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She cried out in pain as blood gushed from her wound. Streams of red slipped through the seams of my fingers and oozed onto her clothes. Fear tightened my chest. It didn’t look good for Miranda. I looked around me. Where was the ambulance? Why was it taking so long?

“Be careful . . . These people are dangerous . . . They want him to stop searching. . .” Her eyelids fluttered.

“Searching for what?”

“Ashton . . . I don’t remember . . .” She moaned as she looked at me. “You look like someone I knew from elementary school.”

This wasn’t the time to bring that up.

“Save your energy,” I urged.

Miranda shook her head and tapped her forearm. “They injected me with something. It’s making me weak . . . I’m bleeding too much . . . I won’t make it.” She gripped my arm. “If you know of a girl named Van Lam, tell her I’m sorry for being such a bitch to her . . . I made her life hell back then . . .”

“I’ll let her know.” Tears dripped from my eyes. “She forgives you. Stop talking. Save your energy.”

“You have to be careful, Nessa . . . They’ll hurt you . . . Be smarter than them . . .” Her face paled from the excessive blood loss.

My hands were covered in her blood. “Who are these people?”

“I don’t know . . . My trainer . . . he—” Her body shook with a seizure.

Medics finally arrived and took over. I stood off to the side, watching them try to save her. Foam spilled from her mouth. When her eyes rolled back and her hands went limp, I knew she was gone.

Shock filled me. Why was this happening? People I knew were dying. Emmanuel, and now Miranda. I feared for Attikus and our friends.

The police officers tried to handcuff the men, but they fought back. One of them reached for an officer’s gun, but the other officer shot him dead.

“They’re on drugs or something!” said the officer as they handcuffed the man with the ponytail.

Were these guys linked to the man who had attacked Attikus and me in Maui and to the driver who killed Emmanuel?

I tucked Miranda’s phone into my purse before the crime scene officials arrived. After answering some questions from the police officer, the EMT cleaned my hands.

What was on Miranda’s phone? Why were these people protecting Ashton? Was Attikus getting too close to his enemy?

CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

ATTIKUS

I was aboutto head into another meeting when I received a text from Vanessa.

Vanessa:Are you in a meeting right now?

Though it was a text message, I sensed the dread in it. I walked into an empty room in the hotel lobby, shut the door, and called her.

“Is everything okay?”

“Are you busy? I don’t want to interrupt you if you are.” She sounded stuffy, like she’d been crying.

“I’m not busy. What’s wrong, baby?”

“Miranda’s dead,” she choked. “She was bleeding so much.”

Shock came over me. “What happened?”

As Vanessa described the situation, my hand formed an angry fist.

Those fuckers could’ve hurt Vanessa. What had they injected into Miranda?