Chapter 12
TWELVE
JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA
Nick Carter pulled his Chevy Camaro into his assigned parking spot at the Palm Court apartment complex. Smiling, he turned the rear-view mirror so that he could look at his hair. Yeah. He looked good.
With a nod, he turned off the car and flung the door open to get out.
"Hey! Watch it, asshole!"
Nick looked out and saw a man standing just outside of the reach of his car door.
The man was thin and barely taller than the Honda CRV he was standing beside.
Knowing that he was in uniform and cut a pretty imposing figure in it, Nick stepped out of the car and took a step toward the man. "Hey, idiot." Nick smiled and lifted an eyebrow. "Why don't you watch where you're going?"
The man took a half-step back and lowered his gaze to the side a little.
Yeah, he knew what was what.
"What? No comment? You're just going to back down?"
The man waved a hand at him. "Ah, go ahead and push people around. You might be in a uniform, but you're still an asshole." He walked off in another direction, turning to give Nick a glare as he went.
Nick glowered at him. It was complete bullshit.
Locking his car, Nick headed to the stairs and just before he used his key-fob to access the stairwell, he felt something like... He felt like someone was staring at him.
Like he was being watched.
He nearly fumbled and lost his keys, but barely managed to get the door open before he slid through the littlest opening that he could manage and jogged up the stairs.
Nick felt a drop of sweat slide down the back of his neck as he yanked open the door to the second-floor landing.
Thankfully, they'd found an apartment with a door less than ten feet from the stairs.
He juggled the keys in his hand and managed to separate the front door key, but stopped short of the door when it lurched open in front of him.
"Charmaine! What-"
"I've been standing inside the door watching for you."
"You were watching for me? What?"
She rolled her eyes. "I can track the car since you put that airtag on it. Like you'd go anywhere without your car."
Yeah. He'd put the airtag on the car worried about someone stealing his baby. "I spent good money on that car, Char. Of course I'd tag it."
She gave him a look with one eyebrow raised and her hand on her hip. "I should think you'd be worried about me more than your car."
Nick shook his head. "Babe, we spend a fortune on this apartment so you can have the best security protecting you, right?"
Charmaine looked away, her eyes rolling. "You mean my daddy spends a fortune on this apartment to make sure I'm okay."
Nick had to work to keep himself from biting back at her. Every time she was upset, she liked to take digs at him. Her daddy wasn't any better than he was. Sure, he had a country club membership and golfed at least three days a week, but that didn't make her folks any better than he was.
"Look, if you're going to gripe at me, can we do it inside.
I'd love to put my feet up and have a beer to take the edge off.
" He tried to move past her to get inside, but she leaned to the side to block him.
"Char," he smiled and put a little bit of a syrupy sweetness in his tone that he knew she liked, "gorgeous, it's been a long day and if I can sit down, you can sit right next to me. "
She relaxed a little. "I don't know... I've got a lot to talk to you about and I don't want your head all fuzzy with beer."
"Come on, babe. Let me inside-"
"No! I want to talk now!" She folded her arms and that caught his attention. She had a great set of tits. Thanks to her father, he snorted inside his head. Charmaine couldn't seem to find something that her dad wouldn't pay for.
She looked down and then snapped her gaze up to his. "Oh. My. God. Focus for once!"
Charmaine readjusted her arms, covering her breasts instead of lifting them up and suddenly all he could do was focus on her.
"What?"
She recoiled at his abrupt question, but she knew she had his full attention now.
"Someone came to the apartment earlier."
He gestured down the hall at the elevator. "You mean that maintenance guy? Remember? They have that sign in the elevator and in the lobby. They're checking on everyone's fuse boxes to make sure that all the fuses are good. It's why we-"
Her gaze narrowed on him. "I remember."
"Okay..." He gestured with his free hand. "Then what?"
"The guy that came to the apartment wasn't with the apartment complex. He asked to speak to you." She shrugged and had to relax her arms or risk cutting off her air. "I told him I could give you a message or a card and have you call him, but he was rude to me!"
Nick was starting to realize that he was going to need more than a beer. He was going to need some straight up bourbon. "How, Charmaine? How was he rude to you?"
"God, Nick! Stop being such an ass! I was scared and you didn't answer your cell phone!"
"I couldn't answer your call, Charmaine! I was working! You remember? I'm a Marine. We have shit to do during the day!"
