No, dammit, it wasn't right.

Renata reached for her phone as she started her car and followed the nurse's SUV out of the lot. Warn Megan. And hope Grady was observant enough to keep Megan alive.

GRADY DREW HIS GUN AND rolled over and under the hospital bed a few feet from the door. No gunfire.

No curses or exclamations.

From where he was under the bed he could see no one in the room.

"Grady, dammit. What's happening?"

"Stay where you are, Megan. No problem that I can see."

In the adjoining bathroom?

He started to slowly ease himself from beneath the bed. Something warm splattered on his hand.

Blood.

He froze as he watched the blood that had dropped from the bed run off his hand onto the beige tiles.

Oh, God.

Don't look at the man on the bed. Not yet. Not until he was sure there was no one in that bathroom waiting to pounce.

HER PHONE WAS RINGING, Megan realized dimly. Ignore it. Every nerve of her body was tensed and focused on what was going on in Phillip's room.

It was only a few moments since Grady had last told her to stay the hall but it seemed a century.

"Grady."

No answer.

"Unless you let me come in there I'm calling the police."

"You don't want to come in here. I'll come out."

Panic jolted through her. "If there's not a problem, why don't you want me to—" She jumped to her feet and moved slowly, cautiously into Phillip's room.

Blood.

The sheet on the bed was soaked with blood from the throat and face of the man in the bed.

"Dear God." She recoiled back against the wall. Her knees gave way and she slid to the floor. "Phillip..."

"No." Grady was kneeling beside her. "That's what I thought too. But it's not Phillip. It's hard to tell from that carnage of a face but I think it's Gardner."

"Gardner?" Her gaze flew to his face. "Dead?"

He nodded. "I'd judge it happened within the last few hours." He paused. "And there are two more bodies in the bathroom. According to his ID, one of them is Jordan, the guard Harley hired. He was shot at close range. He must have been taken by surprise. The other one is a woman in a nurse's uniform. It's probably the head nurse, Madge Holloway. Her neck was broken."

Madge Holloway. "The woman at the front desk had an ID badge with that name."

"And I saw her hurrying out the door as we reached Phillip's room. She waited just long enough to put up a normal front for us and then took off."

She rubbed her temple. "But where's Phillip?"

He shook his head.

"He has to be—How could they get him out of the building?"

"How could Molino kill Gardner and the nurse? He wanted it done. If he had Gardner prisoner for any length of time before his death, he could make him pull strings. It appears as if they toyed with him before they cut his throat."

"Sons of bitches." Her voice was shaking with anger. "Gardner was a good man. He cared about Phillip. He cared about all his patients. All he wanted to do was bring them back to—"

Her cell phone rang.

"Answer it," Grady said.

She'd already punched the button.

"Darnell tells me there was a good deal of blood," Molino said. "Isn't it good that you're a doctor and not squeamish?"

"You bastard. What did Gardner ever do to you?"

"Nothing. He was very helpful, but he would have been expensive and he was no longer useful." Shock jolted through her. "What?"

"I offered him an astonishing amount of money to lure you there. I've had Sienna in negotiations with him for some time."

"He wouldn't sell out a patient to you."

"Everyone has a price. He's an idealist who believed in the sacrifice of one for the many. They were going to withdraw his funding."

"I don't believe you."

"Believe what you like. Of course, I told him what he wanted to believe. Blair was only going to be held as a threat. The only reason we wanted you was to get the Ledger. He bought it because he was desperate for the cash. He made it easy for Darnell. He called the guard into the room so that he could be disposed of in private. Sienna told him Jordan would just be tied up and left in the bathroom. Gardner was supposed to send the nurse away but Darnell came a little early."

An assassin had come early so another precious life had been taken, Megan thought, sick. "Is Phillip still alive?"

"As much alive as a lump of unthinking flesh can be. I was really surprised that you didn't just write him off after my friend Darnell made a vegetable of him."

"He's not a vegetable," she said through her teeth. "And he's getting better."

"So Darnell overheard when he was trying to trace you. I had him monitoring Gardner's phone from the moment you took off for Sweden."

"Was Gardner telling the truth about Phillip getting better?"

"Oh, yes, and Gardner was torn. But not enough to sacrifice his little kingdom. Sienna and I were debating whether you'd take the risk. Though neither of us understands your reasoning we thought you might since your uncle seemed to be improving. Of course, we would never be that foolish."

"Because you're both cold as ice."

"I wasn't cold about my son. And there's nothing cold about my hatred of you, bitch. It's white hot and eats at me every minute of the day. I could have sent in Darnell and a few other men to take you down once I knew you were going to Bellehaven. I thought about it. Then I realized that there was no way I was going to do it. It would have been chancy with Grady and Harley, but that was only one reason. I want to see you die slowly." His voice was thick with malice. "I want to hurt you as I did Edmund Gillem. I want to do it myself. I want to watch your face and know you're in pain."

"It won't happen."

"Yes, it will. Because I have this disgusting zombie you appear to be so fond of. Of course, he won't be as well cared for as Dr. Gardner and his nurses have been doing. No warm bed. I'm putting him in the cellar and it's a little cold and damp down there."

"That could kill him. His immune system isn't functioning as—"

"Then come after him."

"Will you let him go if you have me?"

She heard a curse from Grady.

"It's possible. I've no use for him."

Her hands tightened on the phone. "Where?"

"Redwing, Tennessee. Isn't that a pleasant name for a town?"

"You're staying there?"

"Of course not. Come to the graveyard on the hill and we'll discuss an exchange."

"Discuss? I'm not a fool, Molino."

"But you have a strange mind-set where the helpless are concerned. Come to the graveyard tomorrow night at eleven. If you're lucky, one of the corpses won't be Phillip Blair." He hung up.

"An exchange?" Grady asked.

She nodded jerkily. "Redwing, Tennessee. A graveyard on a hill. He wants to discuss terms. Tomorrow night at eleven."

"It's a trap. He won't give up Phillip. He wants to hurt you and he knows it will hurt you if he kills Phillip."

"I know that." Her gaze went to the blood-soaked bed. "Gardner was a Judas. He killed him to keep from having to pay him. He killed Jordan and the nurse just because they were there."

"We have to leave, Megan," Grady said gently. "If the nurse shift changes anytime soon, we don't want to be caught here. There would be too many explanations and explanations will bog us down."