“I set him on fire,” Marlow pointed out.
It startled a laugh out of Bennett. Then she swore and dug her fingers into his shoulder as it jarred her leg.
“Fuck,” she muttered under her breath, her voice thready and cracked. Then she sniffed, cleared her throat, and tried again. “Fuck him, okay. It pisses me off that I trusted him. Even after I checked into those murders? When I knew it was Clemons who murdered that man? I didn’t think that Franklin was… I thought that there’d been a mistake. Except I knew better, didn’t I? I’m smarter than that, but I wanted it to be a mistake. And when I showed him, he said all the right things and promised to fix everything. He just asked me to wait until… Until he could set this up, I guess. I never knew him.”
Her eyebrows pleated together, and she looked away, shoulders hunched.
“Now I’ve got us both killed,” she said.
“Not going to tell me to leave you and save myself?” Marlow asked.
Bennett snorted. “I’ve gotten good at chucking these jars,” she said. “I could lay you out before you got across the square.”
Based on the fragments of bloody, sticky glass outside, she probably could. The news had said she’d been in here for an hour, and she’d kept the wolves at bay that long.
“You’re right,” Marlow said. “Franklin never knew you at all if he thought it would be this easy to kill you.”
“I just figured if I got out of this, I was a shoo-in for that promotion,” Bennett repeated his claim with a sharp, bloody-toothed grin that had no humor in it. “As long as no one snitches on me for drowning Franklin in a fucking toilet. Thing is, Marlow, I don’t see how we can get out.”
“We don’t need to,” Marlow said. “We go up. They’ve got the drones out, and you might be an acceptable casualty, but right now, I’m the most wanted man in San Diego. They’ll come to get me.”
Bennett stared at him for a second, and then she smiled, wide enough that the scab on her upper lip split. She dabbed the blood away with the tip of her tongue.
“Cocky bastard,” she said. “But it might work.”
“Better hope it does. It’s all I’ve got,” Marlow said. He turned her around, and they headed for the back of the shop. “I get my name cleared, and you get that leg set—”
“Don’t be stupid,” Bennett said flatly. “After this, we’re going to be toxic. There’s no smoke without fire, Marlow, and this is the second time we staggered out of the smoke. So… let go of that idea of a house and family. It’s rented apartments and partners who’ll eventually realize you’re never going to live up to your potential.”
The idea stuck in Marlow’s throat. It was true. They both knew it was, but that was something to face up to tomorrow.
“I have to drag your ass up two flights of stairs and onto the roof,” Marlow said. “Maybe not the best idea to try and convince me to lie down and die.”
The staircase was narrow and the steps piled with stock not out on the shelves yet. Of course it was. Marlow tightened his grip on Bennett’s belt and got his shoulder under her armpit. They could do this.
“Reverse psychology,” Bennett said raggedly. “Make you want to do it from spite.”
“That works on you, not me.”
Bennett hiccupped out a laugh. “You’re dragging my broken ass up the stairs,” she said. “Don’t try and tell your granny how to suck eggs.”
At the top of the stairs, the doors were locked. Marlow kicked one open and dragged Bennett, who’d gone silent except for the rattle of her breathing, through the small storeroom to the window. The smash of broken glass made the wolves outside look up, the glitter of a dozen eyes suddenly fixed on them, but it had to be done.
“Maybe you should leave me,” Bennett said, breaking her silence at last.
“You don’t mean that.”
“No, I fucking don’t,” Bennett said. “But I’m not sure I can get up there. My leg—”
“It’s broken. I don’t think it’s going to be right again,” Marlow said bluntly. Over an hour with a smashed leg she’d had to splint and drag herself about on? That wasn’t… ideal. Marlow could remember the conversations the doctor had about his knee. “So I’m going to boost you out the window, and you’re going to get on the roof. It’s going to hurt, but—”
“Tomorrow, you put your boot up Franklin’s ass for me,” Bennett said.
“For you, anything,” Marlow said.
They scrambled up onto the sloped roof, tiles sharp against their fingers, and the drones picked them out immediately. Marlow tilted his head back so the cameras could see his face and handed his gun to Bennett.
“The wolves are going to get here before help,” he said. “You take this side. I’ll get the other.”
