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I gasp what I’m sure is my last breath just as the weight of Cassie is lifted off me. I can hear what sounds like Brad’s dulcet tones faintly in the distance, but don’t dare to allow myself to believe it.

“No!” screams Cassie, wailing like a banshee.

A beam from a flashlight floods the attic and I instinctively sob with relief. “Where’s Hannah?” I croak, to nobody in particular, as I scramble to my feet.

“It’s OK,” says a familiar voice. “She’s safe. We both are.”

Brad’s strong arms wrap themselves around me, my chest convulsing as it desperately chases the air it has lost. I collapse into him, trembling, my body spent from running from the past.

“Cassie said you went out on the boat… and that she—”

“I know,” says Brad. “But we’re OK—thanks to Hannah sending an SOS signal on her Rapunzel walkie-talkie.”

A choked laugh catches in the back of my throat.

“Which made the rescue boat’s job a lot easier,” says Hank, placing a reassuring hand on my back. “I’m sorry, I should never have left you here on your own. Are you OK?”

I manage a nod.

“I’ll make sure she never darkens your door again,” he says, as he secures Cassie’s wrists behind her back with handcuffs.

Her eyes search mine as she’s dragged away and, despite everything, I can’t help but feel sorry for her. For what she never had. For what she always wanted. And for what she’s lost.

“It’s over,” says Brad, as if reading my mind. “You can stop looking over your shoulder now.”

I fall into him, daring to believe he’s right, when an incoming alert on Hank’s radio pulls me up short. “An officer from LAPD has called in a potential homicide,” says the caller, her terse voice reverberating around the enclosed space too many bodies are packed into.

Hank pulls a face, as if questioning how that’s got anything to do with him. “It’s out of my jurisdiction,” he says absently into the walkie-talkie clipped onto his shirt pocket.

“Yeah, but there appears to be some crossover on this one,” comes the response. “Because a suspect’s name has been put forward…”

“Who?” barks Hank impatiently.

Cassie turns to look at me as a warped grin spreads across her face.

My pulse pounds so loudly in my ears that it drowns out the answer—but, as Hank’s eyes widen and Brad’s arms fall away from me, I realize that I’d been a fool to think she wouldn’t try to take me down with her.