Disclaimer: They are not mine, I can swear it.

Title: Not without you.

Dedicated to my patient and sweet beta Jo, she does the entire hard job.

By Lylou

From where he was, Mac could see her clearly, he could intuit her bullet-proof vest underneath her Donna Karen suit.

The commercial center was full of people.

That's why that bastard wanted to be there. Mac could see Stella and the rest of the team separated, pretending to be shopping or taking a walk.

If anything went wrong, innocent people could die today, he thought. He had to catch that son of a bitch before somebody got hurt.

Or dead.

Mac saw a man with a red baseball cap looking at him and walking in his direction. It was him.

His voice was cold and superior when he spoke:

"Finally…the great Mac Taylor in person."

"Who are you?"

"That's doesn't matter, Mac…Can I call you Mac?"

"Why don't you come with me?"

"Not so fast, boss…The game has only just started."

"The 'game'? You are killing people and sending me the photos…This isn't a game."

"…Well, maybe you just don't know how to have some fun, Mac. That's what she always says to you, isn't it?"

Mac felt a chill up his spine and couldn't help but look behind the suspect; she was still there, looking nervously at him, listening to every word through her little earphone. Was he talking about Stella?

"Do you miss her, Mac?"

"…Who?"

"You know who…your partner."

Mac was more and more tense. He couldn't understand anything that was going on. Stella was there, just a few meters behind the suspect. She was looking at him, worried, but she was fine.

"Why I would miss her? "Mac asked.

"You don't know yet...? She's dead."

Mac looked at Stella again out of the corner of his eye.

"You don't believe me, Mac?"

"No."

"Why would I lie?

I'm going to die today."

"No, you aren't….I'm going to make sure that you go where you belong - into a nauseating jail cell."

"You want to bet?"

Suddenly the man with a red cap grabbed a gun, aimed and fired.

Mac felt an intensive pain burning somewhere on his body, the warm blood began to flow and he felt confused for a moment, and then, he fell to the floor.

The guy aimed at him again, but before he could shoot, Mac fired his own gun at him twice and saw him fall to the ground.

Mac could barely hear the shouting, and people were running around in all directions, but before his eyes closed, he saw Stella running toward him.

To be continued…