Текст книги "Hold On"

Автор книги: Kristen Ashley

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Текущая страница: 26 (всего у книги 35 страниц)

“That might be so, ma’am, but, and I hope you agree with me, you honkin’ and behavin’ like that in front of a bunch of nine-, ten-, and eleven-year-olds does not teach good lessons. Makin’ it worse, nothin’ anyone can do to make the drop-off go faster, seein’ as there’s nowhere anyone can go until it’s open to go there. So think it’s best you keep your hand off your horn and wait your turn like everyone else.”

“They should do something about this,” she snapped, flicking a hand at the cars slowly passing them, a long line to get in, the line crawling to get out. “It’s like this every day and it’s ridiculous.”

She was not wrong.

He didn’t share he agreed with her.

He stated, “That’s not the issue. The issue is, I got a boy in that school and he’s of an age where there’re a lot of ways he’s learnin’. And I don’t want him to see folks actin’ like you and thinkin’ it’s okay when it’s not. He’s gotta learn to be patient, workin’ with his fellow citizens to get on in life. If this situation doesn’t work for you, take it up with the school or the town or suck it up like everyone else. Don’t take it out on other parents who got the same goal as you to get their kids to school safe and get on their way. Yeah?”

“Yes, Officer,” she mumbled.

He nodded. “Thanks for your time.”

She nodded back.

He walked to his truck, thinking that there was not a lot of joy in his job.

Except when he got to do shit like that.

He got in his truck. It took him all of three minutes to crawl to the exit of the school and pull out.

Then he went to his dad’s.

He pulled in the driveway, got out, and made his way up to his dad’s house, the house Garrett and Raquel grew up in, the house their mother was murdered in.

He never got why his father didn’t sell it before Rocky and him moved out, and he definitely never got why he didn’t after.

He also never questioned his dad about it. The Merricks didn’t do shit like that.

Which might be one of the reasons why they were all, in their own ways, fucked up.

Dave didn’t meet him at the door. It was cold and cold could fuck with Dave and the injuries he’d sustained that had healed okay but not completely when the man who’d murdered Garrett’s mother shot his father full of holes.

But when Garrett hit the front door, he found in the time between his phone call and now, his dad had unlocked it.

He went in and called out.

“Kitchen, son!” Dave called back.

Garrett headed to the kitchen and found his old man at the coffeepot.

“Joe?” he asked the pot.

“Yeah,” Garrett answered.

His father poured him a cup like he liked it—no milk, two sugars—and Garrett waited to see where he took it—kitchen table, the bar or if he was good to stand, drink and talk.

Garrett knew the cold was fucking with him when his dad took it to the table, handing Garrett his mug on the go.

They sat. Dave stretched out his bad leg and did it almost without wincing.

Watching that, Garrett felt the sour hit his gut. But this was a different kind of sour. One he’d lived with a long time.

“So, seein’ Cher Rivers,” his dad muttered, lifting his coffee to his lips.

“Yep,” Garrett answered, then sipped his own, swallowed, and lowered his mug. “Been busy. No excuse. Since it’s serious with Cher, should have found time to connect with you.”

Dave’s mouth quirked. “My son’s finally got a woman in his life with staying power, not sure I’m priority.”

Garrett held his eyes. “Like I said, it’s serious, Dad.”

Dave didn’t break eye contact. “Had Devin here a few days ago, drinkin’ my bourbon and tellin’ me Mia staked a public claim that’s no longer hers to stake, doin’ it blindsidin’ your girl at work. You not there, Tanner took your back…and hers. So, from that, already got it’s serious, Garrett.”

“She’s a good woman.”

“Know Cher,” Dave returned on a firm nod. “Know that. Know she’s got a good kid and Ethan’s good ’cause he’s got a good mom. Just glad you finally got your head outta your ass, seein’ as every time she got anywhere near you, she ratcheted up the tough broad, smartass, cute routine with the sole purpose of makin’ you smile at the same time hidin’ she was doin’ it ’cause you caught hold of her heart.”

