Sleep No More


 
 
 
 TITLES BY JAYNE ANN KRENTZ
 THE LOST NIGHT FILES TRILOGY
 
 Sleep No More
 
 THE FOGG LAKE TRILOGY
 
 Lightning in a Mirror
 All the Colors of Night
 The Vanishing
 Untouchable
 Promise Not to Tell
 When All the Girls Have Gone
 Secret Sisters
 Trust No One
 River Road
 Dream Eyes
 Copper Beach
 In Too Deep
 Fired Up
 Running Hot
 Sizzle and Burn
 White Lies
 All Night Long
 Falling Awake
 Truth or Dare
 Light in Shadow
 Summer in Eclipse Bay
 Together in Eclipse Bay
 Smoke in Mirrors
 Lost & Found
 Dawn in Eclipse Bay
 Soft Focus
 Eclipse Bay
 Eye of the Beholder
 Flash
 Sharp Edges
 Deep Waters
 Absolutely, Positively
 Trust Me
 Grand Passion
 Hidden Talents
 Wildest Hearts
 Family Man
 Perfect Partners
 Sweet Fortune
 Silver Linings
 The Golden Chance
 
 TITLES BY JAYNE ANN KRENTZ WRITING AS AMANDA QUICK
 
 When She Dreams
 The Lady Has a Past
 Close Up
 Tightrope
 The Other Lady Vanishes
 The Girl Who Knew Too Much
 ’Til Death Do Us Part
 Garden of Lies
 Otherwise Engaged
 The Mystery Woman
 Crystal Gardens
 Quicksilver
 Burning Lamp
 The Perfect Poison
 The Third Circle
 The River Knows
 Second Sight
 Lie by Moonlight
 The Paid Companion
 Wait Until Midnight
 Late for the Wedding
 Don’t Look Back
 Slightly Shady
 Wicked Widow
 I Thee Wed
 With This Ring
 Affair
 Mischief
 Mystique
 Mistress
 Deception
 Desire
 Dangerous
 Reckless
 Ravished
 Rendezvous
 Scandal
 Surrender
 Seduction
 
 TITLES BY JAYNE ANN KRENTZ WRITING AS JAYNE CASTLE
 
 Sweetwater and the Witch
 Guild Boss
 Illusion Town
 Siren’s Call
 The Hot Zone
 Deception Cove
 The Lost Night
 Canyons of Night
 Midnight Crystal
 Obsidian Prey
 Dark Light
 Silver Master
 Ghost Hunter
 After Glow
 Harmony
 After Dark
 Amaryllis
 Zinnia
 Orchid
 
 THE GUINEVERE JONES SERIES
 
 Desperate and Deceptive
 
 the guinevere jones collection, volume 1
 The Desperate Game
 The Chilling Deception
 
 Sinister and Fatal
 
 the guinevere jones collection, volume 2
 The Sinister Touch
 The Fatal Fortune
 SPECIALS
 
 The Scargill Cove Case Files
 Bridal Jitters
 
 (writing as jayne castle)
 ANTHOLOGIES
 
 Charmed
 
 (with julie beard, lori foster, and eileen wilks)
 TITLES WRITTEN BY JAYNE ANN KRENTZ AND JAYNE CASTLE
 
 No Going Back
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 BERKLEY
 An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC
 penguinrandomhouse.com
 
 Copyright © 2023 by Jayne Ann Krentz
 Penguin Random House supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin Random House to continue to publish books for every reader.
 BERKLEY and the BERKLEY & B colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.
 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
 Names: Krentz, Jayne Ann, author.
 Title: Sleep no more / Jayne Ann Krentz.
 Description: First edition. | New York: Berkley, 2023. | Series: The lost night files ; 1
 Identifiers: LCCN 2022026629 (print) | LCCN 2022026630 (ebook) | ISBN 9780593337820 (hardcover) | ISBN 9780593337851 (ebook)
 Subjects: LCGFT: Novels. Classification: LCC PS3561.R44 S544 2023 (print) | LCC PS3561.R44 (ebook) | DDC 813/.54—dc23/eng/20220609
 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022026629
 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022026630
 Cover design by Rita Frangie
 Cover images: woman © Ilina Simeonova / Trevillion Images; background by Grischa Georgiew / Shutterstock
 Adapted for ebook by Kelly Brennan
 This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
 pid_prh_6.0_142201953_c0_r0
 
 
 
 For Frank, with love
 
 
 CHAPTER ONE
 Carnelian, California . . .
 Blood dripped from the bottom of the laundry cart.
 Ambrose Drake flattened one hand against the wall to keep himself on his feet. He was back in the underwater world. That meant he was dreaming again. He struggled to focus on the glary aura of the figure pushing the cart toward the swinging doors at the far end of the corridor. Was that what a ghost looked like?
 “What’s going on?” he said.
 The words came out in a slurred, raspy jumble that he knew probably made no sense, assuming he had managed to say them aloud. It was hard to talk underwater. He thought he had been getting better at navigating the strange atmosphere down here below the surface, but either he had been fooling himself or he had regressed, because tonight he was having trouble just staying upright.
 And what the hell was he doing on his feet? He was supposed to be in bed.
 Shit. Was he sleepwalking again? That was not good. It meant the nightmares and hallucinations were getting worse. But did you know if you were sleepwalking? That didn’t sound logical. If you were aware that you were walking in your sleep it meant you were awake. Didn’t it?
 Or did it mean you had slipped over the edge of sanity and fallen into the abyss? Maybe his worst nightmare had finally become his new reality.
 The rattle of rubber wheels on the tiled floor distracted him. The glowing figure propelling the cart was leaning into the task now, picking up speed. Seconds later cart and ghost vanished through the swinging doors.
 That seemed to indicate the figure had heard the question and had reacted by leaving the scene as quickly as possible—which led to another disturbing conclusion. Maybe the ghost with the laundry cart leaving a trail of blood drops on the floor was real. You could never be sure when you were in this deep.
 “Am I awake or asleep?” he mumbled. “Only one way to find out.”
 He took his hand off the wall, pushed aside the hallucinations, and managed another couple of steps forward. His progress was complicated by the fact that the corridor was drenched