Chapter 9 - The Final StandThe tension in the room was so thick it felt like solid glass, ready to shatter at the slightest vibration.
Evelyn Vance kept her finger steady on the trigger of her silver revolver, her eyes gleaming with cold, calculating ambition. “It’s a shame, really, Vincent. You and I could have run this entire state together. But you’re too sentimental. You let a dead girl’s ghost drag you into your own grave.”
Vincent didn't flinch. His face was a mask of cold, unyielding iron. “You killed my sister.”
“She wouldn't listen to reason,” Evelyn replied, her tone completely devoid of remorse. “Just like you aren't listening now.”
She began to squeeze the trigger.
In a fraction of a second, before the hammer could fall, the heavy double doors of the office burst open behind Evelyn with an explosive crash.
“Drop the gun, Evelyn!”
Evelyn gasped, spinning around—only to freeze in absolute disbelief.
Standing in the doorway, pale, leaning heavily against the doorframe for support, but holding a standard-issue police service pistol with a rock-steady grip, was Detective Sarah Quinn. Her trench coat was still stained with dried blood, her face ghost-white from her injuries, but her blue eyes burned with absolute fury.
“Sarah?!” Evelyn shrieked, her aim wavering between Vincent and the doorway. “You’re supposed to be dead!”
“I’m too stubborn to die in a storm drain, Evelyn,” Sarah said, her voice ringing clear and strong across the room. “And your husband—Captain Thomas Vance—just sent me the rest of your financial files from his precinct terminal ten minutes ago. The game is over.”
Evelyn’s face twisted in rage. She pivoted the gun away from Vincent and aimed directly at Sarah’s chest. “Then we die together!”
Before Evelyn could fire, Vincent moved faster than humanly possible. He lunged across the desk like a striking animal, slamming his forearm into Evelyn’s wrist with bone-crunching force.
The silver revolver discharged harmlessly into the ceiling plaster.
Vincent wrenched the weapon from her grip, spinning her around and slamming her against the mahogany desk, pressing her arm up behind her back with enough force to snap her shoulder.
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Evelyn screamed in pain as the heavy metal cuffs clicked securely around her wrists, applied smoothly by Leo Bennett, who stepped up beside Vincent with a satisfied smirk.
Mayor Richard Sterling slumped against the wall, sliding down to the floor in a pathetic heap of tears and panic as federal sirens began to wail loudly from the streets below, echoing up through the broken windows of City Hall.
