“She’s mine,” Bil y returned, understanding Hank’s demand and giving me a jerk to make his point.

“Let her go. Now. If you do, no harm wil come to you. If you don’t, I’l shoot you myself,” Hank said.

you don’t, I’l shoot you myself,” Hank said.

It was clearly time for me to intervene. I didn’t know, in such a situation, if Hank would get in trouble for shooting Bil y but I didn’t want to find out. What I did know was that Bil y was prepared to shoot Hank, he’d already tried it once and I wasn’t about to let that happen again.

“Bil y, let me go,” I said quietly.

“No, Roxie. You and I are gonna walk out of here. We’re gonna disappear,” Bil y replied.

“Bil y, look around you. We’re not going anywhere,” I told him.

“You gotta learn, Roxie. It’s you and me, just you and me.

That’s al it’s ever been. That’s al it’s ever been for me. My life began when I met you,” Bil y said and his voice was beginning to sound funny. It was not his slick talk, there was a thread going through it that made it tremble.

I closed my eyes and when I opened them, Hank was looking at me.

I kept my gaze on Hank, direct and steady, and said to Bil y, “You know, he took me on a horse drawn carriage ride on our first date.”

Bil y’s already tense body went solid as a rock.

“You promised me that, remember Bil y? Said we’d go to New York City, have a carriage ride in Central Park. Do you remember?” I asked, my voice was not cruel; it was soft with the sad memory of an unfulfil ed promise.

“Don’t, Roxie.” Instead of sounding angry or crazy, Bil y’s voice sounded like a plea.

“He has a dog,” I continued, stil looking at Hank. Bil y knew how much I liked dogs. “A Labrador,” I went on. Bil y knew how much I liked dogs. “A Labrador,” I went on. Bil y also knew how much I liked Labradors. He’d never let us have a dog. We were on the move too much and anyway, he didn’t like dogs. In the last few years I didn’t get one because I didn’t want to bring a dog into my life with Bil y. It wouldn’t have been fair to the dog. I kept going. “You’ve seen him, when you were watching me. He’s a sweet chocolate lab named Shamus. He sits on my feet and I’m going to teach him to play Frisbee.”

“Roxie,” Bil y’s voice was now an ache and I guessed I stil felt enough for him to feel it slice through me.

Nevertheless, I kept my eyes on Hank.

“He’s got a good job, a nice house. He protects people for a living,” I carried on and I felt Bil y’s tense body start to go slack behind me, as if my words were pul ing al the energy out of him. His gun lowered a little and I knew I was getting somewhere.

“He has nice parents and his sister told me he did up the house himself. You ever fix anything Bil y? You ever make anything that was going wrong, go right?” Again, it wasn’t an accusation, just a soft question.

“God, Roxie,” Bil y murmured, even low, his voice was shaking.

“I feel like I’ve been waiting,” I said to Bil y, looking at Hank. “Waiting for a long time, but I guess I know what you mean. My life began when I met him.”

At my words, to my surprise, and likely everyone else’s in the room, Bil y just gave up.

His gun arm wrapped around my middle and he shoved his face in my neck.

“Roxie,” he muttered there.

Hank started toward us, slowly, not lowering his gun, not taking his eyes off me. They were not lazy, not in the slightest, they were hyper-alert and so intense, I thought they might burn me.

“You want me to have that, don’t you, Bil y?” I asked quietly, my eyes on Hank.

“I want you with me,” Bil y said against my neck.

I took my eyes off Hank and turned to face Bil y. He lifted his head at my turn and I put my hands to his cheeks. I looked at him and ran my thumbs down the stubble below his cheekbones. His blue eyes were fil ed with pain.

I wanted to care, but I didn’t. If that made me a bad person, so be it.

“Bil y, I don’t want to hurt you but I don’t think I’ve ever been with you.”

For the first time, I realized this was true. Bil y was fun.

He was freedom from the smal town I grew up in. He was rebel ion, which was something I’d been honing for a decade before I met him. He was also energy and adventure.

What he wasn’t was a life force.

Not like Hank.

I put my forehead to Bil y’s.

“I’m so sorry,” I whispered

And I was.

“You’re the only good thing I have, the only good thing I ever had,” Bil y whispered back.

I didn’t get a chance to reply.

Hank was through.

I felt his strong arm wrap around my waist and, with a tug, he pul ed me out of Bil y’s arms. We walked back several steps, clearing Bil y, and then he swung me to the side. I col ided with Lee and Lee pul ed me back as I watched Bil y try to lift his gun to Hank but Marcus was at Bil y’s side, his gun pressed to Bil y’s temple.

“Drop it,” Marcus said.

Bil y kept raising the gun, almost like he wanted Marcus to shoot him.

I held my breath. Lee kept moving us back.

Hank stil had his weapon trained on Bil y, as did Marcus, but Bil y kept raising his gun.

“Drop it!” Marcus bit out.

Bil y’s hand twisted and I realized what he was going to do.

He was going to shoot himself.

Terror seized me and I screamed. “Hank, stop him!” Then, a gunshot blasted through the room.

Everyone went stil as we watched Bil y’s hand explode in a mist of red. He shrieked a hideous cry of pain as the gun fel free.

There was a nanosecond of silence.

Then Hank ordered, “Cal the paramedics.”

Hank moved toward Bil y and in my line of sight so I couldn’t see.

I looked to Luke, thinking he shot Bil y. Luke was shrugging off his jacket, blood was running down his arm.

The sight of it overwhelmed me. I sagged against Lee and he took my weight into his body at the same time he shoved his gun in a shoulder holster.

“Back off. Police,” Eddie was there, gun raised, badge out, danger was back in the room.

The two men who had to be from Chicago were approaching Hank, Marcus and Bil y. They moved back when they caught sight of Eddie.

“Drop your weapons and against the wal ,” Eddie continued. Without hesitation their weapons fel to the ground, their hands went up.