Chapter 10 - THE NURSE WHO WASN’T A NURSE
Khloe woke to a woman adjusting her IV.
The woman wore hospital scrubs, but her badge was turned backward.
“Where is Nurse Jenna?” Khloe asked.
“Shift change.”
The answer came too quickly.
Khloe looked toward the door. The officer who had been stationed outside was gone.
The woman reached into her pocket and removed a syringe.
“What is that?”
“Something to help you rest.”
Khloe’s heart began to pound. “Put it down.”
The woman stepped closer.
Khloe hit the emergency button.
Nothing happened.
The call cord had been cut.
She grabbed a metal water pitcher and threw it. The woman ducked, and the syringe skidded beneath the bed.
Khloe rolled toward the opposite side, protecting her stomach.
The door burst open.
Marcus tackled the woman before she could reach Khloe again. Gabriel and two officers rushed in behind him.
The syringe was later found to contain a powerful sedative that could have caused severe complications.
The fake nurse carried a burner phone.
Its last incoming message read:
Finish what Isabella failed to do.
The sender was listed only as M.S.
Malcolm Sloane.
But when police raided Sloane’s hotel room, they found him unconscious beside an empty safe.
And written across the mirror in red lipstick were four words:
May you like
VICTORIA KNOWS ABOUT DANIEL.
Khloe watched police photograph the message. "Daniel was your grandfather," she said. Marcus nodded. He had been told Daniel died a respected patriarch after a tragic accident. Now the name on the mirror felt like a door opening into a room his mother had kept locked his entire life.
