"Wh-what?"
Another smile as she shook her head. "You thought I was going to give you the gun? Not a chance. He'll die the way Ciara did. Strangulation. It's easier than you'd think."
Shit. Still not stupid.
When I didn't move, she said, "Trying to find a way out of this? There isn't one. You'll kill him or you'll die." She paused. "Or there is a third option."
"What?"
"God, you're quick to jump on that, aren't you? I guess you aren't your parents' daughter after all. Can't kill someone even to save your own life. Or does it depend on who the someone is? I bet you'd have killed me, if Tristan had given you this choice in that hospital. But him--" She motioned at Gabriel. "He's different. So here's option number three. You crawl back into that burning car. You die in there. He lives."
I looked over sharply at her. "Bullshit. You wouldn't let--"
"Why not? You dragged him out and went back in for something and died. Tragic accident. Once you're dead, Gabriel Walsh won't care about Ciara and the case. Tristan will accept that it was an accident, and I'll get my DNA results another way."
"The moment I'm in that car, you'll shoot Gabriel."
"If he's dead of a gunshot, that's no accident."
"Then you'll drag him back into the car."
"With what? A crane? I can't make his death look like an accident, Eden, so he gets to live. That's the deal. The question is, will you take it?"
I looked at her. I looked at Gabriel. She was too far away for me to get a jump on her. I had no weapons. My gun was . . .
I looked at the smoke-filled car. The flames were in the front seat now, licking the fabric. If I could find my purse . . .
What exactly were the chances of that? Finding my purse and getting my gun before passing out from smoke inhalation? Not good. But the alternative? There wasn't one.
"I'll do it," I said.
She didn't answer, just looked at me as if I was a fool.
I walked to the car. Heat and smoke streamed out. I couldn't even see the door, just the dark shape of the black car, lost in the smoke. I dropped to all fours.
"Don't stall," Macy said. "If you give me any excuse, I have a backup plan. I'll shoot you both."
I crawled through the smoke, eyes closed as I breathed through my nose. My fingers touched the side of the car, and I let out a yelp, metal burning my fingertips.
"Keep going," Macy said. "If I can still see your shoes in ten seconds--"
A shot fired. I hit the ground, flat on my stomach.
Oh God, she'd shot Gabriel.
I jumped up into a crouch--
"Don't move or I fire again."
I froze there, brain stuck on th
e words. No, not the words. They were exactly what I'd expect. It was the voice that stopped me.
"Olivia? Are you all right?"
Gabriel's voice. Then his footfalls.
I staggered from the smoke to see him jogging toward the car with my gun trained on Macy, who was hunched on the ground, her hand pressed to her side, blood streaming through her fingers. Her gun hung from her other hand.