Page 200 of Lovers' Dance: Vol. 2

His smile widened.

“Third marriage by now?” That was cheeky of me, but hey.

“Let’s focus on the preliminary groundwork to the dissolution of your marriage.” Collins shot back dryly. Touché.

I finished my quick perusal and held out the pages to Collins. “It’s fine, whatever.”

“Those are for your records,” He waved a hand through the air and leaned forward in the chair. “So let’s have an informal chat,”

My eyebrows shot up. “Informal?”

“Of course,” Collins attempted a friendly look, he didn’t quite pull it off. “I would hate for you to feel as if this discussion is occurring under duress.”

“Duress?” I repeated. The sarcasm was slight but present.

Collins nodded. “You’re currently without counsel, Mrs Bradley,” His fake friendly look deepened. “And the last thing my client wants is for there to be any unpleasantness during this process.”

I took a deep breath and said, “I’m not exactly sure why you’re here,”

Collins gestured to the papers he’d handed me not too long ago. “To discuss-”

“But I’m a busy woman,” I deliberately glanced at the clock on the wall to bring my point home before continuing. “And my husband should know by now that I won’t contest the divorce, I won’t speak about him to the press or anyone else for that matter and I won’t ask for any settlement.” The sound of heavy running outside my office made me pause. The door being violently flung open made me rise halfway out the chair. “Gloria, what on-”

“You need to come out frontnow.” she gushed. Gloria wasstressed to the stage of bulging eyes coupled with complete frantic body jerks as she beckoned to me. “Madi, hurry.”

Jumping to my feet with an apologetic grimace, I was too worried by Gloria’s behaviour to manage a proper smile; I regarded Collins. “Can we do this another time? I’ll sort out legal representation and leave it up to you lawyers. Okay?”

Collins snuck a peek at his shiny watch. Was that a Rolex? Yes, it was. How much was Matt paying this man? The oil economy was really bad at the moment, I hoped Matt wasn’t over-stretching himself financially. Not that I cared or anything.

“Madi,” Gloria practically wailed.

Then I heard Dante shouting over the sound of further heavy footfall. “Hey! You can’t go back there.”

What the hell? I turned towards the doorway only to catch sight of Gloria backing away and two strangers hustling their way into my office. Thefuck.

“Excuse me! Who the hell-”

“Madison DuMont?” the woman cut me off. Damn, she looked fierce and not in a catwalk supermodel way. The guy next to her wore the same hard expression. Who were these people?

“Maybe. Who’s asking?” I shot back angrily. No way was I confirming my name to these psychos. My hand searched the mess which was my desk for the handset. Fuck it, Liam must have moved the office phone again. I quickly snatched my cell up. “You need to get the hell off these premises before I call the police.”

“DCI Ramsbottom,” she replied while holding up a piece of paper with one hand and flashing me some form of supposed id with the other. It was too fast for me to see. “And this is DCI Sturridge. We have a warrant to search these premises.”

“I want to see that warrant again.” Dante yelled.

There were a number of things running through my head, all at the same time mind you, as I stared mouth gaping at the woman. DCI? Weren’t those coppers? I was certain DCI was a police rank. Why were there coppers at my business? And why was Dante shouting about a warrant? Why wasshetalking about a warrant and searching- Ha ha, Ramsbottom, funny name. Yeah. My thoughts were experiencing a cluster fuck at the moment, my inappropriate humour could attest to that.

The soft garbled sound coming from me was a determined yetfailed effort on my part to say, “What is going on?”

Collins stood up, adjusted the lapels of his business suit, and without missing a beat claimed the space next to my side. “Lawrence Collins,” he introduced himself to DCI Ramsbottom, didn’t offer a hand though, and his features were scarily impassive. “May I see the issued warrant?” His lips stretched across his face as he added. “Please.”

Collins had suddenly become a shark before my very eyes. An impossible and ridiculous thing to think, but that was the only explanation supplied by my confused brain.

“Who are you?” DCI Sturridge asked, quite aggressively too.

Collins smirked. Definitely an apex predator type of smirk. “Lawrence Collins,” he enunciated each syllable. “Family friend and solicitor.” He held his hand out to DCI Ramsbottom. “Now I’ll have a look at that if you don’t mind.” He flashed me a fleeting smile. “Seeing as I’m her legal representative at this point. Right?”

He nodded at me and I nodded back, slow and unsure. The suspicious looks directed at me from DCI Ramsbottom and Sturridge made my throat close up some more. Was it bad having a lawyer present when the police busted into your workplace? Did this make me look guilty? Guilty? I hadn’t done anything. I didn’t even know why they were here.

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