Page 51 of The Perfect Revenge
That’s when Susannah arrived, dropping to her knees, which slammed into Sienna’s backside, sending her tumbling forward and pinning her to the ground.In an instant, her handcuffs were snapping on Sienna’s wrists.
Jessie allowed herself a moment to breathe.She glanced up at Shannon, who was standing near the door, clutching her baby.Then she looked down again.She noticed drops of blood falling on the floor and put her finger to her nose.Pulling it away, she saw that it was covered in blood.Some dribbled into her mouth, and she grimaced at the metallic taste of the stuff.That's when she saw the syringe on the floor, next to Sienna's head.
She stared at the thing, with its thin metal needle glimmering in the light.It was so close.She could simply grab it and jam it into Sienna’s flesh, or as she had imagined, her eye.Susannah was so focused on securing the woman that she might not even notice.It would be so easy.How perfect would it be for Sienna Tropper to meet her end by the same method she’d used on three women?
Jessie forced herself to tear her eyes away from the syringe, looking for something—anything—that could distract her.She needed that tiny detail, like the ones that baseball player Kai Cody had mentioned, to fixate on and quell the urge in her gut.
That's when she saw Rosie, the baby.The little girl had stopped crying and was now staring at her.Jessie doubted that the little one could really even see her with her blurry baby vision.But that didn't matter.
Jessie honed in on the little girl’s bright blue eyes, so full of confusion and wonder.She tried to convey comfort to the infant through the sheer force of eye contact.And she could have almost sworn that she heard the tiny creature sigh.She took it as a sign that her efforts had been successful.
She knew it was ridiculous to think that she’d somehow communed with Rosie.But what wasn’t ridiculous was the change she felt inside of her.The urge to plunge the syringe into Sienna had faded, if not completely disappeared.That, at least, was progress.
“Jessie,” Susannah said, snapping her out of her mini-daydream, “are you okay?You’re bleeding.”
She shook her head to clear out the troubling thoughts.
“That’s just my nose.I don’t think it’s broken.Between that and my hip, I’m going to be sore tomorrow, but yeah, I’m okay.”
“Then can you please check on Ms.Mitchell and the baby?”
“Sure,” Jessie said, realizing she should have already been doing that.
She got to her feet slowly and noted the sound of sirens approaching in the distance.As they got closer and louder, Rosie started to cry again
CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE
“Really, I’m fine,” Jessie insisted.
Even though she assured the EMTs that her nose was only bruised and her hip was just sore, they insisted on checking to make sure both weren't broken.She relented, first letting one of the EMTs push her nose around with more force than she would have liked.Then she moved her joints as instructed, as she watched an officer put Sienna Tropper in the back of a squad car.Susannah, who had been talking to the officer, walked over to her.
“After Tropper gets booked, they’re going to keep her in the psych unit until her arraignment,” she said.“I have a feeling there will be a lot of psych units in her future.How are Shannon Mitchell and her baby?”
"The ambulance left a minute ago to take them to the hospital.Shannon said neither of them were injured but that she was worried that the whole thing might have messed with Rosie somehow.I tend to doubt it.The baby obviously didn't have a clue what was going on, but it can't hurt to get her checked out.I told Shannon that we'd meet her at the hospital to get her statement after we're done here."
“And you’re okay?”Susannah checked.“You looked a little out of it after you took down Tropper.Almost dazed.I was worried you hit your head again.”
“No, just my hip,” Jessie assured her.“And the punch to the nose looked worse than it is.”She couldn’t very well say that the seemingly dazed look was actually her visualizing herself stabbing Sienna Tropper with the poisoned syringe.
“Good to hear, because I can’t have Hernandez giving me crap.I did everything I could to keep you safe, including jumping the side fence.I can’t help it if you decided to play linebacker.”
“Don’t worry,” Jessie said.“I won’t let you take the fall for my fall.”
“Wow,” Susannah said.“I’m going to give you a pass on your terrible jokes because we’re going on about 38 hours without sleep.”
“I appreciate your generosity,” Jessie told her.“Considering that the sun looks like it’s going to set in the next half hour, I intend to make up for that lost sleep very soon.”
"Hey, detective," one of the officers called out from behind them."Your station called.They're trying to reach you and Ms.Hunt.They say it's urgent."
“Oh damn, we forgot to turn our ringers back on,” Susannah said, pulling her phone out of her pocket.“Beth is calling me right now.”
As she answered, Jessie pulled out her own phone to take it off silent.She gasped when she saw the screen.There was a litany of missed calls and texts from Beth, Jamil, Ryan, Kat, and even Rufus Harrington, the private bodyguard watching Finn Anderton at the safe house.Before she could decide which one to reach out to first, a new call came in.It was from Rufus.She answered immediately.
“What’s going on?”she demanded before he could speak.“Why is everyone calling me?”
“I don’t know why everyone else is,” he said, sounding surprised.“But I’m calling because Finn woke up.”
“What?”she said.
