Page 68 of Cold Foot Cash

“The court date isn’t going to happen. My lawyers and I—”

“Look, you fuckin’ frog. Normally I would just handle this by beating the ever-loving shit out of you, but I’m trying to be all zen, and be a better person, because Harley deserves lesschaos in her life. I’ll be honest though, you’re skating on ice that is paper-fuckin’-thin, my guy, so my advice to you is to do your very, very best to lower your dumbfuck voice with me, or I’ll revisit my old ways, and you can visit a hospital where they will have to surgically pry your glasses out of your face-skin, and afterward, you can also enjoy some dental bills as they try to reconstruct your entire fuckin’ smile, am I clear?

Lance just stared, then blinked once and lowered his voice to a more reasonable level. “Crystal clear. You said you aren’t Harley’s boyfriend though?” His smug smile was obnoxious and baiting.

“I haven’t even kissed her, man. She’s going out of this marriage classy. She’s not like you.” Cash inhaled deeply, and prayed for patience. “Do you mind if we sit and talk, man-to-man, in a calm and respectful manner, and oh my God I’m doing my best, just say yes before I change my mind.” The last part he said fast because his intrusive thoughts were so freaking loud right now.

“You can’t come inside. You aren’t invited.”

“To the house you took from Harley? No thank you, I don’t want to, but just so you’re aware, I’m not a vampire. Telling me I can’t come inside won’t stop me from doing whatever the fuck I want.” Gah, he just wanted to pound this guy’s face. Cash forced a smile, and talked low and slow. “Outside is fine.”

“I have cameras out here, just so you’re aware,” Lance said as he followed Cash out to the driveway, “and I will be taking any footage to police.”

“Of course you will.” Cash gestured to stack of folding chairs leaned against the inside of his open garage. “Do you mind if we sit?” Because if he stood standing over this prick, he was definitely going to lose it on him at the first rude shot he took at Harley. Sitting would keep Cash’s inner owl’s talons retracted. Probably. Any little bit helped.

“Fine,” Lance said ungraciously. “I’m good with standing though.”

“Mmm, sweet power-move.” Cash grabbed two chairs, yanked them open, clacked them down on the cement and pointed to the one opposite him. “Sit. Down.”

Lance crossed his arms over his chest, but Cash had a clear view of the look on his face. Lance was a big talker, probably on the internet, and on the phone, and in text messages, but in real life, he was a coward. He was submissive as a man, and now he was starting to make sense to Cash. He liked to control women, because he couldn’t do it to men. If he was in a Crew, he would be bottom at the bottom of the pecking order.

Weak men bullied women. Lance was a weak man.

Cash had sized him up and figured him out in all of what? One minute? One minute of being physically around him?

Lance sighed and sat down across from him. “What do you want? If this is a ploy to bully me off of asking for the money for her car, you’re wasting your time.”

“I don’t care about the money. I care about the woman you’re hurting.”

“But you’re not her boyfriend,” he fired off, and there was that smug smile again.

Don’t punch him, don’t punch him.“Her family cares about her too. They aren’t her boyfriend either.”

“Her family is my family,” Lance said, and oooh he was good at baiting and manipulating.

The best way to deal with a man like this was to remain unaffected. “Cool. You loved Harley at some point though, right?”

“I’m not talking to you about my relationship with her.”

“Yes or no? Did you love her?”

With a heavy sigh, he crossed his arms over his chest, and crossed one leg over the other. Ah, now his body language said Cash was getting warmer. “Yes. Obviously.”

“Do you love her still?”

Lance looked away, stared at the neighbor’s house across the street. That was a yes.

“If you can go back to those feelings, and hear me when I say, you are hurting her. You’re hurting her, Lance. You. Are. Purposely hurting her, and you can stop whenever you want.”

Lance huffed a breath and shook his head. “You don’t understand.”

“That you fumbled? That you fumbled Harley? You had the one, and you messed it up beyond repair, and you can never go back. She will never forget the things you did.”

Lance’s arms tightened over his chest, and he just kept staring across the street.

Cash leaned forward, and rested his elbows on his knees. “Here’s what I think. I think you lost yourself in this whole mess. I think at one point, you did have good intentions for her and you did believe in your relationship, and then you got lost in a relationship with Alissa. And you knew it was wrong. You still know it was wrong. But you got so deep into justifying it, and listening to whatever that woman was encouraging you to do, and it became this huge storyline in your life that the only way you could be happy was if you were apart from Harley, and you were allowed to be with Alissa,” Cash said, pointing toward the front door. “And then she needed you to prove you didn’t still care for Harley by being cruel to her. By bringing Alissa to places you know Harley would see, so that Alissa could witness the hurt on her face, and you could go back home and talk about how much you hate Harley, and you and Alissa could get a good fuck in. Am I getting close?”

He still wouldn’t meet Cash’s eyes, but he wasn’t arguing either.

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