Chapter 10

Alex dropped down to help Tammy while Goren cautiously approached Michelle, who already held the gun to little Dani's head.

"Okay, okay… There's no reason to put Dani in the middle. Let her go, Michelle." His face reddened and twisted with emotion. "Let her go. Please."

Danielle was silent, but tears ran freely down her tiny face. She was terrified.

Tammy was still alive. Alex put pressure on the wound with one hand and silently sent a text message with the other. The dining room table blocked her partially from Michelle's view.

Bobby inched forward, then back, every movement with the child's safety foremost in his brain. His mind and heart were racing. "You had to do it, I understand," Bobby said.

"Shut up! You don't understand me! Nobody understands me!"

Bobby froze. Wrong move, he thought. "That's it, isn't it?" Bobby said softly. "All your life, you've been looking for someone… who could understand."

Alex listened to the exchange with a knot in her stomach. As always, Bobby was approaching the situation cautiously, but brilliantly. But even brilliance sometimes failed against insanity. Last week, there hadn't been a child involved. And last week, they were successful. And last week, Bobby'd damned near had a heart attack.

Michelle was talking now. "Even my mother didn't!"

"You suffered... As a little girl… Look at her, Michelle. You said you loved her. You don't want Dani to suffer."

Abruptly, she released the girl, who ran as fast as she could to Alex and her mother. Immediately, Alex positioned herself between the gun and the child. Alex snuck a glance at the clock on her phone. They should be here by now.

"H-hands up," she ordered, and Bobby complied. He raised them as high as he could.

I've got to give her a way out, he thought. She feels trapped.

She turned the gun on herself.

"You don't have to," he said, his face beet red from the stress. "You can still walk out of this, Michelle. Mack died, but maybe it was self defense. And Tammy, she won't press charges. She loves you."

"I killed her," Michelle said, the tears falling. The woman back-stepped toward the balcony door.

"She's alive," Alex called from her nook by the kitchen table.

"See? You didn't kill her. She's alive." Bobby stepped forward cautiously. "She loves you, Michelle. She'll say it was an accident. You can still get out of this."

Outside the apartment door, a team was in position, listening to everything through hastily set-up microphones. Another team was across the street, trying to get a good view of what was taking place inside Thornton's apartment.

They knew there was a child inside, and that kept them from taking action without the word from one of the detectives. They would wait for a signal.

Again, Bobby was telling himself, She can't see a way out. She's got to find a way out.

Abruptly, Bobby collapsed on the floor.

Alex's heart dropped along with him. Adrenaline racing, she craned her neck to see what had happened, if he was hurt. God please don't let him be dead, she pleaded.

A/N I'm getting really tired of this story. I think I'll just quit now.

Bahahahaha! Just kidding.