Page 114 of The Two Last Moments

“Your amnesia bought me time,” Starla says. “But I knew your memories could come back. I had to find a way to get rid of you before that happened.”

I glance over at the tool beneath the bench. A set of pliers. I bring my eyes to Starla again, but I slowly move my hands back, trying to grab the pliers with my fingers.

“You hired Kathy Sullivan.”

“I had Zander arrange it. I was a littlebusydoing myjobhere. I actually had to care for Nina.” She sounds annoyed, like Nina was being petty and demanding by having terminal cancer.

My fingertip catches on the pliers. They move an inch closer. A little more, and I’ll be able to grab them.

“Kathy was an old friend of mine from NorCal. Before I brought her in, I had no idea how easily you might regain your memories. I just wanted you out of West Oaks, away from me. That turned out to be a disaster, but at least I’d figured out that your memory truly was gone. You were a lot more interested in Nina’s grandson than you were in your past.”

My fingertips brush the pliers. Almost…Almost…

I clamp my jaw tight, hiding my smile.

“If you had focused on Danny and your happy little fairy tale, we could’ve coexisted. But you had to look for Travis. You had to go back to Solvang and start digging it all up again.”

It takes me a couple tries, but I get the tapered end of the pliers in between my wrist and the zip tie. And I start to push the metal against the plastic. Twisting it.

“Nina’s overdose today?” I ask. “Was that you?”

She sneers. “I’m not that stupid. You think it’s easy to mess around with someone’s prescriptions without getting caught? That’s the sort of shit the investigators like to look for these days, after true-crime documentaries about killer nurses. It’s too obvious. No, that was Ryan and his incompetence. But I’m the first person Ryan called when Nina’s oxygen levels fell, begging me for help, and I told Zander we had an opportunity. It was his job to take it. But he screwed that up, too. Got himself arrested instead of reining you in, like he was supposed to.”

The pliers slip, scraping hard into the skin of my forearm, and I fight to cover up my flinch. “Aren’t you afraid Zander will snitch on you?”

“To the cops? Never. He’ll never turn his back on his mother. He knows it’s his fault he got caught. But once I’m out of here, I’ll hire a lawyer for him.”

Come on, I think, tugging the pliers against the plastic. The thin strap of the cuff digs into my wrist, cutting off my circulation.Come on.

“I’ve made mistakes too. Who knew a little carelessness with my caller ID would give me away?” Starla walks over to Ryan. She pushes his body with her toe. He’s not moving. I can’t hear him breathing.

My arms are shaking as I lever the pliers, harder and harder. I hold my breath.

“Now, I’ve got this mess to clean up.” Her hand sticks into her bag, coming out with another syringe. “And that includes you, Lark.”

Shit, I’m out of time.

Starla strides toward me, holding the syringe.

The plastic cuff breaks.

My ankles are still tied, but I launch forward, sweeping my arms and grabbing Starla around the legs. She crashes to the ground. I’m grabbing for the syringe, but I only succeed in knocking it away. It rolls beneath the workbench and out of sight.

“Youbrat!”

Starla rolls, grappling with me. But she manages to kick me in the stomach and wriggles away. In a second, she’s got her hand in her bag and comes out with the gun. Her usually perfect hair is a crazed mess around her face, matching the feral shine in her eyes. “I warned you. But you know what? I have an even better idea.”

Starla kicks me again, this time in the head. Pain explodes. There’s a high-pitched whine in my ears.

I feel her pulling my arm. Something tight around my wrist. I blink, my vision clearing enough for me to see that she’s zip-tied my wrist to a set of metal shelves, which are bolted to the wall.

Starla grabs a rag from the workbench and stuffs it into my mouth, so deep I think I’ll choke.

She leans in and whispers, “I’ll leave you here and let you burn with the rest of them.”

Burn?

She takes something from the shelf above me.

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