Page 75 of Girl, Reborn

Ella swallowed a hiccup of panickedlaughter. Sounded like the old silver fox wasn't much for a moonlit stroll.That made two of them.

She tensed as the footfalls grew closer.Felt the fine hairs on her nape rise in anticipation. Three, two...

Light exploded over the water as the moonbroke free of a cloud. Quicksilver brightness flooded the riverbank, banishingthe shadows and the man who wore them like a second skin.

‘Hello, Martin.’ Her voice soundedsteadier than she felt, and she sent up a silent prayer of thanks for smallmercies. ‘Fancy meeting you here.’

Martin froze mid-step. For a moment he wasa portrait in shades of shock – eyes wide, mouth hanging slack, one footdangling foolishly in the air. A caricature of surprise, and it would've beenfunny if it wasn't so terrifying.

‘Agent Dark.’ He recovered quickly, she'dgive him that much. Smoothed out his expression into something resemblingnormalcy, even as his gaze flicked to the river, the trees, cataloging escaperoutes. ‘I didn't expect you to be here.’

And I didn't expect to find a murderercreeping around my old fishing spot in the middle of the night. And yet…'

She didn't see the gun until it wasalready up, already levelled at her center mass. One second, he was a man,albeit a crazy one. The next he was a threat, a loaded weapon with Ella's namecarved on the bullets.

‘Don’t say another word.’

Ella raised her hands, nice and slow. Kepther own piece tucked against the small of her back, out of sight. No need tospook him any more than necessary.

Not yet.

‘Okay, okay.’ She gentled her tone,rounded the edges until she sounded almost reasonable. ‘Take it easy, Martin.Let's talk about this.’

‘There’s nothing to talk about.’

‘Martin, I need to know. You killed threepeople. You killed a man I wanted to see rot in prison. You tried to murder myex-boyfriend. You took out a federal director. You executed your partner’sex-husband. Why?’

Something flickered across his face –grief, longing, a terrible sort of hunger. His grip on the gun faltered for ahalf-second.

‘I had to,’ he whispered. ‘Don't you see?They were hurting her. Holding her back. I couldn't let them... I had to sether free.’

Jesus wept. The twisted logic of a man sofar off the reservation, he'd circled back around to sainthood. This was a manbeyond reason. He’d lived a life of seeing people die, and now he thought deathwas the only solution. He'd killed for Mia. Butchered her demons and left thebodies stacked like cordwood on her doorstep. And in some sick, twisted part ofhis psyche, he thought it was a gift.

Ella's heart broke a little for Mia then.For the horror of it, the dawning realization that the man she loved was amonster in a mask. That every touch, every word, was just camouflage for thesnake coiled beneath.

‘She didn't want that, Martin.’ Gently,gently. Coaxing him back from the precipice with kid gloves and honey. ‘Mianever asked you to do those things.’

But of course she had. Maybe not in words,but in a thousand small ways over their time together. Every flinch whenCarter’s name came up, every shadow that crossed her face at the mention ofNash or Trevor. Mia wore her damage like a hair shirt, let it chafe her raw andbloody for all the world to see.

And Martin had seen. He'd watched hersuffer, watched her bleed. Stood vigil over her pain like a graveyard specter,hungry for every drop.

And in the end, he'd fashioned himselfinto an angel of mercy. Mia's own personal sin-eater, swallowing down herenemies even as he damned himself.

Ella saw it now, clear as a killingstroke. The sick symbiosis of it, the feedback loop of trauma and revenge. Howmany times had she counseled victims, talked them off the ledge of their ownworst impulses? Warned them of the hollow comfort of vengeance, the gnawingemptiness that came after the trigger was pulled and the body laid to rest?

Martin had skipped straight to thepunchline. Had carved out his pound of flesh and called it love.

And Mia – She must've known, on somelevel. Must've seen the signs, the red flags waving in a stiff wind. But she'dburied it down deep, looked the other way while the bodies piled up. Because toface the truth was to put a bullet in the brain of her own happily ever after.

‘I know you think you did right by her,Martin. I know you wanted to be her hero.’

‘I am her hero!’ The words came outjagged, edging into hysteria. ‘I saved her. Protected her. And you – you triedto poison her against me. Filled her head with lies.’

‘No, Martin, I didn't. I just called outwhat I saw. In the CCTV footage of Carter’s murder. In my ex’s apartment. I sawyou.’

‘And then you told Mia everything. Why?Why didn’t you just keep your mouth shut? Now I have to fix everything.’

There was steel in his eyes now mirror.Decision was crystallizing like ice in his veins. Ella saw it happen. A watchspring winding down to the snapping point.

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