Page 23 of Crashing Without Justice

Dad shook his head, just as disgusted with the entire situation as we all were. “Look, I’m onboard with however you want to handle this, but I draw the line at that woman accosting your mother. If she comes near your mother again, then I’m going to have to step in, and I don’t feel any guilt towards that woman to use kid gloves, Harding.”

“No, and I understand that, Dad,” I assured him. “I’m not happy about what she did, either.”

“Well, since I’m employed by the United States government, if she makes any phone calls to my boss, or the base, or anyone in my professional circle, I will have no problem letting them go after her, Harding,” Jeremy added. “As far as I’m concerned, she deserves to get arrested or fined for what she’s done so far.”

“Look, let’s just hope that the police talk some sense into her,” I said lamely, feeling so fucking helpless right now. “Now that an official complaint has been filed against her, maybe it’ll make a difference.”

No one said anything for a few seconds before Dad asked, “How long do you plan on staying at a hotel?”

“Not sure,” I answered. “I’ve started looking at apartments, but if I can move only once, then I will. I don’t want to lease myself into a place that I might not like once things calm down. I’d rather deal with moving into a new place just one time.”

“I’d wait until she’s been served,” Jeremy huffed. “The last thing that you need is for that crazy woman to know where you live.”

“He’s got a point,” Mom agreed. “As long as you’re staying in a hotel, you can always move if she finds out where you are.”

I let out a deep sigh as I slid my hands through my hair. “I feel so goddamn ineffective,” I confessed. “I feel like…I feel like I can’t do anything but watch her wreak havoc everywhere. It’s not a good feeling.”

“Just watch out for cut brake lines,” Jeremy snorted.

“Jeremy!” Mom choked out, trying to hide her laugh.

“What?” he asked, a genuine look on his face. “Don’t tell me that she’s not a Dateline episode that’s just waiting to happen.”

“Jesus Christ, Jer,” I grumbled, shaking my head.

“She’s batshit crazy, Harding,” he replied. “At this point, I wouldn’t put anything past her.”

“She’s not going to cut my brake lines,” I retorted.

“No,” he agreed. “She’s just going to pay someone to do it.”

I shook my head again. “Stop it.”

He just grinned. “Don’t say that I didn’t warn you.”

“How about we forget that woman for one night?” Mom suggested. “I think a nice family dinner is just what we need right now.”

“I’m game,” Jeremy immediately said, always down for one of Mom’s homecooked meals.

“Sounds great, honey,” Dad agreed.

“Yeah, okay,” I sighed, needing to make this mess up to her.

One family dinner later, we all felt a little bit better, but I also knew that the feeling wasn’t going to last long. After all, I still had divorce papers to serve.

Chapter 16

Paige~

“Oh, God…don’t stop…”

Gil had turned out to be just as disloyal to Harding as I’d hope he’d be, and my phone was capturing it all. Luckily for me, Gil had been too excited to pay attention to where I had set my phone down, and everything was being recorded for my next steps. I also wasn’t worried about the lack of permission in this instance because it wasn’t like I was going to make the video public or anything.

“You like that, sweetheart?” Gil grunted, his hands tight around my hips as he railed me from behind. “You like that big dick?”

I almost rolled my eyes at his mediocre dirty talk. While his dick was adequate enough to get the job done, it was far from big. Gil was average-sized, which wasn’t a bad thing, but it made his dirty talk sound absolutely ridiculous.

He also hadn’t done anything worth bragging about. As soon as we’d gotten to the motel room, he had started groping me like a horny teenager, and he was far too old to have such little finesse. Granted, he wasn’t here to fall in love, so I could see how he wouldn’t overly care about my pleasure, but still. Most guys put enough effort to get a good review, and while Gil was proving good at the sex portion of the evening, he had skipped all foreplay, which had been a shame.

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