Abigail

The man in the white coat turned fully toward us, and my blood ran as cold as Antarctica.

"Holy smokes," Annette whispered, stumbling several steps back in shock. "How is he here?"

It was Gavin!

The same Gavin who had murdered Detective Cole. The same man who had tried to kill me. He was supposed to be rotting in prison. How the hell was he here, dressed as a doctor?

His eyes flared with pure rage the second they landed on me. "You," he hissed, his face contorting with anger. "You fucking pain in the ass. This doesn’t even concern you, you nosy bitch."

"Get away from him!" I snapped, digging my nails into my palm.

Beads of sweat dotted my forehead. The corridor behind me where Annette stood was eerily empty and silent. If we made some noise, how long did we have before he tried to kill us with the bloody injection?

And weren’t the police supposed to be guarding Richard? He was the victim of a crime.

"You can’t tell me what to do, Nikita," he spat, ripping the injection out of Richard harshly. A tiny stream of blood spurted out.

Annette screamed at the top of her lungs, making as much noise as possible. "Hey! What the fuck are you doing to him?! SECURITY! Someone call security! He’s trying to kill the patient!"

Gavin’s expression darkened further. "I’ll deal with you first, loudmouth," he snarled at Annette, then locked eyes with me. "Then I’ll finish what I started with the busybody bitch."

He stormed toward the door where I stood.

Annette and I stumbled backward in fear, scrambling out of the way and giving him space.

His eyes pinned mine as he stalked past, and he dragged his palm against his neck, making a killing sign before bolting down the hallway, shoving nurses and doctors out of his way.

I caught a glimpse of Finnegan rounding the corner just as Gavin barreled straight into him, nearly knocking him down.

"Finn!" I screamed.

Richard’s heart monitor suddenly went wild, the rapid, high-pitched beeping flooding the room as his vitals crashed.

Doctors and nurses rushed in, pushing us aside as they worked frantically on Richard. I stood frozen, trying to process everything.

Gavin had come here to finish the job that strange man started earlier, if he was the assassin.

Did that mean they were working together? Wait, hold up — my head felt like it was about to splinter into a million tiny fragments.

I clutched it, the noise around me blurring into muffled static while I tried to think. Gavin killed Cole and definitely worked for the people who wanted my parents’ case buried.

"Abigail."

If the man who had shot Richard was that strange dude who kept trying to sneak into Wolfe, then that meant they were working together. So whoever killed my parents was also targeting Wolfe?

"Abigail!" Finnegan’s voice cut through the haze of questions in my head. He towered over me, his hands gripping my shoulders and shaking me back to reality. "Hey, hey, look at me."

One of his large hands cradled the back of my head while the other glided down my back. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

"Are you hurt? Did he touch you?"

"Gavin, did you see him?" I whispered, darting my eyes around the hallway. Annette was slumped on one of the chairs in the hallway, rubbing her pale-as-a-ghost face.

"I saw him," Finnegan replied. "He escaped, but the police will get him."

"If they do, he’ll just escape again," Annie muttered dryly.

"Not when I’m in charge," Finn replied, pulling me against him. "I’ll make sure he rots in prison when they catch him this time."

Gavin drawing that killing signal across his throat a few minutes ago had my spine rippling with shivers.

"Are you okay?"

"I’m okay," I whispered, winding my arms around him and clinging to him as hard as I could. "He was injecting something into Richard’s IV."

Finnegan’s entire body locked up. He crushed me tighter, pressing his lips to the top of my head. "Come on, let’s get you two out of here."

"Nope, I’m not budging from this place,"

Annette shuddered. "What if he’s out there waiting?"

Finnegan crossed over to where she sat and hauled her up. "I’ll make sure you two are safe, okay? Let’s leave this place first."

Annette hooked her elbow with mine and we shuffled out of the hospital with Finnegan trailing behind us.

James had the door to the car’s backseat already open, his hair rough and tousled, his clothes wrinkled.

We piled into the backseat. I sat between Finnegan and Annette. We both let out a sigh when the door locked and James slid into the driver’s seat, firing up the engine.

"Were you able to talk to Richard at all?"

"He was conscious when I got to the hospital earlier," Finnegan murmured, threading his fingers through my hair.

"I couldn’t understand half of what he said, but he kept telling the policemen that followed me that I sent someone to kill him because I wanted to shut him up about the deal I made in Manhattan."

He let his head fall back with a groan. "I never made any deals in Manhattan."

Annette twisted in her seat. "Then who did?"

I held Finnegan’s eyes, my stomach plummeting at the pain that flashed across their green depths. "Gina?"

He rested his forehead against mine, lacing his fingers with mine before sighing.

"Only my mother would have the audacity to sign something in my name. Now I’m wondering what the hell that deal was... and why Richard thought it was worth killing him over. We can only find out when, if, Richard wakes up."

I reached over and squeezed his hand tightly. "We’ll get through this," I said softly. "Together, right?"

"Together," he murmured, then drew me into his arms, hugging me fiercely.

"You’re safe," he whispered to himself. "Thank God you’re safe."

Beside me, Annette cleared her throat. "So... what do we do about Gavin’s threat? Because that psycho just promised to kill me first and then come for Abigail."