Shattered Trust (Colorado Trust 4)

“Mom—”

“Be quiet, Justin.”

Was there any way to turn back the clock to this morning?

His father shifted in the thick silence. The light from his flashlight wavered and Justin caught sight of a body on the floor. His heart pounded as he spotted a bloody hammer off to the side.

“My God, what happened?” He rushed over to kneel beside the man. It looked like Tommy Berndt, the man who’d sent the blackmail notes. Justin hadn’t seen the man since he’d worked for Hunter while in college, but he hadn’t changed much.

“Give me some light,” he told his dad.

“He’s dead,” his mother snapped. “I’m done paying blackmail. Forever.”

“Call 911,” Justin said. The wide, dark stain under Berndt’s head made his stomach roll. As he felt for a pulse, his father stared at him, hands hanging at his sides.

“We didn’t have a choice,” Dale said. He backed up a step, both his hands rising to cover his face. “God, this should’ve all ended with Karl. When I—when he died, that was supposed to be it, no more payments. But then this son-of-a-bitch figured he could go after the company instead. You know we don’t have the money to keep him quiet.”

“So you killed him instead?” Disbelief and anger drove Justin to his feet as an unyielding sense of right and wrong took over. Family or not, murder was murder.

“Is he really dead?” Marley asked.

Oh, God, Marley. Justin heard the first thread of fear in her voice. The nauseous sensation in his stomach tripled. Shame engulfed him as he comprehended everything his parents had done. They’d murdered this man. They’d killed Marley’s mother, for God’s sake. If she didn’t hate him already, she would once she had a second to think about it.

He forced himself to face her, mentally preparing for what he’d read in her expression. She stared at his mother.

“Justin, you need to leave,” his mother said. Her gaze flicked briefly to his, then narrowed on Marley. “We’ll take care of everything. You go back to our house and stay there. You’ve been there all night. Your father and I’ll vouch for your whereabouts and you can do the same for us. Airtight alibis. Once she and that bastard brother of hers are gone, the Hunter name will be safe again and no one will ever know about any of this.”

At the mention of Nate, Justin looked at his father again. “You pushed Nate, didn’t you? Your own son.”

“Justin, go,” his mother commanded.

“No.”

He couldn’t believe she actually expected him to leave Marley with them. He had to get her to safety, away from this psychopath who used to be his mother. If anything happened to Marley, he’d never forgive himself. This wasn’t some honest-to-God accident he could come to terms with and eventually move on from.

“Justin.” His father suddenly grew a pair. “It’s us or her. Now get the hell out of here.”

“You are not going to get away with this.” Marley’s cold, flat voice sent a chill straight through Justin.

“Who’s going to stop us?” his mother sneered.

Marley kept her gun aimed at his mother with calm precision. “The first bullet you’ll hear. You might even feel the wind when it whines past your ear.”

The quiet words clearly unnerved his mother. Her face paled. The hand holding her gun wavered. Justin worried Marley had increased the danger to herself by pushing his mother to the breaking point. Dale backed up against the wall, his balls withered as fast as they’d grown.

This was the stupid thing Justin had worried about. Stupid because it would screw up Marley’s life. This wasn’t the woman he knew, and he wasn’t about to let her stoop to his parents’ level. Let the cops deal with his parents and—

Where the hell were the cops anyway? Surely they didn’t need a damn double cough to confirm things had gone to hell, did they?

Justin cleared his throat and stepped between the two guns. Terror gripped him. Strangely enough, it was harder for him to meet Marley’s eyes than face her loaded gun. Her expression froze his heart.

“Move.”

“Don’t do this,” he said. Shame and guilt, and fear for her roughened his voice. “Let them go.” If he could get them outside, the danger to Marley would be gone.

Her eyes widened before her face went blank. “Over my dead body.”

Exactly what he feared. Justin advanced toward her, but directed his words over his shoulder at his parents. “Go. I’ll deal with her.”