Her face brightened with hope and her eyes sparkled with pride until I glared at her. She shrank back and continued in a rushed voice. “As soon as that other woman was taken away by a strange man—a big bald guy with a gun in his hand—I went right in. It was early morning, and there was Aly. I took her to the hospital and made sure she was okay. For you, Jake. I didn’t give them much to go on until I left to come here. This time, I was going to make everything right.”

I snatched my keys off the foyer table, ready to hightail it to my girl. “The local hospital?” I yelled. “Why didn’t you call the police? An ambulance? You’re not a fucking saint, Shirley, and you’re not God. You’re a sick bitch. You don’t get to decide when the police get involved and when they don’t. Like you did in the past.” My heart galloped in my chest, spit gathered in the corners of my mouth, and my head pounded with anger.

Shirley’s face crumpled. “There wasn’t time, Jake. I saved her. For you!”

“Stop with all the self-righteous crap. Where’s Aly? Are the police with her now? For Christ’s sake, Shirley, do you have to fuck with everyone’s lives?” My fists balled at my side and I could feel the veins bulging in my neck, my heart pushing blood through my body so hard, I could hear it whooshing in my ears.

Her hands twisted together as she stepped aside from the doorway. “She’s back in Pittsburgh. They Life-Flighted her there for surgery. She’s in a room now, and I’ve been sitting with her the whole time.”

Bess finally lost it. “Aly’s been gone for three whole days from what we can gather, and you’ve known where’s she’s been for a day and a half and didn’t think to tell anyone? We’ve been pulling our hair out, Jake is ready to tear my house down, and the police have turned up nothing,” she whispered through clenched teeth, shaking her head, her hands trembling. “I can’t believe it, Jake’s been crawling out of his skin, and you held the key to stop him.”

“I needed to make sure she was going to be all right,” Shirley said with a pathetic shrug.

Bess pulled up to her full height, nearly vibrating with fury. Her fists were bunched in front of her as if she was prepared to fight to the death. “Shirley, you are so messed up! You’re acting like this is nothing. You knew we were going frantic looking for Aly, and then you sit back and wait to come here? How dare you! And then you stand there shrugging as if it’s no big deal.”

“Please,” Shirley begged as tears spilled over her cheeks. “You have to understand. I didn’t want to cause Jake any more pain if Aly . . . died.”

“Died?” I roared. “Get the fuck out of here, Shirley! Thanks for finding Aly and deciding when I should know she’s alive. You’re pretty damn good at deciding what I should and shouldn’t say. Seems to me, it’s history repeating itself.” I shoved past her as I ran out the door.

“Jake, I just thought we could put that all behind us now!” Shirley called out after me.

“You’ve got to be fucking joking. No fucking way,” I snarled as I jumped into my truck, then looked back at Bess. “Come on, Bess,” I said as I started the truck.

Bess waved me off. “You go. I’ll follow after I call May and get her to help.”

Shirley looked between the two of us with a pathetic expression. “What about me?”

“Fuck off.” I slammed my truck door and peeled out of there.

Aly

Tears dripped off my chin onto my puke-green hospital gown as I lay in my hospital bed, my head spinning, confused. The doctor’s words still hadn’t settled.

“You’ve lost the lower half of your leg. Nothing we could do . . . tried everything, but too much damage . . . nerves, bones . . . clean amputation above the knee.”

A jumble of random words sifted through my mind. The words clean amputation were on repeat, but not fully registering.

Footsteps sounded in the hall, coming closer as the machine monitoring my pulse beeped. I blinked up at the man and woman in uniform who entered my room and stopped by my bed.

“Hi, ma’am, we’re . . .”

They were apparently with the police department. Their names could have been Cat and Dog or Tom and Jerry; it didn’t matter. Nothing was sinking in.

Clean amputation, clean amputation, clean amputation.

“Sorry to disturb you,” the female officer said, and I tried to focus on her next words, but failed. “The hospital reported you were here . . . a woman brought you in . . . and you’re finally awake after they saved your life. We’re here to help you.”

Nodding was all I could manage, so I bobbed my head once or twice.

My life, but not my leg.

“Do you have family?” the male officer asked.

I shook my head. My mom would be of no use. These days she usually didn’t even know who I was.

“Significant other?”

Shrugging, I mumbled, “Not sure what he really is.”

“Do you know the woman who brought you in? She seemed very concerned about your well-being.”

“No.”

“Was she the person who did this to you? It appears as though your coworker reported you missing over forty-eight hours ago, but we haven’t been able to reach him since.”

I shook my head again.

“Do you know where you were? How this happened? Who may have been responsible? How you got there?”

I cleared my throat. Fiery embarrassment licked at my vocal cords and I coughed. The man in uniform handed me a plastic cup of water. After I took a sip, I cleared my throat again, and this time a trickle of shame trailed up my throat. I was a strong, independent woman—how did this happen to me?

“I was in a barn of some sort. Not near here . . . I don’t think. A blond woman, Russian accent, attacked me during my workout.” Squeezing my eyes shut, I wheezed.

“Take your time, ma’am.”

How many times was I going to be questioned? I’d just done this a few weeks ago with the officers at my apartment.

“I think her name was . . . Marina . . . that’s what I overheard the guy, Gus Cameron—my client—call her. He was there, I think. I don’t know, I could’ve been hallucinating. But she took me . . . Marina. I think she drugged me, and then Gus came and took her.”

The female officer focused on her little notebook, apparently taking notes, and the man nodded at me to continue.

“And she broke my leg.”

Understanding slammed into me, and a shriek and a defeated cry ripped through my throat. I flexed my right foot. It was there! Then I could have sworn I felt my left foot flex too, but when I looked down toward the end of the bed, the covers on that side of the bed were flat. There was nothing there.

“My leg is gone!” I shrieked as Barry ran into the room, his hair a greasy mess, his shirt wrinkled, his face twisted in pain. “Help! Help! My leg!” I kept screaming as long as my vocal cords would allow.

The officers scrambled and one raced out of the room, calling out, “Nurse? Help, nurse!”

Frantic, I grasped at Barry’s arm and yelled, “My leg is gone, where is it?”

A woman dressed in scrubs rushed into the room and pushed Barry out of the way. Leaning over me, she patted my shoulder. “Honey, you have to calm down. You were in a terrible accident. Your leg was damaged, but you’re alive.” She ran her hand up and down my arm, trying to soothe me, before lifting a syringe to my IV.

“No!” I heard a familiar deep voice yell just as I faded out.

Jake

“Someone tell me what the fuck is going on here?” I shouted, raising my voice over the beeping machines, practically hyperventilating as the room closed in around me.

One of two police officers standing in the room stepped up, blocking my view of Aly lying in that damn bed. “Sir, I’m sorry, you’re going to have to leave if you’re not immediate family.”