Page 87

CHAPTER 85

ISABELLA APPEARS IN the doorway like a ghost, holding forth some kind of object in her hands. Ava is paralyzed with confusion, and before it registers that the item is a Taser gun, the young woman pulls the trigger.

Electrodes fly through the air, trailed by electrical wires. Ava reaches for her pistol, but the probes land on her uniform and fill her body with the worst pain she’s ever experienced. She tries to lift her gun, but every muscle in her body is locked up.

Heat burns through her bloodstream.

She drops to her knees. Then onto her chest. Abruptly, the electricity stops coursing through her veins, but still she can’t move. Her muscles were iron a second ago, but now they’re jelly. Isabella walks over to her and pries her pistol out of her fingers. She tucks it into her waistband and then leans back down to disconnect the electrodes.

Ava’s handcuffs are fastened to her belt, and Isabella pulls them off. Ava tries to resist, but her limbs won’t cooperate. In seconds, her hands are cuffed behind her back as she lies face down on the hardwood floor, still gasping from the pain.

“Please… Isabella,” Ava says, having trouble forming the words. “Don’t… do this.”

Isabella takes the gun and presses the barrel against Ava’s temple.

“If you try to yell for help,” she says, “I’ll kill you with your own gun.”