Chapter 12

Chapter

Twelve

DEVIN

Dallas signaled that he needed to pull into the gas station, which was good because I followed him and the fucker decided to take the scenic ride back. I figured I would gas up too and send a text to Vic to see if I needed to double back and come to get her. Unfortunately, when I pulled my phone out, the damn thing was so freaking dead it wouldn’t even turn on. I ran into the gas station and came back out with a charger that would work in my car and plugged it in.

Dallas was still there and his brother Austin had pulled in while I was inside the store as well. “What’s up?” I asked as I ducked into my car to plug the phone in.

“Austin was ranting about women when he pulled up,” Dallas informed me. “What’s going on with you and Becs now?”

“Not Becs. Jordan.”

“Thought you were dating Becs again?”

“Yeah, I was until Jordan told me she was pregnant.”

Dallas narrowed his eyes as he glanced my way. “That particular affliction seems to be going around a lot lately.”

“More than you know. Becs is also pregnant.”

“Fuck dude,” Dallas hissed and I checked out of the conversation as I worried about how Vic was doing. I needed my phone to charge faster before I knocked both of the Mercer brothers out and took off after her anyway. If Austin was here dealing with Jordan’s shit, then that meant the chances she had gone to meet up with my girl were slim to none.

Dallas must have had the same thought because he asked when Austin was with Jordan last.

“I just came from her place,” Austin stated.

“She lied,” Dallas growled. “Did she even have her car there?” He glared at me as he asked the question. “What the hell is going on with you and my sister?”

“Whoa! What sister? You better not be fucking around with Katy, asshole.” Austin yelled.

Dallas laughed, but it was a menacing sound that put me on my guard. “No, that would be too easy and far more age appropriate, wouldn’t it?” My best friend asked.

Before I could answer, Dallas’s phone pinged with an incoming text. I was able to see it when he opened it up and there was a picture of my girl giving a thumbs up to the camera.

“You’re lucky she said she’s home now and that she didn’t bother waiting around for Jordan.”

“I’m lucky?” I asked.

“Yeah, fucker. Something isn’t right between the two of you, and it better not be what I think because you’re fucking married. It might be to Satan in makeup and a dress, but that little devil woman is carrying your child and I won’t have my sister dragged into that bullshit.”

“Damn Dallas, chill out. If something was going on between Victoria and your BFF, we would have known about it.”

“You would think,” Dallas murmured and then he turned and moved to get into his car. “I don’t like being kept in the dark and I have a bad fucking feeling.”

I wanted to tell him the truth. There was no need to keep it a secret besides the fact that I didn’t have solid proof about the baby yet, but it wouldn’t be long before I could get that. Still, I couldn’t come clean to Dallas and Austin without talking to Victoria first. When I glanced at my phone again, Dallas slammed his car door shut and took off half a minute later.

“Look man, I get that life can be complicated, but I have to say, I rooted for you and Vic a couple years ago.”

“What?” I asked Austin in shock. He nodded and as if he figured it would be news to me that he knew about us.

“I hoped you two worked out whatever made you want to keep your relationship a secret, but then Justice was in the picture and I figured I didn’t know shit about shit.” Austin glanced back to where we could both see Dallas’ taillights growing smaller in the distance.

“I don’t know what the hell is happening now because my dumbass brother seems to think you married that bitch and maybe have a baby on the way. If that’s the case, then you need to leave my sister alone. That kind of complicated bullshit is too much for anyone to handle. Vic comes off as strong and sometimes domineering, being the oldest sibling and all, but she’s all soft and gooey inside. I don’t want to see my marshmallow of a sister display those soft insides to the people who cracked through the outer shell only to watch the good parts spill out and leave a mess behind.”

I stood there speechless as Austin walked off, got in his own car, and took off without any further fanfare, just like his younger brother had done moments ago.

I needed a plan to get Justice out of our lives once and for all. If Victoria’s brothers’ attitudes were anything to go by, that plan needed to fall into place yesterday.

After I got in my car, I pulled my phone up and saw that it had enough charge to turn back on. The minute it was up and running again, I dialed Vic. The phone rang out to voicemail and did so again when I hung up and attempted another call.

“Vic, I know you got home safe, but we are never doing that again. Your safety is more important than our secret or how someone might react to what has been going on. I wanted to come by and see you, but since you’re not answering, I’m going to go home and work on getting my plan in place to get us out from under this mess with Justice. I love you. Please, remember that. I almost told your brothers today, but I didn’t want to make another misstep without talking to you first.”

“You owe me a date!” Justice snapped at me the minute I walked through the door.

“What the fuck?” I growled back.

Justice flounced toward me before even a single toe could get through my front door. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear she had been lying in wait for me to get home. As soon as she was within reach, she slammed the door shut behind me and then stuck her hip out with her hand on it.

