He was hunched down in front of her but looking toward the door. He had his axe in the one hand behind his back, and he started to draw out the other, in which he held a handgun.

Katie kicked him.

She kicked him hard, with all her strength, and perhaps...

Had just a little superpower of her own.

Revenge? Hatred?

Or the search for real justice, for so many years now.

He didn’t just fall. He went flying backward, sliding across the room on his rump, almost hitting the opposite wall.

The door burst open. Dan was there, and even as Monty struggled to right himself and take aim, Dan shot him.

Monty screamed as his hand exploded and his gun went flying.

“No warning! You can’t shoot me with no warning, you asshole. You’ll face charges. My rights have been—”

“Shut up or I’ll shoot to kill,” Dan said, keeping his gun trained on Monty as he hunkered down to slice the ropes from Katie’s wrists with his free hand. “And I’m just a private investigator. I’m not a cop or any kind of an agent. I’m a citizen standing my ground. I’d shoot you, you bastard, without blinking an eye, and the world—and all immortal beings—would thank me for it!”

Katie hadn’t heard the first sound of a siren.

She hadn’t heard any kind of commotion.

But suddenly, officers and agents were flooding into the room. Axel was there, asking her if she was all right. Ryder was with him, and Andre Broussard and others, all there to take Monty Trudeau away, to put to rest any concept of an immortal Axeman.

Dan pulled her up and to her feet.

She felt the ghosts behind her, heard Gray complimenting her on her kicking style.

She laughed and replied to them. Dan, Axel and Andre were grinning.

Ryder looked concerned. Katie grinned and went to him, giving him a hug and a kiss on the cheek. “Sorry, yeah, I’m a little wild right now!”

“Of course, of course!” Ryder said.

Katie shook her head, looking at Dan. “How could you know? I mean the dogs were down, and I was gone, but Monty was going to make it look like George got in here and poisoned the dogs and seized us both and killed me—”

“Well, actually,” Dan said, “I think I knew—he’s definitely a big man! But there was something else.”

“They’d finally found a piece of trace evidence,” Axel said.

“The hair—” Katie began.

Dan was nodding. “A strand of mule hair. We put it together.”

“The mules!” Katie said.

“The mules are all fine. The dogs are on their way to the emergency vet,” Ryder assured her.

She looked at Dan and said, “It’s over. Really over!”