Alecia hadn’t slept.

She’d tossed, turned, stared at the ceiling until her eyes burned, and then stared some more. The sheets tangled around her legs like restraints, and the room was too cold no matter how high she turned up the heat. But none of that was the real reason she couldn’t close her eyes.

What kept echoing in her head was the loud and disturbing sound of the gunshot. The way the man crumpled mid-sentence, like someone had unplugged him from the world. The absence on ...