Page 40 of Courting the Consequences

Mac’s eyes narrowed on the phone; Kara watched as his demeanor slowly grew suspicious. “Alright,” he said again.

A man of few words.

“Call me when you can. We’ve got shit to discuss,” Johnny added.

Mac rolled his eyes. “They record everything; you know that. But if you swing by my house, you’ll find a notebook on my desk with everything you need.”

“Alright,” Kara heard Johnny shuffling, heard the telltale scritch of him scratching his beard. “You OK?”

“Fine,” Mac grunted.

Kara rolled her eyes and didn’t care if Mac saw her. She was over the macho-man bullshit. She turned the phone around and smiled at Johnny. He gave her an exasperated look and shook his head.

She smiled at her man and nodded. “You’ll be by for dinner?” she asked, not caring if Mac or Danvers was watching.

“Yeah, Princess. I’ll see you tonight.”

Kara smiled and said goodbye, ending the call. She put her phone in her pocket and turned her gaze to Mac. “Shall we begin?” she asked pleasantly.

“You’re really dating my son?” Mac asked.

“For several weeks now,” Kara answered.

Mac opened his mouth to say something more but glanced at Danvers. Instead, he raised an eyebrow at Kara and asked, “How are Rockstar and Devil?”

Kara smiled easily. “They are great. One big happy family.”

Mac laughed gruffly and shook his head. “And you’re just here out of the goodness of your heart?” he asked.

“I’m here because Johnny asked me to be. But I’m also here because I have questions for you.” She held up her recording device and made a show of turning it on in front of him. “For instance, what is your relationship with my father?”

Mac barked another laugh. “Right for the gut, huh?”

She smiled plainly and waited.

“What isyourrelationship with your father?” Mac shot back.

“I met my father for the first time ten years ago,” Kara answered honestly. “He called me six months after my mother died. Couldn’t even come to her funeral. Our relationship is…rockyat best.”

Mac’s eyes narrowed as she spoke. The smile turned into a sneer. “But yet you still became CEO and managing partner of his prestigious law firm. Oh, woe is me,” he drawled.

She smiled and shrugged. “Sure did,” she deadpanned.

“Alright,Princess,” he said almost condescendingly, “I’ll play. Your father and I used to be good friends until he fucked my fiancée and got her pregnant. She left me for him. Had a little boy, I heard, and ended up moving in with her parents when Vince bailed on her. I think she named the boy Marc or Marcus or something.”

Kara frowned and picked up her pen. “When was this?”

“Ah hell,” Mac sighed, leaning back in his chair. He rested his cuffed hands in his lap. “I’m an old man now. This all happened when I was twenty-five, so forty-ish years ago?”

Kara nodded and wrote the year down. “And what was the woman’s name?” she asked.

“Why does that matter?” Mac grumbled.

She looked up from her pad to level her gaze at him.

“Carlita Candela,” Mac finally answered when he realized she wasn’t budging.

Kara paused momentarily before she had to call on every fucking ounce of her courtroom etiquette to not freeze at hearing her mother’s name. She wrote down her name and continued. “So, you were dating Carlita forty years ago. She cheated on you with your good friend Vince?” Kara prompted.

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