My husband beat me until I lost consciousness, then calmly told everyone at the hospital I had “slipped in the shower.”

The text message sent a wave of icy dread through my veins.

While the international authorities were busy raiding the offices of Obsidian Capital and arresting Marcus Croft’s high-level associates, Ethan Vance had slipped through the cracks. In the chaos of the global data leak and the sudden shift in federal jurisdiction, Ethan had capitalized on the distraction.

"He cut his ankle monitor," Detective Miller reported, walking into the hospital conference room where Liam and I had been taken for protective custody. "He used a specialized jamming device he must have kept hidden for an emergency. By the time the alert reached the monitoring center, he was already gone."

"How could you let him escape?" Liam roared, slamming his fist on the table. "He almost killed my sister! He threatened her life! He's a psychopath!"

"We have a nationwide dragnet out for him, Dr. Carter," Miller said defensively. "His bank accounts are frozen, his passport is flagged, his assets are seized. He can't buy a plane ticket. He can't get into his penthouse. He has no money."

"You don't understand Ethan," I spoke up, my voice flat, empty of fear, filled only with a grim, absolute certainty. "Ethan doesn't need money to be dangerous. He needs control. And right now, he feels like I have taken every ounce of control he ever possessed. He won't try to flee the country. He won't try to hide. He will come straight to the place where he thinks he can reassert his power."

"Where?" Miller asked.

I looked at Liam, and then out the window at the sprawling, massive complex of Riverside Hospital. "Here. He knows I'm injured. He knows Liam works here. He thinks this is our sanctuary, which means destroying it is the only way he can truly break us."

"We will increase the security detail on your floor, Mrs. Vance," Miller promised. "He won't get past the front desk."

But Ethan didn't intend to walk through the front door.

Two hours later, a massive explosion rocked the lower levels of Riverside Hospital.

The lights flickered violently and then went out, plunging the entire facility into darkness. A split second later, the shrieking wail of the fire alarms began to ring through the corridors.

"The backup generators!" Liam shouted, checking his phone. "The main power grid and the primary backup generator in the basement were just sabotaged. The hospital is running on critical battery power only. The security doors, the electronic locks... they’re all defaulting to open for fire safety!"

Panic erupted in the hallways outside. Nurses were scrambling to move patients, emergency lights cast a eerie, pulsing red glow over the walls, and smoke began to billow from the elevator shafts.

"Ava, stay here," Liam ordered, reaching into his pocket for his medical flashlight. "I have to get the patients in the ICU onto manual ventilators. The security team is right outside your door."

"Liam, no! Don't leave me!" I begged, but the duties of a chief physician called him. He gave my hand a reassuring squeeze and vanished into the smoky, chaotic hallway.

I waited in the dark room, the red emergency lights painting the walls like blood. The sound of shouting, crying patients, and running footsteps created a wall of noise.

Suddenly, the shouting outside my door cut short. There was a dull thud, followed by the sound of a heavy body hitting the floor.

The door to my room slowly clicked open.

A tall figure stepped through the smoke, silhouetted by the pulsing red light of the corridor. He wasn't wearing his designer suit anymore. He wore a stained, dark jacket, his hair disheveled, his eyes wild and bloodshot. In his right hand, he held a heavy, rusted iron crowbar he had taken from the maintenance basement.