CHAPTER TWENTY NINE
Outside Zack’s apartment, away from the chaos, Ella suffered the full extent of her injuries. The adrenaline had worn off and the intense stinging had taken hold. Another wound for the collection, she thought.
Ella left the EMT van and walked over to the wall where Paige was sitting. She had bandages across her throat. Hands shaking like a mini earthquake.
“He’s alive,” Paige said.
“Yes he is.”
Ella knew exactly what her partner was going through. After every case, you were always plagued with questions. What if you hadn’t been so lucky? What if you’d arrived a minute earlier or a minute later? What if the unsub had got the sneak attack?
Ella put her hand on Paige’s shoulder, careful not to disturb her injuries. “You saved my ass.”
Paige smiled. “I guess. Does that justify what I did?”
Ella didn’t know the answer to that. “That’s not for us to say.”
“I suppose. Don’t forget you saved me too. This wasn’t just me.”
“No, I sent you into the lion’s den and for that I’m sorry. I made a mistake,” Ella said. “I should have been more careful.”
“I wanted to go in,” Paige said. “That was the most exciting thing I’ve ever done.”
“Once that excitement wears off you’re left with a lot of emotional baggage. Trust me. There’s a reason this job kills people, and it’s not because of people like Zack.”
They both sat on the wall for a moment, watching the officers and medical staff coming and going. Two police officers marched Zack towards their vehicle.
“That’s him,” Paige said.
“Sure is.”
“Do I want to talk to him? I’m not sure. I feel like I should.”
“No, you don’t. Let it go. He’s going to jail for life. Your part in this is done.”
“I nearly killed him,” Paige said.
Ella remembered a line Ripley gave her on her first case. “Ellis, you’re just a doctor. You didn’t make the needle sharp.”
Paige laughed. The officers loaded Zack into the back of their car. Zack Harris was gone, consigned a jail cell for the rest of his life, never to see the light of day again.
“There he goes.”
“The first of many?” Ella asked.
“You mean, would I do this again?”
“Would you?”
Paige inspected her wounds. The ones she could see, at least. “I’m bleeding from my neck. According to the paramedic, I was a millimeter from death. I can’t feel my fingers. My head is a mess. I feel like I haven’t slept in years. I’m pretty sure one of my ankles is broken and I’ve seen a man take a twelve-incher up his ass. You’re asking me if I want to do this again?”
Ella knew the answer already. “Yeah.”
“I definitely underestimated this. All I could think of was the glory, but being in that room with Zack… that’s going to stick with me forever.”
“I’m not going to lie to you, it will take a while to recover. But what happened in there wasn’t luck. You fought for your life and you won.”
Paige flexed her muscles and winced. “Thanks for the reassurance. I don’t want to be in that position again, but no one said this job was a walk in the park. I had some naivety, but that’s long gone.”