Page 4 of Outlaw

He gave nothing away. His expression never changing. “Okay, yeah, I remember you now.”

I tensed from the invisible blow. He remembered me…now. Whatever. This wasn’t why I had come here. I didn’t need anything more from this man than his signature.

“Lucky me,” I replied with sarcasm dripping from my words.

He raised his eyebrows, as if I had no reason to be annoyed. To think, I’d been infatuated with this man for the majority of my life. Jesus, I needed my head examined.

I stepped forward and held out the papers with the marriage certificate as proof for him to take. “Seems we made a mistake. The marriage was legal. The county clerk had a copy of our marriage certificate. Here are divorce papers. They are simple and to the point. Just need your signature.”

The incredulous look on his face was followed by a bark of laughter behind me.

“Now, that is why I let her inside the gate,” the blond man said. “Priceless.”

Linc ignored him as he reached out to snatch the papers from me and looked down at the certificate, then back at me. “This can’t be right.”

“Trust me, I thought the same thing. But we can fix it easily enough.”

The hard gleam in his eyes startled me. He was angry. This wasn’t my fault. He was the one who’d paid for the supposedly bogus marriage. I was the one who should be pissed.

“Are you after money? I have lawyers—you realize that? Afucking team of them. They will know this is complete horseshit the second they see it. I’m not giving some hot fuck I had in a casino five years ago a dime.” He shoved the papers at me, causing me to stumble back as I tried to take them and keep from falling at the same time.

His furious expression shifted to the blond man. “Fucking hilarious, Luther. Grow the hell up,” he snarled.

I was speechless as I clutched the papers to my chest. Was he serious?

“You can leave,” he barked at me.

My shoulders jerked, and I winced at the volume and tone of his voice. He wasn’t going to sign them. This was not something I had planned for. Crap! I had to get these signed.

“I’m not lying to you, and I don’t want your money. I just want to be divorced!” I said, raising my own voice and taking a step back from him. I didn’t know if he would do more than shove me next time. I’d never been hit by a man, and I didn’t want to experience it today.

“I was married, and I sure as fuck wouldn’t make that mistake twice. Especially to someone like you,” he said with disgust.

He was successfully shattering my self-esteem. Not that I wanted him to have married me on purpose, but still, he could have chosen his words more carefully. That was a rather nasty way of saying it. No one deserved to be spoken to like this. I was here to fix an issue neither of us wanted.

“These papers say that you did make the mistake of marrying someone like me. Unfortunately for me, I had to drive almost six hours to find you and get your signature to fix this. Not only do I not want anything from you. I want nothing more than to get the hell away from you and never lay eyes on you again. So, if you’d sign the papers, that would be fantastic!” My voice had risen with my anger until I was shouting. Unable to stop myself, I continued, “Furthermore, if I wanted something from you, whywould I wait five years?! You might find me unattractive and beneath you, but not everyone feels that way. I need this divorce because I’m engaged.” I held up my hand to show him the diamond ring Hudson had placed on it. “But I can’t get married until I am divorced from YOU!”

I was panting when I stopped and lowered my hand back to my side. I wasn’t a verbally aggressive person. This was so out of character for me that I was slightly stunned that I had just spoken to him like that. He seemed to bring out the worst in me.

“Might want to get the papers to the lawyers to check over,” the blond man said.

Linc’s eyes dropped back to my hand, and his jaw clenched.

Yep. Proof, you asshole, that I want out of this farce we’re stuck in.

Did women actually do this kind of thing to him to get his money? Were they stupid? Or maybe they didn’t know who he was. That was probably it. No sane woman would try to screw over a member of the Mafia.

“Mommy! Why awah you yellin’ like that?” the sweet voice that my world revolved around called, and my heart sank.

Dammit.

I spun around as Stevie hurried toward me. How she had managed to get the car door open I didn’t know. Time to start using the child lock. The concern on her little face hurt my heart. I had woken her up because I’d let Linc get to me.

I bent down to look at her. “Listen, Vivi Lu,” I said, brushing her curls back from her face. The headband I had placed in it this morning had been tossed onto the floorboard hours ago. “Go back to the car and look at the books Mommy brought, okay? I will be done in just a few minutes, and then we can go get some ice cream.”

She loved ice cream. I’d have to go to the grocery store to get it since finding oat milk ice cream anywhere else was almostimpossible. The excitement at the word lit up her eyes briefly, but vanished as she turned to stare up at Linc. Her little mind was so curious and he was someone I didn’t want her curious about. They were never supposed to meet.

“Who awah you?” she demanded, her chin up and not one ounce of intimidation on her face.

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