Then Trey saw something out of thecorner of his eye. Through the window. A cop car had just pulled up outside.Did they know Sheldon was in here? Trey sucked in a breath, hoping they weren'tgoing to fuck things up.
He focused on Sheldon, trying towatch the cops with his peripheral vision.
"She doesn't care about me,"Sheldon said bitterly. "She never cared about me."
"Why do you say that?"Trey kept a wary eye on the cop car outside the building. No one was coming in,and he wasn't sure if that was good or bad.
"She tried to kill me," hesaid. "So many times."
It looked like he had loosened hisgrip on Marli a little. She still looked terrified, but was taking everythingin, staying calm. Trey moved a little closer to Sheldon.
"Like what?" he asked.
"Like when she locked me in thecloset," Sheldon snapped. "She left me there for two days. Andthe time she got pissed off at Peter and me and took us out to the dunes andleft us there. She left us there, all alone, with no food or water. It was overa hundred fucking degrees."
"What did you do?" Treyasked, sidling a little farther along the counter.
Sheldon again was silent and hishand had dropped away from Marli's head. At that moment, the front door of thestore opened and a uniformed cop appeared. Sheldon's gaze swung sharply to thedoor and instinctively he shifted the gun, aiming toward the cop who'd steppedin.
Trey launched himself at Sheldon.Marli cried out. The gun blasted.
Chapter20
Trey and Sheldon crashed to thefloor, knocking over a rack loaded with bags of potato chips. Trey grabbed forSheldon's right hand holding the gun. He shoved Marli hard and she went down,too, behind them, but she was free. Adrenaline rushed through Trey's blood,fueling his muscles, and he used every fiber of his being to wrestle withSheldon. The guy was big and strong, though. Panting and determined, Treyfought, finally managing to grab the bastard's right wrist and twist itsharply, forcing the gun to drop. His vision focused only on the man in front ofhim, but at the edge of his sight, he saw a slim, booted foot kick the gunaway. It skittered across the worn linoleum floor.
"Freeze!" called the cop,gun drawn and leveled right at them.
Trey drew back his arm with one lastdesperate move and drove it into Sheldon's nose, blood spraying, his headbouncing back hard on the floor. Then Trey wearily sat back on the floor, whiletwo other cops ran over to Sheldon.
Then Marli was on her knees besidehim, tears running down her face, tension and fear etched in her beautifulfeatures. She was touching him all over, crying, saying his name over and over.
He turned to her in a daze,adrenaline still pulsing through him.
"Are you okay, honey?"
She laughed through her tears,shakily. "No," she said. "No, I am definitely notokay."
With concern, he turned to her,framing her face with his big hands. "I'm not hurt," she told him,still touching him compulsively. "I'm just...just...a littlestressed."
He groaned at her egregiousunderstatement and grabbed her, pulling her onto his lap, wrapping his armsaround her, tucking her head under his chin.
"Are you okay?" shemumbled into his chest. "God, Trey." She picked up his right hand toexamine his knuckles, but they were just a bit red and scraped.
"I may have a few sore muscleslater, but right now I don't feel a thing," he said truthfully.
They watched in bemusement as thecops cuffed Sheldon Barnes and led him out to the police car.
Trey stood up, pulling Marli withhim, and went over to make sure the gas station attendant and customer wereokay. They were both in shock, barely able to speak. And they didn't even knowwho Sheldon was. They just thought he'd been robbing the store.
They talked to the cops. "How'dyou guys know he was here?" Trey asked them, flexing his hand.
"Teresa Fisher called in thismorning to tell us he'd been there yesterday looking for money, wanting to meethis sons. She told them they were at school and gave him thirty bucks. Told himto come back after."
Trey nodded. They knew that much.
"Her husband called her andtold her you were looking for him, and she realized she had to do something.She gave us a description of what he was driving and we spotted his car as wewere patrolling."
"Jesus, that was lucky."
"Trey, you'd have got himanyway," Marli said softly. "You were awesome." She paused."That was some football tackle."
Trey identified himself to the cops."Hostage rescue training kicked in," he said. Thank God, Sheldon hadstill had that faint hope of meeting his kids. Otherwise, negotiating with himwould have been next to impossible. He swallowed hard and tightened his grip onMarli's waist.
Much later, when they'd finishedwith the police and all the news media, they sat in Trey's car, both of themstaring a bit blankly out the window.
"Is it really over?" Marliasked wonderingly.
"Yeah, honey, it's over. Whatdo you want to do? Start driving back tonight? Or we could get a room here andleave in the morning."
"I want to go home," shesaid. "I want my life back. I want to go to work, have lunch with myfriends, go shopping." She wiped a tear off her cheek, glancing at him.
"We can start driving," hesaid. "See how far we get and then we'll stop for the night."
"Okay."
Nearly seven hours of driving later,Trey exited the highway and drove into the parking lot of a Hilton resort nearPhoenix.
"We're staying here?"Marli looked at the huge, luxurious resort.
Trey nodded.
"This is beautiful," shesaid, "but we don't need to spend all this money just for a place tosleep."
"We're not going to just besleeping," he told her, and a little thrill of excitement ran through her."Besides, we're celebrating."
"Oh. Okay."
They checked in and went
