Page 111 of Beyond the Badge: Crew

All of them.

They sucked you in, gave you a false sense of happiness, then turned around and sliced your fucking throat.

“Hi.”

He tipped his eyes down to the woman now standing only inches away. How did he miss her approaching?

The tension lessened from his chest making it a little bit easier for him to breathe. “Hi.”

“I know we haven’t known each other long but I can see how stressed you are.”

“Pissed,” he corrected.

A crease marred her normally smooth brow. “What?”

“Not stressed. Pissed.”

“About?”

“About why one parent feels the need to use their children as a weapon against the other.”

“Damn,” she whispered. “I’m sorry.”

He stared down at her. “If you ever have kids and you and the father go your separate ways, don’t make your children suffer just to get back at him.”

“What’s she getting back at you for?”

“Simply breathing.”

ChapterTwenty-One

Cami wasn’tsure how to react to what he said.

Some divorces were easy. Some, not so much.

Others left behind nothing but absolute scorched Earth.

She was lucky her parents were still happily married and even still madly in love. Even after thirty years.

They had given her relationship goals. Hopefully not an unrealistic one, since she wanted to have the same sort of solid partnership one day.

Her father sometimes serenaded her mother, despite being a horrible singer. And her mother loved every minute of it. They still flirted with each other. Touched and kissed. Whispered in each other’s ears. And laughed together over the stupidest things. They even scheduled date nights. They shared household responsibilities.

They stood by each other’s side through thick and thin. Through every move to a new state. Through two miscarriages and four more births after Cami was born.

They never gave up on each other. Not once. Any hard times they had only made them stronger.

So, yes, she wanted what they had, even though she wasn’t sure she’d ever get it.

No matter what, she couldn’t imagine falling in love with someone, being happy, building a family and a home and then watching it all get destroyed, leaving behind bitterness and anger.

When she reached out and put a hand on his gut, she could feel his body riddled with tension. “How long have you been divorced?”

“We separated seven years ago. The divorce took two years and a fuckload of money because Sasha fought me over everything. Every goddamn thing. My goal was to make sure my kids were taken care of. Her goal was to make sure she was taken care of.”

Cami was surprised he told her that much. Maybe talking to someone about it would help. So she continued, “How old were you when you got married?”

“Twenty-seven.”

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