How to Save A Life

Chapter 19

Shit, shit, shit.

Marli's huge, terrified eyes pleaded with Trey, an arm wrapped around her throat, and a gun held to her head. It had to be Barnes, but he did look different. Wait. Suddenly, it clicked into place. Shit. What a fucking idiot he was.

After stopping completely when he first saw Marli, Trey's heart was now about to pound its way out of his mouth, galvanizing tension gripping him. He was acutely aware of everything around him--the frightened eyes of the young kid, the little grey-haired lady standing there holding a quart of milk, the cool draft from the fan in the ceiling above him. He heard the thin, scratchy music playing on the radio behind the counter. Then reflexes kicked in. His heart rate slowed. His senses, eyes and brain began to work in synchronicity as he called on every bit of training and every professional skill he'd ever learned.

A guy who didn't care if he lived or died was not going to negotiate. Sheldon had nothing to lose by killing.

Trey glanced at the kid behind the counter, who also looked wide-eyed and terrified. "Get down," Trey ordered him.

The kid dropped to the floor. One other customer stood in the small store.

"Sheldon, I'm telling this lady up here to leave. She doesn't need to be here. Okay?"

"No!" he shouted. "Nobody leaves!"

"Okay," Trey said calmly. "She's just going to go behind the counter here." He grabbed the small lady with grey hair and pushed her down with the kid. "Now let go of Marli, and you and I can talk."

"Fuck off! There's nothing to talk about."

"Sure there is." Trey kept his voice low and calm. "You don't want to die, do you?"

He watched Sheldon's face as he struggled to think, decide what to do.

"You just found your sons, Sheldon," Trey reminded him softly, taking his eyes off Sheldon only long enough to glance at Marli. She was shaking like a poplar in a windstorm, but she was holding herself together. "You don't want to die now. Just tell me what you want. I'm a cop. I can help you."

"Yeah, right. You're not going to help me."

"I can help get you what you want," Trey said patiently. "Just tell me what you want."

Sheldon said nothing, his breathing shallow and noisy.

"Do you want to run?"

"I'm done running."

"Yeah," Trey said. "I guess you're tired of running."

Again, Sheldon said nothing, but Trey knew he was listening, thinking. He'd planted the possibility of escape in Sheldon's mind and taken his mind off killing Marli.

"Let her go," Trey said. "And I'll let you walk out of here."

"I said, I'm tired of running!"

"But you have two boys to live for," Trey reminded him. "Don't you want to see your sons?"

"They don't even know me," Sheldon said. His hand with the gun in it was shaking a bit, making Trey nervous, but feeling like he was making progress. A trickle of sweat ran down his back. It would be okay. It had to be okay. If he fucked this up... God.

"That's hard, eh?" Trey said sympathetically. "But they'll be out of school in a few hours and you can finally see them. I bet you'll be proud of them."

"That whore Teresa should've told me she was pregnant," Sheldon snarled.

"Yeah, she should've." Trey paused. "I talked to your mom earlier. She's worried about you."

"I saw her on TV last night, telling me to turn myself in."

Trey was surprised. Maybe his visit had had some impact. "Are you thinking about doing that? It's what your mom wants."

Sheldon was silent, obviously struggling with his thoughts.

Confidence seeped into Trey. He could do this. Sheldon was losing his focus, and Trey just needed the opportunity and a distraction. He glanced around the store, then found Marli's eyes.

The sight of the terror there undid him, but she lifted her chin, firmed her lips, met his gaze. She was so fucking brave.

Then Trey saw something out of the corner 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't going to fuck things up.

He focused on Sheldon, trying to watch 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," he said. "So many times."

It looked like he had loosened his grip on Marli a little. She still looked terrified, but was taking everything in, staying calm. Trey moved a little closer to Sheldon.

"Like what?" he asked.

"Like when she locked me in the closet," Sheldon snapped. "She left me there for two days. And the time she got pissed off at Peter and me and took us out to the dunes and left us there. She left us there, all alone, with no food or water. It was over a hundred fucking degrees."

"What did you do?" Trey asked, sidling a little farther along the counter.

Sheldon again was silent and his hand had dropped away from Marli's head. At that moment, the front door of the store opened and a uniformed cop appeared. Sheldon's gaze swung sharply to the door and instinctively he shifted the gun, aiming toward the cop who'd stepped in.

Trey launched himself at Sheldon. Marli cried out. The gun blasted.