Knox is hovering too closely for comfort as I frantically write down everything I did in my journal. My skin starts to crawl when I feel his breath on my neck.

“Your brain makes you so enticing. I love a woman with a beautiful mind. John is a very lucky man.” His voice oozes with vile intent.

“Don’t even think about touching me or you will never get what you want.”

He brushes the hair off my shoulder. “Maybe I’ve changed my mind about what I want from you. I may be willing to lose my mind for a woman like you.”

As I stand from my desk chair, I roll it backward, making him move. He pushes the chair out of the way and snatches me by the waist, pulling my body flush with his.

“You are a fucking wildcat.” He makes the mistake of putting both of his hands in my hair and pressing his lips to mine because it frees up my hands. I shove him far enough away from me to plant a knee in his groin. He crumples over in pain.

“I told you not to touch me. You’re lucky John isn’t here, or it would be much more than your balls aching right now.”

He coughs out a few times trying to regain his composure. He takes a step toward me, and I hold out a filled syringe in front of me. “You touch me one more time, and you will never get this cure, and neither will anyone else.”

He stops, but he laughs. “You would never hold back such a great cure for mankind.” He shakes a finger at me while he’s smiling. “That’s your problem you know. This entire thing, including missing out on your husband for years, is your fault. You have this need to cure the ailments of the world but have never once considered how it would affect you and the people you love. Did you not think people would kill for your knowledge? Or, the people that would lose money because of your knowledge would not try to shut you down? You’re trying to save a world that is full of greedy men like myself. If it wasn’t me after you, there would be someone else more ruthless.”

“Good thing I don’t do it for people like you. I do it for the Jakes of the world. He’s still alive because of my cure, my hard work, and dedication. Unlike you, he makes the world a better place. He deserves a life free of illness. You deserve nothing but misery.”

His face fills with anger as bright red covers his pale skin. “You don’t think I’ve had enough misery in one lifetime?” he yells. “You know nothing about me!”

“I know you’ve paid to have people killed, including John.”

“Your precious John took my money willingly. So what makes him any less evil than me?”

“John has a heart. You don’t,” I spit out in anger.

He walks away and starts pacing the room. “I had a heart once, and it was ripped out of my chest.”

“That’s hard to believe,” I snort.

“I was a young man madly in love with a brilliant woman, not too much unlike you.” He stops his pacing in front of me. “I watched her wither in pain, eaten up from cancer, and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it.”

“So instead of helping spread the cure for cancer and getting the pharmaceutical companies to affordably manage the cure for cancer, you team up with them to keep others from being cancer free?” I’m confused as to why he would do that.

“I’m a sick bastard like that. If she couldn’t be cured, I didn’t want anyone else to be either. I got rich off these companies, and if she were alive today, I would have the money to get her whatever she needed. Kind of like what I’m doing for myself right now.” He nods toward my equipment.

“Don’t fool yourself into thinking you’re getting any of this because you can afford it. Your goons and their guns are the only reason you’re getting anything from me.”

“Well, my money affords those goons to get me whatever I want.”

“Do you really think this woman you protest to love would have been happy with your choices now?”

He takes the chair in his hands and picks it up, throwing it across the room. “My wife is dead, so it really doesn’t matter what she thinks!” He’s baring his teeth as he thrusts out his chest. It’s the first time I’ve seen him sweat, and it frightens me.

I raise my hands up in surrender. “Let me finish my paperwork, and then you can walk away with the cure you want.” I really have a hard time picturing this man loving anyone, but his reaction suggests that maybe he did have a heart at one time. Picking up my chair off the ground, I place it back in front of my desk and sit. I make a few notes and realize he’s standing behind me again.

“Did you and your wife have any children?”

He walks around me and leans his frame on the edge of the desk. “A son.”

“Where is he?” I ask, fixing my eyes on his. I see nothing but pain coming back from them.

“He hates me for what I’ve done.” His shoulders hunch as he drops his chin to his chest.

“There is still time to change that.”

His moment of vulnerability passes in a flash. “My son is none of your concern. If you don’t hurry up, your children are going to be without a mother.” He stands, pointing at my journal.

I scribble one last note. “Are you going to take this to your people to have them test the formula?”

“No. I trust that you have formulated it correctly because you have too much to lose if it’s not right.”

“You never know. I may have created a formula to kill you by changing one little thing.”

Before I can move, his hand flies out, hitting me square in the face, jarring me out of my chair and onto the floor. He shoves the journal in his pocket and then tackles me as I try to get up. His hands are around my throat as I try to kick him off me. He keeps one hand firmly around my throat, and with the other, he cups my breast. I buck up, but his weight is too much. I can’t get him off me. I let go of his hand around my throat and dig my nails into his cheek. He’s like a man possessed and it doesn’t even phase him.

I feel the last bit of my breath leaving my body. My eyes blur over, and all I can see is my life—John and the kids.