Whatever everyone had believed about Ashley’s bulldog tendencies, it wasn’t the complete truth. There was more to Ashley than even she knew. But she was about to. ‘Not luck. You got us to this point. Three people are going to walk out, four including that first lady, and it’s completely down to you. You kept him calm, reasoned with him, appealed to him using logic he’d understand,’ Gina told Ashley.
Ashley looked at Gina. ‘I’m making it all up as I go along. I don’t have a fucking clue what I’m doing.’
‘Of course you don’t know what you’re doing. But you’re doing it anyway. You just gotta keep doing it.’
‘You really think I can keep him calm? Get more people out?’ Ashley asked with deep uncertainty.
Gina nodded. ‘I really fucking do.’
Ashley’s mouth turned up ever so slightly at the corners. ‘I really don’t know if you mean that. But it’s good to hear it.’
Gina frowned. ‘Why wouldn’t I mean it?’
‘Because I’m hard work. You said so. Many, many have said so. And someone who’s that rubbish at talking to people-’
Gina shook her head, smiling. ‘But you’re not rubbish. Not at all. If anything, you’re too good at it. You see into the heart of people, you showed me that in the cupboard. You knew right away about my stepmum. I’ve never even really been able to admit that to myself. And you just,’ Gina clicked her fingers, ‘Saw it. Easy. The only difference is that what you’re trying to do now is not expose him. He’s doing that for himself, all the time. No, what you’ve got to do, what you have been doing, is using that skill to convince him to give us what we want. And I know you can because I’ve watched you. You’ve made him think every compromise he’s made has been his own idea.’
Ashley frowned, taking in Gina’s words. Gina could see she was turning them over, trying them on, feeling their fit. Gina hoped she’d see the truth in them. Ashley could get them all out of this, if she only believed in herself.
Seventeen
Ashley was processing. What Gina had said… It sounded to Ashley’s sceptical ears that her problem wasn’t really being socially defective. Her brain simply worked differently.
She saw things. It was true. She always had. People had always despised her for it. But now? Now she saw Rick, saw him with crystal clarity. What he hoped for, how he saw himself, what he knew, what he pretended not to know. It was how Ashley had been able to talk to him. She knew that all he wanted today was all he’d ever wanted. Everything.
Like a toddler, he had no sense of restriction, no sense that any rule applied to him or that any authority had a right to govern him. But that was only on the surface. Underneath, somewhere dark that Rick never went, where the ugly truth sat, he knew how this would end today. He knew he wasn’t getting away. But he was living his fantasy, for as long as it would sustain: That he was some underappreciated antihero who was due respect that would finally be given, that he had the world in the palm of his hand at last. Even the woman of his dreams would come to him today.
But when it ended, when Rick was forced to confront the truth, that he was just a shitty little man with a gun and some scared people stuck in a building with him, well, that’s when he’d be at his most dangerous. So that was Ashley’s job. To keep that moment at bay. To stretch out his fantasy without snapping it. It was the only way to get everyone out of here without blood spilt. It was a lot to handle, and it scared Ashley to death.
There was one thing, though. One thing she had that made her think she maybe, possibly, had a shot of getting through this.
Gina believed in her.
‘Right!’ Rick shouted, making the room jump, standing from his mysterious private meeting with his chosen three. ‘I think that’s everything ready.’ He looked at his watch. ‘Time to get this show on the road. Ashley, first things first. Check the car park, see if Kara, err, Channel Seven is out there.’
Ashley was still terrified to pop her head into the sights of a sniper’s scope, but she’d done it once before and nothing had happened. She slid up a blind and had a look, feeling bolder by the