She screams. It’s been a while since I’ve cut them, I guess.
She’s got to have the upper hand on me, because I’ve been rotting away in this room for the last several years so I’m weak as a kitten. But the adrenaline rush of almost being stabbed to death has given me back some strength. I don’t even think about it. I’m scratching and clawing at her with every fiber of my being. If she wants to kill me, I won’t make it easy for her. And I’m going to get plenty of her DNA under my fingernails so they’ll know it wasn’t Nick who did this to me.
“Whoa! Jesus Christ, Rosie!”
I pause for a breath and look up. Nick is standing over us, gawking at me. I look down at the mystery woman under me, and there’s blood all over her face. I think she might be unconscious. I roll off her, gasping for air.
“Nick,” I manage. “She… she was…”
“I know.” His face is grim. “I saw her through the window in room 201. I saw the knife. I ran over here as fast as I could, but I thought I might be too late…” He looks down at the woman, out cold on the floor. “Little did I know, my wife is a ninja.”
I start to laugh, but instead I burst into tears.
Chapter 41
CLAUDIA
When I come to, I’m lying on the floor.
For a moment, I’m too disoriented to know what happened. All I remember is that sick woman coughing all over me, like she was about to die. And then a second later, she was knocking me to the ground. I couldn’t believe the force in that little body. She was clawing at my face, and then everything went black.
I blink my eyes, and a sharp jab of pain stabs me in the back of the head. I can’t believe she knocked me down like that.
The room gradually comes into focus, and I realize I’m not alone. That guy Nick is sitting on the bed, my knife in his hand. His lips are set in a straight line.
“Don’t move,” he says. “The police are on their way.”
I look at his eyes, which are like ice. He means what he says. After all, he’s already killed somebody. His mistress.
“Look.” I struggle to sit up. “You don’t have to turn me over to the police. Nobody got hurt.”
His eyes flash. “I told you not to move.”
I take a deep breath. I’ve got nothing to lose. He doesn’t know this, but if he doesn’t let me out of this room in the next minute, I’m finished. “I can give you money. Whatever you want.”
He just snorts.
Fine. “You know,” I say, “really, it’s your word against mine. I gingerly touch my face, covered in his wife’s scratch marks. My hand comes away wet with my blood. “I’m the one who’s hurt here. I’ll tell the police you attacked me. You and your nut job wife. Both of you will go to jail.”
Nick doesn’t react to that.
“Just let me go.” I shift on the floor, ready to scramble to my feet if he lets me. “Let me leave now and I won’t tell anyone. I swear.”
“If you move again,” he says calmly, “I will put this knife through your eye. Got it, lady?”
“I’ll tell them you threatened me,” I say in a small voice. “You’re doing it right now. You’re threatening me. Who do you think they’ll believe?”
Nick stares at me for a moment, his shoulders rising and falling with each breath. “I saw what you did to Greta,” he hisses at me. “And you tried to kill my wife. If you think I’m ever letting you leave this room except in handcuffs, you’re out of your mind.”
Oh. He knows about the old lady. Damn.
And now I hear the sirens, growing louder by the second. Nick is gripping the knife so hard, his knuckles are white. Just a short time ago, I was the one with a knife, and Rosalie was cowering in front of me. She lunged at me and took me down. But I can take one look at Nick and know that I won’t be able to do the same to him. He will absolutely kill me if I try to get up off the floor.
A few minutes later, the police descend on us. Someone must’ve told them the entire story on the phone, because it seems like they know everything. They handcuff me and read me my rights, even though my face is bleeding and my head is throbbing.
They lead me down the stairs, and outside into the cold. I took my jacket off when I came into the house, but they don’t give me a chance to retrieve it. I suppose I’ve lost the right to a jacket.
As I come out of the house, I see they have jimmied open the trunk of my car. Deputy Scott Dwyer is standing there, right next to the trunk, and when it pops open, his face turns green.