CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Stuart was more concerned about Tabby’s wellbeing than even his own as he looked back at her from that unmarked car.
She stood outside of that motel room looking totally perplexed, like somebody who didn’t know what to believe, as they drove him away from her.
He knew she was going to be okay. She was a resilient girl.
But it had to feel like hell to her right now.
Because leaving her alone, to fend for herself, felt like hell to him too.
Until that car had taken him clean out of her sight and he turned back around and asked that fateful question. “What is it that I’m supposed to have done?”
Two agents were riding up front, and one was in the back with him. He was the only one that bothered to answer him. “You know what you did.”
Now Stuart was pissed. “I wouldn’t ask you that question, asshole, if I already knew the answer!”
One of the agents, the driver, glanced at Stuart through the rearview mirror.
They were accustomed to being the agents in charge whenever they picked up criminals.
But just that comment alone reminded them that Stuart Jacobs was no ordinary collar and they couldn’t treat him as if he was.
They all knew it could blow back on them.
“Now what is it that I’m supposed to have done?” Stuart asked again.
“You’re under arrest for the attempted murder of Alan Jacobs.”
Stuart knew he heard that wrong. “My son? You actually believe I’m the one who shot my son?”
“That’s exactly what we believe.”
“How can you believe something that absurd? I just found out he was shot. I was on my way back to New York when you assholes pulled up. I wouldn’t harm my own kid. I love my son.”
“A son who just three weeks ago successfully orchestrated a hostile takeover of the company you founded? You love him? Yeah right. We’re sure you just love him to death.”
The agents grinned, with the driver glancing at Stuart again.
It was in that moment that Stuart realized this wasn’t a drill, and that he was in some crazy kind of serious trouble.
He had to talk to his team of attorneys.
He had to get some investigators on the ground.
How was he going to defend himself?
And most importantly, what about Tabby?
But while he was worried about her, Tabby had grabbed her phone and his keys and gone back into that motel room to figure out what she was going to do next.
And she was worried sick about him. She didn’t believe for a second he would have tried to kill somebody.
And somebody with his own last name? It didn’t make sense!
Then she realized something else that didn’t make sense.
That agent said Stuart tried to kill Alan Jacobs around ten last night.
But how could he be all the way in New York trying to kill somebody at ten o’clock, when they were checking into the motel, here in Larkin, right around nine o’clock? It was physically impossible!
And with that information, she knew what she had to do. She wasn’t going to rely on anybody else doing it for him. He was always helping her. It was her time to return the favor.