Page 51 of The Marriage Negotiation

"I was thinking about that, too," I admitted. "The first few months of getting this started is going to be pretty crazy, but after that what if we volunteered at one of those free clinics?"

Patrick's eyebrows lifted as a smile began to spread across his face. "That's a great idea."

"We'd have to let whoever was in charge know that we'd need to be able to leave if we got a phone call, though. Patients in the on-call program would have to come first."

"That makes sense," Patrick agreed. "I'm sure they'd agree if they got a doctor and a nurse to volunteer their time. Free clinics are totally understaffed and have very low budgets. Any help they can get is a godsend."

"I agree. It's—"

"Zaq!"

"Oh god," I groaned when I heard someone shout my name. When I glanced around, I spotted Peter hurrying in our direction at a fast pace. He wasn't running, because he never did that, but he was walking quite swiftly.

"Zaq," he said when he reached us, "I've been looking for you everywhere." He reached down and grabbed my wrist, yanking me to my feet. "Let's go."

I tried to jerk my wrist free, but Peter just tightened his grip. "Let me go!"

"No, you're coming home with me."

"The hell I am." I pulled at my wrist at the same time as I kicked Peter in the shins. The moment I felt his grip loosen, I jerked harder and then darted away from him, moving quickly to stand behind Patrick.

I pulled Patrick's cell phone out of his pants pocket and hit the record button. I saw Jackson moving up out of the corner of my eye as and gave him a small shake of the head. We needed to deal with this Peter situation now before he tried something worse.

"Peter," I started, "I don't want to have anything to do with you. We are no longer engaged, dating, or even friends. Just go away and leave me alone."

Peter's face turned red. "You are my fiancé. You are coming home with me so that we can get married."

"Zaq is already married." Patrick stated. "Why don't you marry that blonde you've been living with for the last three years instead?"

"You're lying!" Peter was so enraged I actually thought he might stomp his foot. "Zaq can't be married. He's my fiancé."

"No, I am not," I snapped, growing tired of Peter's tirade. "We were engaged until you left me at the altar to run off to Hawaii with your girlfriend. That ended our engagement. It ended us having anything to do with each other. I never want to see you again."

"You love me, Zaq, I know you do and I'm not giving up until you're mine."

I narrowed my eyes at the man. "Is that a threat, Peter? You could go to prison for threatening someone like this."

"Shut up!" Peter snarled as he clenched his hands. "You don't know what you're talking about so keep your mouth shut."

My eyebrows lifted in surprise at the vehemence in Peter's tone. He had never spoken to me in such a violent way. No onehad ever spoken to me in this manner. What he was saying made no sense.

Had Peter become unhinged?

I took a closer step to Patrick, worried about what Peter might do. He had been the cause of us ending our engagement. Why was he so pissed now? It's like he had totally forgotten about the blonde woman he lived with. I certainly hadn't.

Did she even know about me? I mean, I knew she knew about me because she had sent those pictures, but did she really know who I was? Did she even know that I was a man or did she think I was some floozy trying to gain Peter's attention?

Yeah, that was gross.

"Does your girlfriend know you're trying to marry a guy?"

Had to ask.

"She has nothing to do with this," Peter insisted.

"She has everything to do with this," I shouted back, anger igniting a ball of fury in my gut. "You left me at the altar to take her on the honeymoon I planned for us, the honeymoon I paid for. How is she not involved?"

"She doesn't matter."

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