The First Taste (Slip of the Tongue #2) - Jessica Hawkins Page 0,128
my mouth from doing anything but hanging open. My instinct is to pull Andrew off, but the way he’s hulking out, a full-grown man wouldn’t be able to separate them.
“Get out of my apartment,” Reggie says through his teeth, wheezing.
“This isn’t your apartment—it’s Amelia’s. You have a real bad habit of showing up places you aren’t wanted, don’t you?”
Reggie straightens, despite his obvious disadvantage. I know him. He feels cornered, and Reggie fights with words and threats, not muscles. “You should’ve taken the money. Amelia might fight and resist me, but eventually she’ll come crawling back when she needs something. Money, sex, companionship—I’m the one she’ll turn to. You’ll be a chump, but you could’ve been a chump with ten grand in your pocket.”
“Amelia’s been trying to get away from you for a year, yet you keep slinking back. Who’s the chump?”
“Fuck you,” Reggie says, spittle flying. “You’re delusional. You should be locked up. You can kiss your daughter goodbye. I’ll have you thrown in jail so fast for this—”
Somehow, Andrew grows even bigger. Toe to toe, with Reggie cowering, Andrew looks almost twice Reggie’s size. The muscles in his back tighten through his t-shirt. “You’re going to bring my daughter into this?”
“Somebody has to. You’re a fucking Neanderthal. Whoever left you in charge of a small child should be ashamed.”
Andrew raises his fist. Reggie looks more amused than afraid. This is what he wants. Once Andrew hits him, Reggie will have what he needs to take him down.
I grasp Andrew’s bicep, pulling it with all my strength. “Bell,” I cry out.
He pauses.
“Think of Bell. Don’t make this mistake.”
After a few tense seconds, he drops his fist but keeps ahold of Reggie’s shirt. “Here’s what’s going to happen,” Andrew says. “You’re going to go home, sign the divorce papers, and hand them over to your lawyer.”
Reggie scowls. “Says who?”
“Me. From this moment forward, you’ll stay away from Amelia. You won’t have a choice, since she’ll be getting a restraining order—”
“She wouldn’t—”
“She would, she will, and if that isn’t enough to keep you away, then I’ll have to do the job myself.”
Reggie eyes him. “Is that a threat?”
“You think I’m a Neanderthal? Just wait. My friends are nearing middle age, and they’re just itching to prove they’re as tough as they used to be. Don’t think they’d have any problem proving it on you.”
Reggie turns to me. “Are you hearing this? This is the kind of man you want to get mixed up with?”
I could never explain to Reggie how Andrew is ten times the man he is. Money and status mean nothing to him compared to family, love, security. The confidence Andrew wants to give me is far more valuable.
Reggie wriggles, and Andrew lets him go. “Get out,” Andrew says.
“You have balls now, but just wait,” Reggie says. “I have what I need to take both of you down. Even you, Amelia.”
I feel Andrew’s eyes on me, but I keep mine on Reggie. Reggie’s been circling this all night, so I face it head on. “What do you have?” I ask quietly.
“It’s me or him. This is your last chance. If you aren’t my wife, you’re my enemy. Decide.”
I start to remind him that this isn’t about either of them—it’s about me. Whether or not I choose Andrew and Andrew chooses me back, I will never return to Reggie.
Reggie holds up a hand. “Before you respond, know this. Avec and I come together. Without me, there’s no avec. That’s how I bring you down.”
THIRTY-ONE
Andrew and I go completely still, as if a vacuum has sucked the air right out of the room. I’ve been white-knuckling avec like a rope in a tug-of-war for a long time, trying to keep the bigger half on my side. I’ve built it from the ground up. It defines me. It’s a piece of me so large, it’s taken over every aspect of my life.
I no longer know if I want it because I love it, or because I’m afraid of who I am without it.
Now, I might be forced to find out.
“We’ll fight it,” Andrew says.
I blink out of my daze. “How? He has money. Power. Attorneys.”
“I don’t care. We’ll find a way.”
“I have more than that,” Reggie says. “I have you on tape, screwing another man in my kitchen while you’re still legally married to me. I have that same man threatening me in a crowded place and then again in front of his daughter.”