Marley’s voice crackled over the wire. They could hear her, but she couldn’t hear them. A safety precaution for her sake, so she didn’t react to something the detectives might say and alert the blackmailer.
“There’s one vehicle,” she said. “A black blazer, I’ve got the license plate…”
Justin listened to her rattle off the number as he marveled at her calm tone. Oddly enough, her confidence scared him even more. He worried her cockiness would make her careless.
Detective Powell keyed the license plate number into the onboard computer. While they waited for the information to come up, Marley continued the dialogue of her movements.
Something niggled Justin’s memory. He couldn’t pinpoint why, but his uneasiness multiplied beyond his initial concern. Dread deepened and took hold, shortening his breath. Suddenly he wished with his entire being that he’d told her how much she meant to him.
****
Marley looked around carefully as she made her way toward the building. It had changed since her last visit. All the walls were enclosed and the multi-level roof of the two story structure was in place. The shadows created by her truck headlights loomed large on the plywood sheeting lining the wall in front of her.
“I don’t see anyone out here,” she said toward her chest, hoping they could hear her lowered voice.
A shadow moved inside, by one of the black, framed window openings. Her pulse went haywire. God, she really was nervous. Even though Justin’s kiss had helped, he wasn’t here. And right about now, she’d give anything to have him at her side. Even hearing his voice would help.
Buck up, Marley. Get through this and you’ll have all night with him.
“I’m going inside,” she said.
She straightened her spine, mentally and physically, and made her way toward the door. Just shy of the opening, she paused in the darkest shadows with a cautious glance around. Leaning down, she un-tucked her gun, then slid it into the front pocket of her jogging suit jacket. As she straightened, she thought she saw the outline of another vehicle parked closer to the supervisor’s trailer.
Great. Was there more than one person waiting for her inside? Her pulse jittered, making her take a deep breath. She was sure it was a car, but couldn’t make out any details in the dark to give the detectives. Not that it mattered; she was too close to the house to talk to them anyway.
Instead, she called, “I’ve got the money.”
“Bring it inside.” The voice sounded different from on the phone. Higher? “Nice and slow. I want to see your hands.”
As she stepped through the opening, she could’ve kicked herself for not grabbing the flashlight she kept in the glove box of her truck. In the next instant, a light shined directly into her eyes.
Marley squinted, cocking her head while raising her arm to block the glare. She made out a dark figure, not overly tall, and slender in appearance. Without a light of her own, his face remained shadowed.
“Are you alone?”
Make that her face. Now Marley recognized it in the speaker’s higher-pitched tone.
“You already know the answer to that,” Marley said. “I saw you in the window from outside.” Her eyes began to water and she protested, “I can’t see anything.”
“That’s the point.”
“I think we’ve got a problem.”
The harsh whisper from a dark corner startled Marley. She turned to the left to find the source.
“Shut up,” the woman ordered. The light wavered and Marley peered into the inky blackness where the man’s voice had come from. Light-stars from the flashlight obscured her vision, making it impossible to identify the man.
For the benefit of the detectives listening in, Marley asked, “There’s two of you?”
“I’m not getting a pulse,” the man said.
The voice sounded familiar. Then his words registered and her heart kicked against her ribs. She moved her hand toward her pocket.
“Don’t move,” the woman demanded. The piercing glare of the flashlight blinded Marley once more. Should she cough now, or try to get the information needed to make a case? Since she couldn’t see clearly to know exactly who held the light, Marley decided to give it another minute.
“I was getting the money,” she said to mollify the woman. “Promise you’ll leave Nate alone and I’ll hand it over.”
The woman’s laugh sent a shiver down Marley’s spine.
“People fall for three things. Money—that’d be the greedy idiot lying on the floor; sex—that’d be the idiot husband of mine next to him; and family—that’d be you. Those three things are the root of most problems in the world today.”
Trying not to dwell on the fact there could be a dead body nearby, Marley asked, “Where do you fall?”
“You’d think it’s money, right? But no, it’s family. I wouldn’t be here at all if—”
“Save it, Diana,” the man in the shadows snapped. “If we don’t hustle, our alibi won’t hold up.”
“Shut up!” the woman hissed.
The name clicked with the man’s voice. Completely shocked, Marley asked, “Dale?”
