Page 45 of After Hours

When Zachary tried to move forward, she held him back. Or rather, she held out her arm and he didn’t push right past it.

“He’s not worth it,” she told Zachary, though her gold gaze was fixed on Joseph. “Let him call whoever he wants. But don’t lay finger on him. Can’t you see? That’s what he wants. He’s a coward.”

“That I can see with my own eyes, baby,” Zachary said.

It was hard to say which part of that Joseph hated more. Thecowardor thebaby.

“You’ve forgotten your manners, Romily,” he said in that creepy, condescending voice of his.

Once again, Zachary wanted to take him apart. And also, again, Romily held up her arm. This time, she took a small step toward Joseph.

Zachary knew he wasn’t the only one who felt the shift in the air.

Joseph fell back a step. Romily stood taller. Zachary didn’t have to have been present for this marriage to understand what was happening here. She wasn’t cringing.

And her douchebag ex didn’t know what to do with that.

“Such tough guy in private, aren’t you, Joseph?” Romily was saying. “Such a big man when you’ve tricked a woman into falling for you so you can switch it up when she finally trusts you. What a power trip. But face to face with a real man, the only thing you can think to do is tuck your tail between your legs and call the cops. Pathetic.”

It was clear to Zachary that Joseph had never heard her say anything like this before. The look on the other man’s face was priceless. His mouth actually fell open.

He was tempted to take a picture.

“Besides,” Romily continued. “If anyone’s going to swing on you, Joseph, it’s going to be me. I think we both know I owe you a few.” She laughed when the other man actually blinked and stepped back yet again. “What a sad little coward you are. I never want to see you again.”

She started toward the car and Zachary went with her, aware that Romily was still making sure that her body was between Zachary and Joseph.

Joseph bared his teeth, but he didn’t follow after them. “This isn’t the end. I don’t know why you think you can just come here and make demands.”

The best part now, Zachary thought, was that the guy clearly hadn’t realized that they’d gone inside the house and taken what was Romily’s. That would be a little gift for him later.

He loved that for Joseph, really he did.

“You’ll be served papers on Monday,” Zachary told him. “Respond or don’t respond. It doesn’t make a difference. But I’ll tell you this. If I were you, I’d think long and hard about how you want this to go. Because sooner or later, the divorce is going to happen. If I were you, I’d make sure that it was easy.”

Joseph bared his teeth. “Are you threatening me again?”

“I don’t have to make threats, asshole,” Zachary told him. “All you need to do is remember that I’m your worst nightmare. I’ve already been to prison. More than happy to go back. There’s nothing about you that scares me or ever could. And now I know where you live.”

“That sounds like a threat!” Joseph threw at him.

“Honestly,” Zachary said, grinning in a way that made the other man shrink back, “I kind of hope you do make it hard. I really do.”

Then he made sure that Romily was safely in the car, door locked. Only then did he round the hood, climb in and drive her out of the past at last—and straight on into their future.

Chapter Twelve

Joseph was not a bright guy, as Romily wished she’d understood from the start. He did not make it easy. Not at first.

They ended up in court. But Zachary’s friend Frederick, who seemed to affect a courtroom the way Zachary affected a bedroom, handled everything. Eighteen months after Zachary and Romily faced Joseph on the front step of that cursed little house in Walnut Creek, the divorce was final and Romily was free.

She stood in the window of their apartment, looking down at the marina where she’d lived for those six months before she’d actually met Zachary. That was hard to imagine now.

As far as she was concerned, her life had begun that foggy night she’d met her Viking at last.

She could hear music thumping from the gym downstairs, where she still worked. She’d taken on more of the business side of things over time, freeing Zachary up to do more of the private coaching that he liked. Zachary had started to refer to it astheirgym.

He did that with everything. Like all of this wastheirs.

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