacey had been the primary target from the beginning. The first incident, the car accident, might have been explained away as mistaken identity between the twin sisters. But this attack on the clinic was different. This was deliberate, coordinated, and specifically designed to eliminate both Lacey and Margo.
Once might be a coincidence. Twice was definitely a pattern.
June stopped pacing abruptly as Margo began to stir in the hospital bed, making soft sounds of confusion and distress. June immediately moved to the bedside, pulling the visitor's chair closer so she could reach out if Margo needed reassurance.
"Easy," June said softly as Margo's eyelids fluttered open. "You're safe now. You're in the hospital."
Margo tried to sit up immediately, her movements jerky and uncoordinated as consciousness returned and the memories of what had happened came flooding back. The oxygen mask had been removed at some point, and when she tried to speak, her voice came out as a harsh croak.
"Aunt Lacey," Margo managed to gasp, her eyes meeting June's with unmistakable desperation and panic shining in their depths. "Where is my Aunt Lacey?"
"She's fine," June said firmly, reaching out to gently press Margo back against the pillows. "Lacey is fine, sweetheart. Dean is with her right now, and she's going to be perfectly okay. Your mother will be here in just a minute. She's attending to a few injured firefighters, but she'll be right in to check on you."
The relief that flooded across Margo's face was so profound that June felt her own chest tighten with emotion. The young woman clearly adored her aunt, and the terror of not knowing Lacey's fate had been the first coherent thought to surface as she regained consciousness.
Margo sank back against the hospital pillows, her body going limp as the immediate panic subsided. But then she started coughing, a harsh sound that spoke to the damage the gas had done to her throat and respiratory system.
"Water," Margo whispered, her voice barely audible. "Please, I need water."
"Let me find out what you're allowed to have," June said, starting toward the door. "I'll go ask someone what would be safe for you to drink right now."
Before she could reach the doorway, Lucy appeared with the purposeful stride of a doctor who had been managing multiple medical emergencies simultaneously. She immediately crossed to the bed and gathered her daughter into a careful but heartfelt embrace.
"Oh, sweetheart, I’ve never been so scared in my life," Lucy murmured, her professional composure cracking slightly to reveal the frightened mother underneath. "I'm so glad you're awake. How are you feeling?"
