Dresden continued to move toward the plane. Jude moved as Dresden and Ella did, slow and steady, his gaze never leaving Dresden, his black eyes cataloging the man’s every move.
“I love you, Keeper,” Ella whispered.
Finally, his gaze met hers, and the pain in his eyes skewered her.
Jude threw his weapon down and opened his arms. “It’s me you want, Dresden,” he growled. “Take me.”
Ella felt Dresden’s chest rise and fall. The bastard was laughing. “Oh, I will, Keeper. No doubt, I’ll definitely be ending you, and I won’t harm a hair on your head to do it.”
They were almost to the car that was parked beside the plane.
“Nadege, get on the plane, will you?” Dresden queried sharply.
“Don’t you fuckin’ move, Nadege,” Chase called out, his rifle aimed on the man.
“You think I can’t find Dr. Moeller, Chase? You think you can hide her from me?” Dresden asked conversationally. “None of you can hide from the truth of this. I own you all.”
“Let her go, Horace,” a small voice said from behind King.
Dresden’s spine snapped taut, and his grip around Ella’s throat hardened. Once again, Ella’s airway was constricted, but she didn’t struggle. He still had the gun at her temple.
“Anna Beth, you were never any good at staying where I put you,” Dresden said. “Warren? Take the shot.”
A shot rang out, and Anna Beth cried out, her body bowing at the waist before she fell to the ground.
“She thought I wouldn’t do it,” Dresden said at Ella’s ear. He eased the pressure on her throat. Ella knew her time was limited. “She thought I wouldn’t find her, thought I wouldn’t hurt her, just like your Keeper thinks I won’t cut you down. But neither of them realizes that I tend to get rid of the things that no longer have use to me.”
“Who is it, Dresden?” she pushed from her aching throat.
“You want a name, Ella? You think you deserve a name? You think you deserve something for all the hard work you’ve put in?” Dresden asked with a laugh. “Maybe you do. After all you’ve killed and maimed, and now you’ll die for it.”
“Give me a name. Who pulls your strings?” she asked. “No way you’re the top.”
His grip tightened, and Ella’s vision winked. “I will be,” he said.
“Name,” she forced out.
He shrugged. As if it was nothing to give her this information. “Okay. I’ll give you a name. You can take it to the grave with you…Ricker. William Ricker. You don’t know him, and he can’t be found. And in a few moments you’ll be too dead to do anything about it.”
Ella had no idea who that was. None at all. But it was a place to start. She’d worked within Dresden’s clutches for a year for this single name. Relief and something else flowed through her. She’d call it disappointment. All of this for a single name.
But maybe her team could use that name to dismantle Dresden and whoever he worked for.
“Let her go, Dresden,” Jude called out again, taking another step forward.
“He’s going to kill you, Horace,” Ella whispered.
“And just like you, he’ll fail,” Dresden said with a laugh.
She was watching Jude’s face and saw his eyes widen the split second before Dresden pushed her away. She tried to catch her balance, but the suddenness of his action had her going to her knees facing him. In slow motion, she watched him raise his weapon and fire a single shot. She fell forward, her hands bracing her fall.
“Two birds, one stone,” Dresden said.
His words brought her head up. There was a smile on his face.
It was gone a split second later as a hole formed in the center of his forehead.
He crumpled to the ground. Dead.
Just like that, Horace Dresden was dead.
Jude called her name, his tone agonized, and all Ella wanted to do was comfort him. He was safe. Dresden was dead, and Jude was alive.
She brought her hand to her side and pulled it away as Jude went to his knees beside her. In her ear, she heard rapid-fire commands from King, and she heard that damn helicopter making a return trip.
Who was in that damn thing?
“Ella!” Jude demanded.
“Jude?” she said, a cough rumbling up from her core, pain spreading through her body like fire. There was blood on her hands. A lot of it. Jude pulled her into his lap, and the pain of his movements stole her breath.
She recognized this for what it was. Her ending. “I love you. Be safe.”
“Hold on, Ella. You hold on for me!” Jude demanded.
She couldn’t hold on. Everything faded but the pain. She needed to breathe—God! Why was it so hard to breathe?
“Love you,” she pushed out again. Drowning must feel like this, she thought.
“Don’t, baby,” Jude said, and he was there, holding her now. How could she not feel him? She was so cold and needed his warmth. “Don’t leave me.”
She tried to reach for him but couldn’t make her arms work. So she smiled, and Jude threw back his head and screamed at the sky.
He was alive. That’s all that mattered. One more thing though.
“Wi…Ricker…”
“What?” Jude asked, wiping her face, his own tortured.
She swallowed around her tongue. “Tell the Piper…William Ricker.”
She dropped her arms and stared at the sky. It was done. Ella was done.
A last look at Jude, and then her world winked black.
Chapter 23
Jude picked her up and ran. His teammates formed a barrier, but Nadege was on the plane and Dresden’s men—the ones who hadn’t fallen to Endgame—were fleeing. The plane’s engines screamed and it took off, fleeing the destruction Dresden had wrought.
The military helicopter that had peppered Dresden and his men with artillery shots made another appearance, but it was too late.
“Piper sent the cavalry,” Vivi said over their earpieces. “She’s going to land it, Endgame. Get Ella and your asses on
