“Yeah, I know.That’s my point.I’m beginning to think Cox doesn’t believe anything about me.Or you.Or anyone else.I think that Cox is very good at painting himself to look grand and imposing and important.Connected to God.Conduit of His message on Earth.But behind that?I think Cox is empty.I think he’s just a garden-variety psychopath who got tired of seeing nothing in the mirror every day and decided he was going to fill that emptiness through other people.So, he created this image of himself as the Lawgiver and looked for vulnerable people to exploit.Not so he could carry out God’s mission on Earth but so that he could convince himself that he wasn’t looking at a ghost every time he brushed his teeth.”
“You’re aliar!”
“Sometimes.But not this time.This time, you’re getting the honest truth.I think that when you strip away the Lawgiver, what you’re left with is an empty shell that can never, ever be filled.And no matter how many times he tries to fill it, it will always run empty.There’s a hole inside of him, and no amount of murder disguised as divine justice will fill that hole.”
“Stop it!”
“But you don’t have to be his tool anymore, Emily.You don’t have to be his message.You can break free of the hold he has on you.I know you can because I’ve done it.I’ve shaken off this feeling that I belong to him.You can do it too.”
Emily’s lips trembled.She looked down at the police officers and paramedics gathered below.“They’re living in sin.If I don’t show them, they’ll keep living in sin.”
“Show them the way Jesus showed them,” Kate said.“Show them by loving your enemies, doing good to them that persecute you, praying for them that despitefully use you.Show them by being kind to the poor, the fatherless, and the widow.Show them by feeding the hungry, giving shelter to the homeless, clothing the naked.Show them by being kind, Emily.Show them God’s love, not Satan’s judgment.”
She moved closer to Emily and extended her hand.“Let’s go.We’ll do this together.Let’s both show them that we’ve shaken off Satan’s yoke.”
Emily looked at Kate’s hand.Then she looked at the ground.She looked back at Kate, and her lips started trembling again.
“It’s okay,” Kate said softly.“Take my hand.”
Emily lifted her hand and moved it slowly toward Kate.Below, the noise of the crowd surged in hopeful anticipation.Behind Kate, Coulter and her officers muttered their surprise.
Emily stopped halfway to Kate’s hand.She looked at Kate and smiled through her tears.“Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done.”
Kate’s chest froze.“Emily, no—”
Emily jumped.Kate cried out and lunged forward, missing the woman’s hand by millimeters.The crowd below and behind exclaimed in horror.
Kate grabbed the rope and gripped it tightly.The rope seared her palms, and she screamed in agony but didn’t let go.When the rope finished uncoiling through her fingers, she was yanked forward into the rail.It slammed into her hips hard enough to send a tremor through her legs.
She looked over the edge.Emily dangled forty feet below.Her legs jerked and twitched, and her arms scrabbled instinctively at her neck.The rope hadn’t broken her neck as intended but was instead suffocating the life out of her slowly.
Kate planted her feet, grimacing at the pain in her hands.Blood trickled out from her palms, and when she tried to lift Emily, the blood caused her hands to slip.
“Help me!”she called to Coulter.“Help me pull her up!”
“You’re only making the rope tighter around her neck,” Coulter said.Her eyes and those of her officers were as wide as dinner plates.“If we pull her up, we’ll just cut off any remaining blood flow.”
Kate looked back over the edge.Emily was still kicking, but her arms were weakening in their attempts to loosen the rope.“Damn it.”
She called Marcus, who answered immediately.“Kate, are you all right?”
The brief glimpse Kate got of her palms when she dialed the number told her that her hands would be in bandages for at least two weeks after this, but she didn’t care to dwell on that right now.“Get a trampoline underneath her now!”
Marcus paused but only for a half-second.“Hey!Fire Department!Trampoline, stat!”
A wave of love for him washed through Kate, pure and warm and strong.He trusted her.No matter how crazy she got, no matter how obsessed, no matter how committed to the impossible, Marcus trusted her.That’s why she wanted him.That’s why she was attracted to him.That’s why she wanted to be more than friends.All the rest was just delicious icing on top of a big, warm, fluffy cake of a man who trusted her.
She pulled her knife and held it to the rope.Coulter saw her and cried out, “Hey, what the hell are you doing?”
“Saving her life,” Kate said.
“What?”
One of the other officers put a hand on her shoulder.“They’re getting a trampoline.”
“Jesus Lance Henriksen Christ,” Coulter muttered.“You are one crazy bitch.”
She said it with admiration, but Kate didn’t think she was admirable.Just stubborn.
