Page 63 of The Perfect Poise

“Okay, I’m going to step toward you then,” Jessie said carefully. “Just hold out the knife by the blade and I’ll take it.”

She took a small step forward. Paulina looked down at the knife, almost like she’d forgotten that it was in her hand. She was just starting to adjust it so that she would be holding the blade when she passed it to Jessie. And then, whether out of anger or terror, Lila grunted.

Paulina looked over at her and in that moment, something changed. Jessie saw it immediately. The vulnerable young woman trying to make a break with her tattered past was gone. The vengeful butcher of three people was back.

As Paulina regripped the knife, Jessie launched herself forward, making up the distance between them in the time it took Paulina to raise her arm over her head. The woman seemed to sense that she wasn’t going to be able to stab Lila before Jessie got to her, so instead, she turned to face her pursuer directly, swinging the knife downward.

Jessie got to her first. She grabbed Paulina’s right forearm as it drove toward her, stopping her momentum. For several seconds they grappled, like a deadly game of arm wrestling, as the blade rested only inches from Jessie’s face.

“I can’t get a clear shot!” Ryan shouted from behind her. “Move!”

Without really thinking about it, Jessie stopped pushing up on Paulina’s arm and yanked it down and to the side, making both of their bodies twist so that she was no longer blocking her husband’s aim.

He fired a second later. For a moment, nothing changed between the women. Then Jessie saw a patch of blood start to spread at Paulina's right shoulder. A second after that, Jessie felt the other woman's grip loosen. Then Paulina dropped to the ground, leaving the knife in Jessie's hand.

She clutched the thing like a precious jewel, staring down at its long, sharp, serrated blade. In a flash, she pictured Paulina’s three victims, all slaughtered mercilessly with this weapon. Then she looked over at Paulina, lying on her back, clutching at her right shoulder with her left hand, wincing in pain.

Jessie Jessie suspected that the woman in front of her had suffered unimaginable agony in her lifetime, but she'd unleashed just as much on the world. Seeing her lying there, undone by the pain of her wound, when she's inflicted so much of it on others, sparked a rageful fire in Jessie's chest. She gripped the knife handle tight.

As she pictured the bloodied, destroyed bodies of Chloe Baptiste, Isabella Moreno, and Fiona Greene, she felt an intense desire to give Paulina some of her own medicine, to see how she would enjoy having her insides ruptured by the very blade that she’d used on others. It was the same thirst for vengeance that had almost consumed her when she watched Ryan punch corrupt cop Hank Costabile into submission just weeks ago.

“Jessie, step aside so I can cuff her,” Ryan said from behind her.

She heard his words but didn't move. She was more focused on where she would strike the first blow with the knife. Would it be to Paulina's neck so that the woman could see her own blood spray everywhere? Or would she go for the face, like Paulina had done to Isabella?

“Jessie,” Ryan whispered with quiet concern, now right beside her. “We’re on a livestream being watched around the world. Put the knife down.”

Those words forced her brain back into the reality of the moment. Whatever she had fantasized about doing, it couldn’t happen. She stepped to the side so that Ryan could get to Paulina. As he passed by her, she placed the knife on a nearby end table.

She watched her husband carefully roll Paulina onto her stomach and put handcuffs on her wrists. Beyond them, Lila grunted again. Jessie shook herself into alertness and hurried over to the young woman.

She took the gag out of her mouth and, as the girl quietly whimpered, she began to tug at the duct tape binding her to the chaise lounge, but it was too tight. She got up and retrieved the knife, making sure not to look at Paulina as Ryan read her her rights. She returned to Lila, who flinched at the sight of the knife but held still as Jessie cut her loose.

“Thank you,” the girl said hoarsely.

“We’ll get you some water,” Jessie promised.

“You saved my life,” Lila said softly.

“It’s part of the job,” Jessie told her.

But what wasn’t part of the job was almost acting on the bloodthirsty desire to stab a captured killer. Jessie tried not to think about it, to focus exclusively on freeing Lila. But deep down she knew the truth.

If Ryan hadn’t mentioned that livestream to her, they might not be calling for an ambulance for Paulina Fitzgerald. They’d be calling for a body bag.

CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN

No matter how long Jessie washed her face, she didn’t feel clean.

She looked up from the sink in the Central Station women's restroom to study herself in the mirror. She looked worn down, which wasn't a surprise. But to her relief, there was no obvious sign of the murderous murderous intent she'd been consumed by only an hour earlier.

In the time since then, both Paulina and Lila had been taken to the hospital. The former was currently in surgery for her shoulder, after which she would be booked. Hopefully sometime after that, Jessie would get to talk to her and find out how right she was in her suspicions about both the woman’s motives and her background.

Meanwhile, Lila was being treated for dehydration, but otherwise hadn’t suffered any major injuries. She was scheduled to be released in the morning.

Ryan was finishing up the preliminary paperwork on the case right now. Jessie knew there were more bureaucratic hoops to jump through, but right now she wanted to get to Irvine to check on Hannah. It was currently 9:18 p.m., and she hoped that if she and Ryan left soon, they could get to her dorm room by ten.

She dried off her face with some paper towels and was just leaving the restroom when she got a call from Kat. As exhausted as she was, she knew she had to pick up.

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