"You said this is not federal."
"The property dispute is not. Jonah is checking something else."
Trent's face tightened.
The outstanding warrant came from another state and involved a cargo theft conspiracy, obstruction, and failure to appear under a different variant of Trent's name. The details had nothing to do with Stonebridge Ridge. The warrant predated his security work for Marissa by more than a year.
Jonah stepped back into the loading bay. "Trent Barlo, do not reach for anything. Turn around and place your hands behind your back."
Marissa stared. "What is happening?"
"Federal warrant," Jonah said.
"For this?"
"No. Completely separate matter."
Trent looked once toward his SUV as if measuring distance. Ortiz and another deputy moved before he could decide whether to act on the thought.
"Do not," Ortiz said.
He stopped.
A minute later, the man who had zip tied Duncan on his own property stood cuffed beside the truck he had arrived in.
Marissa looked suddenly smaller inside the cream blazer. "I had no idea."
Duncan believed that part. Nothing in the evidence ever suggested she knew Trent was wanted federally. But the fact that the arrest was unrelated did not help her judgment. She had hired a man with a questionable background for what the association's contract called asset recovery security and then put him in a position to seize a property that was not theirs.
Duncan stepped away from the federal team and called the county sheriff's office using his personal phone after Evan returned it to him. He gave his name without his federal title and asked to report unlawful entry, property damage, and false imprisonment at his warehouse. When the dispatcher recognized his name from the earlier report, Duncan provided that number and asked for responding investigators.
"Do you need emergency medical?" the dispatcher asked.
Duncan looked at the red marks around his wrists. "No. Document injury only."
"Are the people who restrained you still on scene?"
"Yes. Federal deputies are also here on an unrelated warrant."
"Understood. Units are coming."
Marissa overheard the call.
"Duncan, surely that is not necessary now."
He looked at her. "You broke into my warehouse and had me restrained."
"Under a good faith belief in association authority."