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“Was it worth it?” he spat in her face. “Was this worth dying for?”
Even in her delirious state, there was only one answer. “Yes.”
“You can never stop me. God is with me. He wouldn’t let you catch me.”
“You’re an idiot,” Ella laughed. She had no life left in her. Blood oozed from more places than she could count. Her old friend pain had come to greet her one last time before death took her to whatever lay beyond this realm. If God was waiting for her, she had a lot of questions.
“You still think you can beat me?” the man asked. “Your faith is strong, if only it wasn’t so misguided.”
“Bullshit. I don’t believe in God.”
He pushed the blade closer to her abdomen. “Fine. Then you deserve what’s coming to you.”
If nothing else, Ella’s last view was a gorgeous mountainous landscape, the kind that always inspired her. The warm glow of the orange streetlamps below mingled with the moonlight, creating a velvet tint that made an acceptable backdrop for death. She only wished that, by some miracle, Ripley would charge up the street and save her life.
But there was no sign of her partner.
Ella felt the knife begin to pierce her stomach. Try as she might, there was no fight left in her. The game was over. She closed her eyes and thought of her dad, her aunt, her roommate. She even saw a flicker of Ben’s face in there too.
She prepared herself for it.
Welcomed it.
“Kill me you…”
The shrill sound of a clocking gun pierced the night, disrupting the surprisingly peaceful moment. Ella and her nameless attacker glanced to the broken doorway to see a trembling woman, still in nightclothes, aiming Ella’s own Glock at God’s messenger. Her stance was unwavering and almost perfect, the sign of a woman comfortable with firearms.
“I heard you talking.” She pointed to her face. “Youdid this to me?”
Maybe Ella did believe in something. Maybe God did have a plan after all.
Melissa, this victim-turned-hero, didn’t wait for a response. She pulled the trigger four, five, six times, emptying the chamber, exploding the night with deafening gun blasts. The moment shot by in a flash, and the next thing Ella saw was God’s messenger in a lifeless stupor hanging over the balcony rails.
One little push and he’d be sent down to hell where he belonged. This killer, this destroyer of lives. Every fiber of her doing told her to rid the material world of this monster. She could hear him groaning in agony. He still had life left in him.
Dark, try not to throw this guy off anything high.
Sadly, she had a promise to keep.
Ella clutched the man’s leg with her last scrap of energy, pulled him back onto the balcony. Ella looked at her savior in the doorway, gun still smoldering in her hands.
Ella never believed in divine intervention, but this moment made a good argument.
CHAPTER THIRTY TWO
Ella sat in the lounge at Morgantown Municipal Airport while Ripley hovered around with a phone to her ear. It had been twelve hours since Ella’s final battle with the unsub, and there’d been no sleep for either her or her partner. Ella had spent three hours in hospital, but was finally cleared for flying an hour ago. It meant they could catch the one PM flight back to D.C.
Ella hadn’t yet given her side of the story to Ripley, but her partner didn’t seem to care as long as she was alive. Ripley returned from her call, dropped down next to Ella on the gray sofa and said, “They got him. They know his name. He’s homeless. Alden’s story about selling the blade to him was true. He’s confessed to everything.”
Ella breathed a sigh of relief. “The rest is up to God. The irony.”
Ripley laughed and tapped her partner on the knee. “Excellent work back there, Dark. I don’t say that enough, but you put it all on the line. I wish I could have been there to help, but I was stranded at Patricia’s house.”
“Yeah, I bet getting a cab round there is pretty difficult. I didn’t expect you to show up. You’re the consultant, remember? No more reckless situations for you.”
“True. But you know, it showed you don’t need me. You brought that guy down single-handedly. You’re as good as I was. Maybe not at my peak, but you know what I mean.”
Ella stifled a laugh. “Single-handedly? Melissa saved my ass. She definitely got vengeance last night.”
