I Crave You - C.C. Wood Page 0,57

Understood?"

Whatever she said after that made his face turn absolutely thunderous. No, not thunderous. Murderous. It was even more frightening considering I was straddling his lap on the couch when it happened.

His thighs tensed beneath me and I shifted, ready to move off him. He was upset and needed space.

Brody shot me a sharp look, his brilliant green eyes laser-like in their focus, and grabbed my hip with his free hand, keeping me against him. Then, to make sure I fully understood, he shook his head.

"Listen to me, Monica. You will not take our daughter out of the country. You can't do it without my written consent and I will not give it."

He paused and this time I could hear exactly what she said.

"I will take my daughter wherever I please! We're going on vacation to the South of France and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it."

My eyes widened. Oh, shit. She'd put her foot in it now. I also understood that this was exactly what Brody was afraid of, that Monica would take Jacks out of the country. It would be a lot harder to get her back if Monica decided she didn't want to return.

"If you'd bothered to read our custody agreement closely, you would know that taking our daughter out of the country without my written permission will land your ass in jail. It's kidnapping."

"She's my child! How can it be kidnapping?" Monica screeched.

"Don't test me on this. You should know by now that I never bluff. If I find out you've taken her, and I definitely will, I'll call the airlines, explain that you've kidnapped our daughter, and there will be law enforcement waiting for you wherever you land."

After he finished speaking, Brody lowered the phone from his ear, his eyes burning with rage.

"What'd she say?" I asked.

"She hung up on me." His voice was low and dark. Deadly. His hands were gentle as he shifted me off his lap. He stood up. "Give me a few minutes, please. I have some calls to make."

"I can go if you—"

His eyes cut to me. "Do not leave." When he saw the expression on my face, he added, "Please."

"Okay," I agreed, still not thrilled with the way he just spoke to me. But now wasn't the time to take him to task. Once he'd handled everything, we'd talk about it. Doing it now would only escalate the situation.

Hmmm. Maybe I was finally learning how to be a mature human being.

Brody used his thumb to scroll through his phone before he tapped something and lifted it to his ear.

"Lynn, it's Brody Murphy. I apologize for calling so late, but I need you." He paused, listening to the person on the other end of the line as he paced back and forth from the den to the kitchen and back again. "Yeah, it's something to do with Monica." He laughed, a bitter, harsh sound that made me wince.

This time, when he paced, he headed back toward the master bedroom, which was down a short hallway from the kitchen, just on the other side of his office and the half bath.

His voice faded as he vanished into the bedroom. I could hear the muffled sound of his words but not the exact conversation.

I picked up the remote and browsed through the offerings on Netflix. There was one movie in particular that caught my eye. It was a thriller that promised to be both frightening and action-packed. Exactly what I needed as an outlet for my sudden bloodthirsty urges when it came to Brody's ex-wife.

I clicked on it and turned the TV down a bit so the louder parts wouldn't wake Jacks or interrupt Brody's phone calls. I settled in to watch for a while, but soon lost interest.

Instead of turning the movie off, I watched it with half an eye as I picked up my phone and opened the Kindle app. Maybe a book would be a better choice of distraction.

I sorted through my TBR shelf, surprised at how empty it was. I'd been so busy at Crave that I hadn't had time to read as much as I usually did. In the past, I would have close to a hundred books or more on my TBR shelf at any given time. Now, it was more like twenty, and half of those were about running a business, marketing, or budgeting.

Jeez, when had I let all my hobbies fall by the wayside? Reading books, experimenting with new recipes, hiking