Chapter 42 #2
Vincent gave a grunt that might’ve been approval and the other detective simply narrowed his eyes, looking around Douglas’s office in a way that told me the man was now officially on his radar anyway.
As for Douglas, he knew he’d been beaten.
I could see it in the sweat dotting his brow and the hatred in his eyes.
“You’re going to rein her in,” I said with finality in my tone.
“Today. There won’t be any interviews given about where she’s going.
No cryptic posts and certainly no weak, false apologies.
It’s simple, really. You’re going to make sure she gets the fuck out of my city, out of my wife’s life, and out of my sight. If so, we can all move on.”
He swiped his tongue across his lips, eyes darting this way and that before he sighed. “You’re threatening me.”
“I’m offering your spoiled brat mercy.” I strode back to the other side of his desk.
“I don’t make a habit of it and I won’t extend the courtesy again.
Cassandra didn’t just cross the line this time, she burned it to the ground.
She embarrassed me. She came after my family, and if I ever see her face or even so much as hear her name whispered in relation to that girl I married , I will destroy everything and everyone around her. ”
I strode to the door and he picked up his phone. By the time I opened it, his daughter was on the other end of the line. “Cassandra? Pack your things. I’m putting you on the red eye to Switzerland tonight. No arguments.”
Vincent raised an eyebrow at me as we walked out of the office, but I didn’t respond. The only thing on my mind was Laney—and what I would have to do next to protect her from a world I’d dragged her into, but was much too ugly for a beautiful, kind-hearted person like her.
“I need a drink,” Vincent muttered once we were on the sidewalk. He slid a pair of cheap sunglasses over his eyes and turned to me, hands on his hips in a way that made his jacket flare open. “Beer?”
“Sure.” All I really wanted was to head home, but this was something else I had to fix. Our marriage had come between Laney and her father and the chasm between them was hurting her. “I know a place not far from here.”
He scoffed and shook his head. “I don’t want a two-hundred dollar scotch in a place with a dress code. I know a place too. We’re going to mine.”
I didn’t argue, simply following him down the block when he started walking. We lost the other detective somewhere along the way. He didn’t even say goodbye, just disappearing from where he’d been walking behind us.
“Is he okay?” I asked Vincent as we walked into a dark, dingy bar that I was loathe to admit was a much better fit for my mood than the place I’d had in mind. “I didn’t even get to thank him.”
Vincent grunted. “He didn’t do it for you, Westwood.”
We ordered a round of beers from the bar and went to find a quiet table tucked into the corner once we had them in hand.
My father-in-law stared at me, took a sip of his drink, and then stared at me some more, the lines etched into his face seeming so much deeper in this low light than I’d ever realized before.
“You’re a good man, Sterling,” he said finally. I was so surprised I nearly sprayed the sip of beer I’d just taken all over him, but he wasn’t done. “I’m still not too sure I like you for Laney, but you handled this well. You took care of my daughter the same way I would have, and that matters.”
“Thank you, but I never should’ve let it happen in the first place. She was targeted because of me and I’m sorry.”
He let out a sigh so deep, I was surprised one of his lungs didn’t come out with his breath, but then he chuckled. “Well, at least you know how to take responsibility. That matters too, you know. In a marriage, holding yourself accountable is important.”
“In a marriage?” I asked. “Does that mean you’ve finally accepted it?”
He rubbed the back of his head. “I still don’t like the way it happened. Laney deserved better than a proposal via contract and a wedding consisting of a signature on a piece of paper, but the end result? That’s the same.”
It was like those words allowed me to breathe again after all these weeks worrying about their relationship.
Vincent and I ended up staying for two beers before we parted ways.
By the time we left, I felt better about everything.
Smoothing things over with him would go a long way toward making Laney happy, and ultimately, that was what I wanted more than anything else.
I got home to find her on the couch, but with a huge gray cat resting between her legs. My eyebrows mashed together, confusion rattling through me. “Hey, baby. Uh, who’s cat is that?”
“Ours.” She turned to look at me, smiling in a way that would’ve made it okay with me if she’d brought home an alligator with a little pink collar on it. “Sterling, meet Jack. Jack, Sterling. Jack was in need of a home and Sadie knew we had one to give.”
I collapsed beside them on the couch and slid my arm around her shoulders, brushing a light kiss to her temple. “We do have one to give, I guess. Even if the only pussy I really wanted in this house was yours.”
She laughed and smacked my arm playfully, but then she melted into my side, and for the first time since that morning in Napa, I felt like she and I were really, properly on the right track.