“Emily was a con artist, just like you.”
My hands start shaking.
“No. You’re lying?—“
She’s trying to manipulate you like she always did,tells me a voice in my mind.Don’t listen to her. Don’t believe a word that comes out of her mouth.
“I am not lying,” she says. “You can find the proof yourself.”
“You’re manipulating me,” I say. “Tell me where the hat is right now, or we’re done here.”
“5773 Green Oak Drive,” she says. “If you want the truth.”
But I am not to be fooled. I use that tactic myself whenever I try to wiggle myself out of a tight spot. She taught me that lesson.
“Goodbye, Hedda,” I say. “May you burn in hell.”
“FREEZE!” shouts a voice.
Reid Shaw’s voice.
“Put the gun down, Avery!”
A smirk hushes over Hedda’s face.
She believes she has won.
But I am willing to die if it kills her.
I don’t care.
I stopped caring years ago.
I turn my head.
There she is, walking slowly towards me.
Her gun drawn.
She moves around me.
I look her straight in the eyes.
Those eyes that softened the moment they met mine.
She came alone.
For the same reason, no BOLO was issued.
She believes I can be saved.
“You cannot save me, Shaw,” I tell her.
“Put the gun down, and we’ll take her in the right way.”
“And then what?” I ask and bark out a laugh. “Just so she can escape yet again?”
“There are other options. Higher security, isolation.”