The Blackout Girl ✔️

chapter forty-three

Chapter Forty-Three

It happened all at once.

Nolan rushed out of the boardroom to announce his newfound revelation. Kaytee got a call that changed it all. Every member of the team was suddenly thrown through a loop.

"Wait, slow down," Dre was saying. "You think Michelle Robinson, as in Lexi's mother, has been our girl all along."

"It fits," Nolan said. "I don't know anything for sure, but I feel this in my gut, Dre. She's been here the whole time. She was right in the middle of all of it. Yeah, she had me fooled too, but we have to check this out."

"We thought the same thing about Delaney," Darren chimed in. "I don't think we can rush into this."

"We might have to," Nolan argued. "So much is at stake. She's devolving, and if we aren't careful, she's going to take a lot of people down with her. Trust me on this, we need to figure out what Mrs. Robinson knows."

Kaytee didn't seem like she'd been asleep seconds before her phone went off. Suddenly, she was alive, buzzing from head to toe with a whirlwind of energy. She was talking a mile a minute.

"Mr. Esperanza is dead!" she said, running into the center of the main room. She hadn't bothered to put her shoes on out of fear they would slow her down. "He stepped out for a smoke and she came after him. She slit his throat. She slit his throat and he bled out in the parking garage."

"She was waiting for him to be vulnerable," Dre noted. "We should have put him into protective custody."

"We tried," Price interjected. He'd just gotten back from his meeting, only halfway through the double doors when he spoke up. "He refused."

"He was too stubborn for his own good. He refused to help us. He refused to let us help him," Nolan said. "And now he's dead."

"Please tell me they have cameras in the garage," Darren said, his hands in his hair.

"They do. They even got us a name," Kaytee told them, pausing to gather herself. "It's Michelle Robinson. It's like Nolan said."

Dre held up a hand. "Hold on, if Mrs. Robinson is a killer, why did Delaney run?"

"She knew they would pin the blame on her," said Nolan. "She probably caught on to what Michelle was doing and panicked."

Darren swallowed hard. He was reading an email, adding to the chaos. With each minute, new pieces fell into place. For better or worse, they were reaching the end. "Dallas PD just got a call. Shots were fired at the Robinson residence. Guys, she has a gun."

Price acted without hesitation. "Harte, get SWAT to meet us at the scene. We're going now. Get your vests. We want to take Michelle Robinson alive. If she dies, it better be the last resort."

Nolan wasn't used to the weight of a bulletproof vest. He was shaking when he threw it over his shoulders, snapping every clasp into place. Knowing Mrs. Robinson was in the house with a gun, and undoubtedly with a hostage, made him feel sick. He was ready to vomit, knowing very well that there could be lives lost this afternoon.

And it could be his fault.

A loaded gun, especially one like he had in his hand, was a ticking time bomb. It was a given that, at some point in his career as a federal agent, he would have to take a life. He was trained to shoot the targets, to ensure that a suspect was dead. He was trained to be a killer, and he wasn't ready to be one. Nolan Foster wasn't built to be a cold, merciless person.

Maybe he was in the wrong job.

Kaytee tied her hair back, clicking a new magazine into her .22. Dre's face hardened, and he made sure the gun he kept strapped to his ankle was loaded before he covered it with his pants once more. Darren, true to Price's orders, was calling SWAT. So much was happening, and Nolan felt lost.