She must not be able to sleep.

I head toward the kitchen, wondering if she got hungry, and I hear light chuckling coming from the closed doors of the den. I head in, expecting to find Ash, but run across Bity and Shannon instead.

"Hey. Couldn't sleep?" Bity asks as Shannon slips out of his lap and onto the couch beside him.

"No, um, have you seen Ash?"

"Not since you guys went to bed. Why?"

"She's not in our room. Why are you guys in here?"

"Trip woke up, very unhappy with a terrible diaper, and we couldn't go back to sleep. We decided to come down here and talk instead of waking up everyone else."

"Where's Trip?" I ask, feeling a pang of worry.

Bity picks up the monitor and waves it lightly.

"He's still in bed. We've been checking in on him, and we brought this down here."

I sigh, feeling relief, and then I walk over to the window.

"I'm going to go find Ash. You don't think she went outside, do you?"

"No. The alarm would have sounded, or at least beeped when she disarmed it," Bity says with a shrug.

A car pulls in and shuts its lights off before the glow can hit the house. I realize it's Russell when he gets out, and I tilt my head curiously. Where has he been? He's not supposed to leave while on duty.

I'll definitely talk to Troy about that. I start to walk out the door, then remember the alarm. When I reach the pad, however, I realize it's not armed, and it hasn't been... all night.

"s.h.i.t."

"What?" Bity worries.

My eyes fall on Russell, ready to blast him as soon as he reaches the house. He left it unarmed so he could sneak back in and pretend like he was doing his job instead of running off in the night for whatever in the h.e.l.l he's up to.

I walk out, and my heart jumps in my throat when I see Troy's body collapsed in the bushes beside me. He's still, two bullets in his head, and I feel the chunks rising to my throat when I see two more men's feet sticking out from under the bushes.

I rush back in and slam the door shut while pressing the arm b.u.t.ton on the pad.

"Call the cops, now!" I demand while rushing around the house.

"What's going on?" Bity panics.

"Call the f.u.c.king cops!"

I hear Shannon's distant voice doing as I've commanded as I scream out, "Ash!"

No one answers me back, and I get sick when I reach Bity and Shannon's room. My son. Oh please let him be here.

"The cops are on their way," Shannon murmurs while my hand hesitates over the doork.n.o.b.

"What's wrong?" Bity urges.

I finally burst through, and I rush over to the crib. Tingles of anxiety spread and attack me fully.

Quickly I rush out, and I grab up my phone to call the detective.

"What's wrong?" he asks in a tired voice as I head back to the crib, my whole body shaking.

"That b.i.t.c.h isn't dead."

Ashiara "I was wondering if you were ever going to wake back up," she grumbles as she steps toward me, still holding my baby in her arms.

She's holding him too tight. He should be crying right now from her grip. He hates to be held tight.

Oh, G.o.d, please let him be alive.

"You're such a little b.i.t.c.h," she snorts, brushing her pale blond hair from her brow.

"Why are you doing this?" I cry out.

"Really?" she scoffs. "You know the answer to that question. Dyllan was my life, you conniving little wh.o.r.e."

I swallow hard as I stare at the pale woman who barely resembles the shattered woman I saw at the bar that night-the night I realized the man who took my virginity was married.

She stalks around, her eerie footsteps tracing the sands under her feet, and she laughs a little.

"It's like you have some divine intervention everyday. Your life is so f.u.c.king perfect."

Perfect? She's f.u.c.king crazy. Well, duh. That's pretty obvious.

"My life isn't perfect."

She laughs louder, but there's no one to hear her maniacal cackles but me. Then they cease as she turns to me with pain and fury in her eyes.

"My life was perfect once. I was in love, pregnant, and happy."

My breath catches in my throat.

"I never knew you existed until that night. I swear I didn't. I left him the second I knew he was married."

She snorts derisively, and then turns back away.

"Oh, believe me, I know you left him. For months he obsessed over getting you back. We went out for our anniversary that night. Five years we had been married. I'd loved him my whole life though. I was about to tell him I was pregnant when I ordered water instead of a drink. Then, my world fell apart-because of you."

She turns back to me, all of her pain replaced by hatred.

"He told me I was pathetic when I begged him to stay. He said I was weak, oh, but he thought you were so much stronger. That's why he loved you, he said. I had to hear about how f.u.c.king incredible you were. When I told him I was pregnant, he told me I'd be a terrible mother, and I needed to go to the doctor to take care of the child he didn't want."

I shiver, realizing I never knew Dyllan at all. He was an even worse monster than I thought.

"I'm sorry," I murmur through a crackle, my eyes flashing toward the silent child in her arms.

"Not yet, but you will be. You see, I decided tonight to do things a little differently. Instead of simply killing you and the child you don't deserve, I'm going to take your life the way you took mine. You'll still die, of course, but Trip here will become mine."

"No!" I squeal while leaping to my feet, but she pulls out a gun and holds it to his head that still shielded from my view under the night sky and blanket.

I stop my rushing a.s.sault, and she smirks.

