“Oh, hush, you.” She chuckled at my look. “Okay, I might’ve had a little too much of your fancy scotch last night, but the meeting was at my house, so I didn’t have to drive.”
I grinned at my assistant. “Want me to pick you up a little hair of the dog?”
Penny made a shooing motion. “Get out of here before I paddle you.”
I arched a brow in her direction. “Kinky. I like it.”
“Crosby McCoy, I will tan your hide, and there will be nothing pleasurable about the experience if you don’t stop that talk right now.”
I held up both hands in surrender as I backed out of the office. “I’m on my best behavior, promise.”
Penny shook her head. “You wouldn’t know best behavior if it bit you on the butt.”
“Let’s hope it doesn’t.”
I headed out into the afternoon sun, the fresh air and the verbal sparring session with Penny already doing wonders to clear my head. Gravel crunched under my feet as I walked across the parking lot to the store. My steps faltered as I took in a figure getting out of a ridiculously expensive vehicle. A muscle in my jaw ticked as I forced my gaze away from Grant Abbot and towards the store. The last thing I needed was an altercation with the opposing side of a case. I picked up my pace and headed for the store’s entrance.
“Crosby.”
The voice alone had my blood heating. All I could see in my mind was Kenna’s tear-soaked face. All I could feel was the way her body had shook as she sobbed. This man had put her through hell once before and was eager to do it again. I turned on my heel. “Yes?”
“Good to see you.”
“I wish I could say the same.”
Grant’s brows rose. “Can’t we be civil? We’re not in the courtroom, after all.”
I forced my hands to stay relaxed, to not give anything away. “I have a hard time being civil to someone who has hurt the people I care about. Someone who’s a miserable excuse for a human being.”
Grant’s eyes flared. “I see Kenna is telling her lies again.”
“And what lies would those be?” I was curious what tale Grant had invented to cover his bad behavior. I wondered if he’d even convinced himself the story was true.
He straightened. “She has a few different ones that she likes to tell, so I can’t be sure what she’s filled your head with. But you should know, this isn’t the first time she’s tried to swindle money out of my family.”
“Oh, by that, you mean asking you to be a responsible father for the daughter you helped to create?” The person in front of me was the worst kind of excuse of a man. One who never took responsibility for his actions and didn’t care who he crushed to get what he wanted. Nothing mattered to Grant but himself.
Heat crept into Grant’s cheeks. “It was never proven that the child was mine. She was likely cheating on me with someone else.”
“You know that’s not true.” Anyone that Kenna let in knew the fierce loyalty of her nature. She could no more cheat on someone than sprout wings and fly to the moon. “She loved you. Trusted you. And you broke her. Worse than that, you let your vicious parents at her when she was scared and alone. You don’t deserve to breathe.”
A sneer stretched across Grant’s face. “I’m pretty sure that was a threat, Counselor.”
“What are you going to do? Crawl back to Mommy and Daddy? Beg for them to make all of your problems go away? Isn’t that always what you do?”
The redness in Grant’s face intensified to the point where I wondered if he might have a stroke. I wouldn’t rush to call nine-one-one if he did. “I see someone’s been spreading her legs along with her lies. That’s how she always gets wealthy men to bend to her will—”
I saw red. Before I could think, I lunged. Two sets of arms pulled me back before my fist could connect with the asshole’s face.
“Don’t give him any more ammunition than he already has. You’ll hate yourself if you’re the reason Kenna loses her home.” Ford gave my arm a stern shake for good measure. His brother, Hunter, held steady.
“I’m fine,” I growled. “You can let go.”
Grant stared down his nose at the three of us as if we were bugs he wanted to stomp on. “But she is going to lose her home