“Justin—no,” Marley protested. “You can’t let—”
“Get the hell out before the cops get here.”
“You called the cops?” His father’s question ended on a note of panic.
“Just go!”
Justin carefully blocked any shot his mother might be deranged enough to attempt at Marley as she and Dale started for the door. His body tensed to the point of pain as he caught Marley’s gaze once more.
“Give me the gun.”
Too stunned to move, Marley stood still as Justin wrapped his fingers around her hand and the gun, and then trapped her against the wall with his body. His parents were almost to the door.
“You son-of-a-bitch.”
“Tell me something I don’t know,” he ground out between clenched teeth.
Marley tried to make sense of it all, but her heart broke into a million jagged pieces. He’d let them go. She couldn’t believe he’d chosen them over—
A shout outside the door erupted as lights flooded the building and the police descended in full force.
“Drop your weapons. Get down on the ground. NOW.”
The commands were barked in rapid succession, several times, by different officers. Dale and Diana were already outside, so it wasn’t until two yelling officers burst inside the building that Marley realized they meant her and Justin, too.
Justin had wrestled the gun from her grasp, so she raised her empty hands and stared down the barrel of an officer’s weapon. After Justin surrendered the gun, he was shoved to the floor. When the officer began to cuff him while reciting his Miranda rights, Marley started forward in protest. “What are you—”
“Stay where you are, Ma’am.” The first officer held his gun steady on her. She stared at him, then at Justin, spread-eagled on the floor, handcuffed, and a foot on his back to hold him down.
“This is bullshit,” Justin fumed, his face pressed against the plywood floor. “I came with Detective Powell.”
Marley looked around for the detective and spotted Dale and Diana Blake outside on the ground, in similar positions as Justin.
“Miss Wade, are you okay?”
She turned to face Detective P
owell. “I’m fine.” Then she looked pointedly at the cop who still had his gun out. Detective Powell nodded to him, and the officer holstered his weapon before turning away.
“Took you long enough,” Marley said as the Blakes were escorted from the yard.
The detective took hold of her arm and drew her aside. “We had to call for back up. Once we started hearing different names, we had no idea how many people we were dealing with.”
“I said there were two.”
“Something the woman said indicated there might be a third person, and then that idiot,” he inclined his head toward Justin, “rushed in, and we realized he knew the suspects. We needed more men.”
She watched them haul Justin to his feet and push him after his parents. She tried to catch his eye, but he looked straight past her on his way out the door.
“Why are you arresting him?”
“Until we can be sure he isn’t an accessory—”
“He was with you until just a few minutes ago,” she exclaimed. Though she didn’t know why she defended him. What did she care if the traitor was arrested?
“He aided and abetted the suspects. That’s a felony.”
Marley’s jaw dropped. “You can’t be serious.”