That afternoon, Justin and Mr. Kaligori sat across a table from the district attorney, the chief of detectives and the two officers on the case... Adelyn Brady, and Blake Pertel. The one time Justin looked even remotely in Pertel's direction, he received an angry glare. And when his eyes fell on Adelyn, her worried and concerned expression captured his attention.
Slowly, the DA read listed the terms of the agreement. Then, she turned to look at Justin, forcing him to look away from Adelyn.
"Mr. Timberlake, I believe your lawyer discussed all of these things with you earlier, but another term has come to mind before anything is signed." At that, she slipped a single sheet of paper in front of him. "As you can see, toward the bottom of that page, the last terms states..." She put her glasses on and read from her copy of the agreement. "The Minneapolis Police Department states that you must be an active participant in the role of capturing the alleged guilty party, and comply with all directions."
Justin opened his mouth to say something, but his lawyer held up his hand, silencing him.
Mr. Kaligori cleared his throat. "I'd like a word alone with my client before he endorses anything," he requested.
The four of them filed out of the room, and when they closed the door, it was silent.
Mr. Kaligori looked over the deal. "Do you understand all of this?" he wanted to know when he was finished reading.
"All but that last part," Justin admitted. "What exactly do I have to do?"
The lawyer sniffed. "Looks like your classic sting operation to me. It might be a little dangerous, but it's either this, or you go straight to prison."
Justin remembered what Adelyn had told him the day before about doing what he had to do to get out of jail. "I'll do it," he answered. "I've been in dangerous spots before, and everything always turns out okay."
"I just want you to know the risks that go along with this decision. Things could end bad, Justin," he warned. "But it's your decision to make."
"I'm in," Justin reinforced. "Where do I sign?"
Mr. Kaligori walked to the door and let the others back in. They all filed back to their spots and sat down. The DA looked Justin in the eyes. "Do we have a deal?"
Justin gave her a strong nod.
She smiled. "Then sign right there at the bottom of the page." She paused while Justin took the pen from the middle of the table and signed his name in big curly letters. "Now you have to come through with your part of the deal," she said, sliding another piece of paper in front of him. "Write down all the information you know about the head of your operation. Name, address, description and anything else you think is important. We won't contact him yet, but we'd like to know as much about this guy as possible so we'll be prepared."
It took a few minutes, but Justin wrote down everything he knew about Colby... from his middle name to the color of his eyes.
The DA took the paper away from him and read it over while the chief of detectives looked over her shoulder. "Great," she said, then looked back up at Justin. "Your probation officer is waiting for you outside the room. After he makes everything clear with you... I guess you're free to go."
Justin swallowed. He couldn't believe how quickly everything had went. Though, it wasn't really over. When his lawyer stood up, Justin followed suit, as did the others, and they all left the room quietly.
After discussing everything with his probation officer, he was about to look around for Adelyn when he felt her fingers wrap around his wrist. He turned to her, ready to smile, but stopped short when he saw her serious expression.
"We need to talk," she said. "Let me go get your things and we'll go back to my place."
Before he could protest, she was gone, and he was left standing in the middle of a busy hallway. Police officers walked past him on his left and right, and by the time Adelyn found him again, he was standing against the wall. She handed him a plastic ziplock bag full of his things, and then grabbed his sleeve as she pulled him to the exit.
"Do you hate me?" he asked once they got inside of her car. "Is that what this is about? Are you going to tell me that you never want to see me again?"
Adelyn was too busy pulling out of the lot to answer him right away.
"I got out," he told her when she remained silent. "And I know I deserved to stay in. What I've been doing was an awful way to make a living... I just wish I'd realized it earlier." He stopped for a moment and then continued, "I know it might be a little too soon to ask you this, but do you think you'll ever be able to forgive me? I know, I know, you probably hate me right now, but-"
"Justin," she interrupted his rambling speech as she pulled out onto the streets. "I don't hate you. If you would be patient and wait until we got back to the apartment, then you wouldn't have to worry so much."
"About the apartment," he went on, sighing. "I'm going to have to move out. There's no way I can afford that rent without the money from Colby... and I'm sure there's a message on my answering machine telling me that I can forget all about my current assignments just waiting for me when I get home. Or should I even call it home since I'll be moving out when rent is due. That had to have been my shortest stay at one place... ever."
"Would you calm down?" Adelyn said, raising her voice a notch. "Don't think about all that stuff. Everything will be all right." She glanced over at him for a moment. "Okay?"
He nodded sadly, reaching inside the plastic bag and pulling out his college ring. He slipped it back onto his finger and gave another long sigh. "I guess this could be a lot worse," he admitted.
"How so?" she asked.
Justin's eyes darted up from his fingers and he looked at her face. "You think that this is the worst it could be?"
"Justin, I fell in love with a criminal. How much worse can it get?"
He thought for a moment, and then went for it. "You could have not fallen in love at all," he suggested. "I know things would have been a lot worse for me if I hadn't fallen in love with you."
"What do you mean?"
Justin watched her profile closely as he drove. "I would have gotten away," he said.
"Yeah right," she chuckled. "You would have gotten away..."
"If I hadn't met you, I'd run, and I'd hide. I would have never been standing there when those cops opened that door. Adelyn, I think that deep down, I wanted to get caught. Colby told me that if I refused to do his work for him, he would make sure the cops knew exactly where I was. I guess I took the only way out."
"You didn't exactly turn yourself in, Justin."
"I was too much of a coward to turn myself in," he said as she pulled into the underground parking lot. Without another word, she parked the car, and they traveled up to Adelyn's floor in the elevator.
Around the third floor, she grabbed a hold of his shirt and pulled him in until their lips met in a hungry kiss. They didn't part until they reached the eleventh floor, and the doors popped open.
Adelyn walked backwards through the doors and watched him closely. "I can't stop loving you, Justin," she said, her voice tinged with pain. "No matter how hard I think about what you've done, I still love you."
Chapter 20
Paying the Consequences
Justin {Fiction}
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I'll Never Stop {Fiction}
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