My heart jumped to see that cold steel glimmering in John’s quivering, sweaty fist. He pointed it at all of us in turn, seeming to go back to Margaret more often than the rest of us.

Langdon said, “Now, J.A., mate, take it easy, yeah?”

“No, Langdon, no, it’s too late for all that. You heard her, she’s got us dead to rights.”

I said, “But things’ll only get worse if that gun goes off and somebody gets hurt, John.”

He looked at me, a sad smile on his glistening face. “Sheryl, sweet Sheryl. I… maybe I should have been with you the whole time, I… I knew how you felt about me. I… wanted to do the right thing…”

“I know you did, John, and I always respected you for that.”

Beverly asked Margaret, “So wait… they’re not screwing, your boss and the little blonde?”

Margaret huffed. “Oh, hell no. She’s too uptight, and he couldn’t get it up if he wanted to.”

“Not for you,” John sneered. “But I don’t think that’s going to be a problem for either one of us much longer.”

I could see my second recent dream playing out in terrible true life. The situation was just a bit different, but the similarities were crucial: our deaths by gunshot at the hands of John Alister. I almost felt as if it had been predestined from the moment I decided to leave Eugene, Oregon. I had stepped into the lion’s den; it was only natural that I’d be devoured.

Langdon said to John, “Believe me, J.A., you don’t wanna do this.”

“Of course I don’t! I wanna go home, hug my kid, tell her I love her, take her to the country like she always wanted, away from all this.”

“Then let me help you do that,” Langdon said. “Give me the gun, that’s the first step.”

I added, “He’s right, John, this is no answer. But it’s not too late.”

Margaret’s voice rose, beginning to quiver. “What’re you gonna do, John, kill us all?”

John turned to me and Langdon. “You two understand, don’t you? They’ll ruin us both, Langdon. You have as much to lose as I do, even more! We back each other up, say they attacked us… and they did, Langdon, they did!”

But Langdon just shook his head. “Sorry, mate, it’s no good this way.”

“He’s right, John. You can’t kill them, please!”

John looked around at us all, grim-faced and defeated. “Five people, ten shots in the magazine, one in the chamber.” He chuckled. “That’ll leave one left over.”

Margaret stepped forward. “No, John, no. They’re right, John, Langdon and your little friend here, they don’t deserve this. Even Beverly, I… I can’t stand here and see her have to sacrifice her life. This was my idea, all of it, from the very beginning.”

She stepped closer to John. Beverly and Langdon and I stepped back, our hands still raised near our shoulders, palms flat and out in submission.

“If you have to kill somebody,” Margaret said, “kill me. I’m no good for you anyway, John, I never was. And Bailey… Bailey deserves better than me, John. She deserves somebody more like Sheryl here, whom I know she adores. And I can see why.”

Margaret turned to me, a single tear trickling down her chin. “I’m glad you’ve found happiness, Sheryl. Go and enjoy your life, be happy together.”

Beverly said only, “Mags?”

But Margaret turned back to John. “It’s just you and me now, John. You can’t let me live, and you know… you’ll have to follow me after. You’re not going to want to stick around for what’s going to happen to you.”

“No,” John said, his whispering voice deflating fast.

I said, “John, please listen to me! You don’t have to do this!”

But Margaret had his full attention. “Do the right thing, John, free us both. We’ll be together in heaven.” She broke a little, tearful smile, her voice breaking. “Maybe next time we’ll get it right.”

Margaret put her hands on John’s. The gun was still clenched in his fist. She raised it to the bottom of her chin. “Now kiss me, my love, one… last… time…”

I couldn’t help shout out, “John, no!”

Click.

They stood frozen, face to face, the rest of us immobile with shock. Margaret broke out laughing and stepped away from John. She looked at me and Langdon, then back at John. “You… you should see your faces!”

I said, “What the…?”

Margaret was cramped forward in laughter as she crossed to her purse and reached in to pull out a semiautomatic magazine. “I… I switched out the magazine before our meeting. What did you think that call to your secretary was all about?”

“Just to get me into the hall for two minutes,” John realized. “But… what about the one in the chamber?”

Margaret pulled it out of her pocket and gave it a little kiss. “I’m keeping it as a souvenir.”

Beverly shook her head with a little smile. “You really are a drama queen, Mags.”

“Yeah,” Margaret said, “a rich, single drama queen!”

Beverly said, “Not too single, I hope.” Margaret walked up to her and they shared a long, sexy kiss.

