“What time did he show up?” he asked, straightening in his chair.

“A little after seven.”

He pressed his lips together as he stared off into the woods next to the cabin. “That was a couple hours after she was arrested, so the timing’s right.” He shifted his weight. “It would be great if I could just go ask Max what he knows, but we both know he won’t tell me.” A quiet anger simmered below the surface.

“Does that really surprise you?”

He turned to look at me, pain filling his eyes. “Yeah. It does. Before he came back to Drum to be his father’s bitch, he would have told me in a heartbeat.”

“But you have to wonder how much they know about their father’s business given Wyatt came in two hours after all of this went down.”

“That or they’re on the alert for anything that might be tied to their father.”

“Less than two hours later? I’ve been researching Bart’s favors for months, and I still didn’t find out until the next day. That means they’ve likely got a source in the department or in Ewing. And that source wasn’t you.”

He groaned. “Shit.”

We sat in an uncomfortable silence for several moments, which wasn’t the norm for us. One of the things I loved about our friendship was that neither of us felt the need to fill the quiet. Maybe it was time to address my fears.

“I’ve missed you, Marco,” I said softly. “A lot.”

“I’ve missed you too.”

“Are you sure it’s just your job that’s kept you away?”

He turned to me in surprise. “You think I’m mad at you?”

“No…I don’t know. It’s just that we’ve never gone that long without talking, and then I called and left you a message and you never called back.”

He gave me an apologetic smile. “I didn’t call you because I planned to come see you. Plus, I got tied up with my case, and it was after eight by the time I wrapped things up. I figured I’d just wait for you to get off work. I would have called, but I honestly didn’t want Max to know about any of this.”

I cringed. “I told him I was expecting a call from you. Now he thinks we’re having a fight.”

“Sorry.”

“I think he misses you,” I said softly.

He was silent for a long moment. “He made his choice,” he said, his voice rough.

“Did he though?” I whispered. “Maybe he feels caught.”

“For the longest time, it was me and Max against his father,” he said, sounding weary. “Then it all changed when he left college to come back and run the bar. I hung in there anyway, believin’ there was a reason for it, but he still refuses to tell me what it is. After the whole Lula situation, I went to see him. I asked what his mother had said to convince him to come back to Drum. He said she’d reminded him that family helps family. That he came back for her, not his dad.”

“Do you believe him?”

“Yeah,” he said. “I do, but he still has plenty of secrets, and one way or another, he’s still doin’ Bart’s bidding. I told him we were at cross purposes. We haven’t been the same since.”

I didn’t say anything. I wasn’t sure what to say. My own lifelong friend had betrayed me so thoroughly it was easy to paint him as a villain. The situation between Max and Marco wasn’t as clear-cut.

“I can’t help thinking maybe I never really knew him,” Marco said. “Maybe he was only against his father because he was on the outside lookin’ in. And when his father finally changed his mind, he came runnin’ and became his daddy’s lap dog.”

“Do you really believe that? He hasn’t gotten along with him since the whole Lula incident.”

“He’s still runnin’ the motel,” Marco said. “He’s still under his father’s thumb.”

“But you just said he came back for his mother,” I said. “And we can’t forget that he and Wyatt were hiding Lula from their father. It sounds like a complicated mess.”

“Now you’re defendin’ him?” he asked in surprise.

“I’m just sayin’ that everything’s not always cut and dry. Obviously Max feels like he has good reasons for what he’s doin’. And if it’s on the illegal side, you’re a deputy sheriff. An honest one. Maybe he became privy to the family secrets, and now he feels bound to protect them.”

“Makin’ him an accessory.”

“It’s not easy to turn your back on family. I’m the perfect example of that. My father treated me like crap. I tried to cut him out of my life, but truth is, I didn’t fight too hard when Jake sucked me back in. Maybe the same thing happened to Max, only it was his mother who reeled him in.”

“And yet he won’t tell me any of it.”

“Again, you’re a deputy sheriff. He knows if he was part of something truly heinous, you’d turn him in. He saw proof of that when you questioned him about Lula.”

He didn’t respond.

“Maybe you should go to him as a friend, tell him you left the badge at home and everything he tells you has impunity.”

He leaned his head against the back of his chair and released a heavy sigh, making me think he’d given this plenty of consideration. “The badge doesn’t work that way, Carly.”

“Then maybe you need to decide what’s more important—the badge or your friend.” He started to say something, but I held up my hand. “I’m not saying you condone anything truly bad, but maybe he feels trapped and the one person he always thought he could turn to is no longer available.”

“It’s not that simple, Carly.”

“I know.” Nothing was simple. I’d learned that lesson long ago.

Chapter Seven

“There’s something else I need to talk to you about,” I said. “Something that has me worried.”

“Okay…”

“Bart offered Carson Purdy’s job to Jerry.”

He bolted upright. “He what?”

I relayed everything Jerry had told me and also Max’s reaction.

“So Max isn’t happy about it either?”

“No.”

“Maybe that’s my in to talk to him,” Marco said as he ran a hand over the top of his head leaving his hair ruffled.

I found myself wanting to smooth it out. Wanting to touch him.

Marco continued, unaware of my inner struggle. “I’ll tell him I heard about Jerry and ask him what he thinks.”

Focus, Carly. This was why I needed for us to remain friends. Starting something with Marco would only distract me. “You think he’ll give you an honest answer?”

“It’ll give me a better in than anything else we’ve discussed.”

He was probably right. “When do you plan to talk to him?”

He glanced at his watch, then back up at me. “I’m thinkin’ about goin’ tonight.”

“You should probably talk to him without me around.”

Pushing out a sigh, he said, “Agreed.”