Page 77 of Falling For You

"If she's here for Lockwood, she's going to be wherever he is. We find him, we find her."

Then all at once, the alarm went off on every speaker on the floor. The receptionist came back down the hall at a half-run, and within seconds the whole floor was moving. Office doors swung open. People headed for the stairwell without stopping to ask questions.

Before either of us could move, a gunshot echoed from somewhere past the double doors. Everyone on the floor froze.

"Take the stairs. Go." Jeremy waved the frozen ones toward the stairwell.

I grabbed my radio. "Shots fired, twenty-second floor. Two officers on scene."

I drew my weapon. Jeremy drew his and fell in behind me.

The office at the end was empty. Chair pushed back, coffee on the desk. A glass door on the far wall was open, the curtain moving in the wind.

I stepped through it onto the balcony.

Daphne had a revolver pointed at Preston Lockwood. He was pressed against the railing with his hands up and his face wet, pleading for his life.

"LVMPD. Daphne, it's Andy Walsh."

"Andy?" She turned her head without moving the gun. "You shouldn't be out here."

"I know about Sydney."

The barrel dipped.

"Say her name again."

"Sydney. She came here to work. You called her every few weeks until you couldn't. You flew out and her landlord had put her things in a box. Her manager said she'd stopped showing up. Then you found out what those five men did to her."

"Who told you that?"

"Mitchell Dunne. A few hours ago, with his lawyer next to him, on a recording."

Daphne chuckled. It was a terrible sound and it broke in the middle.

"She was twenty-three years old." She was shaking through her arms and her voice. "She moved here to work. She wanted to be a flight attendant. She wanted to travel and see the world. Vegas was supposed to be temporary."

Tears started to stream down her face.

"She called me every few weeks to tell me about some new place she was going to go. She had a list. And he—" The gun came back up and Lockwood pressed harder into the railing. "—took all of it from her."

I lowered my weapon and held my free hand out.

"I know you're angry at him, Daphne. I know what he did." I kept my voice low. "But if you pull that trigger, you carry that for the rest of your life. Can you do that? After everything you've already been through, can you carry another death?"

Daphne's face crumpled.

"Gus wasn't supposed to die." Her voice broke. "He wasn't part of this. He was never part of this. He got caught in the crossfire. I told Jensen to make sure the bar was empty before he went after Stasio. And then Gus⁠—"

She couldn't finish. The gun was still up but her whole body was shaking with it now, and the sound coming out of her wasn't words anymore.

I took a step closer.

"I'm not going to pretend I know what it feels like to have your sister taken from you like that. But I know you, Daphne. I know who you are. You gave me a flower my first week on the block. You crouch down to Birdie every time she comes through your door. You brought flowers to a bar every week for a man who never once asked you to."

The gun had dropped to her side. She wasn't pointing it at Lockwood anymore, but she wasn't letting go of it either. At the railing, Lockwood hadn't moved. He was watching both of us with his hands still up, afraid to breathe.

"There's no after this for me, Andy."