Page 50 of The Girl He Crowned

Only this one wascloser to one of its fellows, stood there to save space by the workshop staff,or perhaps placed in a batch ready to ship out to a waiting store somewhere inthe world. Whatever the reason, it meant that the clock struck a second, whichtoppled into a third, a whole row of them starting to topple like dominoes inan awful, crunching cascade of wooden and metallic sounds.

Thatwas enough to getEdward Hales’s attention. Paige saw him look up above, taking the pendulum awayfrom Yolanda Vert’s throat for a second as she gasped for air.

“Stop that!” hecalled out, his instincts as a clockmaker briefly overriding even his need tokill. “Stop that at once! Do you not know the damage you’re doing?”

Right then, Paigedidn’t care about the damage, or the amount that the clocks were worth. Allthat mattered was that she’d bought Yolanda Vert one extra breath to survivewith until Paige could get to her and stop Hales.

Even so, Paige hadto move fast. She ran for the stairs to the upper level, hoping desperatelythat she would be in time.

CHAPTER TWENTY SIX

Paige ran for thestairs, taking the seconds that she’d bought herself to try to close the distanceon Edward Hales. The wooden treads of the stairs creaked under Paige’s feet asshe hurried up them, knowing that she’d only gained a brief window to try toclose in on her suspect.

Edward was tryingto strangle Yolanda again, pressing her back against the edge of the balcony oncemore. Paige knew that he didn’t have enough time to finish it, though, not aslong as she was quick. Once she got up onto the balcony there, she would have aclear shot at Edward. He would have to stop, or…

Or she would shoothim.

That thought camewith another hot on its heels: Adam Riker had promised her the identity of theExsanguination Killer, if only she gave in to the instincts he believed shepossessed and killed someone.

If she shot EdwardHales to save Yolanda Vert’s life and he died, no one would blame her. The useof force would obviously be justified, against a killer actively trying tomurder a woman in front of Paige.

She was up on thebalcony now, her gun up and leveled. She had a clear shot; all she had to dowas pull the trigger. Kill Edward Hales, and the Pendulum Killer’s spree wouldbe at an end. Kill him, and Paige would finally have the answers she neededwhen it came to the person who had killed her father.

Paige stood there,her heart pounding in her ears, the conflict within her making it hard tothink. She could get all the answers she needed, but she couldn’t do somethinglike that, couldn’t just kill someone, even like this when there might be everyreason to do it.

“Edward, stop!”she called out.

He turned towardsher, the fury on his face obvious. “She’s a liar! Liars have to be punished!”

“There’s nowhereto go, Edward,” Paige said. “Put the pendulum down. I don’t want to shoot you.”

“Just smash myclocks and try to stop my work!” Edward flung the pendulum he held at Paigethen. It was a heavy bronze thing, which meant that Paige had to duck out ofthe way to avoid being stunned by it, not wanting to give Edward a chance toattack her. That wasn’t what he was buying time to do, though.

In the secondPaige took to duck out of the way, he shoved Yolanda Vert, sending her over theedge of the balcony with a scream of terror. Paige gasped, thinking thatYolanda had fallen to her death, feeling a sudden wave of horror and guilt. Shecould have fired and she hadn’t. She could have taken Edward Hales down and putan end to this whole situation. Because she’d been so busy trying to cling toher morals, she hadn’t done herjob. She hadn’t protected a woman whoneeded to be saved from a killer.

Then she saw thatYolanda was still hanging from the edge of the balcony and heard her crying outin terror.

“Help me! Please,I can’t hold on!”

Even as she calledout, Edward Hales was running for a door on the far side of the balcony.Paige’s first instinct was to chase or to fire, but she couldn’t even spare thesecond that it would take to do that. She already knew what it felt like tothink that her actions had resulted in an innocent woman’s death, and Paigecouldn’t risk even a moment’s inattention when Yolanda’s hand might slip,letting her fall.

Paige put her gunaway and grabbed for the councilwoman, getting both of her hands on one of Yolanda’sarms. She tried to pull her up, throwing her weight back as she tried to haul herup. In that moment, Paige was all too aware of her own smaller size, and the sheerdifficulty of trying to lift someone by their arm.

Maybe before she’djoined the FBI, Paige wouldn’t have been able to do it, but she’d been traininghard since then, putting in the physical training needed to try to take downcriminals. She hauled with all her strength, and even if that wasn’t enough topull Yolanda right up, at least Paige could stop her from falling and get her alittle closer.

“Hook your foot onthe edge,” Paige said.

“I can’t!”

“You have to,”Paige replied, keeping her voice firm. “Do it! I can’t hold you much longer!”

Yolanda fished forthe edge of the balcony with her left foot. Her shoe went tumbling as she didso, falling away to the workshop floor beneath. She let out a shriek of fear.

“Keep trying,”Paige said. “Come on, Councilor Vert, you can do this.”

She saw the otherwoman’s foot hook onto the edge of the balcony. That gave Yolanda enoughleverage to clamber up with Paige’s help, although it was still difficultenough that Paige groaned with the effort. Finally, with a last yank onYolanda’s arm, Paige managed to get her back over the edge of the balcony tosafety.

They both tumbledto the floor there for a second, but Paige was back on her feet straight away.

---