"Don't worry, his daddy will still be involved. Tag Masters is a very attractive man. He'll need someone to help him raise his little boy when he's devastated by his love's untimely death. He'll be searching for a nanny, and Russell will quickly offer my name as a great candidate. It's amazing what someone will do when they have dark secrets in their closet. I couldn't have done this without him."

Russell-that son of a b.i.t.c.h. He's probably back home with Tag now, plotting my replacement.

"Tag will never fall for you."

Her eyebrow c.o.c.ks up.

"Oh really? Grief is a strong emotion that makes you feel a need for closeness. Trust me, I know. When Dyllan beat my child out of me, I grieved for over a year, wishing someone would care. When I tell your doting fiance of my loss and who I am, we'll bond. Like I said, grief is a very powerful emotion. It will drive him to fall for me when I show him how much I care for his son, the son you don't deserve, the son you took the chance of having away from me."

I hate her and pity her at the same time. She's deranged, and that b.i.t.c.h is planning on raising my child. If I was her though, I'd be just as deranged and p.i.s.sed. I can't imagine losing my son, and if it costs me my life... so be it.

No matter what she says, Tag will never love her. Eventually, he'll see right through her. I know he will.

"What are you going to do to me?" I ask, my body still trembling. "Kill me like you killed Dyllan?"

"Yes, and Rene," she laughs.

"You killed Rene? Why?"

She laughs harder. "That girl was crazy. You should be thanking me."

Did this lunatic really just call someone else crazy?

"She was the one you pointed the finger at when the police told you it was a woman. It worked out in my favor, and with her dead, security lightened up, making it easier for Russell to do my bidding."

I shake my head, completely in shock. She's definitely a coldhearted b.i.t.c.h.

"Why kill Dyllan if you loved him so much?"

"Because Dyllan was a son of a b.i.t.c.h who stole my child. Not to mention, after Billy Prize asked him if he was the one stalking and threatening you a while back, he came in search of me. When I killed him, it was in self defense.

"It was unbelievable. After he robbed me of my child and left me alone in the hospital to deal with my grief, he went off stalking you himself. He was trying to find a way back into your life. He didn't give a d.a.m.n about me or our dead baby."

"I'm sorry you lost your child, but don't do this. I never would have been with Dyllan if I had known he was married."

She scowls, seeming angrier now.

"You didn't know because you didn't care. You took everything from me. It's only fair you pay me back. Every f.u.c.king time I try to kill you, it's like someone steps in and saves your pointless life! It's not fair! But not tonight. Tonight you'll finally die, and no divine intervention will spare you from the cold place of death you deserve."

"I would have died if you hadn't called Tag. That was your fault the last time."

She rolls her eyes and scratches her head with the gun that was pointed at me.

"That p.i.s.sed me off. I wanted to mutilate your f.u.c.king face-show the world how ugly you truly are. Russell gave me the code, called me when you left, and I timed it perfectly for when you'd arrive. I wanted your boy-toy to reach the house before the cops. I didn't want them to shield him from seeing the monster you really are. But, as I said, my plans have now changed. If your face is mutilated, it'll haunt him. He'll never forget you, and I need him to forget you in order to be with me."

"This is never going to happen, you know. Tag loves me, and he won't fall for your bulls.h.i.t trap."

Her eyes burn with a crazy glare as she stares at me with a smug smirk on her face.

"Oh, he'll fall. You're not as irreplaceable as you think you are. He'll forget you and fall in love with me just like your dad forgot your mother and moved on. I'll raise Trip who won't even remember his dead mother, just as you don't."

My heart stings, burns, and falls to pieces. That stab hurt worse than the knife she literally twisted in my side.

"Now, I think that's enough talk. I just wanted you to know so your last few moments of life would be spent knowing your son and fiance would belong to me - the woman whose life you stole."

She pulls the gun out, holding it directly at my head, and my breath leaves my chest. I close my eyes, awaiting my fate, and then I hear the blast ring out three times. I don't feel anything, and I'm worried time has slowed in my adrenaline rush.

I open my tearstained eyes to see her body on the ground, blood seeping to the sand, as the bundle in her arms lays under her chest.

"No!" I scream, throwing myself at her, and then I hear more screams from the distance.

"Ash!"

Tag.

"Trip!" I squeal while struggling against her with my restrained hands, trying my best to pull my baby free.

"Please no!" I sob.

Arms wrap around me and jerk me up from the sand as Tag scoops me to his chest.

"Let me go! Tag, Trip's under her! He's dead!" I sob wildly.

"No, baby. Trip's at home with Wren and the others. He's safe, baby."

I gasp, worried this is all a dream as the detective pulls free the lifeless baby doll that fooled me.

My sobs grow louder, deafening as I press my head into Tag's chest, and he coos in my ear as he rocks me against him.

"It's okay, baby. It's okay."

"I should have noticed her in the pictures," the detective says, shaking his head. "Dyllan Mathews had several pictures of Ash with a blond woman following close behind. I never even noticed it, and it's my f.u.c.king job."

"You were looking for Rene," Tag sighs.

"How did you find me?" I croak.