“What do you think you’re doing?” My fake wife asked with just as much attitude as she had greeted me with.

“Last I checked, I’m a grown man and you aren’t my mom. I don’t have to answer to you.”

“I AM YOUR WIFE!” She spat the words at me as if they were laced with venom and could do maximum harm on impact.

“We both know our marriage isn’t real, so again, I don’t know who you think you’re yelling at, but this is my fucking house and I don’t have to stand for it.”

“Again, I am your wife and you don’t have to stand for it, but this house will be mine in the divorce.”

I laughed at Justice and the notion that I might owe her a damn thing. “You forgot that we signed a prenup.”

The evil grin on her face should have been warning enough, but it didn’t fully prepare me for what was coming.

“Oh? You mean the prenup that you never bothered to take to the clerk of court’s office to file away for safe keeping?”

I glanced toward my bedroom where I kept all my important papers in a safe. There was no way she could get into that. Her smirk grew into a full-blown evil grin as if she could read my mind and was about to disabuse me of the notion that I had one up on her.

“You are more predictable than a watch, asshole. Your safe code was Victoria’s birthday. My present for knowing that was to find the prenup and toss it in the fire.” I glanced to the living room, where there was indeed a fire that seemed to be dying out. “Since you didn’t think to make copies or file it with the court, you can’t prove there was ever a prenup. Now, I’m going to ask you again where the hell you have been. You didn’t come home at all last night and my parents stopped by to invite us out to dinner.”

“That sounds like a personal problem.” I threw the words at her along with my sneer as I made my way back to the bedroom to find she had left the safe wide open. The little bit of emergency money I normally kept in there, about $5,000, was notably missing.

“You can’t just disappear to be with your ex-girlfriend. We are married and I am pregnant. What if something happened to the baby and I had an emergency.”

“Seeing as to how you’re standing here harassing me, that wish wasn’t granted.” It was a cold thing to say, but Justice plucked my last fucking nerve with her bullshit. I sifted through all my important papers. Nothing else was missing, but that didn’t mean much. One thing that did catch my eye was our marriage certificate. Something itched at the back of my mind about it in conjunction with the prenup, but before the thought could fully form, I was hit with a fucking shoe.

I turned a hate-filled glare on Justice as she wound her arm back, ready to lob another high heel at my back. “Put it down or I will have you arrested for domestic abuse.”

“Who would believe you?” She shouted the question at me as she patted her belly, as if that made her seem innocent.

I pointed to the corner of my room. “The video footage speaks for itself. Just like it will when I explain how you broke into my personal safe, stole important legal documents out, destroyed them, and helped yourself to my emergency stash of $20,000.”

“There was only $5,000 in that safe!” She didn’t think before the correction slipped from her mouth.

“So you acknowledge that the amount you stole from me is constituted as a felony theft in Virginia?” I questioned. It was my turn to smirk at her.

She laughed, but I didn’t miss the panic beneath the sound. “We’re married. What’s yours is mine.”

“We had a prenup that stated otherwise,” I assured her.

“Prove it.”

“No need. That camera isn’t the only one in this house. You readily admitted to burning the prenup. The cameras caught you stealing it from my safe, throwing it into the fire, and gloating to me about how you did it. You admitted on camera that we had a prenup. I don’t need more proof than that.

She screamed out her frustration at me. “You will take me to dinner tomorrow night, in public. You will pretend to be happy with me at first, where my parents can see us. Then, we’ll fake a massive fight, so they won’t be blindsided when I have to move back in with them until I convince Brody to get me my own place. If you do that, and play along for another month or so, I will give you the annulment you want.”

Something like pure evil shined in Justice’s eyes and I didn’t trust her for one fucking second. “Fine,” I agreed. It would make things easier on me.

“In return, you will give me those tapes.”

It was my turn to laugh. “No, I don’t think I will. We’ll call those tapes my collateral. And before you get any ideas, they download to a protected server that is not in this house. They also download to cloud storage, so even if you knew where the server was, you would never get your hands on every copy.”

“You will be on your best behavior tomorrow night!” She shouted as she stomped off to her own bedroom.

I closed my door and locked it, worried that the bitch would try to kill me in my sleep if I gave her the opportunity. I pulled my cell out and tried to call Victoria again. She needed to know about the date I had coming up with Justice. One again, she didn’t answer her phone, so I sent a quick text.

Devin: Something happened. I wanted to explain, but keep getting sent to voicemail. I have to go out on a date with Justice tomorrow, in public. I am going to cause a scene with her, so everyone - who isn’t our family - will know we are headed for Splitsville. I want us to tell our families everything. I love you. Don’t forget that.

I didn’t bother to wait for a response. I needed food, a shower, and a good night’s sleep to help me deal with the crazy bitch who lived in my house.