"Oh," she rolled her lips together and didn't even muss her lipstick, "you're not going to come at me with that again, are you?"
Nick felt like he'd been kicked in the ribs. "With what again?"
"So you're going to play stupid?" She lifted her hand off of her hip in a swinging arc that would have made Mister Miyagi proud. "I don't need to get a job that I'm just going to quit when you get me pregnant! I'm going to need to relax and prepare our home for our baby, Nicki."
He bit the inside of his cheek. Nicki was a ridiculous nickname, but he couldn't get Charmaine to stop using it.
"Yeah? I know you want to stay at home. I've got no problem with that-"
"That's not what you said two weeks ago when I got home late from lunch with Trish and didn't have dinner ready for you."
He felt like he'd been thrown back in time with her words. "God, I didn't even think about that until you brought it up."
"Well, I remember it. And Trish does, too. She thinks-"
"Trish thinks? Ha!"
He realized how stupid that was to say when he saw Charmaine's expression.
His words weren't false, but Charmaine took perceived slights to heart and nurtured them like German Shepherd puppies bound to tear his throat out some day.
"Babe, come on! I'm sorry! Let. Me. In."
"There!" She flung out an arm, pointing past his shoulder. "That's the man!"
"Nick Carter?"
Nick had a feeling that sensation he'd felt on the back of his neck was now walking up behind him.
Turning around, he saw a man in beige slacks and a black polo shirt walking toward him from the stairwell and another man coming down the hall from the elevator.
"Sorry? Are you looking for someone?"
The closer man managed just a hint of a smile. "Nick Carter? I'm Frank Driscoll, a process server with Access. "Here." He held out a sealed document envelope with Nick's name on it. "Take it."
For a tempting moment, he thought about refusing to take the envelope and putting his hands behind his back, but he knew he was good and caught. He just didn't know what this was about.
Nick set his bag down and reached out his hand to take the envelope.
"What's going on?" Charmaine put a hand on his shoulder and leaned in.
He wanted to shrug her off, but he knew he'd catch hell later. And he was already feeling a migraine kicking in. "Where do I sign?"
Yeah, he was no stranger to being served.
The man who'd come from the elevator looked around his cell phone and shrugged. "We've got video proof. No need to sign."
"What's going on, Nicki? What are they here for?"
The man in front of him looked like he was enjoying himself a little too much. "We're process servers, Ma'am."
Her nails dug into his shoulder. "You said that, but it doesn't mean a thing to me. What's in that envelope?"
Nick lifted his shoulder trying to encourage her to ease up a little. "I'll look at it later, babe. Let's go inside."
"No." She reached her other arm around him trying to pull the envelope free from his hand. "You're not hiding this from me. You know I don't like secrets."
Frank reached out his hand and shook hers. "I'm sorry, ma'am. I didn't catch your name earlier."
Charmaine snatched her hand back. "I'm Charmaine Carter, obvs."
Nick cringed at the horrible way she sounded using that slang word. "Come on, Charmaine." He turned around, breaking the hold she had on his shoulder. He wrapped his arm around her middle and moved forward, trying to back her up into the apartment. "Let's go inside."
"Why?" She tried to shrug past him. "Why do you need to know?"
"I don't need to, ma'am. I guess I was just curious. So you're Nick's sister?"
Nick felt something at the back of his head as if a sniper had just laid his finger beside the trigger.
"What? His sister-"
The process server was still talking, and Nick knew he didn't have time to stop what was about to happen.
"Well, we're here to serve divorce papers to Mister Carter from his wife in Hawaii."
Charmaine was suddenly a granite statue, immovable and cold.
"His what?"
"Nick Carter-"
He was really beginning to hate his name.
"Has a wife in Hawaii who's been trying to divorce him for a little over two years."
Charmaine pushed him and he stumbled backwards.
A steadying hand against his back kept him on his feet, but since they'd been the cause of it all, it was the least they could do.
He'd seen Charmaine smiling and he'd seen her livid with anger when he'd forgotten their anniversary. Again.
Now, he'd seen her look like she could peel his skin off his body with her eyes alone. "You're married in Hawaii?!"
What was he going to say now? "Baby, I-"
"Daddy said you were no good."
"Char-" The door slammed in his face, and he sighed.
Nick turned back around and saw that the cell phone was still pointed at him. He turned and looked at the back of the cell phone with a glare. "Well, I hope you're happy, Kawehi, you bitch."
PALLAS