Page 76 of The Getaway

“There’s video, Suzy,” Marshall said. “We all watched it.”

Suzy’s jaw dropped. “Video? What are you talking about?” No one said anything, but she saw Gemma and Grant exchange a look. “Oh, I see. So your girls have been spying on us this entire weekend? Is that it? What are they, following us around like little—”

“I wouldn’t finish that sentence,” Grant said, his voice a low rumble.

“We know what happened,” Lily said. “What we don’t know is why you lied. Why you acted like you thought one of us might have done it.”

“I didn’t do anything,” Suzy said. “It was an accident.”

Sean gaped. “Suzy, what—”

“If there’s video, you know it was an accident,” Suzy continued. “Don’t try to recast it like I did something on purpose. Like I went up there to hurt her. I didn’t. I loved her.”

Her voice cracked and she turned around. Turned away from them. Her eyes blurred with tears, and her knees shook like mad. She couldn’t look at them anymore. At their accusing, angry, pitying faces. She had to get out of here. She had to get out. Wintour started barking again, and she put the dog back in her crate.

Reaching back for Sean’s hand, Suzy clasped it. She turned to look him in the eye. He glanced down, clocked the scratches on her arm, and paled.

“Sean,” she said. “We’re leaving.”

There must have been something in her eyes that made him see she wasn’t messing around. Instead of hemming and hawing like he normally would have, he nodded and rolled his shoulders back.

“Let’s go,” he said.

They took a few steps toward the door. They were just going to leave. These were her friends. They weren’t going to try to stop them. But then, she heard someone move, something shift behind them.

“You’re not going anywhere,” Marshall said, grasping Suzy’s shoulder from behind. His fingertips dug into her skin.

“Ow, Marshall, let go of me!”

In the half second that she and Marshall were struggling, Sean reached into Suzy’s open crossbody and pulled out the gun. He whirled around and pointed the barrel directly at Marshall’s chest.

“Let go of my wife.”

Marley screamed. Marshall staggered backward. A few people gasped. The dog went berserk, barking her fool head off. Lily shouted something, but Suzy’s ears were ringing too loudly to make it out. She clutched her shoulder where Marshall had grabbed her and looked at her husband. Sean’s entire arm quaked.

“Sean, what are you doing?” Suzy asked quietly.

He seemed to realize how unsteady he was and changed his stance, holding the gun with both arms out straight, like a movie cop in a standoff. Wintour yipped and growled and snarled.

“I’m doing what you always tell me to do,” he said. “I’m manning the fuck up.”

Okay, so was it wrong that she was the slightest bit turned on by that?

“Sean, just put down the gun,” Marshall said, one hand out in a calming gesture. “We can all talk about this like adults.”

“Screw that,” Sean said. “Suzy wants to go, so we’re going to go. And I wouldn’t try to stop us again.”

And then the gun went off.

39

Marley

“Marshall!”

“No no no no no no no . . .”

“Oh, mother fuck!”