At his dad’s words, his heart clenched.

He didn’t know that.

Or, more accurately, he hadn’t noticed that.

The Merricks were about family loyalty and being nuts, managing to do those closed off emotionally, which was only part of them being nuts. But Dave was an ex-cop. So not for a second did Garrett doubt what his dad was saying about Cher was true.

“No shit?” he asked quietly.

“This would be the part where my son’s head was up his ass, you didn’t notice. Think probably the whole ’burg did. But you didn’t.”

Fuck.

“No one said anything,” he noted.

“Boy, Cher’s had it bad for you for years. Don’t know why no one else said anything. Just know why I didn’t. And I woulda said somethin’ if I thought you were in the place to do somethin’ about it without breakin’ her. But I thought you were still tied up in Mia.” Another lip quirk before he lifted his coffee mug in a pseudo-toast Garrett’s way. “Seein’ as you’re not, I’ll repeat, I’m glad you finally got your head outta your ass.”

“Things have not gone smoothly with Cher, and Mia’s only part of that,” Garrett shared.

Dave shook his head knowingly. “Things that’re worth it never do. You got a woman where it goes smooth, you get rid of her. There’s no passion in smooth. There’s no challenge in smooth. You got smooth, that mean’s she’s bustin’ her ass so you can sail along without a hitch in the road, which in turns means she’s all about lookin’ after you rather than gettin’ what she needs out of the deal. Man’s no man at all, he doesn’t meet his woman’s needs. Woman’s no woman at all, she doesn’t got it in her to look after gettin’ what she needs. That might not make sense to you until you live it, so I’ll just boil this down, son. Smooth is boring.”

Garrett grinned at his dad. “I wouldn’t know. Not sure I’ve ever had smooth.”

His dad shook his head again. “Rough road you’ve been travelin’ wasn’t about that. Journey you took with Mia…” He kept shaking his head as he trailed off, then he grinned back. “But a woman who throws down in a bar full of people when she hears your five foot three ex shoved you, that’s the good kind of bumpy.”

Garrett hadn’t heard that. “Cher threw down with Mia because she shoved me?”

“Oh yeah.”

It was then, Garrett shook his head but he did it still grinning.

“Lucky for you, you’ve already proved you’re a hardass, so Cher defendin’ you at J&J’s isn’t a hit to your cred,” his dad teased.

“She thinks she’s the ’burg’s tough chick,” Garrett told him.

“She’s not wrong. Then again, life is life, so in this town, she’s got a lot of company.”

It felt good to know his old man liked Cher.

But he had to get to work and he had something he needed to get from his father, so he had to get down to it.

“I’m dreamin’ about her, Dad,” Garrett shared.

Dave’s grin turned to a smile. “Now, son, not sure your old man is up for hearin’ detail on that.”

“No,” he said low. “I’m dreamin’ her dead.”

Dave straightened. He paled. And he shut his mouth.

Garrett straightened too. “Now is not the time to close down on me. I thought I had this mess in my head like Rocky had it in hers—worried, me bein’ the man in the situation, the cop, that someone I loved would lose me like she worried Tanner’s occupation would take him from her. She was there when what happened to Mom happened, so her mess was compounded by guilt she wasn’t able to stop it.”

When he mentioned his mom, he saw his father’s mouth get tight.

But he didn’t quit.

“I’m seein’ from these dreams I’m not worried someone will lose me. I’m worried somethin’ I do will put Cher in danger.”

“Like I did to your mother,” Dave forced through tight lips.

“Like what happened to Mom,” Garrett returned. “You didn’t do it to her. It happened to her.”

“Because of what I did.”

“Because of what was happening,” Garrett said firmly. “You didn’t do dick, Dad. Except your job.”

Dave stared at him, then shifted irritably in his chair. “You wanna tell me why you’re here, goin’ over this with me?”

Garrett stared back at his dad, not believing he even asked such a fucked-up question after what had happened when Rocky broke down and Tanner justifiably lost his mind on both his and his father’s asses.

