Page 24 of Recklessly Rogue

He gives a short laugh. “Sure, I’ll leave. As soon as mywife and kidcome out here and go with me.”

I stop at the bottom of the steps. I take a quick inventory. Chris is shorter and wider than Jeff, but it looks like his width is muscular and not from too many burgers and pints.

He looks angry, but he also looks tired. I don’t think he’s been drinking.

“That’s not going to happen,” I inform him.

“That is not foryouto say.”

“Oh, but it is,” I tell him in a tone that I know is very condescending and will likely infuriate him.

“Are you fucking her?”

I lift a brow. “April? No. I haven’t even met her. But she’s here because of Ruby. And that makes it my business.”

“You’re fucking Ruby,” he says bluntly.

I haven’t in a while, and that’s starting to wear on me, I’m not going to lie. “That’s none of your business,” I tell him. “But you’re trespassing and harassing our guests. You need to leave.”

“They’re mywife and kid!” he shouts. “You don’t get to tell me what I can or can’t do.”

“I do while you’re standing on this private property,” I tell him firmly. “AndAprildoes when it has to do with her. She can leave you whenever she wants to.”

“The fuck she can!”

“You need to lower your voice,” I tell him, keeping my voice calm.

“You can call the cops. We’re friends.”

Of course, they are. “I don’t need to call the cops.”

“I’m not leaving without my wife.”

“Yes, you are. By yourself or with my help. Your choice. You have to the count of ten.”

He scoffs. “You think you can physically remove me?”

“I absolutely do.” I step up on the first step. “But I won’t need to. I can make you absolutely miserable without ever laying a finger on you.” I take another step up. “I know how much you owe on all of your credit cards. I know which porn sites you visit and how often. I know everything in your personnel file. I know about the DUI that your friend, the cop, covered up for you.” I take another step up. “Trust me when I say that I can make any of those into a problem if I choose to. There are a lot more miserable things than a broken nose or jaw. Things that don’t heal as quickly. Not that broken bones don’t really suck too.”

Now I’m only three steps down from where he’s standing.

He’s staring at me with worry now rather than anger. “How do you know all of that?”

“I have resources that you can’t imagine,” I tell him. “Which is why you’re going to leave right now. And you arenotgoing to come back. April is going to stay here as long as it takes for her to figure out what she wants to do.” I take one more step up. “You are not going to harass her here, or at work, or in public. You’re going to leave her alone.”

“She’s mywife,” he says one more time.

I nod. “And if you’d treated her as such instead of being an abusive asshole, she might want to stay with you, but you fucked up, Chris. Now be a man and face the fact that this is all your own fault.”

“Oh, I see,” he says, taking a step back. “She said I hurt her?”

“Yes.”

“And you believe her?”

“I do.”

“It never occurred to you that she might be lying?”

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