Margaret turned to John and broke out in another round of laughter. “One… last… time…” She went on laughing at John, kicking him when he was down. “By the way, your kid’s a dud, a real loser.”

I said, “You’re a terrible person.”

She just waved me off. “And you’re a little whore!”

“Oye, listen up,” Langdon said, “apologize.”

Margaret stood there, one brow raised. “I beg your pardon?”

“Apologize to my fiancée.”

I said, “Your—? Oh, Langdon.”

But Margaret and Beverly just turned for the door. “See you back in Australia, hot shot… when we’re liquidating your assets.”

“Or trying to beat the rap.”

“Beat the—?” They stopped and turned. Beverly said to Margaret, “What rap, what’s he talking about?”

“Nothing,” she muttered, “he’s bluffing. What’re you, rigged for sound there, Outback?”

“I’m a dignitary,” Langdon said, “for the United Nations an’ all. It’s mostly ceremonial, but it does mean that you may have committed crimes against the financial holdings of the Australian government.” Beverly and Margaret shared a long, slow glance as Langdon went on, “Anyway, it’ll take a while to sort out. I’m sure you won’t mind.”

“Don’t try to intimidate us, Kangaroo Jack. We’ll have all the money we need to lawyer circles around you. Maybe you should start thinking about getting a good public defender.”

Langdon asked, “You’ve got money? What money?”

“AussieGarb,” Margaret said. “It’s ours now, and I’ll burn that motherfucker right to the ground to crush you if I have to. I spun the great John Alister on his heels. What makes you think a rube like you and this over-the-hill cheerleader can do any better?”

“Maybe because I still control AussieGarb,” Langdon said. I turned my attention to him to hear more. I was relieved, I was surprised, but I was also confused. Langdon explained to the room, “When Sheryl here told me about RicTel, I made a few calls back home. Swapped my board of directors out, to the very last man and woman.”

Beverly repeated, “You… you swapped them out?”

“With my janitorial staff, matter of fact.” Trying not to break out in incredulous laughter, I held a hand to my mouth as Langdon went on, “I hope they cleaned up before taking their various… meetings with you when you…” Langdon looked at me. “How did she put it?”

“‘Sealed the deal’, I believe.”

“Right,” Langdon said. “Well, I can tell ya, that’s better treatment than they usually get, by a long shot.”

Margaret and Beverly exchanged a wide-eyed look, mouths dropping open. “Your janitorial staff?”

I enjoyed saying, “And that would make your proxies worthless.”

John added, “It also means that whatever stock you bought through RicTel is far short of a controlling position.”

“And with all this scandal,” Langdon said, “our stock’s through the floor. It’ll be back, I don’t doubt that, but not in time to be any good to you.”

“And that’s a shame,” John said, his voice assuming some shadow of the strength he’d had only an hour before. “Because I’m filing for divorce on the grounds of adultery, financial abuse, child abuse—”

“I never touched that little brat.”

“I know, never a hug or a kiss or a cuddle. Never heard of psychological abuse? You’ll have plenty of time to read up on it where you’re going.”

“That’s right,” I said. “And now that John’s turned the tables on you, his reputation’ll be fine and Alister Fashions should go exactly as before.”

“Better,” John said, sneering at Margaret. “A lot better.”

Margaret turned her attention to me, her eyes glowing with increasing rage, jaws locking, teeth gritted, cheeks huffing, fingers clawing. “You… little… bitch!”

She jumped at me, too fast for Langdon to stop her. And even in that flash of violence, I could see Beverly hit Langdon hard in the face, see his head snapping to the side. By then Margaret was already on me, reaching to claw out my eyes, pull my hair, wrap her hands around my neck and wring the very life out of me.

But my training came instantly to my aid and my nerves reacted in a split second without my conscious decision. There was no time to think, only to act. I grabbed Margaret’s arm and spun, using her own reckless momentum to help hurl her over my shoulder. She flew fast and easy, legs splayed before she crashed into the cocktail cart, decanters spilling, glass shelves crashing beneath her.

I turned to see Langdon holding Beverly from behind, his hands pinning her forearms in front of her. He said, “Take it easy, you wildcat.”

“I’ll give you wildcat, you bush-league bushman!” Beverly leaned forward a bit, then threw her head back, hoping to smash the back of her skull into Langdon’s beautiful face. But he ducked the move, and she merely thudded harmlessly against his massive shoulder.

