1
Blood.She was so sick ofblood.
Madison McAlister still had the blood on her. She looked down. There was blood all over her. It covered her everywhere.
It wasn’t her blood. At least…not most of it.
It washis,Joey Costovia’s. Where he had…died on top of her. He had died on top of her. She’dfelthim die. Felt the scorching heat of his blood as it had covered her. His last words—she’d never forget. She’d never forget.
And it was…Hope’s. Hope’s blood. It was Hope’s blood. And it was smeared on her arms now. From where she had dragged her friend through the night toward help.
Madison McAlister stood there in the middle of the hospital waiting room, just stood there. Hope—they’d just taken Hope back to the surgery. Hope was gettinghelp.The help she needed. They were safe. They’d made it—she’d brought Hope here. Where she could get help.
Hope was alive. She was alive, and Madison had gotten her where she could get help.
There were people talking to her now. Asking her so many questions. About tonight, about what Wilson and Costovia and Kimball had said, what they haddone.
Why they had taken her and Hope from the crime scene, intending to kill them both.
Madison did her best to try to answer all the questions. But she didn’t know why this happened. Didn’t they understand that? It justhappened.Those bastards had just done it to hurt them—because theycould.Because they were angry and evil, and they didn’t care who they hurt.
Someone touched her arm. She turned. Ashlie…Ashlie was there. Ashlie was the assistant forensic lead on shift tonight. She’d been over at Finley Creek University processing an OD victim, though.
Why was she here? Then…Madison put it together. It would be an all-hands on deck thing, right? Since she and Hope had been abducted off scene. Since…Brett Naylor had been shot. Costovia had shot Brett in the back. What if he was dead already? Brett didn’t deserve that at all. He didn’t.
“I need…your clothes, Mads. We need to process you.”
Of course they did. Evidence. She knew…evidencewas what mattered now. She knew that—she handled evidence five days a week. It was her job, it was why she was out there for those bastards to hurt in the first place.
Madison bit back the panic. Somehow.
“I—I need something clean to put on. I need to shower…I just need…” Madison was going to vomit. There was so much blood. Just like at the choir shooting, before. “I?—”
Someone said her name. A familiar voice.
She looked up. Into eyes the exact same color as her own. “Mom—Mom—I?—”
Her mother grabbed her arm and pulled her—toward a trash can. Madison lost every bit of what was in her stomach there. She just wanted this to beokay,somehow.
Now that they were at the hospital it was starting to sink in. What had happened. Her friends were hurt. They might die. Hope and Haldyn were both back there with surgeons now. Surgeons trying to keep them alive. Tofixwhat had happened tonight.
Wilson and his friends…what they had tried to do to her and Hope tonight, it wasevil.
Pure evil.
Madison was going to lose it again. She just was. She couldn’t do this. She practically collapsed on the floor of a hospital waiting room, a metal trash bin in front of her. Her mom was there. Right there next to her. It was going to be okay.
Hope and Haldyn would beokay.They had to be. Then…then this would getbetter.Somehow.
But…if they were going to stop the others out there, to keep them all safe, she had to get it together. Somehow. She couldn’t keep freaking like this. She couldn’t. She just stayed where she was and pulled in a deep breath. And then another and another. She had to pull herself together. There were people who were going to be looking for her. She was the only one who could tell them whatreallyhappened out there tonight. “I need…Mom, I need some clean clothes and a place to change. A shower. I need…I need to get the blood off.”
Madison was going to have to pull herself together.
People would be looking at her for what to do next. She was Haldyn’s assistant. It didn’t matter that she was also avictimtonight. She had to pull herself together.
Her mother was a nurse here at this very hospital. So was Hope’s mother. Where Madison had dragged Hope, after they’dbeen dropped off blocks from here. All she’d wanted was to get Hope to the same hospital where their mothers worked.
And she had. Hope was getting the help she needed. Madison had done what she needed to do, now it was time for the next steps. First…the blood. She needed to get the blood off, and this blood was evidence. “I need clean clothes and a shower, Mom. But…Ashlie needs to process me first. Can…can you find me some clothes? I need…out of these clothes.”
