Evan bristled. “I didn’t?—”
“I need a yes or no answer,” the judge interrupted. “Do you understand?”
His jaw clenched, and he said, “Yes, Sir.”
“It’s Your Honor,” the judge bit out before standing up and sweeping from the room.
Atlas leaned closer to me. “What a fuckin’ prick.”
“Yeah,” I rasped, my guts burning at the underhanded shit that was going on.
I couldn’t recall detesting anyone more than I did Evan Palmer in that moment, which said a lot, seeing as I’d had my fair share of run-ins with utter motherfuckers. I didn’t want Rosie to have to look at him, let alone listen to all the fake shit and lies he was slinging.
Still, I was so fucking proud of the way she sat straight-backed, head tilted up defiantly, with her lips pressed together, and her eyes gleaming with a stubborn light that only a queen possessed.
Evan was nowhere near breaking her.
Now I just had to keep it that way.
—————
We sataround the table in the conference room, raging at the photographs that Evan’s lawyer had conveniently forgotten to include in his evidence.
“I should have been prepared for this,” Kennedy muttered.
“You weren’t to know he’d pull this stunt,” Rosie argued, flicking through them with her cheeks burning. “It was me who should have warned you. I know his game after all.”
Compared to these new images, the old ones were tame.
They showed the kids larking around out at Rosie's pool. In another, Gabby’s bikini top had obviously slipped, and she was showing a bit more skin than was appropriate. There was another image with Gabby and Kai, their heads close together with nobody else around. It looked intimate, but I was sure if the image panned out, we’d see other kids there too.
In another photo, DJ was in the pool with a girl, and they were making out, seemingly hot and heavy. The chick must’vehad a flesh-colored swimsuit on because it looked like she was naked under the water.
They were bad enough, but the other ones of Rosie made my fucking blood boil.
There were images of her sunbathing topless by the pool, as well as her taking the trash out wearing booty shorts and a tiny top that left little to the imagination. There was also the silhouette of her getting undressed at her bedroom window one night with the lights on, when it was dark outside.
They were totally invasive and probably illegal. Evan’s PI had crossed a line, and I wasn’t fucking happy.
“I want the details for that PI,” I growled.
“On it,” Colt muttered, his cheeks staining red with the same anger that was filling my gut.
Kennedy turned to Rosie. “This isn’t legal. I think we need to look at serving the PI. He’s clearly hidden in the field behind your house and spied on you. The closest house to you is half a mile away; there’s no way you would’ve sunbathed topless if there were other people there.”
“That was the day before the cookout,” Rosie explained. “I was topping up my tan for the party. I wanted to look nice.” She dropped her head and rubbed her temple. “The kids weren’t even there; they were out with their friends.” She pointed to the image of her taking out the trash. “Again, there was nobody around. I have no neighbors, so who would see me?”
I slipped my hand over hers. “You don’t need to explain. What you do in the so-called privacy of your own home is nobody else’s business.”
“I know,” she said quietly. “But these pictures make me out to be something I’m not, and you know what? That’s not even the worst of it. The thought of some stranger spying on me and taking pictures of me topless is freaking me out. What if he has copies? He could sell them to some pervy website or anything.”
My hands balled into fists, and I hauled out of my chair, heading for the door.
I heard Rosie call my name as chairs scraped behind me and a thick, muscular arm caught me around my chest from behind. “Settle down, brother,” Atlas rasped into my ear. “He’ll get his, but we gotta play it smart. We’re in a court of fuckin’ law.”
My head bowed, and I tried to get my shit under control.
“Atlas is right, Donovan,” Colt called out. “There’s more than one way to skin a cat. I can do a web search and put an alert out, and if anything pops up, it’ll get scrubbed from existence. Rosie will be fine, and if anything does get through, I can load a virus on it so gnarly that whoever tries to download it will wipe out their entire electricity grid.”
