Protector - Laurel Dewey [199]
Chris was halfway up the ladder. “Get away from me!” Emily shrieked, angrily pelting him with the rocks.
“Fuck you!” Chris yelled back to Emily, skillfully dodging the stony barrage and continuing his ascent.
Emily dumped every last pebble she had on his head. She started to turn to retrieve more rocks when Chris’ hand clamped down her ankle. Losing her balance, Emily fell forward onto the burning hot metal surface, her scream echoing into the distance. Chris heaved his narrow frame onto the top of the tower, almost doubled over from exhaustion. Emily flipped over on her back, but Chris grabbed hold of her shirt, preventing her from moving another inch. He worked his way back onto his feet, let go of her shirt and pressed the sole of his shoe into Emily’s solar plexus.
“You fucking little snitch!” Chris muttered as he drew his pistol from the holster. He lowered the gun toward Emily’s left eye. “Say ‘good-bye,’ Emily.”
With tears streaming down her face, she screamed, “No! I won’t!”
Chris was so deeply embedded in the moment that he didn’t hear the approaching sound of boots charging up the second ladder, directly across from where he stood. He was seconds from pulling the trigger when he caught a glimpse of motion. Chris turned, just in time to see the top of Jane’s head cresting the tower. Without missing a beat, he swung his foot off of Emily’s and aimed his gun toward Jane’s head. He fired a round, narrowly missing Jane’s left ear.
“You fucking bitch!” Chris angrily screamed as he jerked Emily up to a standing position, wrapped his arm tightly around her tiny neck in a chokehold and wedged the barrel of the gun against the kid’s temple.
Almost simultaneously, Jane rolled onto the top of the tower, pulled out her pistol and aimed it directly at Chris. The searing heat reflected off the tower and onto her prone body, issuing a burnt smell of metal. For a moment, the bright light blinded Jane. Her head spun as she held the Glock outstretched with her right hand and supported herself with her left. The visions were becoming a ghastly reality.
“Well, fuck you, Jane! Fuck you!!” Chris roared.
“Chris! Don’t do this!” Jane shouted, frozen on the hot surface of the tower.
“You couldn’t just let it be, could you?”
There was a sense of disjointed reality for Jane as if she’d already gone through this hell. She carefully stood up, lifting her left palm from the tower’s surface. In shock, she saw a depressed, backward imprint across her flesh. Glancing down, Jane recognized a domed cap with the raised date of 10-24-99. Impossible, she thought, but true. “Put down the gun, Chris,” she said, her voice low and restrained.
“Why didn’t you just tell me what this little fucker knew from the get-go? I’m your partner! You owed it to me!”
“I didn’t know anything, Chris.”
“Don’t sell me that bullshit! She was talking to you all along! Whispering her little secrets back and forth! She was talking about me! Me!”
“She didn’t know it was you until this morning!”
“Don’t fucking lie to me!” Chris exploded, jamming the barrel of the gun harder against Emily’s temple. Emily winced, paralyzed with fear. “All your little whispers. Like that first day when you interviewed her and she whispered her little secrets in your ear. You wouldn’t tell me! All you had to do was tell me what she said. Then I could kill her and finish the whole fucking thing. But no! You wanted to slowly nail my fucking ass to the cross. Well, I don’t sit back and roll over that easy! I won’t be taken out because of some brat blabbing to the Department! I’ve worked too hard to get taken out! Nobody takes me out! Nobody!”
“Taken out?” Jane said. “Did the mob threaten to kill you if you didn’t do their bidding? Is that it?”
“Fuck you, Jane! Nobody threatens me!”
“But they did, didn’t they?” Jane replied solemnly.
“I’m nobody’s fucking errand boy! I do my own bidding! I have power over people! I live well!”
Jane found herself glancing down to Chris’ pant leg—it was stuck on