You've Been Warned

who was the baby’s father.

“I had the baby right here in this hotel, Michael. Don’t you see? Don’t you get it? It all revolves around this place, whatever it is. My boyfriend, Matthew, was pre-med at Tufts. He delivered the baby, a little boy like Sean, right here. We had agreed to leave the baby at a hospital after it was born. But the baby, the little boy died. Right here at the Falcon. Can you imagine what that was like? I let my baby die, Michael! I saw my baby die, my little boy.”

Now it’s Michael’s turn to look and wonder if he knows who I am. It’s a dilemma I’ve been facing myself, for three years.

“We have to go,” he says.

I stare back into his eyes, if only because I can’t bear to look anywhere else in the room. Not at blown-away Stephen, not at Penley—definitely not at Penley.

He really did it. He killed her.

“Everything’s going to be okay,” he says as we head for the door. “We’re done here.”

But not by my count. Not even close.

All along I’ve been seeing four gurneys. Stephen and Penley only make two. Two dead. So we’re not quite done here, are we?

“Wait,” I say, stopping. “What was that noise?”

Make that one dead.

Chapter 104

“SURPRISE, YOU BASTARD!”

I spin around to see a knife plunging into Michael’s neck. Once, twice, Penley stabs him before he even knows what’s happened.

Payback, that’s what.

Michael grabs for his throat with both hands as a red river gushes down past his collar, soaking his shirt in an instant. His mouth opens, but the only sound I hear is the gurgling of his blood.

She keeps stabbing him. Three, four times. This isn’t Penley; it’s a killer possessed. Again and again, the silver of the blade disappears into Michael’s flesh—the neck, the chest, the shoulders—he can barely lift a hand to try and stop her.

And she’s not about to stop on her own.

I lunge at Penley, desperately reaching for her pumping arm. She’s so much smaller than me— she’s been shot, for Christ’s sake!—and still she pushes me away as if I’m nothing. Of course, that’s what I’ve always been to her.

Am I next? I wonder.

I turn and see Stephen’s bloody and bare-assed body sprawled on the carpet. My eyes move from his shattered head down to his arm, until I arrive at his outstretched hand.

The gun!

I’m scrambling now, making this up as I go along. Just trying to survive is all it is. I’m half running, half crawling, anything to get me to that gun.

Behind me, Michael’s body crashes to the floor with a resounding thud! He’s wheezing and gasping for air, and I realize that I still love him, and that he’s dying.

As my fingers stretch for the gun, I hear Penley’s voice over my shoulder.

“Oh, no, you don’t!”

I yank the gun out of Stephen’s cold grip and whip around, fumbling for the trigger. Penley is charging right at me.

“YOU PIECE OF SHIT!” she yells, and she doesn’t sound anything like her old self. Strange, but in a way, I like the new Penley a little better.

She raises her arm high, her elbow cocked and ready to pounce, that is, stab. The blade is covered with Michael’s blood, and now she wants mine on it too.

I close my eyes.

Then immediately open them again.

Don’t think, just shoot.

Chapter 105

PFFTT.

Pfftt.

Those sounds may be strange, but they’re deadly.

Penley folds in two and collapses right in front of me. The knife in her hand slices down inches from my face. The first bullet struck her in the chest; the second, the right side of her forehead.

I look at the knife, wondering how she would have one in her possession.

She didn’t.

It’s a letter opener. Suffice to say, the kind they would never let you bring on an airplane. Long and sharp. On the sleek silver handle I can see engraved lettering: “The Falcon Hotel.”

Nice touch.

I struggle fiercely to rise to my feet, emptying my lungs with just about the deepest exhale of my life. But the relief is short. I look at Michael, then hurry over to him. He’s facedown. His breath is coming in short gasps that seem very painful.

“Michael, can you hear me?”

He blinks slowly, his eyes searching. “Kris?”

His voice is so weak, and he’s coughing blood onto the rug.

“I’m right here,” I say. “I’m going to get help for you.”

But I think we both know he’s beyond that. Michael’s neck and chest are shredded, a gory multitude of stab wounds. He’s lost so much blood already, it’s a wonder he can speak.

“You have to get out of here,” he says. “The police...”

“It’s okay. It’s okay.”

He’s fading on me, struggling to talk. “No, you need to hurry. Run. Get away from here.”

Where? Where do I go?

Michael spells it out with his last breath, his final words to me.

“The kids,” he whispers.

His eyes go wide.

“Michael!” I yell. “Michael!”

But he’s gone.

Michael’s dead.

And instantly I realize—that makes three bodies.

Chapter 106

I STAND UP SLOWLY, taking one last look at Michael, and it hits me—what I’m seeing right now.

It’s the picture of Michael from my camera. The shot of him sprawled dead on a floor somewhere.

The one I never took.

Yet here it is. Here I am. How could this happen?

It feels as if I’ve been hit with a stun gun. Time has stopped completely. The world has stopped. All that continues is the deadly—really, truly deadly—silence.

Then it’s broken.

The phone by the bed rings, then rings a second time, snapping me out of it. I need to get out of here. To get away!