“No. It doesn’t have to be like that.” She grabbed his arm anyway. “I was careful. Never anyone who was our client. Not before the theft.”
“This is too far.”
“Even to save us? To get rid of our enemies?”
He pried her fingers from his arm, gently but still backing away.
“If you let them arrest me, we’re finished. Everything we worked for—”
“Then we’re finished.”
“You can’t be serious!” she erupted. “For Ford? Why? Why do you keep defending him? He’s the villain! It’s us or him.”
“You mean it’syouor him. And I’m sorry, Candace, I know you thought you were doing what you had to, that this was somehow the right answer, but if I have to choose… then it’s him.”
“For once, I agree,” Steven’s voice carried from behind Andrew, and he turned to see him and Ford standing there with a pair of uniformed officers.
Candace’s coldness and fury fizzled into defeat as the officers went forward to take her into custody. Steven came up to Andrew first, gripping his shoulder in sympathy, but it didn’t feel like pity this time, because he knew the last thing Steven was going to say was that there was a place for him on the force.
Then Andrew’s eyes met Ford’s, and there was sympathy there too, but also solidarity.
Andrew was the one going down, but a part of him was glad that Ford wouldn’t be joining him.
Daltonmetthematthe police station. He insisted.
So did Luke, Kathleen, Riley, and Kevin.
Jericho’s man sang like a canary, and once Andrew and Ford were finished giving their statements, they were bringing him in too. It had been months since Andrew saw pride in some of the other officers’ faces directed at him. His best friend had been brought in as the serial robber, but he and Isaac Ford were the ones who caught her.
“I still can’t believe it,” Kevin said, all of them gathered around a bench, with Andrew and Ford sitting on it and Dalton between them. “She took everything we knew and turned it against us.”
“I’m so sorry,” Dalton said, absently rubbing his bandaged hand. “I’ll get everything back, but you’re the ones who are going to pay for it. Maybe… maybe the fallout won’t be so bad?”
“The biggest thief since Artifice,” Andrew said, “was from the security firm owned by the detective who arrested him, and I had no idea.”
“But you caught her!”
“I’ll lose enough clients that it won’t matter.”
“Don’t you dare gloat,” Kevin warned Riley.
“I wouldn’t! At least not in front of you.” He smirked.
“Can’t you two just go work with Dad?” Dalton said. “You already know you make a great team.”
“Still parent-trapping?” Ford accused.
“I’m just saying!”
Kevin looked in horror at Riley and the idea of working with him, but while Kathleen and Luke didn’t seem opposed, Andrew shook his head.
“The bad press would follow us, but it was a nice thought. We did make a great team.” Andrew leaned forward to look past Dalton at Ford, who met his stare.
“Yeah. We did.”
Chapter 14
ISAAC
