The next morning, things were much clearer for Adelyn. Everything was beginning to make sense and she didn't know why she couldn't have seen it before. Justin's behavior only pointed to trouble. She was a cop... why didn't she pick up on it?
The thing that troubled her the most was how sincere he seemed. When he told her that he loved her, was that a lie? Did it even matter? Just like Pertel had told her before... if he was doing it behind her back, then he couldn't really love her. Adelyn hoped Pertel was wrong.
No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't get him out of her head, so she decided to drop by the station after breakfast and confront him.
At eight o'clock in the morning, the place was almost completely dead. Adelyn walked past the officers who were half asleep, sipping their coffee and reading the morning newspaper, and went to the holding area. She saw him there, behind the bars, sitting on a cot and looking down at the floor. Suddenly, she wanted to turn around and go back home, but it was too late. The next time she looked, he was staring up at her.
"Adelyn," he said, getting up and going over to the bars. He wrapped his fingers around them and peered out at her. "Adelyn, I...."
"Don't say anything," she told him, staying right were she was. "There's something I want you to know."
He blinked.
She looked away from him as tears filled her eyes. "Why didn't you tell me?" she cried. "No, wait, don't answer that. I think I know why." She looked back up at him. "Do you know what you did to me?"
He didn't say anything.
"You took my heart and you tore it in a million pieces, Justin! When you said you loved me, did you even think about how this would end up? Did you even think about what this would do to me?"
A few fears fell to Justin's cheeks. "You promised you wouldn't hate me," he said softly.
"I didn't know you were stealing millions of dollars worth of data from these companies!"
"I tried to get out, Adelyn, but I couldn't."
She raised her eyebrows at him. "What do you mean you couldn't get out?"
Justin turned away. "I don't know if I should be talking about this," he said.
"I thought... I mean, I assumed..." she trailed off as she stepped toward his cell. When he turned back to her, she looked into his eyes. "Justin... is there someone else still out there?"
He swallowed hard. "I think I need a lawyer."
Adelyn studied his face and decided that she was right. He wasn't in this alone. There was someone at the top calling the shots. With Justin in jail, they were still going to be stealing from all those Minneapolis companies. She grabbed his hand and pulled it through the bars and to her heart. "Please, Justin... tell me that all this stuff was someone else's idea. I need to know."
He put his forehead against the bars and sighed. "Adelyn, what do you think I was doing with the information I stole? Do you think I had a whole bunch of hackers working for me in a back room of the apartment?"
She stared hard into his eyes. "No," she said. "I don't think that."
"Then what do you think?"
"I think you were working for someone else," she told him.
He caught a glimpse of her other hand wrapped in a white cast. "What happened?" he asked. "Are you okay?"
"I slipped and fell last night," she said, following his gaze to her arm. "But I'll be fine."
"I'm sorry. This is all my fault."
She couldn't argue with him.
"If I would have known I'd meet you and you'd change my entire life, Miss Adelyn," he said in a near whisper as he squeezed her hand gently. "I would have never gotten mixed up in this."
Adelyn reached through the bars to wipe away one of his tears. "Justin," she sighed. "You shouldn't change for me... you should change for yourself."
"I swear, this isn't how I wanted this to turn out. You remember what I told you when we broke up? This was the reason I had to do it. You understand, don't you?"
She looked away from him. Of course she remembered what he said. Hell, his words wouldn't stop running through her mind for one moment. He really had told her that he was going to get rid of that gun. Yesterday at the store he'd told her that he couldn't get away from something. He hadn't said what, but now she knew. Slowly, she nodded. "I guess I understand, but Justin," she said, bringing her eyes back to his gaze. "There are so many things about you that I don't understand. I don't know why you felt you had to get involved in this in the first place."
"I was in college," he said softly. "I was young and stupid and let him pull me in."
"Who?" but the voice didn't belong to Adelyn. She turned around and saw Pertel standing by the doorway with his hands on his hips.
"How long have you been standing there?" Adelyn demanded.
