Charlene walked toward him, hands out to show they were empty and that she meant no harm. She had absolutely no intention of making any sudden moves, so in theory, the worst possible outcome for her personally would be a close-up view of a child getting shot in the head. That was a pretty damn bad outcome, but if she got closer maybe she could convince him to hand her the gun.

"That's close enough," he said when she was a few feet away.

She stopped.

"May I make a presumptuous statement?" she asked.

"I guess."

"The fact that you let me get this close means that you want a peaceful resolution to this. Why would you bother granting my request if you didn't think there was another way out? And now that we've established that you don't want to kill anybody, including yourself, why not lower the gun?"

"I'll never see him again."

"Let's pretend that's true, even though I don't believe that it is. Is that a reason to kill him? You still lose."

"And his mother loses too. I won't have her thinking she won. I won't have her laughing at me."

"Whatever issues you have with his mother, they're not his fault. He's your son, for God's sake! I can tell just by looking at him that he's a smart kid. Why extinguish that? Who knows what he could become? Who knows what he could do, what he could bring to the world? You're not just stealing from him, you're stealing from me."

Was this becoming too corny? She felt like she might be veering dangerously close to being cheesy, if she hadn't already crossed that line. She didn't want the man to say, "Oh, give me a break!" and start shooting.

"I don't want to kill him," the man said, sounding utterly broken. She wouldn't have been able to hear him if she hadn't walked closer.

"Good! Then fucking don't!"

His hand trembled a bit. That could mean that he was considering lowering the gun. It could also mean that he was preparing to pull the trigger.

"What's your name?" Charlene asked.

"Lee."

"Hi, Lee. How about you give me the gun? That would make my day so much better. We've already established that you don't want to do this, so why drag it out? Every second this goes on makes the resolution more difficult."

"If I let him go, will you trade places with him?"

"Excuse me?"

"I'll let him go if you'll be my hostage so I can get out of here."

Hell no, Charlene thought. No way. Not a chance. I want the boy to survive but I'm not going to sacrifice myself for him. That's pure madness.

"I can't do that," said Charlene, feeling like a selfish, cowardly monster.

"I won't hurt you. They'll just think I'm going to hurt you. I'll let you go after we get away."

"That...that really doesn't work for me."