Then he said, “Thought that was obvious. I’m here because I’m fallin’ in love with a good woman and I wanna hold on this time. She’s got a kid, a kid I’m fallin’ in love with right alongside her. And she wants more kids, Dad. My kids. Unlike Rocky when she was twenty-one years old and she blocked Tanner from her life, not mature enough to deal with all the shit screwing with her head, I’m forty-two and realize I have issues. So I need to find the tools to deal with them so I can make my woman and her son happy. Not tear them apart.”

“You’re aware of it, just do it,” Dave stated.

“The first dream, she was against a wall with a gun in her face—a gun that exploded,” Garrett declared.

His father’s body gave a small jerk.

That was how his mother had died.

After she had been tortured, that was.

Garrett kept pushing. “Second one, she was like the vic’s body I saw yesterday—in a car, covered in blood. You okay with your son havin’ those kinds of dreams?”

“See a doctor,” Dave clipped. “That helped your sister.”

“I don’t wanna see a doctor. I want to talk to my dad.”

Dave’s head twitched before he said, “I don’t have those tools to give you, Garrett.”

“Yes, you do,” Garrett returned.

“If I did, I’d hand them to you.”

“You don’t hand them to me, if my time comes, how am I gonna hand what I learned to a kid me and Cher make? Ethan’s birth father is a moron, the kind he’s not gonna turn that around. If this is what I think it is with Cher, the best Ethan’s gonna have is me, and gotta tell you, the more I get to know that kid, that honor would be mine. But I gotta do that right. And if there’s a time in his life he needs me to be strong for him, teach him how to be that himself, how do I do that if I don’t even fuckin’ know?”

Dave’s face twisted.

Garrett leaned toward his father.

“Just tell me it’s gonna be okay,” he whispered. “Tell me I got this. Tell me I can do my job and keep her safe. I can do my job and keep Ethan safe. What happened to our family is not gonna happen to the family I make. All I need, Dad, is for you to tell me it’s gonna be fuckin’ okay.”

“Nothing’s gonna happen to you,” Dave whispered back. “Nothin’s gonna happen to Cher. Fuck, Garrett, you lived your whole life thinkin’ that?”

“Right alongside you livin’ your whole life feelin’ guilt it was your fault that somethin’ happened to you. Mom and you. I love you. You’re my father. I felt that pain and guilt right with you. And I felt my own pain and guilt bein’ powerless to take yours from you. So, shit yeah, Dad. I lived my whole life thinkin’ that. No. Not thinkin’ it. Emotionally paralyzed because I was terrified of it.”

Dave held his gaze, pain and guilt in his eyes.

Fuck.

It never ended.

“Mia, boy…cute. So cute,” Dave started.

Garrett did a slow blink as his chin jerked back.

What the fuck?

“Not sweet. Sharp,” Dave carried on. “Girl’s sense of humor like a razor. Made you happy, oh yeah. She did. Loved seein’ my boy happy. But even with that, knew she was wrong. Good-time girl. When bad times came, I knew she didn’t have it in her. Your mother woulda put up with her, but she’d never really like her,” Dave declared.

Garrett sat back, stunned at hearing shit he’d never heard.

Dave kept going.

“And I was right. She didn’t have it in her. She wanted smooth, like her daddy gave to her, which meant you had to bust your ass givin’ that to her. You didn’t have that in you and that is not a weakness. That’s a real man. Like no woman should do that for her man, no man should hafta do that for his woman. And no woman should expect that from a man. A marriage is a partnership. Both of you gotta hold on to weather any storm, boy. I was not surprised Mia didn’t go the distance. It hurt seein’ you hurt. But when you lost her, I wasn’t surprised.”

He stopped speaking and Garrett didn’t start. He had nothing to say and he didn’t understand why his father was sharing this now when it should have been shared years ago.

Regardless of that, it was beside the point.

Mia was gone. Everyone now got why, and annoyingly, it seemed a bunch of them, including his father, got why a long time ago.

Discussing her did not have dick to do with holding on to Cher.

“Cher Rivers,” Dave continued, hopefully getting to the point, “that’s a different story. You know it. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t give a shit about your issues. You’d be just as blind, makin’ the same mistakes you’ve been makin’ for years and not givin’ a shit. If you didn’t know she’s a different story, you wouldn’t be here, askin’ an old man who has no idea how to deal how to deal. And the reason I don’t have any idea how to deal, Garrett, is because I learned real good how to weather a storm. And how I learned that is that I could face anything, your mother at my side. When I lost her, I lost that ability. I didn’t get it back. Any time I tried, it reminded me how much I missed her. So I quit tryin’. I don’t know how to tell you how to keep your head together or how to quit havin’ those dreams. All I know is that I’d have those answers if your mother was sittin’ at this table with me.”

Through his dad’s words, Garrett felt his throat close.

He also watched his father’s eyes get bright and felt wet hit his own.

He didn’t move.

He also still didn’t speak.

Dave Merrick cleared his throat, sniffed, and kept talking.

“Last thing I gotta say to you is to repeat, Cher Rivers is a different story. You’re worried about these issues you got. You’re worried you can’t get past them. What you don’t see is that you got your hands on a woman who knows how to weather a storm. So what you got is a woman who knows about your issues. This means you don’t have to do shit, Garrett, except count your lucky stars you’re able to hold tight to your woman so you can weather…the goddamned…storm.”

He knew Dave was done.

Then again, he actually was done because, fucking finally, he’d given Garrett just what he needed.

And it was just plain done because he needed his father to point out that Cher had already given him what he needed. And she did this days before, not putting up with the shit he’d pulled at dinner at her mother’s house.

But Garrett still couldn’t speak because his throat was still closed and he was having trouble with his breathing.

This meant he cleared his throat and sniffed, just like his dad.

“Now, your sister’s pregnant again, which fills me with joy,” Dave declared. “But she’s forty, so I’ll be havin’ words with Tanner about another go with that because, more time passes, it’s gonna start bein’ dangerous for her. And anyway, this kid makes four for Tanner and four is enough for any man, for God’s sake.”

Garrett smiled.

“But I’m not done with grandchildren,” Dave kept on. “Lived empty except for you two kids after we lost Cecelia. Time you two did what you can do to fill me up. Cher’s young, got a lotta baby makin’ in her. But you best get on that because you’re no spring chicken and I ain’t either.”

Garrett stopped smiling even though what Dave said was funny.

He also whispered, “Love you, Dad.”

“I know you do, son, and love you too. You make a kid, you’ll know just how much,” Dave whispered back.

He knew that. His dad didn’t say it often, but he didn’t shy away from it.

Since Garrett could remember, before his mother died and after, Dave Merrick always showed it.

Talking low, Garrett stated, “You’re not to blame about Mom.”

Dave didn’t reply.

“You aren’t, and Rocky and me never blamed you,” Garrett went on.

The guilt and pain sat in his dad’s eyes where it had been for years, never leaving, never even dulling.

“Mom wouldn’t either,” Garrett finished. “And you know it.”

Surprisingly, his dad spoke then.

“I know it.”

At least there was that.

Dave Merrick said no more.

And Garrett had said what he could. Whether his father took it in, that was his choice.

But he’d said what needed to be said.

Father and son sat at the kitchen table, where his mother put flowers as often as she could, and they just looked at each other.

It took a long time to say it and now there was nothing more to say.

But Garrett learned something else right then at that table.

With anything important, it was better late than never.

“I got a homicide to solve,” Garrett eventually told his old man.

Dave tipped his head to the table. “Then I got a cup a’ joe I best be pourin’ in a travel mug.”

They got up. His dad poured his coffee in a travel mug. He also walked his son to the door.

“Want Cher and her boy here for dinner, Garrett,” Dave ordered. “Soon’s you can work that out.”

He stopped and looked at his dad, muttering, “You got it.”

He moved in, wrapped an arm around his old man, and slapped his back twice.

He got three back.

That was his father; he always bested on the back slaps.

Grinning, Garrett let him go, lifted the mug, and took off out the door.

“Careful out there,” Dave called.

“Always,” Garrett called back.

He got in his truck and drove to the station.

Count your lucky stars you’re able to hold tight to your woman so you can weather the goddamned storm.

Fuck, he missed his mom.

And he had a great dad.

On the way up the back stairs to the bullpen, his phone sounded with a text.

He pulled it out and read, Eggs and toast are not culinary brilliance. Dinner tonight will be. Warning, I’m introducing vegetables to my kid’s diet. Before hitting your pad, please secure an adrenaline shot in case he goes into shock.

Shit, Cher. Damned funny.

And she had been that way with him since he knew her.

She gave that to everyone else.

But looking back, he’d definitely had his head up his ass. She’d pulled out all the stops to make him laugh, to give him the impression she was just one of the guys but with tits, which meant hiding the fact that he was not like Colt to her. Or Sully. Morrie. Mike. Cal. Tanner. And not because he wasn’t married.

Because she was into him.

Shit.

…weather the goddamned storm.

He texted back, What time you need me home?

He gave Mike a chin lift as he walked to his desk.

He was seated at it, ready to brief with Mike before they took on their day, when he got back, It’s not me fighting crime. You tell me when and dinner will be ready.

Will do. But later. Good? he texted back.

You got it, boss, she replied.

“Everything okay?” Mike asked.

He looked to his partner.

“Yes,” Garrett answered. That word was solid because he meant it in many ways, not all of which he was going to communicate right then. “You know where I can get an extra bed? Need to convert my second bedroom to an eleven-year-old kid’s room.”

Mike’s lips twitched. After years of his partner being the town player, he thought this was hilarious.

“Nope,” he answered. “But I’ll ask Dusty. Maybe Rhonda has something.”

Garrett nodded and reached out to turn on his computer.

He didn’t get there.

“You hear from Ryker?” Mike asked.

“No,” Garrett answered.

“Time to try and hit Cutler again?” Mike asked.

“Absolutely,” Garrett answered.

Mike got up.

Garrett got up without even turning on his computer.

They went to the sedan.

And that day, Garrett drove.

Chapter Twenty

Matchmaker

Garrett

In the bullpen, Mike stood three feet from the whiteboard, staring at it.

Garrett sat on the side of his desk, also staring at it.

Sean and Drew stood close, staring at the board too.

At the top was a long horizontal line, short vertical dashes on the line.

Close to the right edge and under a dash, on three lines, it said, 4:30 a.m. gunshots heard, time of death.

Next to that, under a dash, two lines said, 4:39 a.m., 911 call.

The space between those times and the time Wendy left work as well as the space after those times was empty—except for question marks.

Stuck to the board, there were driver’s license photos of Wendy Derian and Jaden Cutler. There were also crime scene photos of her, her Fiesta, and four shell casings on the pavement outside her Fiesta.

Marscha had heard it right; Wendy had been hit three times. Jake found another bullet lodged close to the gear shift.

Either a warning shot or a miss.

In the top right-hand corner, it said, Cell phone?

Other than that, there was nothing.

Dick.

Their trip to Cutler’s that morning bought them the same. He still wasn’t there.

“Fuck, we got dick,” Mike muttered.

“You got dick,” Drew confirmed.

They all stared at the board.

“Seriously,” Drew kept on. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a board so empty.”

Garrett watched Mike turn annoyed eyes at his colleague.

“Can’t go to Carlito ’cause no one mentioned him,” Sean remarked, eyes still to the board. “Can’t go to any of Cutler’s associates because no one has mentioned them either.”

“Not like those guys aren’t used to fishing expeditions,” Mike returned, turning his eyes to Garrett. “They’re known associates. One of their own lost his girl. We’re just looking for any information we can find.” He tipped his chin up to Garrett. “Game?” he asked just when the phone on Garrett’s desk went.

Game to possibly stir up a hornet’s nest they had no idea what was buzzing around it?

“Fuck yeah,” he answered Mike, looking at his phone. The display said it was reception. “Just a sec. It’s Kath,” he said, and took the call. “Merrick.”

“Uh…sorry, Merry,” Kath replied, for some reason sounding like she was talking under her breath. “But Justin McClintock is here and he says he wants to talk to you.”

Garrett stared unseeing at the phone.

He could not believe this shit.

“I’m in the middle of a murder investigation, Kath,” he told their girl downstairs something she knew.

“I explained that, but Merry, he demanded to have a word, he didn’t back down when I shared that tidbit, and he seems kind of…perturbed.”

Goddammit.

He did not need this.

And what this was, was Mia’s dad coming to Garrett’s place of work to get in his face in an effort to give his daughter what she wanted.

Eyes to Mike, Garrett said into the phone, “Reiterate to him I’ve got important shit I gotta see to in order to solve a murder. I’m comin’ down, but he’s only got five minutes.”

“Will do,” she replied, and disconnected.

Garrett put his phone in the cradle. “Mia’s dad’s downstairs and Kath says he’s ‘perturbed.’ I gotta give him five minutes, then we can go.”

Now Mike was perturbed.

“Her dad? Jesus, how old is she?” Mike asked.

“You spoil a kid like McClintock spoiled his daughter, I’m findin’ she never grows up,” Garrett replied, straightening from the desk, snatching his suit jacket from the back of his chair, and shrugging it on as he headed to the stairs that led down to the reception area.

He saw McClintock pacing just inside the front doors.

Both of Mia’s parents were height challenged—her mom Mia’s height, her dad about five foot five.

In life, this gave Justin McClintock something to prove.

It had served him well, because in business, the man took no prisoners. He wasn’t completely loaded, but he was far from hurting. He drove a Lexus. His wife drove a Jag. They still lived in a big house in a nice development even though their daughter and two sons had long since moved out.

And he gave his daughter a piece of jewelry, the like Garrett learned early he could never compete with, doing that every year, birthday and Christmas.

In the beginning, Garrett had given her other things. He’d made her laugh, made her happy. They were living the good life and he was a part of that, so this wasn’t a problem; if they had that, he didn’t care if her father gave her jewelry.

But in the end, they’d fought about it because he’d used something he didn’t care smack about to drive the wedge he was building between them deeper.

Mia had never asked her dad to lay off, though. She took the diamonds. The emeralds. The tennis bracelets. And she did it with glee, right in front of her husband, even after he’d laid it out—no matter how fucked up it was or how false—that he hated that shit.

Christ, but it seemed he hadn’t paid attention at all.

Walking down the stairs, watching Mia’s father turn angry eyes to him, and all he felt was relief that Cher’s father wasn’t in the picture.

And that he’d finally started paying attention.

He glanced at Kath as he walked by her, giving her a look that said he’d rather not have an audience for this.

She read his look, gave a short nod, grabbed some papers off her desk, and hurried toward the copy machine.

Garrett looked to McClintock. “Justin. Sorry, you picked a bad time.”

Justin puffed up his chest and skewered Garrett with his eyes. “Don’t give a shit if it’s a bad time, Garrett.”

His tone was antagonistic.

Garrett stopped three paces from him.

“Right. I’m down here outta respect but also to share we’re not only not gonna do this now, we’re not ever gonna do this.”

His tone was steel.

McClintock took a step toward him. “You think that, you think wrong.”

“Okay, then, Justin. How about after I wrap up a homicide investigation, I go to your office and we have whatever this is out on your turf?” Garrett suggested sarcastically.

“You fuck with my daughter, you don’t get to fuck with me. I fuck with you,” McClintock snapped.

Garrett crossed his arms on his chest. “I see Mia’s told you some tales, so I’ll give this the time it takes to set that straight. Your daughter and I divorced five years ago. I’m now in a serious relationship with another woman. Mia’s not in my life and hasn’t been in my life in any kind of healthy way for half a decade, so she doesn’t get any say about who is in my life. That’s it. There’s nothin’ more to it.”

“Mia’s shared how you’ve been stringing her along in a very unhealthy way. Those’re the ‘tales’ she’s been telling, Merrick,” McClintock returned. “Now, are you saying my daughter’s a liar?”

If Mia shared that kind of thing with her father, it was clear that the fucked-up non-relationship he’d had with his ex for five years after their divorce wasn’t the only unhealthy relationship in her life.

“I’m saying the relationship we have is none of your business,” Garrett shot back. “It wasn’t when we were married. It wasn’t after we were divorced. And the absolute lack of one now is the definition of it being none of your business.”

“I beg to differ when my daughter has quit her job, taken her house off the market, as well as broken off her engagement with another man all because she’s committed to helping her husband get his head sorted out. And while she’s committed to that and has shared that with you, you’re not only spending time with the town slut, word is, you’ve moved her in with—”

McClintock didn’t finish.

This was because Garrett moved and did it aggressively, backing McClintock up until he hit the connected bench of chairs that ran the front of the reception area. And he did this with such speed, McClintock’s ass crashed into a seat.

Looking up at Garrett, his face paled with fear before it reddened with bluster and he opened his mouth to speak.

Garrett leaned so they were nose-to-nose and beat him to it.

“Have you met Cher Rivers?” he growled.

“I don’t need to—”

“If you’ve never met her, you don’t know fuck all about her. So you sure as fuck don’t talk that kind of trash about her.”

McClintock was shifting in his seat, all bluster now, demanding, “Step back, Garrett.”

He didn’t step back.

Garrett declared, “It’s a sad thing to say about a woman her age, but the God’s honest truth is, your daughter is a spoiled-rotten brat.”

He lifted a hand and jabbed his finger an inch from McClintock’s face, savoring the flash of fear he saw before the bluster shot back when his eyes narrowed.

On his jab, he went on.

“You created that. The woman is in her late thirties and her daddy is still out bustin’ his ass and makin’ himself look a fool to get her what she wants. Since she hasn’t already done it, the time is now for her to grow the fuck up and learn to take care of herself. Even more, she needs to learn to take care of the things in her life that mean something. The age she is, Justin, if she doesn’t do that shit, she’s gonna lose those things and you can’t do jack to get them back for her, case in point, Mia not fighting for her marriage and only deciding she’s willin’ to do that when it’s way too fuckin’ late.”

“You need to step back,” McClintock spat.

Garrett straightened, but he didn’t step back. This meant McClintock had to get out of the seat while shifting to the side to avoid hitting Garrett’s body. He did that and Garrett turned to him just as his phone in his jacket started ringing.

He wanted to take the call. With his work and a woman in his life, that woman having a son, he might even need to take the call.

He unfortunately had to get this done, so he didn’t take the call.

“We’ll see what your captain thinks of you assailing a citizen right in the reception area of the goddamned station,” McClintock threatened.

“As it’s a police station, we have cameras. Those will show I didn’t touch you. I also didn’t demand to speak to you. I didn’t show at your place of business, interrupt your pursuit of doing that business, and do it uttering slurs against a woman who means something to you. Feel free to discuss this with my captain. He’ll give you the respect of listening to you without laughing to your face. Then he won’t do dick.”

Garrett’s phone stopped ringing.

McClintock’s enraged look turned nasty. “I cannot believe I’m looking at the man I happily walked my daughter down the aisle and gave her away to. She’s hurting…because of you. Her life’s in a shambles…because of you. She—”

Garrett took a step back and planted his hands on his hips, interrupting, “Listen to yourself, Justin. I did not give a ring to another woman, then go to Mia with what amounts to a dare to win her back or lose her forever. I didn’t find out she became involved with another man, happily involved, and seek her out to share I was ready, after five years, to try and resurrect our marriage. After repeated warnings that all between us was good and dead with no hope of resurrection, I didn’t go to her man’s place of business and cause a scene.”