“That’s a surprise to you?” Cade asked, eyebrows raised. “You didn’t pay enough attention to our day-to-day business.”
Marlow cleared his throat. They both turned to scowl at him. He absorbed the glares placidly as he tapped his wrist.
“Can the dick-measuring wait?” he asked. “We don’t have much time.”
Justin snorted and then narrowed his eyes. He tilted his head to the side. “Do I know you?” he asked. “You look familiar.”
“I’m wanted for murder,” Marlow said, his voice mild and even. “You probably saw me on the news.”
Justin’s mouth hung open for a second, and then he closed it sharply. “I was just going to imply you looked like one of Cade’s exes,” he said. “But you’re the killer Night Shift officer. So I’m going to call a tip line to turn you in—”
“I didn’t do it,” Marlow said.
“Everyone says that.”
Cade snorted, “Probably not him,” he said. “He’s got a bad habit of telling the truth, like it or not.”
“You believe him?” Justin said, an incredulous edge to his voice. “You? Believe someone is trustworthy? Fine. Convince me?”
He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms as he waited. Cade leaned forward and tapped a finger against the photo of Piper’s face.
“That’s what he’s for,” he said. “I get you to agree to handle Piper’s appeal, and he’ll give us the evidence we need to prove a corrupt colleague framed Marlow. The same corrupt cop who tried to kill us both last full moon.”
“Not sure whose side I should be on there,” Justin said. He turned the pages absently as he talked, his eyes moving from side to side as he glanced over the State’s evidence. “Why not get Beth on this? She’s your go-to bought and paid for legal representative, isn’t she? Do you not think she’s up to the job?”
“She’s more than capable,” Cade said. “There’s just one element I don’t think she could deal with.”
Justin looked up and waited expectantly, one eyebrow raised. “And that is?”
“Piper’s guilty as sin. She’d have a problem with that.”
“And I wouldn’t?”
“I know you better than that.”
Justin laughed, cheerful as always when his failings were pointed out. There was no reason for him not to be. Just because people knew what you’d done didn’t mean they could make you pay for it. Justin was smart enough and knew precisely how to toe the line between unethical and illegal, so he’d rarely had to face the consequences of his actions.
“WhywouldI help, though?”
“I’ll give you back the ten shares in the company you forfeited when you dissolved our partnership.”
“So the board could outvote you,” Justin said. “Even fire you as CEO, put in their own man.”
They could. In the year Cade had spent locked in negotiations with Justin over every line and clause of the partnership contract, that had been where he’d always dug his heels in. The company was his. If he wasn’t the asshole CEO of Cold Winds, then who was he? Just anyone, instead of “someone.”
“I know,” he said.
Marlow made a choked sound of protest and grabbed his arm. His fingers dug in. “Don’t,” he said, then turned to Justin. “That’s not on the table.”
“Too late,” Justin and Cade said at the same time.
They traded a brief annoyed look.
“I don’t want you to do this for me,” Marlow said. His voice was tight with nervous concern. “Don’t prove Lem right.”
On the other side of the table, Justin snorted as he examined his nails. “Lem as the voice of reason,” he said. “Thingshavechanged.”
Cade took Marlow’s hand off his arm. “I like you, Marlow, but we’re not married. You don’t get a say in this,” he told him. “And I don’t need anyone in my life who thinks they can tell me how to live it. Do you want the stocks or not, Justin?”
