Amos held up his hands. “Whoa. You don’t wanna do that.”
“JUST EMPTY THE FUCKING REGISTER!”
The hollowness of Jayden’s voice got to me. Like I was watching myself thirteen years ago, doing jobs for Chi-chi because I didn’t know a way out of it.
I decided that Jayden’s not pulling the trigger was the actual choice that mattered on this day. His moment of conscience would be the thing that defined him, not his decision to rob a store.
Standing, I walked slowly toward him with my hands raised. “Hey, man.” I spoke deliberately.
Jayden snapped his head to me, gun arm outstretched. “Get the fuck down!”
I crouched but stayed on my feet. “I’m only trying to help you. It’s not too late to get out of this.”
“I am getting out of this. I’m taking the cash and leaving.” Jayden turned back to Amos, thrusting the backpack into his hands. “Put the money in that!”
Amos gave me a nod before shoving the bills from the register into the backpack.
“It doesn’t look like much cash,” I said casually, moving closer to the front. “Most people use cards these days.”
Amos finished loading up the backpack and slid it across the counter. Jayden picked it up, apparently no longer interested in the safe, and hunched it over his shoulder.
In the distance, police sirens blared.
“Give it back,” I said. “You’re never getting out of here with it. They’ll be looking for a young male dressed all in black. Armed robbery is years, Jayden. Years.”
He flinched. “You know me.”
Shit. I’d let the name slip. Well, no help for it.
“Jayden!” Cori stood and walked toward us. She held her arms up, but Jayden didn’t bother to raise the gun at her. Instead, heflicked his thumb to re-engage the safety. “You need to give the money back right now,” she implored him. “Let Deck help you.”
Cori looked at me beseechingly. Based on the sound of the sirens, cops would be here in less than a minute. As a single tear slipped from Jayden’s left eye, I sprang into action.
I tossed the backpack to Amos and pulled the gun from Jayden’s quivering hand, giving that to Amos as well. Amos quickly shoved the cash back into the drawer and went into the office to stash the Glock. Cori pulled off Jayden’s beanie and gaiter and stuffed them in her purse, fluffing up his hair with her fingers.
That was when I saw the woman.
She must have been lying down in the other aisle.
Cori muttered, “Shit,” under her breath as she took in the same impeccable makeup and complicated updo I saw. The woman was obviously young, in her mid-twenties at most, but she was dressed like someone’s wealthy grandma, wearing a pale purple suit dress and pearls, along with shiny heels and a matching purse. Standing, she brushed off the front of her thighs.
“Please!” Cori pleaded as the sirens grew closer. “He’s a good kid. I promise. He deserves a chance.”
A police cruiser pulled into the parking lot. I’d been hoping Emilio might be called to the scene, but no such luck. The two officers inside the vehicle initially seemed to be assessing the situation through the windshield. Amos and I started fake laughing like we’d just shared the most hilarious joke, and I slung my arm around a still-wooden Jayden.
Ding. The bored-looking officers came through the door.
“We heard there was a situation?” one officer said, more a question than a statement.
“Someone reported a robbery in progress,” the other officer spoke directly.
Amos’s forehead creased in an Oscar-worthy performance ofconfused corner store cashier. “Must have been someplace else. I’ve been on shift since eight this morning, and it’s been quiet all day.”
The first officer seemed ready to shrug and call it a day, but the second officer peered around suspiciously. His eyes landed on Jayden, who did not look up. “You okay, son?”
“Good,” Jayden mumbled.
“He’s fine,” I said, still squeezing his shoulders. “This is my little cousin. He’s pissed I caught him cutting. I was about to take him back to school, but we stopped off for a hot dog since he missed lunch period.”
