Page 12 of Protected By the Lumberjack
Honey-- Evie-- she's already in the back seat of the Mercedes SUV that brought this slimeball to my mountain. The sack of shit that typed this thing up, is already sliding behind the wheel while Honey's tear-stained face presses to a window tinted so damn dark I can barely tell she's in the car.
"What the fuck is this?" My eyes frantically scan the order, trying to find where it lists what bullshit reason these men have concocted to justify it.
"I believe you took advantage of my fiancé’s vulnerable state and manipulated her into an inappropriate emotional dependency on you. Turns out, the judge agreed."
The smug bastard turns on the heel of his fancy shoes.
Hawkins has to hold me back so I don't bash the guy's head in on the side of his shiny car.
"Don't give him reason to make that paper permanent," my friend growls low as his grip on my arm keeps me in place.
"This isn't right. You know it. I know it...those two city slimeballs know it."
Todd looks back at me and grins, then opens the back door and slides in beside Honey. I hear her call out for me as the door shuts.
"We'll get her back, Carver. If she wants to be here, then we'll make sure here is where she is."
She's mine to protect and I have to let her go... It doesn't feel right to watch her drive away with two strange men just because they showed up with some fucking documents signed by a judge.
She doesn't trust them. And neither do I.
Less than twenty-four hours later, Sheriff Henderson gives me the go-ahead to pound on a hotel door in Slow River.
Erik stands behind me, along with Deputy Hawkins who drove me down here, and two other deputies from Erik's office.
"Where's Honey?" Todd pulls the door open, probably expecting someone else. I push him out of my way and walk into the hotel suite.
Behind me, I hear the sheriff presenting Todd with the handful of documents we came prepared with.
Not that he's listening to Erik. He's more concerned with getting between me and the door that separates the front of the suite from what I assume is the bedroom.
"Mywifeis napping." He informs me, far too smugly for a man who's about to get hauled out of here in cuffs. "She's been through a terrible ordeal, only complicated by your obsession with her, I might add-- Why is this man in my hotel room, officers? We have a restraining order that states he's not to be anywhere near my wife."
I swear Hawkins actually laughs at the guy, Sheriff Henderson taps the stack of papers in his hands that Todd hasn't bothered acknowledging yet.
"This one here explains how your RO is invalid," Erik shuffles papers so the one he's referring to is on top. "Filed in the wrong county."
Hawkins tsks and shakes his head.
"Your lawyer should have known the order has to be obtained in the county where the subject resides."
"Where is that two-bit excuse for an attorney, anyway?" Hawkins asks, looking around us.
"Hold up--" I throw a hand up in the deputy's direction and circle back to what the man still standing between me and the door I expect to lead to Honey has said-- twice now. "Yesterday she was 'fiancé,' why are you saying 'wife' today?"
"Eveline and I were married last night." Todd pulls himself up to his whole five foot, eight height, and tips his head back to look up at me. "We didn't want to wait another minute-- after how close she came to..."
He leaves his sentence off like he's overcome with emotion, but it's bad acting.
"That's where my attorney is, officer, he's been at the courthouse all morning getting the license recorded."
The bedroom door behind the man I'm itching to kill opens while he's talking; just a crack at first, like the person behind the door is trying to stay unnoticed, but somewhere around the word "married," the door swings wide.
Honey's eyes are narrowed at the back of Todd's head, her jaw set in a hateful scowl. Then she seems to notice everything else going on in the room; the Sheriff and his deputies impatiently trying to make sense of the situation, and then she sees me.
"Carver! Thank God!"
Chapter Seven
