Disclaimer: The characters of the Stephanie Plum series belong to Janet Evanovich and are used here without permission. No copyright infringement is intended.
Note: The plot behind the first part of this is, essentially, from Agatha Christie's "Ten Little Indians".
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Endgame
By TT

Stephanie staggered into the mansion. The struggle with Thompson at the top of the cliff had taken the last of her strength.

It had been a day since she had eaten. After finding Jones collapsed at the dinner table, lying dead, she had been afraid of being poisoned.

Now she was hurt, hungry, alone and stranded on this godforsaken island with no way to communicate and only the bodies of nine dead stalkers to keep her company.

The ankle she had injured in her struggle with Thompson before he fell to his death over the cliff, finally gave out.

She collapsed to the floor in the middle of the entryway.

Closing her eyes, she felt tears build and overflow. Her heart and soul cried out to him, cried out for his embrace, his comfort, his love. But he was far away from the island and might not even know she was missing.

Images from the past few days flashed in her memory. Images of each of her stalkers as their dead bodies were found.

Thompson had been the last left, but he hadn’t been the one pulling the strings she knew that.

He had simply wanted to die together with her so their souls would be forever together in death.

“So much death,” she whispered.

“Don’t fret, dear,” a familiar voice whispered in her ear.

Gasping in shock and horror, she threw herself away from the voice as her eyes flew open. “You.. you’re dead!”

“Not quite,” Jones informed. “It was very convenient, don’t you thing. None of them even suspected.” His eyes took on a thoughtful look as he looked at her. “You did, though. You suspected me straight away. That was why I had to fake my death.”

He took a step toward her. Stephanie moved back away from him. Eventually, though, she was pressed against a wall.

Reaching out to caress her cheek, Jones continued. “Thompson had the right of it, though. If we die together, we’ll be together forever.”

“You’re sick,” she accused, horrified.

He just smiled. “You’ll have all eternity to find out just how sick, my love,” he assured.

With that said, he pulled out a gun and a syringe.

“Wh-what are those for?” she asked, fear beginning to build toward panic in her chest.

“These,” he said, holding one item in each hand, “are a means to an end.” The laughter that poured out of him at that point was high-pitched and utterly insane.

Stephanie began to tremble.

“You see, my love, We need to die together, but I couldn’t bear to mar your perfect skin. So you will be injected with this nice, poison I was given. It will give you a few minutes of consciousness before lulling you to sleep – an eternal sleep. During that time, you will shoot me with the gun. I know what you did to Jimmy Alpha, so I know you will make it a quick death. The thought of someone suffering is abhorrent to you, isn’t it? Then we’ll be together forever.”

“You’re sick,” Stephanie protested, her panic giving way to revulsion. She began to struggle away from him.

Jones dropped the gun, grabbed her by the arm and twisted it painfully, stopping her struggles. Before she could protest, he slid the needle into her arm and depressed the plunger.

A burning pain started at the injection site and seemed to seep into her system. With a shriek, Stephanie managed to jerk her arm away and dislodge the needle. A quick movement of her arm sent the needle flying.

Jones looked murderous for a moment, but quickly calmed himself. An evil smile appeared on his face before it faded to one more peaceful. “Truthfully I only needed half a dose to kill you, but you’ll suffer more this way. I do apologize,” he said, pinning her against the wall. “I’ll just wait for it to take effect and then we’ll proceed with the rest.

Stephanie wanted to know what the rest was, but her eyes were getting heavy and thought was becoming more difficult.

The adrenaline in her system combined with a lack of food caused the drug to take effect more quickly than Jones thought. “It appears to be time, my love,” he informed, lifting the gun and placing it in her hand. He then backed up a little, remained kneeling and held his arms extended out to the side. “Aim true, Stephanie. I’ll see you soon in eternity.”

Stephanie felt anger surge through her, anger that she would never again see her family or friends, anger at the unfairness of her life ending like this, anger that this man thought he had the right to control her. That anger burned out any trace of compassion she might have felt.

Lifting the gun in a shaking hand, she leveled it at his heart. “Goodbye,” she said, lowering the gun and shooting him in the groin. Jones’ scream of pain echoed through the empty house.

She dropped the gun and watched as he collapsed on the floor, hands covering that most sensitive place. When he turned pleading eyes to her, she just looked at him and smirked. Focusing all of her attention, she managed to get the words she wanted out. “Groin shot will kill you too, but it’s more painful and takes a little longer.”

A tight whimper escaped Jones as the light began fading from his eyes.

Her own eyes were closing quickly, but she forced herself to stay awake. She needed to know he was gone for good.

A few minutes later, just as the world around her was turning black, she saw his body relax into death, his final breath escaping him audibly.

At that, she tipped her aching head back against the wall behind her and let her eyes close.

She couldn’t move anymore and smiled slightly. At least Jones hadn’t lied about it being painless, she thought.

She could feel her grasp of consciousness fading. “I love you, Ranger,” she thought as the last threads of consciousness slipped away. A part of her thought she heard Ranger say, “Babe,” That thought made her smile as she gave in to oblivion.

Stephanie let out a groan as a dull ache seemed to pervade her body.

That was strange, she thought. She didn’t think there were bodies to ache in the afterlife.

“Wake up, Babe,” Ranger’s voice whispered in her ear.

“Ranger,” she sighed, a smile of love and contentment curving her lips. “Heaven,” she whispered.

The low chuckle beside her had her trying to open her eyes. “Glad you think so,” Ranger said.

Finally managing to open her eyes, Stephanie gasped. Ranger was sitting on her bed next to her. “Ranger!” she shouted, or, rather, tried to shout. Her mouth and throat were dry causing it to sound more like a croak.

Ranger reached to the table beside her and brought her a glass of water with a straw in it. “Sip it a bit,” he cautioned. “Nothing’s been in your stomach for at least the past three days.

Done sipping, she handed the glass back and asked, “Three days?”

A shadow passed across Ranger’s face. “Three days ago, we arrived on the island just in time to hear the sound of a gunshot. I tried to get there as fast as I could… but…” Here he swallowed convulsively.

Despite the fatigue she felt, Stephanie reached out and squeezed his hand. “Hey,” she said, waiting for him to meet her eyes. “I’m still here.”

Ranger nodded. “Yeah,” he agreed, maintaining his hold of her hand and reaching out with his other hand to brush a curl off of her forehead. “But when I found you, for just a moment I thought… You were still breathing, though.”

“And where there is life, there is hope,” Stephanie murmured.

Again, Ranger nodded. “Junior found the syringe, Tank found the bottle on Jones. The doctor was able to counteract the poison long enough for us to get you back to the mainland and get the antidote into you. It’s taken three days for you to wake up.”

Stephanie squeezed his hand again. Then, her eyes widened in horror. “Oh!” she exclaimed.

Ranger instantly stiffened, ready to act. “What, Babe? What is it?” he demanded.

“It’s been four days since I’ve eaten,” she said, her voice filled with horror. “Four. Days!”

The corners of Ranger’s mouth twitched upward.

“It’s not funny!” Stephanie protested. “My stomach may never forgive me. It might force me to start eating like you!”

Ranger’s laughter boomed out into the room.

Stephanie pouted.

Once he calmed down, Ranger leaned forward and brushed a kiss across her lips. “Only you, Babe,” he intoned.

End

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