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“Now, Laurie Moran, you’re gonna pay for what your boyfriend did.”
Terrified, Laurie could hear the sound of her own breathing. She watched as his finger moved ever so slightly on the trigger of the pistol. The silence was broken by a noise from behind.
“Hey, Willie, I’m the one you want!” Alex shouted.
Startled, Willie turned in the direction of Alex’s voice. As he did so, the gun moved slightly to his left and was no longer pointed at her. She recognized her opportunity and pounced.
Laurie sprinted toward Willie and grabbed his hand and wrist that held the gun. He struggled to turn it toward her. As they grappled for control of the weapon, a shot was fired and lodged in the ceiling. She heard Willie gasp as from behind Alex enveloped him in a bear hug, pinning his arms to his sides. Still holding onto his hand with the gun, Laurie slipped four of her fingers around Willie’s index finger. She bent his finger back. He yelped in pain as he released his grip on the gun. It clattered to the floor. Laurie scrambled to pick it up. She assumed a classic triangular stance to level the weapon at Willie’s torso, just as her father had taught her when she was in high school.
Alex was holding Willie’s arms at his sides like a human straitjacket. “Why? Why, Willie?” he demanded. “This wasn’t going to get your old life back. Now your son’s going to have to visit you behind bars.”
The moment of sympathy for his client’s victim was only temporary. Alex ran to Laurie and held her around her waist from behind as she continued to aim the gun at Willie.
Laurie finally released her grip on the gun when a row of police officers rushed through the door of the apartment. Alex pulled her into a tight hug, turning her face away from Willie Hayes, who was glaring at them as he was handcuffed.
When Alex let go, he looked into her eyes with sadness. “I know how hard it was for you to accept me into your world, and now my work put you in danger. I would understand if it changed the way you feel.”
She felt tears come to her eyes as she shook her head adamantly. “No, never. When I saw him standing there with that gun, all I could think about was the wonderful life we were going to have together. My love for you is even stronger, if that’s possible.”
“God, that’s a relief. Oh, Laurie.” He wrapped his arms around he. “I’ll never let you go.”
She murmured, “I’d marry you right here and now if I could.”
Laurie began to feel the shock from what had happened and leaned closer to Alex for support.
Behind them, they heard a commotion from the foyer. They looked from the kitchen and caught a glimpse of Rhoda Carmichael trying to force her way past a police officer looping crime scene tape across the threshold.
Spotting them inside, Rhoda shouted, “What’s going on? Sorry I’m late. The traffic on the LIE was brutal. But forget that. What’s going on? What happened?”
Alex, still holding Laurie in his arms, called back to her. “What happened is that I want to get Laurie out of here. I’ll call you tomorrow.”
Laurie looked around, but didn’t move. From the little she had seen, the apartment was beautiful. If they bought it, would they always be haunted by the memory of Willie Hayes pointing a gun at her? Maybe. Maybe not.
By now the police had let Rhoda in. She ran to them and tried to joke, “I didn’t know someone would try to kill you to get this place!”
Neither Laurie nor Alex smiled.