The sheer gall of this man. “So, let me get this straight,” I said, unfolding my arms. “You’re asking me to give you more money because ofyourissue with gettingyourgirlfriend pregnant?”
Corey’s face dropped. “If I had started earlier?—”
“If you’d started earlier, what?” I demanded. “You’d be milking me for child support on top of alimony? What exactly do you think would have been different if you managed to baby-trap your sugar wife as opposed to getting everything you wanted in our divorce?”
Corey sputtered. His mouth opening and closing like a fish. But then he used that theatre degree to compose himself with a lift of his chin. “This is why you have gotten what you deserved. You’re always making jokes. Always dismissing my pain.”
I shrugged. “Hey, some people like my jokes. And laughing is way better than blaming others for everything that’s gone wrong in my life.”
Corey narrowed his eyes. “So you believe you carry no blame in this predicament I find myself in?”
“I mean, I wouldn’t say zero blame. But I’m sure those three zeroes on all your alimony checks make up for anything you imagine I’ve done to you.”
Corey huffed. “There you go again. Quipping when you should be taking responsibility for?—”
“Okay, speaking of zeroes. I have zero time to get lectured about responsibility by a bottom-feeder like you. Sell the house you got in the divorce if you want kids so bad. But don’t ever come back here asking for more money again.”
I began to close the door in his face, but he wedged himself between it before I could.
“It is not asking. It is what you owe me,” he said coldly. All warmth and civility disappeared from his expression, and his Minnesota accent returned in full force. “Don’t make me drag you back to court and give the judge and even bigger sob story. Imagine what they’ll think when I tell them you used to hit me.”
My stomach twisted, but I held my ground. “You’re bluffing.”
“Am I?” he asked, leaning in with a sneer. “It’s your word against mine, and the courts already believed me once. I can make them believe me again. Or you can figure out how to add one more zero to this month’s alimony check so that Celeste and I can?—”
One moment, Corey was standing wedged into my front door. And the next, he was gone.
Whooshed out of my sightline.
“What in the…?” I stepped forward and froze.
Hawk stood in my apartment floor’s hallway, holding Corey by the throat against the wall at a locked arm angle, with his feet dangling above the industrial carpet.
And Koda and Leif were standing on either side of him, flanking Hawk like soldiers.
The three bears who had left me behind… They were here.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, wondering if my mind had broken with Corey’s visit and this was some kind of hallucination.
Instead of answering, Koda held his badge directly in front of Corey’s choke-reddened face. “Sergeant Takoda of the RCMP. I just witnessed every word of that threat.”
“And I just recorded it!” On the other side of Hawk, Leif shoved his phone into Corey’s face the same way Koda presented his badge.
“And I’m here tobreak your fucking neckfor daring to talk to our mate like that,” Hawk growled between them.
“RCMP? This—this is abuse!” Corey managed to choke out around Hawk’s squeezing hand. Then he said what any half-Canadian who’d grown up in America would under the circumstances. “I’ll sue! I’ll sue your entire department!”
“Sue us?” Koda shook his head, like he was honestly confused. “Sue us for what?”
“Him!” Corey scratched uselessly at Hawk’s hand. “You can’t let him do this!”
“Let me?” I couldn’t see Hawk’s face, but I could hear the razor-sharp smirk in his voice as he informed Corey, “I’m not a Dudley, bitch. I just got out of jail for manslaughter, and my knifin’ hand’s feeling itchy.”
Corey turned desperate eyes to Koda and Leif. “Aren’t you going to do something?”
“Do something about what?” Leif shrugged. “I don’t see anyone doing anything wrong. Do you, sergeant?”
“Nope,” Koda answered, popping the p sound while looking straight at Hawk’s choking hand. “Only someone trying to blackmail our pregnant mate into giving him even more money he doesn’t deserve.”
