Lorraine and Jeannie ran between the Dancing Crane Cafe and the long building that had the restrooms. Lorraine peered around, Dennis had been joined by Ki, and both were holding big, black handguns. Lorraine pulled her own gun out, slick in her sweating palms.

“Hurry up,” Jeannie rasped, “kill ‘em, kill ‘em both!”

“Shut up, Jeannie!” Lorraine peeked around the corner, but she saw Dennis pointing right at her and she retracted, the bullets digging into the stucco wall, digging out chunks with every close shot.

Bam bam bam!

“Oh Jesus, Jesus Christ, Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus Jesus — ”

“Jeannie, stop!” Lorraine popped her head out again then pulled it back to avoid another three shots.

Bam bam bam!

Then Lorraine pulled around again and fired in the precise spot where she remembered Dennis being, hoping she’d luck out and he’d still be there.

Bam bam!

But, Dennis had moved, and Lorraine caught sight of him in the corner of her eye and pulled back again, putting three more shots into the wall, digging away at their protection. As soon as he paused, Lorraine peeked out again, shooting twice. Bam bam!

Dennis fell back, the gun falling out of his hand.

“I got him,” Lorraine said, a rush of adrenalin coursing through her.

“Which one?”

“Dennis.”

“Dennis,” Jeannie repeated, panting. But sorrow seemed to overtake her fear. “Oh, my poor Den … ”

“Jeannie, he was gonna kill you!”

“I … right, I know, I know.”

Lorraine peeked out, not seeing any sign of Ki. “I lost the other one, Ki. Probably snuck around the other side … ”

Bam bam! Jeannie snapped, her warm blood splattering Lorraine’s dress, her lifeless weight falling over Lorraine, knocking her to the side. Lorraine instinctively pointed down the stretch of walkway on their side of the bathrooms. Bam bam click click click.

Jeannie lay heavy on Lorraine, slumping to the side. Lorraine looked over the see Ki Fong approaching. He pulled the clip from the handle of his handgun, tossing the empty clip away and pulling a fresh clip from his pocket.

“You really fucked this up,” Ki said to Lorraine.

“You were in with Dennis the whole time.”

“So was she,” Ki shrugged, snapping the clip into the handle. “She didn’t know I was in. Once she figured that out, things got … complicated. But, without her or Dennis, I won’t have to share any of the Westmorland money.”

Lorraine sneered up at him, Jeannie staring up from her lap, the faintest pulse thumping against Lorraine’s thigh.

“Just gotta finish up here and get to the airport. Sorry about this, I know you got a new kid and everything. But hey, that’s life in the big city, eh?”

Lorraine sat there, certain of her own imminent death. Her blood ran cold, hairs standing up on the backs of her arms. She clutched Jeannie's body, knowing it wouldn’t be any help to either of them.

I was afraid something like this would happen, I knew it from the start! I got lucky in Denver, but that kind of luck just can’t last. I suppose it was just a matter of time.

Lorraine’s heart froze as Ki raised the gun, point blank range. She could see into the little round hole in the front of the barrel, a dark tunnel, her conduit to the next world. Her body flinched with the memory of that indescribable pain, burning, sizzling, iron tearing flesh and shattering bone, bile running wild through her bloodstream, bacteria flooding her brain. She wouldn't survive a second shooting, she knew it; she knew it after surviving the first.

Lorraine thought of Griffin, of Ashe, of poor Kayla.

I hope they don’t suffer too terribly, was all she could think just before that gun went off.

Bam! Bam bam bam!

Lorraine’s body shuddered with the blasts, eyes clamping shut, jaws locked tight. But, a clack and a thud grabbed Lorraine's attention. Ki hit the ground, dropping his gun, chest already black with his blood.

Lorraine looked down at herself, untouched, Jeannie still staring up at her. Lorraine looked up and over to see Griffin standing at the edge of the building, a gun in his hands, face bent in a hardened grimace. Certain his adversary was down for good, Griffin pocketed the gun and fell to Lorraine’s side.

“Oh Griffin!”

He knelt next to her, wrapping his arms around Lorraine as she leaned into his embrace. “I’m so glad you’re all right, baby, so glad — ”

“We’ll always be together,” Lorraine said, “that's the deal.”

“That's right, baby, that's right. Nobody’s ever coming between us, ever.” He glanced down at Jeannie, putting two fingers against her neck.

“How is she?”

“Fading fast.”

Jeannie looked up from Lorraine’s lap, her eyes shifting. A long rattle crawled out of her throat even as the blood drained from her face. “I … I’m so … sorry … ”

Lorraine said, “Shshshsh, Jeannie, save your strength.”

Jeannie arched her brows, a sad frown bending and twisting her pretty lips. “For what?” was the only answer she could offer, and her head feel back into Lorraine’s lap, unmoving. Lorraine reached over and closed her eyelids, Jeannie still and lifeless in her lap.

Several uniformed police officers appeared from around the side of the building, their legs splayed and their guns drawn, aimed immediately at Lorraine and Griffin, huddled with Jeannie’s dead body.

“N.Y.P.D.,” one said in a commanding voice.

“Easy, boys, easy,” Griffin said, “I called you in … well, me and about a hundred other people, I'm guessing.”

The officer eyed them, then looked at Ki laying dead just a few yards away. “You do that?”

Griffin nodded.

The officer caught sight of Lorraine’s empty handgun, gesturing to it with his own deadly weapon. “What about that?”

“It’s mine,” Lorraine said. “It’s empty.”

He aimed his gun straight at Lorraine’s head, the other officers backing his play. “Get away from the gun.”

“I can’t go anywhere.”

“Get away from the gun!”

“She said the gun’s empty,” Griffin said, holding his hand out, palm flat to calm the officers. “This guy was coming after them. Look at what happened to this one, she’s dead!”

The officers glanced at each other, tension swelling, guns still pointed at Lorraine and Griffin. It would only take a split-second of misjudgment, even just a twitch of the wrong nerve, to let loose a shower of hot bullets at close range, and neither Lorraine nor Griffin would have a chance.

“All right,” the officer in charge said, “okay, let’s get an ambulance here. But, we’re all going downtown, get this straightened out.”

“Sure, officer,” Griffin said, “of course. Thank you, officer.”

The cops lowered their guns as a pair of paramedics wheeled a gurney up and lifted Jeannie off of Lorraine’s lap. She could stand, and that’s what the officers expected of her, but Lorraine’s legs were useless, numb from fear and relief, from running and crouching, from having given up to despair and abandoned the notion of ever moving again.

Griffin stood and his hand wrapped gently but firmly around her arm and her waist, pulling her up with him. Lorraine focused all her strength into simply standing up. Once she did, Lorraine knew she’d be okay. By Griffin’s side, clinging to him, drawing his strength, she could walk anywhere, do anything, face anyone.

She’d grown a lot since meeting Griffin, developed strengths and sensitivities she didn’t know she had. Lorraine still needed him, still relied upon him, and she still wanted to. She needed to know that he’d be there, and he always would be. Their family would be together again that night. Lorraine would be looking into the loving eyes of her sensitive stepson, feel the grasping hands of her little daughter. She would sleep in her loving husband’s arms and wake the next day to do it all over again, every day for the rest of her life. Nothing else mattered, and nothing ever would.