Page 52 of The Girl He Crowned

“You’re as bad asany of them!” he cried out. “You smashed the clocks! You work for the FBI. Youmust lie. They all lie!”

He grabbed for herthen. Paige struck back on pure instinct, hitting him with the heel of herhand, then driving an elbow into his gut. His hands closed on her throat then.He might not have a pendulum in his hands, but the grip was still brutallystrong.

Paige brought upher hands to the inside, pummeling her way through the grip to break the worstof it, stopping Edward from choking her. It didn’t stop him driving her back,though, his greater size and weight forcing her towards the edge of thebuilding.

“I’ll kill you,”Edward said, fury in his voice. “Interfering bitch! I’ll kill you!”

Paige fought withall her might, but Edward seemed to ignore the blows she landed on him. Hepushed her back to the edge of the roof, so that her feet scrabbled for grip onthe very edge, and when she looked down, she could see the streets of the citybelow her. In that moment, Edward was the only thing holding her up, and Paigehad the sudden terror that when he let go, she was going to fall, tumbling downto crash into the sidewalk below.

“Paige!”

She looked upagain, and saw a figure approaching, running out of the door she had come ontothe roof through. Christopher was there, his weapon already rising, but Paigesimply didn’t know if he was going to be in time to save her.

CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN

Paige tried tofind solid ground on the edge of the roof, terror filling her as Edward Halesheld her there. All he had to do to kill her was to let go and that was such aneasy movement that it seemed impossible to stop.

Christopher wasthere with his weapon raised, advancing quickly. Paige could see the fear inhis expression and knew that fear was for her. He thought that she was going todie here.

“Step away fromthe edge!” he ordered as he got closer. His gun was trained on Edward, hisstance solid, the barrel unwavering. “Do it now!”

“If you shoot me,she’ll die,” Edward said, in a surprisingly level tone. “I’ll let go, andshe’ll fall. Do you want that, Agent Marriott?”

Paige knew that hewas right. Edward was the only thing holding her up right then. If Christophershot him, then Paige was going to plummet to her death, just as certainly as ifEdward did it deliberately.

“No, I don’t wantthat,” Christopher said.

“Then back awayand put your gun down, or I’ll drop her.”

“If you dropPaige, then I’ll drop you,” Christopher said, not lowering his weapon even foran instant. Paige might have tried it,hadtried it in the past, butChristopher was more likely to stick to the FBI’s standard playbook in asituation like this. Maybe he just knew that, with the weapon gone, there wasnothing to stop Edward from killing Paige anyway and then escaping.

Even so, it madefor a deadly impasse, one that Paige wasn’t sure she was going to survive.Edward was…

Whatwashismental state right now? He’d been building up to kill someone before, and he’dbeen interrupted. Now, Paige guessed that the urge to do it was still there,mingled with frustration. There was also his anger at the way she’d smashed hisclocks. Paige had to find a way to get through to him.

She had to rememberthat there was another side to his personality too: one that was meticulous andorderly, obsessed with things being as they should be. Maybe if Paige couldmake use of that, there might still be a way to resolve this without herfalling to her death.

“This isn’t howyou kill,” Paige said.

Edward lookedconfused for a moment or two. “What?”

“This isn’t howyou kill your victims. You have a method. You prepare, you copy the pendulumfor their clock. You put that pendulum in place where you know they’re going tobe. You use your own pendulum to strangle them. You’ve been consistent withthat, Edward. As consistent as a ticking clock.”

He hesitated then.

“You’re trying tomanipulate me,” he said.

Paige was about totell him whatever she thought he wanted to hear, just to buy more time, just tokeep the conversation going. At the last second, though, she realized that wasexactly the worst thing that she could do. This was a man who was triggered toviolence by lies, and who selected his victims precisely because he thoughtthey were liars.

“Yes,” Paigeadmitted. “I’m trying to manipulate you. I’m trying to remind you that you actin a specific way, and that this isn’t it.”

“Paige!” Christophersaid. He obviously didn’t think that she should be doing this, but he didn’tknow what Paige knew about this suspect. He probably thought that sheshouldlie, to try to talk him down.

What thissituation called for was the opposite.

“I’m not going tolie to you, Edward,” Paige said.

“Easy to say that,but people lie; it’s what they do. It’s whatyou’lldo!”

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