“Hey,” I said. Beverly turned to me. “Stay away from my man!” With that and my fast, hard right cross, Beverly went limp in Langdon’s arms. “Jesus,” I muttered, “maybe I really am Batgirl!”

Several uniformed security guards ran in.

“On time as usual,” John said, standing at his position behind his desk.

One security guard drew his gun and held it shakily on Langdon even as he addressed John. “What’s going on here, sir?”

I looked at that gun, the frightened hand, the possible tragedy about to unfold right in front of me. Even at that late hour, after having rescued so much of what had seemed lost, we were still just a hair’s breadth away from a misunderstanding that would take Langdon’s life and ruin my own forever. The bitter coldness of the irony shot through me in a panicked shiver.

I looked at John Alister and I could see that he was instantly aware of the position the spinning wheel of fate had put him in. In that moment he held all of our fates in his frail, sweat-slicked hands. He could push the frightened security guard’s buttons and incite a shooting. With Langdon down, he could ally with his wife and her girlfriend and make me out to be a liar or a criminal, and my own life would be over there and then.

John looked at me, then at his wife and her accomplice, groaning on the floor.

“Stand down,” John said, “it’s not him, it’s those two, my wife and her friend there.”

The security guard looked at Langdon. His gun was shaking in his hands. “Oh, um, sorry, sir.”

“No worries, mate… long as you don’t shoot, eh?”

The guard looked down at the gun in his hands. “Oh, right.” He holstered it, then pulled out a pair of handcuffs and bent down to Margaret, cuffing her hands behind her back while two other guards secured Beverly in the same way.

“Hey, you can’t cuff me like this,” Margaret said, “you’re not real police!”

“They’re on the way,” the security guard said, leading them out.

Margaret turned and hissed at me. “I’m going to kill you someday, I swear it!”

I said, “You’ll have to get in line,” as they dragged the women out. I turned and fell into Langdon’s arms, which he wrapped around me with new urgency and strength. We both knew how close we’d come to losing each other, to losing everything we’d fought so hard for. But luck and love had seen us through, and it was a moment to be relished, indulged, celebrated.

Langdon said to me, “Sorry I didn’t tell you about the janitor switch, luv. Nothin’ personal. Wasn’t that I didn’t trust ya.”

“You had to play things close to the chest. I understand.”

“And when it comes to your chest,” Langdon said with a little grin, “the closer the better!”

John approached us. “I… I don’t know what to say. I’m… I’m so ashamed.”

“No reason to be,” Langdon said. “You know what they say: ‘Behind every woman there’s a great man, it’s true. But she has a hand in every downfall too.’”

John and I shared a chuckle. I said, “I hadn’t heard that.”

“I’ve lived it,” John said. A sad silence filled the office. “Attempted murder, that’s going to ruin me.”

Langdon said, “What attempted murder?”

“My wife, the gun to her head?”

Langdon just shook his head as if he had no idea what John was talking about. I was ready to follow Langdon’s lead, then and for the rest of my life. “I didn’t see that,” I said, “I didn’t see anything like that.”

Langdon said, “Neither of us did, whatever claims those two may make.”

I added, “Guess it would be our word against theirs.”

John smiled, realizing what we were telling him, that we would help him cover up his mistake so he could preserve his life, so that Bailey could have a father and someday a mother worthy of her. John said only, “Thank you,” because those two words said it all with a simple beauty no other words could match.

John gestured toward the door, and Langdon and I both knew we’d have to go with him to the police station. Perhaps the pair would have a press conference afterward.

Something occurred to me. “Langdon, if you’re a Good Will Ambassador from the United Nations, how did they manage to hold you in jail as long as they did?”

“Like I said, it’s mostly ceremonial. Y’gotta go outta yer way to get that special treatment, and that’s just not me.”

Of course, I thought to myself, I should have known better than to ask.

Langdon said to John, “So, the country, y’think?”

“Yeah, I… I think it’s time for a simpler life. Bailey deserves better.” He turned to me. “Not that I’m leaving you out in the cold, Sheryl. You’ve earned a good place here. Even if I retire early, that doesn’t mean I don’t still get to make the big decisions. Maybe… you’ll be the one to make those decisions someday.”

“That’s very tempting,” I said, my eyes and my smile finding Langdon, “but I saw myself leaving New York for a while.”

Langdon returned my smile, and our eyes locked. “Y’never know what our future’ll hold. I always thought our companies could do well together.”

I said, “Maybe it was fate or destiny or whatever they call it.”

Langdon said to me, very softly, “I call it love.”