Page 151 of Relentles
“She was defendin’ her ma,” Christopher snapped, tired. He couldn’t look at his wife any longer. Not that he had too. Her presence wrapped around him. Instead of comforting him as usual, it worried him. “What the fuck you expected? My girl not fuckin’ rollin’ over. She’d fuck up me to protect her ma.”
“Now, you’re defending her?”
“Fuck, yeah, and that’smymotherfuckin’ daughter. I was out of line for ever allowin’ you to discipline her.”
Sniffles traveled over the speaker. “Jo still needs a nurse. You were going to move me and my son into your house, so I could help you take care of her.”
He prayed for a quick death on the spot. Hearing the words repeated to him sounded so fucked up. He chanced a glance at Megan. She’d gone pale.
“I told you I wanted to hire you to help my wife.”
Why the fuck was he even arguing with her? Because Megan wanted to hear his interaction with the nurse for herself. He’d never denied her access to his phone. She could’ve opened his messages at any time and saw Torie’s messages. But Megan had long ago stopped policing his phone.
“I just called you to tell you, you not gettin’ no more money.”
“No, please! The money would help me so much. It would give my son a head start in life. Please! If you don’t do it for me, do it for him.”
He looked at Megan. She shook her head.
“No.”
“If you let me keep the money, no one has to know,” she said miserably. “You want to help me. I know you do. You’re a good, kind man—”
“I wanna help your boy,” he told her truthfully. “I ain’t givin’ a good fuck about you one way or the other, Torie.”
He’d finally said the right thing. For the first time since she barreled in, some of Megan’s anger lifted.
“You wanted me to take care of Jo and Gunther because of Dex?”
“Gunner,” he corrected. “And, yeah, that’s partly the reason.”
“You didn’t even know his name, so what’s the other reason if it wasn’t to help his mother?”
“It was to help my wife. That’s it. Payin’ you. Settin’ you up as the kids’ nanny. Puttin’ you under club protection. All of it was for Megan first and your kid second. You were the middleman to pull it all tofuckingether.”
Megan clenched her jaw.
“I can be your platonic sugar baby. No one has to know,” she repeated.
“No!”
“Can you get me back to Hortensia? Or P-Portland. I don’t know anyone here. At least there I know you.”
Turning, Megan started for the door. Christopher jumped to his feet and rushed around his desk, blocking her exit.
“Is she making you do this?” Torie demanded, although he barely heard her.
He was staring at Megan, wondering what the fuck was going on.
“She called me today!” Torie blared.
At his curse, