Chapter 14 #2
Casper laughed. “Yup. Six of them. And they’re all about to suck our dicks, so you need to skedaddle so we can get back to that.”
“Fuck you, Casper!”
Her insults were very uncreative and very repetitive.
Casper’s smile died, and he took a step toward Edge’s bitter, jealous ex.
“Leave, Trinity. Move on with your life. Because Edge sure as shit has. He doesn’t think about you.
Doesn’t worry about you. You don’t even figure as the smallest blip in his brain.
You’re being ridiculous and desperate, and it’s not a good look.
I don’t like being mean to women, but you aren’t taking the hint.
And Edge is too good of a man to tell you to fuck off. But I’m not—fuck off, Trinity.”
“Oh yeah, real classy, Casper.”
“Not trying to be, Trinity.”
The two glared at each other for a moment, before Trinity flipped her hair over her shoulder and finally stalked away.
Both Chaos and Casper stood there staring after her for a long moment, making sure she was truly leaving and not circling back around to sneak into the backyard, trying to find a way to enter the house.
Since taking the job on base, she’d proven she’d go to any lengths to see and talk to Edge, and both men would do whatever they could to prevent that.
Not when Edge seemed to finally be relaxing for the first time in weeks.
“I’m sorry.”
Chaos sighed upon hearing the voice behind him. He’d hoped Edge wouldn’t ever have to know his ex had shown up. But he should’ve known he was way too observant to miss both him and Casper disappearing at the same time.
Turning, he saw Edge standing in the open front door with a frown on his face.
“Nothing to be sorry about.”
“For the record, when we started dating, when we got married, she wasn’t like this. Wasn’t a psychotic bitch.”
“She hid her crazy for as long as she could, but at least as soon as you saw it, you ditched her.”
“Yeah. Which made her even crazier.”
"How the hell did she know you were here, anyway?” Chaos asked his friend.
Edge frowned. “I have no idea. Ever since she got that job on base, she’s been showing up everywhere I go.
I checked for a tracker on my car but didn’t find one.
The only thing I can assume is that she’s following me.
And she’s obviously good at it, because I’ve been watching my back and haven’t seen her.
Maybe she has someone else doing it for her. I have no clue.
“She needs help, but I can’t force her to get it.
And on the outside looking in, she seems normal.
I thought getting a divorce would be the end of things, and ignoring her attempts at reconciliation would make her go away.
Would eventually make her understand that we’re never getting back together.
And Lord forgive me, but I hoped she’d find some other sucker to latch onto.
But she hasn’t. Now I’ve given up so much…
and for what? I don’t know what else to do. ”
Chaos hated this for his friend.
“We start documenting,” Casper said firmly. “Every time she shows up. Everything she says and does. You write it down. Chaos, your security system is filming, right?”
“Yes.”
“Good. We keep the video of her stalking you. Worse comes to worst, we’ll get Tex involved. We all know he can make her life ten times more difficult than we ever could.”
“I don’t want her to get hurt or suffer. I just want her to leave me alone,” Edge said quietly.
He was a better person than Chaos. If he was in his friend’s shoes, he’d sic Tex on her in a heartbeat—and be glad when she lost her home, job, and any friends she might still have.
Casper stepped toward Edge and put a hand on his shoulder. “You aren’t alone in this. We’ve got your six, just like we always have.”
“I don’t want her anywhere near your women.”
“Neither do I, but you know what? Laryn and the others consistently prove they’re stronger than we give them credit for.
You know what they’ve all been through, they aren’t going to stand for Trinity being on your case.
It’s time to bring them into the fold, Edge.
Tell them what you’ve been dealing with.
If you don’t think they’ll go all mama bear over you, you’re delusional. ”
“You don’t know her. If the women get involved, Trinity will turn her vitriol on them.
Why do you think I didn’t ask Jen out? If the bitch had the tiniest inclination that I was dating someone new, I think what I’ve been dealing with so far would seem like child’s play.
Not that it matters now. I’ve lost my chance. ”
Chaos didn’t know what to say. From what he’d heard from Kara, Jen seemed pretty happy with Asher. She had nothing but good things to say about the man, and even though it was still early days, all the chatter indicated things might just turn serious between them.
“I get that, I do, but we need to warn our women. We don’t want Trinity to ambush them somewhere.
They need to know what’s going on. We’ll take things one step at a time.
One day at a time. That’s all we can do.
As far as Jen goes…things between her and that guy might not work out,” Casper told Edge.
He nodded, but it was more than obvious the carefree evening had been left far behind for their friend. His next words proved it.
“I’m gonna head out. Tell Bowie I said bye, and I’ll see her this weekend.”
Chaos wanted to bring Trinity back and kick her ass, but it wasn’t in him to hit a woman. It was hardly his or his teammates’ style. But how he wished he could’ve done more than just order her off his property.
“So you’re still coming on Saturday?” Casper asked.
“Yes. I wouldn’t miss your receptions for anything.”
“Good. Because it wouldn’t be the same without you there. This is gonna end, Edge.”
“Yeah. I just hope it doesn’t end with someone getting hurt because of choices I made in the past. Later.”
Chaos and Casper watched as their friend walked toward his pickup. Thankfully Trinity wasn’t lurking nearby, waiting to ambush him, and he drove off without incident.
“We’ve got to do something,” Chaos said after a moment.
“We will. Document. Everything. We’ll bring it to the cops and get her arrested for stalking.”
Chaos snorted. “Oh yeah, I’m sure that’ll happen…not. First, stalking isn’t exactly easy to prosecute, and second, a guy being stalked? That’s even less likely to be taken seriously.”
Casper sighed. “I realize that. But it’s what we have to do. It sucks even more that for the first time in years, he was interested in a woman, and now she’s found someone else.”
“Yeah.” Chaos hated that for Edge. Jen was a decade younger than his teammate, but she was nice, and funny, and cute.
It was obvious she was self-conscious about her alopecia…
and the one time someone had brought it up in their group, Edge had leapt to her defense, saying that hair didn’t make someone attractive, it was about who they were inside.
He’d never heard his friend sound so passionate before, and he’d certainly never come to a woman’s defense so quickly and openly. He was more the kind of guy who stayed in the background, didn’t like being in the spotlight.
“Come on, we still have a couple of hours before we’re supposed to pick up the girls. And I know Bowie’s been dying to listen to The Little Mermaid for the thousandth time.”
Chaos chuckled. “Love that little girl, but she can’t sing worth a darn.”
“Which is what makes it so adorable.”
He wasn’t wrong.
They made their way back into the house, and Chaos made a mental note to download the footage from his security camera after everyone left. He’d do anything for his friend if it helped get his ex off his back for good.
But he had a bad feeling things would only get worse before they get better.
Doing his best to shake off the ominous thought, he smiled at Bowie as she circled her hips and swung her arms wildly in the air, “dancing” in the living room.
For a split second, he had a vision of his own daughter doing the same thing—his and Kara’s little girl—and a warm feeling spread through his body.
He hadn’t thought much about kids, but spending time around Bowie made it hard not to think about them.
About how being a father was something he actually might want… as long as Kara was at his side.