Page 65 of Stella's Christmas Rescue
“I love you, too, crazy woman.”
“So, where is she?”
“The courthouse. Follow me.” I jog ahead, and she follows me through the broken window. We go to the southeast corner room, where I left Michael. But I stop in the hallway and call out. “Michael?”
“Yeah, buddy?”
I take a full breath and we walk in. Stella marches to the shooter. Her voice could cut glass, “Quinn?”
“S’up, Stella?”
Stella’s hands are suddenly around Quinn’s neck, and while I understand the instinct, I grab her arm. Despite my own strength, I can’t pry her fingers off the neck she’s trying to throttle. “STELLA!”
She jumps but doesn’t release. “WHAT!”
“If you kill her, then she can’t testify!”
She turns her attention to Quinn’s purple face. “You’re lucky he’s right.” Then, she lets her go.
Quinn coughs and chokes but says nothing.
“So, you two know each other?” Michael asks.
“Oh, we’re old friends.” She scowls at the shooter.
I shake my head. “We need to untie her, bring her with us, and call the feds.” I work on the lamp cord on her wrists.
She explains, “Wes has already been called, I think. I told Alex to call him. The feds should be on their way here any moment.”
“Thank God, we’re one step closer to being done with all of this bullshit,” Michael says. His posture changes, and I can see the pain in his body by how he stands. His left arm is clutched to his body.
“Guess what, Quinn?” Stella glares.
Quinn raises her eyes but says nothing. I lift her to her feet, then retie her hands behind her back. I keep her bound wrists in my hand.
Stella declares, “Riker’s dead.”
The shooter’s jaw tightens, then she asks, “Is that a fact?”
“I stabbed him in the neck, before Jordan shot him.”
Quinn squirms in my grasp. “He’s not dead!”
I tell her, “As a doornail. Come on. We’re going to that store where you shot at a bunch of people. We’ll see how popular you are, before the feds arrive.”
“No! I’m not going anywhere with any of you!” She stomps on my foot, then twists away. But Stella kicks her in the groin, and Quinn goes down like a ton of bricks.
Michael says, “I didn’t know that works for them, too.”
“We have more than twice the nerve endings that guys have there, Michael,” Stella says. “Of course it works on us, too.”
I never would have thought of it either. Me and Michael both shrug, before I get our captive back on her feet. We shuffle out of the courthouse and are surrounded by Wes and his agents. The dense relief smacks me as hard as the cold.
After the dust settles, Wes commandeers the diner for a warm debriefing space and some much needed sustenance. It’s been a helluva day.
Katie and Georgie are kind enough to help out on Christmas Eve. We all give our statements between chowing down on diner goodness. It’s chaotic at first, but after a few hours, it’s just Wes, me, Stella, Michael, and a couple others. Wes sighs, “This has been one hella long day for you guys.”
“That’s a very nice way to put it,” Stella says.