“God, it’s a wonder I ever married you,” the woman said. “I told you no names!”
“By the time we’re done, it won’t matter, anyway,” he retorted.
A second flashlight clicked on. Marley’s eyes confirmed what her ears had already told her. Dale Blake. At his feet lay a prone body.
“I can’t get over how much you look like her,” Diana Blake said. “It’s like déjà vu.”
Marley tore her gaze from the body to discover Diana now angled her flashlight toward the floor. Between not having the beam directly in her eyes and Dale’s light, she could make out half of the older woman’s face—and promptly wished she couldn’t.
Then Diana’s words sunk in. “What are you talking about?”
“Even your voice is like hers. Is that what it is? Do you find it sexy?”
Marley was confused until she realized Diana’s questions were for Dale.
“It’s better than your high-pitched bitchiness,” he muttered.
Diana turned back to Marley. “I remember your mother’s voice like I’d only heard it yesterday. She begged for her life in that voice.”
Marley’s numb mind didn’t want to believe what she heard. “My mother was killed in a robbery.”
Diana laughed. “Like there was anything of value in that dump of a house. Even back then, Marley, your family was nothing more than useless working class. If my husband could’ve kept it in his pants, I never would’ve had to deal with any of you. Twenty-five years ago, or now.”
****
Justin reached the construction site at a dead-run. At the first sound of his father’s voice, he’d leapt from the unmarked police car, uncaring that Detective Powell ordered him back inside. He’d dodged Turner, too, desperate to get to the site and—oh, God, he didn’t know what he would do.
What was his father doing there? What was his mother doing there? And he sure as hell hoped Marley didn’t do anything stupid with the gun. He knew she had it. He’d deliberately avoided speaking to her about it, because the truth was he’d wanted her to have that extra bit of protection. Now it scared the shit out of him. He reached the building and was about to enter when he heard Marley’s anguished voice.
“You killed my mother?”
His step faltered.
“She got pregnant on purpose,” he heard his mother say. “She threatened to ruin the Hunter name unless we paid her. If she hadn’t been so greedy and vindictive, she might still be alive today.”
Shock paralyzed him for a moment. He shook it off and stepped into the building behind Marley. A quick glance confirmed his father behind his mother, to the left. He strode forward, determined to put an end to whatever the hell was happening.
“Justin,” his mother exclaimed. “What are you doing here?”
He saw the gun she held, and stopped halfway between his parents and Marl
ey. Fear for Marley’s safety increased his tension, even as his mind argued that his mother wouldn’t actually pull the trigger. “I came with Marley.”
His mother’s face twisted, her rage evident as her gaze shifted back to Marley. “You stupid slut. You’re no better than your mother.”
Fierce protectiveness seized Justin. “That’s enough. Don’t say another word.”
“No, let her talk,” Marley said softly.
Justin looked over to see that in the split second his mother had been distracted, Marley had pulled her gun. Her rock-steady hands extended toward his mother as she raised her weapon a few inches and took a step closer to Diana.
“Go ahead, tell us what you did when my mother begged for her life.” Her gaze shifted to Dale, just for a second, as she asked, “Were you there, too?”
Justin caught the guilt and unease in his father’s expression. Worse, when he looked back to his mother, her lips curled in a malicious little smile as she and Marley faced off.
“Go ahead, say it,” Marley demanded.
“You really want to hear the details?” his mother gloated.
Justin knew what Marley was doing; it was for the tape. He felt sick to his stomach. Despite what they might have done, an inborn instinct to protect his family had him wanting to warn his mother to not incriminate herself any further.
“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.”
“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.”
Detective Powell’s expression confirmed the gravity of Justin’s charges. “I’m going to need you to come down to the station for a formal statement, Miss Wade. Unfortunately, it’s going to be a long night.”
Chapter 23
The detective hadn’t exaggerated. By Marley’s third cup of coffee, second donut, and fourth interview, it was half past three a.m. She would’ve been exhausted if she hadn’t been so wired from everything that’d happened.
She’d learned who’d murdered her mother twenty-five years ago, seen a dead body, stared down the barrels of two guns, and had her heart broken. Her mind revved in overdrive.
She hadn’t gotten so much as a glimpse of Justin since arriving, but seeing him would only scrape the raw wound bleeding inside her chest.
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