Page 73 of Girl, Unknown

“It’s not… over,” Logan spat. “You didn’t… think this through.”

“Shut up.” Ella palmed her Glock again, pressed it against Logan’s forehead and pushed until his skull caved. “I told you I’d find you. This is for everyone you ever hurt. Those hundred-odd people you killed…”

“Three hundred.” Beyond the mass of blood, Ella saw him smile.

Ella had him right where she wanted him.

“Why’d you kill them? Why’d those innocent people? Robert? My dad?”

Logan spat a globule of blood on Ella’s cheek. She didn’t bother to wipe it off. “Because I liked it.”

A voice from behind her. “Game’s over, bitch.” Not Logan this time. Ella had been so lost in her assault that she hadn’t seen the two men standing at the bay doors.

The same workers she saw earlier.

Two of Logan’s followers. Probably members of the Diamonds.

Logan let out a monstrous, guttural cry. “Get her.”

They both charged her in unison, one of them holding a thick plank of wood. Ella only had two bullets left and she already had them reserved for Nash, so she’d have to take these newcomers down the hard way. She flung herself into their line of fire without hesitation, tackling the unarmed man at the stomach, crashing him spine-first against the floor. Ella flipped over, got to her feet, and turned her attention to the wood-wielding attacker. He came at her swinging, managed to catch her in the shoulder. Ella stood still, cracking her neck. She felt invincible, immune to any kind of pain. The man swung again, aiming for her face this time, but Ella closed in and locked his attacking arm. The look on his face told her everything she needed to know: another coward, another untrained fighter. She slammed her forehead into his nose, sending him toppling back into an industrial refrigerator. He bounced off it, fell to his hands and knees.

Meanwhile, the grounded man had returned. She heard footsteps charging in her direction, but she maneuvered out of his path, caught him by the back of the head, and slammed him against the giant fridge. Both weaklings lay on the ground in a heap, and she wasn’t about to waste her last two bullets on them. They were reserved for something more important.

The idea came to her in a flash. She took the latch off the refrigerator door, opened it up, then pulled the first man to his feet. He was in a disoriented state, probably concussed to hell. She marched him inside the freezing chamber, clocked him once more in the cheek for good measure, and left him lying there.

Her second mystery attacker invited himself, swinging for Ella with a limp fist again. She caught his wrist with an iron grip and yanked him closer, steering out of the way at the last millisecond to send him into the icy box with his friend. He tripped over his partner’s grounded torso, then Ella slammed the door and locked it shut. By her quick math, they had about twelve hours before they froze to death.

Now it was her and Logan Nash, alone for what she was certain would be the last time. He’d crawled towards the bay door again but had barely made it three feet. The worm was on its last legs.

Ella stopped him in his tracks with the heel of her boot.

“You know, Logan, Raymond, whatever your name is. I’ve only got a few pictures of my dad, but there’s one on my bedside table. My favorite one. Whenever I take down people like you, I always think of it.”

Logan said nothing, just stared up at her pathetically. Ella recognized the expression. He’d embraced his oncoming demise.

“It’s my dad at the shooting range. He’s got this stupid hat on, this shit-eating grin on his face. He’s got an Uzi in one hand and a cigar in the other, but there’s this sign behind him. You know what that sign says?”

Nothing still.

“It says,never point your gun at anything unless you intend to kill it.”

Ella aimed her Glock Logan Nash’s forehead. She bent down closer for a better view. She regarded him with an unwavering stare, smiled and said one last thing.

“Three hundred victims, huh?”

A bloody headshake. “Yes.”

“That’s six-hundred parents whose lives you’ve ruined, and I bet they’d give anything to be in my position right now.”

Her finger caressed the trigger, pulling it lightly but not enough to discharge a bullet.

“Do it,” Logan cried. Tears washed away the blood below his eyes. “Just do it.”

Ella thought of that picture of her dad one more time. She looked up to the heavens and said, “This one’s for you.”

She squeezed the trigger hard, twice, unloading the chamber, doing what she knew was best. Logan Nash was a monster who destroyed the lives of families, her own included. Justice wasn’t enough for him. He didn’t deserve to live. He deserved to be six feet underground with the people he’d put there.

But that wasn’t Ella’s decision to make.

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