"Who is he talking about?" Pertel asked again as he stepped further into the room.
"Don't answer him," Adelyn told Justin, and then turned to look at her partner. "He's got to have a lawyer before he answers any questions. You should know that."
Pertel's frown told her he didn't like that answer. "He seemed to be answering your questions just fine." When neither Justin nor Adelyn said anything, he continued, "Do you think this is wise?"
Adelyn gave him a mean look. "Do you really think it's your place to be telling me what to do?"
"Brady, I'm only looking out for you. This guy is a jerk and he doesn't deserve you. Have the chief put someone else on this case. It's too personal for you to be so closely involved in."
Adelyn pretended not to hear him. She looked back at Justin. "Do you have a lawyer? Or someone to call?"
Justin shook his head, and she dropped his hand. "I'll get one for you," she said.
Behind them, Pertel gave an irritated sigh as Adelyn pressed her lips to Justin's forehead. When she walked out of the room, he followed her. "Are you nuts, Brady?"
"If you say one more thing about this, you'll be looking for a new partner," she told him as she picked up some papers from her desk and shoved them into the filing cabinet.
Pertel put his hands on her desk and stared at her until she looked up at him. "He's guilty. He did it, Brady. Why are you still acting like this guy can do no wrong when obviously, he can?"
"You don't understand the situation, Pertel. And didn't I tell you to shut up?"
"Why are you doing this?"
"I'd like to ask you the same thing!" she countered.
"You know, this is the same damn guy we've been chasing all this time. You wanted to put him away for good... remember? He's still the same guy, for Christ's sake, Brady! Why does it matter if he turned out to be Justin?"
Adelyn looked her partner dead in the eyes. "Because he didn't want to do it," she said plainly.
"What the hell are you talking about? If he didn't want to do it, then why did he?"
She suddenly looked happy to fill him in on her news. "He's working for someone," she said.
Pertel's eyebrows went up in surprise. "He told you this?"
"Well, not in so many words. But before last night even happened, he told me that the reason we couldn't be together was because he couldn't get out of something. He said he didn't want me to get hurt."
The angry look came back to Pertel's face. "That lying bastard!" he exclaimed. "Do you hear yourself, Brady? This guy has you right where he wants you!"
Adelyn picked up a few more papers, and without even glancing in his direction, walked right past Pertel and out the door. The second she slammed the door, he walked in the other direction... toward Justin's cell.
Inside the other room, he noticed Justin sitting on his cot, staring sadly at the wall. Pertel took a seat a desk near the cell and waited until Justin noticed his presence. "Stay away from her," he said, not wasting any time getting started.
Justin looked as if he were about to laugh. "Yeah, it's so hard to stay away from Adelyn when I'm locked up, moron," he said.
Pertel crossed his arms over his chest. "Don't you know better than to harass a police officer?"
"What are you going to do?" Justin wanted to know. "Put me in jail?"
"You're funny," Pertel said, a hint of sarcasm lacing his voice. "I think she likes you because of your sense of humor."
Justin just stared at him, not saying a word.
"With all the lies you've been telling her, I really couldn't blame her for being upset."
"Lies?" Justin spoke up. "What did she say to you?"
Pertel suddenly sat up straight. "So, you admit you lied to her!" he cried.
"I only lied to keep my profession a secret. Everything else I told her was the complete truth."
"I know you criminal types," Pertel claimed. "Crime is your life, and if you didn't tell her about it, then every other word that came out of her mouth was a lie."
Justin sat in silence for a moment. "You think you know me so well," he said slowly. "For your information, I love Adelyn and I'd do anything for her."
This time it was Pertel's turn to hold in a laugh. "Yeah right," he said with a smirk. "Then why the hell are you in there?"
"I'd really like a lawyer present before I discuss this matter any further," Justin said, looking away from the cop.
Pertel got up from his chair and looked at Justin through the bars. "You would," he said before turning around and walking out the door.
Chapter 18
Paying the Consequences
Justin {Fiction}
My Fiction
I'll Never Stop {Fiction}
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