Encore of the Avenging Muse (Sylvia and Rupert)

Chapter 351

Sylvia Lloyd felt her legs give out beneath her. As her eyes fluttered shut, the last thing she saw was a pitch-black motorcycle helmet.

The man glanced down at Sylvia's crumpled form, pocketing the empty syringe. He let out a low chuckle. "Trust me, I'm not the only one who wants you dead. So long, Sylvia."

...

Rupert Garcia strode through the automatic doors, balancing a bag of takeout— cheeseburgers and fries-on one arm. He paused at the doorway to Sylvia's hospital room, only to find it empty, the bedsheets undisturbed, the air stale and lifeless.

He spun around and landed a punch squarely on his bodyguard's jaw.

"This is what you call protection?" Rupert's voice was icy.

"S-sorry, Mr. Garcia, I just stepped out for the restroom," the guard stammered, clutching his face.

"Who's been here?"

"That woman you helped-Mrs. Carter-and her son. I checked with the nurses; they said Ms. Lloyd went downstairs to find them just a few minutes ago..."

Before the guard could finish, Rupert was already storming off.

Downstairs, Mrs. Carter and her young son were shuffling wearily through the lobby, hand-in-hand. When they saw Rupert charging toward them, they nearly jumped out of their skins.

Sylvia?" Rupert barked,

upstairs resting?" Mrs.

dropping to his

Blackie get here? I gave him to Sylvia to

into the stairwell. At the first-floor landing,

Sylvia!" Jayson

up, glancing at Orson, his right-hand

to sweep the area. Minutes later,

a used syringe tossed in a

Garcia, it's a sedative," Orson reported. "Surveillance caught this guy wheeling a mop

Rupert an iPad, showing a burly man in janitor scrubs, moving with the confidence

at the syringe in his hand. "Find him,"

crisply.

SPLASH!

water jolted Sylvia awake. She gasped, shivering

recognized the two middle-aged men standing over her-the same ones

guessing you two are Garcia family elders?" she managed, her fists

laugh. "Look at that, she's got

up, dragging her deeper into the night. As Sylvia's eyes adjusted, dread

an old mining site-abandoned, silent, the entrance cordoned off with yellow police tape. The mine shaft yawned before them, black as

didn't act now,