Chapter One
Ryan Hardy had been in binds before, but the last time he had been this close to the edge had been when Joe Carroll had given him his fragile heart. Even then, though, he hadn't had to watch a knife go into the back of the one person he had shown his damaged pieces to.
Time had frozen when Molly had stepped back into the light to run the blade into Claire's back and Ryan felt his heart stop at the sight of her twisted expression of shock and pain before she collapsed beside him. If his mind hadn't been blurred by his own sliced stomach, he would be mentally kicking himself for bringing her back here and for not seeing through Molly, who was now smiling down at him evilly, her eyes dark.
"You are my chapter, Ryan," she said again, unfazed by Claire. "That was the deal: I would help Joe get under your skin only if I was the one to kill you."
"Why?" Ryan croaked, though even that small word hurt. He glanced down at Claire but he couldn't see her breathing.
Molly opened her mouth to reply but his phone began to ring on the speakers below the TV. Ryan looked over at it and saw Mike's name flash on the screen. "It's an FBI agent," he told Molly, though he didn't have the strength for anything louder than a hoarse whisper. "If I don't answer, he'll call downstairs and send someone up."
She again hesitated as if to say something but gave up and went to retrieve the phone. "Put it on speaker," she said as she gave it him.
"Mike?" he said, hoping his voice didn't sound as strained through the phone as it did to his ears.
"Ryan," Mike said, "you remember the videos from Carroll's visitor log? Well we got facial rec on a woman, Molly Jones. She lives in your building." He sounded like he was trying to keep calm but his words were coming out too fast to hide his panic. Ryan was looking at Molly now and he could see malevolence quickly transform into fear and if he hadn't been bleeding to death, he probably would have smiled. "We already told the guys downstairs and they're just waiting on back up before they get her. Someone should be up there soon to move you and Claire to safer location. Okay?"
Ryan winced as he said, "Yeah, got it," but he knew before the words were out that Mike would hear the effort they took.
"Are you alright? You sound off."
"Fine," he said as his vision began to fade. "Fine..."
He slowly slipped into unconsciousness as he dropped the phone where Mike was now repeating his name. The last thing he saw before completely blacking out was Molly opening the window to the fire escape and Claire's still body lying in a pool of her own blood.
...
In that dark moment between insentience and consciousness, the only thing that occurred to Ryan's fogged and lulled mind was searing pain in his side and the insufferably clean smell of a hospital. When he did finally open his eyes, the only light in the large room was the florescent glare of a small light to the left of his bed. He turned his head slightly to see Mike sitting in an armchair with a book in his lap.
The younger man looked up at the slight noise and smiled up at Ryan with a sigh of relief. "The beast is awake." He closed the book and set it aside before letting out a nervous laugh. "You scared the crap out me back there, Ryan." He didn't say it, but Ryan could see he was thinking about Parker, how horrible it was listening to her die over the phone.
"Well I'm only alive because you called," Ryan said, trying to sitting up in the bed before giving up against the pain. "How long was I out?"
"A little over twenty-six hours. It was mostly muscular damage but you lost a lot of blood." Mike came over to the bed and gave him the remote. "Here, this makes a hell of a lot easier."
Ryan smiled a bit as he raised the bed inch by inch until he was sitting halfway up. "And Claire?"
Mike's face fell slightly and he chewed his lip while Ryan felt his heart sink to the pit of his stomach. "She's a little worse off than you. Her right kidney was punctured and they had to remove it. She had a lot of internal bleeding and lost even more blood than you but she did get lucky. If that knife had gone any deeper, it would've hit her liver and she would be dead. She also has a minor concussion from where her head hit the table leg, but nothing too serious. The doctor said she should make a full recovery."
Ryan took a deep breath and let his muscles relax from the wired position he had taken. She's alive, he told himself. You didn't lose her. "Where is she?"
Mike nodded to right of Ryan's bed as he lowered himself back into the armchair. "The other side of that curtain. She's still out right now."
Ryan nodded slowly before looking back at the young agent. "You didn't have to stay here, you know."
Mike chuckled and raised an eyebrow at him. "You did the same for me. I thought I should return the favor."
There was a long silence before Ryan spoke up again. "Have you caught Molly yet?"
Mike shook his head. "No, we're still looking. She disappeared about four blocks from your building. We have an APB, but if you ask me, she's probably already out of town. We had two armed agents outside the door, though, so even if she is still here, she's not getting in here." He paused before asking quietly, "Did you know her?"
Ryan actually laughed at that, though it was dry and verging on bitter. "Yeah, I knew her. She's the last girl I date."
Mike's brows shot up as he stared awkwardly to the left. "Huh… talk about a bitter ex."
"I guess if I had really thought about it, I would have known," Ryan said slowly. "She showed up four years ago, said she had read my book. Looking back, all we talked about on the first date was Joe. And I didn't think anything of it because back then, he didn't have a cult; he was still out sight and out of mind. Really, though, she was reporting to him." He shook his head. "Oh well. I guess this means I'm moving."
Mike nodded and looked up at him, smiling a little. "Well you should get some rest. I talked to your sister; she came by this morning and stayed for a few hours but she had to get back. She said she's going to try to come back tomorrow."
Ryan smiled slightly at the thought of what Jenny would say in the morning. He could already hear it, "I never liked her and neither did you and you know that. You were just hung up on Claire and needed someone to fill the gap. Now look where it got you!" "Thanks," he said to Mike. "Now don't be a hypocrite. Get out here."
Mike held up his hands in surrender. "Alright, alright. Is there anything you want me to do before I go?"
"Well…" Ryan said quietly. "Can you pull back the curtain a little?" He felt stupid asking, but he had to know she was there, that she was still breathing. He had already lost her once and now come close to losing her again; something in him was now under the impression that if he couldn't see her, she would slip away again.
Mike smiled and walked to the other side of the bed, pulling the curtain back about a foot. "Is that good?"
There she was. He could see a bruise on the right side of her forehead but other than that, her face was flawless. Ryan thought back to all the days he had woken up to that face lying beside him and he couldn't help his thoughts passing over his face in a content smile. "Yeah, that's perfect."
