Her Love Came Too Late novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: Incident 200

On Saturday night Elliott came around the corner of the Ardmore at eleven o'clock exactly, and stopped.

The side alley was full.

There were two hundred people packed behind a line of metal barriers, and every one of them was holding a phone.

Some held signs.

WE BELIEVE YOU MARIN, said one.

Another said, STAY AWAY, STAGE DOOR MAN.

The big man in the tour shirt stood at the front of the crowd with his arms crossed.

"Right on time," he said.

Elliott looked at him for a long second.

He had heard that sentence once before, from that same mouth, in that same place.

He had thought it was a joke.

"You're expecting me," Elliott said.

"Everybody is, buddy."

Hannah came out of the shadows by the door, in full uniform with her hair tucked up under her cap.

She stood next to him and kept her eyes on the crowd.

"Stay on my left," she said, very low. "Don't answer anyone."

"Is it always like this?"

"No." Her mouth tightened. "I've never seen it like this."

The steel door opened.

Light spilled into the alley, and the crowd roared.

Marin came out in a long red gown, with her hair pinned up and a bouquet in her arm.

Russ walked one step behind her.

She stopped on the threshold.

The roar fell off at once, and there was only the sound of two hundred phones lifting to point at her.

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