Page 108 of Dr. Stone
“Not exactly,” Jake said, calm in a way that set me on edge.
“If this was a reunion call, we’d have brought champagne,” Collin added, pointing his bottle at me. “And maybe a defibrillator for your dumb ass.”
The bottom dropped out of my gut.
Jake leaned on the rail. “Ash came home yesterday—said Andie finally cracked. Everything she’s been carrying spilled out.”
Collin nodded. “So you can let go of that whole ‘it’s all my fault’ routine. It wasn’t you.”
“Well…” Jake tilted his head. “In a way, it was.”
“Yeah, technically,” Collin agreed. “Your playboy past? Coming back to bite you.”
Jake’s tone cut sharper. “It’s not just that. There’s a bastard threatening to blow up your career with those old scandals.”
My chest seized. “Who the hell is threatening her—and me—with my past?”
Collin leaned back against the rail. “Who else? Her jealous little bitch of an ex. The same one you bought her car from.”
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”
The anger that surged through me nearly leveled me. Threatening her. Threatening Brandon. Using my past as ammo? The rage coiled so tight in my chest I swore my ribs would snap.
“Don’t worry,” Jake said quickly. “Jim and I are already talking to the board. From what we’ve seen, this isn’t enough to touch your license.”
“The worst I did was sleep with a patient’s twenty-five-year-old daughter—her family was practically planning the wedding,” I shot back.
Collin barked a laugh. “Damn, you really did get around.”
I ignored him. “Why the fuck wouldn’t she tell me?”
Jake’s face hardened. “Because he threatened to drag her through a brutal custody battle if she didn’t cut you off. She stayed away to protect you—and her son.”
Collin lifted his beer in a mock toast. “Now here’s the kicker. The bastard’s already digging his own grave. He got drunk and asked Hawk what it was like to screw his ‘ex-whore of a girlfriend.’”
“Oh, shit,” I said, almost smiling. “Titus doesn’t let that kind of trash slide.”
Jake smirked. “From what Jim heard, Titus stayed quiet. Which means he’s already got PIs on the guy.”
“Once Hawk’s people find even a scrap of dirt,” Collin added, “he’ll be annihilated. And that’s before he learns what this prick did to you and Andie.”
I dragged a hand over my face. “I need to talk to her.”
Jake shook his head. “She’s gone for the weekend—girls’ retreat. Ash, Avery, Nat…they’ve got her.”
“Meanwhile,” Collin said, “we’ll do what we do best—drink, eat, and map out exactly how to bury the son of a bitch.”
Jake pointed at Duke. “You guard the boats while we’re gone.”
“Yeah, about him,” I said. “He probably should come onshore with us.”
Collin snorted. “Three grown men carrying a Yorkie? Tabloids would eat us alive.”
Jake barked a laugh. “Shit, Iwantthat headline. ‘Newest scandal: billionaires caught co-parenting a Yorkie off Catalina.’”
For once, his humor didn’t touch me. His last words hit harder than I wanted to admit: she’d taken Jonathan’s threats seriously because that’s what abuse does—it sinks hooks deep. And if he’d ever laid a hand on her? God help him.
What gutted me most wasn’t the threat. It was knowing that if she hadn’t finally cracked to Ash, she might’ve carried that fear forever.
