"It shows. Must be nice to have a friend like that.”
"It's a blessing."
As we neared the Porsche, a brunette approached with determination. It took me a second to place her face. It was Mason’s sister, Nova. She pulled a pistol from her purse and aimed it at me. With fury in her eyes, she stared down the barrel and gripped the pistol tight. Her sweaty finger wrapped around the trigger, and the barrel twitched.
Ariel froze, and her eyes bulged.
"You killed my brother!" Nova screeched, her eyes misting.
42
"Iknow you're upset," I said.
"You don't know shit!”
"How do you see this working out for you?”
Nova hesitated for a moment.
"I know you're in a lot of pain right now. I wish it could have gone down another way. I wish your brother hadn't made the choice he did. Do you think your brother would want you to go down the same path?"
Nova's eyes filled.
The barrel still shook in her trembling hands.
"How about we let Ariel walk away?” I said. “She's got nothing to do with this.”
Nova readjusted her grip.
"Ariel’s going to walk away slowly,” I said in a calm, soothing voice. “I want you to keep your gun focused on me.”
I motioned for Ariel to head back to the boat.
"I'm not going anywhere,” she said. “If she's going to shoot you, she has to shoot me, too. That will make her a double murderer.”
The tears spilled over Nova’s lids and rolled down her sculpted cheeks.
I had to hand it to Ariel—she had guts. She'd already proven that with the shark. After dealing with an apex predator like that, everything else seemed manageable.
"Nova, I know you don't want to kill anybody,” I said. “I know you don't want to spend the rest of your life in prison. You know Shane was Mason's accomplice. They both tried to kill me. If you want to be mad at anybody, be mad at the person who hired them. That's why your brother is dead. He got caught up with some bad people. He made some bad decisions. You’ve got a chance to make a good decision now.”
She trembled, and more tears flowed.
"Help me get the people who are really responsible for your brother's death,” I urged.
"How do I do that?" she cried.
"It starts with you putting the gun down on the ground, carefully. I know you can do that for me. I know you can do that for yourself. For Mason."
Her face contorted with sorrow, and the gun shook even more. At this point, I wasn't convinced she could even hit me from 10 feet, but I certainly wasn't going to take the chance.
Nova finally knelt down and set the pistol on the asphalt.
I told her to take a step back, turn around, and place her hands behind her back.
She complied.
I advanced, kicked the pistol out of the way, and gently placed handcuffs around her wrists as she broke down into sobs. Her chest heaved and jerked.
