Two officers stood silhouetted in the doorway, weapons raised, their voices cutting through the warehouse.
Lauren made it maybe ten steps before they tackled her. The impact of bodies hitting the floor echoed through the space, followed by the metallic click of handcuffs.
She didn't scream. Didn't cry. Didn't beg or bargain or make excuses. She went still as they cuffed her. That predatory smile was finally completely gone.
More officers flooded in. One rushed to me, working on the ropes behind my back. Blood rushed back to my wrists with a painful tingle.
Another cuffed Ben.
“Are you okay?” Ben asked me.
I nodded, flexing my fingers as feeling returned to them, my shirt still damp with gasoline.
“You’re fired,” I managed to say, my voice hoarse but steady. "And going to jail. But yeah, I think I'm fine.”
Ben turned to look at me as they walked him toward the door. Our eyes met. I saw it—the apology, the regret, the knowledge there was nothing he could say that would make any of this right.
The sirens were louder now, filling the warehouse. Red and blue lights flashed through the broken windows, painting everything in shifting colors. An officer draped a blanket around my shoulders, guiding me toward the door and away from the gasoline, away from the matches still scattered across the floor, away from the woman who'd been willing to burn me alive to protect her secrets.
I was alive.
I was free.
And for the first time in longer than I could remember, it felt like I could finally breathe.
FIFTY
Sawyer
I shovedmy hand through my hair, my skin damp from sweat and the sticky champagne someone had sprayed near me. None of that mattered now.
“I’ll call my brother,” I said into the phone. “He’s a detective. We’ll figure this out.”
“I’ll keep looking into it,” Rachel said. “Maybe someone knows something. But—Sawyer?”
“Yeah?”
“She wouldn’t disappear. She was going to show up for you.”
“I know.”
I ended the call and tapped Colt’s name. He picked up on the first ring.
“Aren’t you supposed to be celebrating?” he asked.
“She’s gone.”
A pause. “What? Who?”
“Ellie. She was supposed to be here. She never showed.”
“You sure she didn’t change her mind?”
“No. Rachel said she texted her before she left. Said she was on her way. Ben was supposed to bring her in through a private entrance.”
Colt was silent for longer this time. I could almost hear him running it over in his mind.
“She wouldn’t miss this,” I said. “Not without saying something.”
