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Ella didn't pause toconsider his anguish. Compassion had its place, but in the fight for her life,there was no room for hesitation. With him momentarily blinded, she shifted herweight, her legs coiled beneath her like springs.
Then, with all theforce she had left, she kicked out, her boot connecting with his ribs. She feltthem give way beneath the impact, cracking, winding him, depleting him of airlong enough for Ella to free herself from his grip. With a new surge of adrenaline,Ella's knuckles met the bridge of the unsub's nose with a fleshy crack, echoingthe finality of bone giving way under force.
The unsub's responsewas immediate; his body recoiled as if she had physically torn the fight fromhim. He crumpled further, a hand flying up to his now-bloodied face, a muffledgroan escaping him.
Then Ella found herfeet, her balance precarious on the slick stones. In her hand, the familiarweight of her own gun appeared, wrested from its holster in a heartbeat. Shetrained it on the man with unwavering focus.
Silence descended. Theman, hunched and broken, clutched his bloodied nose.
His eyes, red-rimmedand watering from the pain, locked onto Ella's, searching, perhaps, for aglimmer of mercy.
It was his lucky day.
'It's over,' Ellasaid.
The unsub's shouldersslumped, and he seemed to shrink before her eyes. He visibly deflated, thefight draining out of him as if Ella's words had been the final blow.
She'd severed hisdefiance.
And then, Ella'sattention shifted, drawn upwards to the bridge that arched over them.
There, silhouettedagainst the brooding sky, stood her partner, flanked by the chief of police andtwo officers. Guns raised, a forest of barrels pointed toward one man.
‘It's over.Surrender,' Chief Caldwell called out.
Ella regarded thekiller in a silent conversation that took place in the space between breaths.The unsub followed her line of sight, and up above, he saw the cavalry withtheir guns pointed in his direction.
In that chargedmoment, an understanding passed between Ella and the man before her. There wasan unspoken acknowledgment written in his quivering body, a realization thathis options had narrowed to a point of inevitality.
Yet, within thatresignation, Ella saw a flicker of something else—desperation, perhaps, ormaybe the raw, unfiltered need for an ending on his own terms.
Subtly, the unsubglanced into the crystal waters beside them.
Ella knew the look.The haunting mix of longing and despair, the silent debate.
The lake, with its icywaters and merciless waves, was calling to him. The siren's allure, calling himto the same watery grave as mother. A tragic full circle that would end wherehis madness had begun.
'Don't do it,' Ellasaid.
In that suspendedmoment, she read the intention in his eyes before his muscles even tensed. Witha desperate lurch, he flung himself into the churning waters below. The act wassudden, defiant—a choice for oblivion over capture.
Ella's heart lurched.
‘No!’ The word wastorn from her, a futile attempt to halt the irreversible. She lunged forward asif she could somehow bridge the distance between intent and action.
But it was too late.His body hit the water with a violent splash, disappearing into the churning,unforgiving waves. The brutal waters, indifferent to human suffering, closedover him, hiding him from view, swallowing him whole.
Above, the reactionwas immediate and instinctive. The officers on the bridge, their judgmentclouded, opened fire.
Bullets rained down,peppering the water, creating a deadly hail, each one a lethal message. Thewater exploded in violent plumes, and Ella's screams tore from her throat asshe pleaded for them to stop, but they might as well have been whispers againstthe fury of the lake and the deafening blasts of gunfire.
Then, as abruptly asit had started, the shooting stopped.
The world seemed topause, holding its breath, waiting for what would come next.
Ella was fixed on thespot where the man had disappeared, her thoughts spiraling, imagining thewhat-ifs, the horror of what might lie beneath the surface. The lake, a momentago a violent canvas of bullet-induced eruptions, now returned to its natural state,a roiling mass of dark, secretive water.
And then she saw it—apool of blood. A spreading stain against the dark blues and grays of thewater's surface.
