At my sympathetic gesture, Eleanore stops sobbing and returns to the stony-faced woman she's always been. "I don't want your pity, and I don't want help. And I can promise you one thing, Victoria, if you let me walk out of here alive, this will never stop. I will find you, and I will kill you. I will never stop my hunt, until you are dead. It's the only way."
"Why Eleanore? Why do you have to do this?"
"Because I fucking hate you!" she growls. "You abandoned me, just like your father. You have to pay for what you've done."
She presses her hand to the gaping wound in her hip, crying out in pain as she rises to her feet.
I wave the gun in her direction, feeling the situation slipping out of my control again. "Sit back down, Eleanore. I don't want to shoot you again." My voice cracks as I speak, showing my weakness. After everything she's done, I still don't want to do this. I don't want to kill her.
She doesn't even blink at my lame threat as she takes a step closer. "If you really had it in you to kill me, you would have done it already."
My hand trembles as I wave the gun at her, as if that will somehow help her regain her sanity. "Get back Eleanore, I'm warning you."
"Fucking shoot her!" Gabriel commands from behind me.
I place my finger on the trigger, taking another step back. "It doesn't have to be like this," I whisper.
Eleanore lunges at me, wrapping her hand around mine and shoving the gun to her chest. "Pull the trigger!" she cries out.
I shake my head and try to wrestle away from her. "Eleanore … ."
"I always knew it would come to this," she says smugly. "Now you can spend your life rotting in prison."
"What are you talking about?" I hiss.
"Goodbye, Victoria."
Her hand pulls the trigger before I can stop her. We both crumble to the ground from the impact, but it's clear only one of us is still alive. When I finally gather the courage to open my eyes, I'm met by Eleanore's lifeless expression. I scramble away from the body until I hit the wall behind me.
I don't know how long I sit there crying, but at some point, Alanna must have untied Gabriel, because when I look over, he's sitting next to me. His arm is draped over my shoulders, pulling me closer to him. But I can't feel him, I can't feel anything. My body is numb. I stare into the dark void and feel my own sanity slipping from my grasp.
It isn't until the police arrive and the officers force me to my feet that I begin to focus on the situation around me.
Chapter Seven
Victoria
It takes me a minute to realize what's happening. I'm being arrested.
It doesn't make any sense, but as I scan the room around me, I know it's real. Three officers are holding Gabriel back as he struggles in vain to get to me. All of the noise is drowned out by his panicked curses, and I can only watch in slow motion horror as they throw him to the ground before me.
"Stop, Gabriel!" I croak. "Just stop … I can't take anymore."
My words jolt him from his anger-induced haze and his body goes limp as he stares up at me with the saddest eyes I've ever seen. All of the fight is gone out of him too. They pull me to the door and lead me away with tears streaming down my face.
"I will get you out baby," Gabriel calls out to me. "As soon as I can, I will get you out."
The officers take me to the emergency room, and after some x-rays, bandaging, and a couple of splints, I'm discharged. The ride to the jail is sobering. There are no more tears left to cry, so I just sit and stare at the blood spattered across my shoes.
At some point, the female officer in front introduces herself as Officer Barrett. I don't respond, but she continues to talk to me anyway.
"Look, Miss Kelly," she says softly. "I know that you've been through quite an ordeal tonight, but I need to explain why you are being charged."
I nod, which is the best I can do in the circumstances, waiting for her to explain.
"Miss Kelly, we have a police report from San Antonio dated four years ago. It states that you threatened and assaulted Eleanore Price. She tried to press assault charges but was unsuccessful. However, she was granted a temporary restraining order in your absence. On top of that, we have a report from two days ago stating that you called Eleanore and threatened to kill her. Now she is dead, and you did, in fact, kill her."
I want to be outraged, I really, really do. But honestly, nothing Eleanore has done could surprise me anymore. This is just another drop in the bucket. I don't know why I even bother trying to defend myself, but I want this woman to know it isn't true. That I'm not some cold-blooded murderer.
"I never even saw Eleanore when I was in Texas," I say. "And I've been the one running from her. I'm the one that had restraining orders, you can look them up. I didn't want her to die, she pulled the trigger herself."
"I'm sorry," Officer Barrett speaks gently. "It's just standard procedure any time there's a homicide under these circumstances. But, I did do a little digging around and found out the officer that signed off on the police report in Texas was Mitchell Kinkade."
I squeeze my eyes shut, overwhelmed with the sickening realization that Alanna's husband was helping her to track us down.
"Of course it was," I mutter.
"That sent up a red flag," the officer continues. "There wasn't much to the report, so I spoke to Alanna. She explained her situation, however since Mitchell is now deceased, we can't question him. It's going to make things a little more difficult, but we will get to the bottom of this. There will be an investigation into his report as well as the events that happened today. You may have an opportunity for bail until we can get this sorted out."
"Does that mean you believe me?" I ask, blinking back tears.
Officer Barrett gives me a sympathetic smile. "It doesn't matter if I believe you or not … it's not me you need to convince."
By the time I get through the booking system, I'm more exhausted than I've ever been in my entire life. And that's saying a lot.
Running was exhausting. Weaving webs of lies to keep my cover was exhausting. Always looking over my shoulder … exhausting. But this day, has by far, been more exhausting than anything I've ever experienced. I killed a man. And then shot Eleanore. And then watched her take her own life.
As I collapse onto the hard bunk of my cell, I try to take stock of my emotions. I want to feel something, anything, but right now all I feel is numb. I curl up against the flimsy pillow beneath, and fall asleep without any resistance.
The next few days are a blur of sleep and nightmares. This morning I was dragged into a courtroom to listen to the charges that were being pressed against me. There was some lawyer there to talk on my behalf, which was for the best since I was completely out of it anyway. Gabriel was there too, but I couldn't bring myself to look at him.
As soon as it was over, I came back to my cell and went straight to sleep. It's all I've been able to do while I've been here, but, unfortunately, the guards standing at my cell seem to have other plans.
"What's going on?" I mumble wearily.
"We need you to come with us," the man says. "I have a Mr. Maddox and his attorney here to post your bail."
"Have my charges been dropped?" I stare at the men in confusion.
"No ma'am," one of them answers. "You are free on bail for now, the charges still remain."
"No," I say firmly, shaking my head. "I don't want bail. I'm staying here until the charges against me are dropped."
Both men look at each other and then back to me.
"Uh, I think you should consider talking to an attorney before you make any decisions like that."
"There's no point. I'm staying here until this is over."
Both men just look at me like I'm crazy before they start to lock me back in my cell.
"Wait! I get a phone call, right? Or can you contact someone else for me?"
"Yes." The officer shrugs, clearly not impressed with my shenanigans.
"It's a police officer," I say. "Officer Wright, in Idaho."
He gives me a puzzled glance before nodding. "Would you prefer for me to try to contact him, or I can take you down later to make your phone call."
"You can contact him," I say softly. "Just tell him what's happened, and he will understand."
The two men leave the cell, their keys clinking as they walk away. I know Gabriel is going to be furious with me, but I can't think about that right now. I need this. This time to think, to sort through my feelings about everything that's happened. I lay back down and go to sleep. Over the next two days, I only leave my cell when they make me. The rest of my time is spent in the sweet oblivion of my crappy new mattress.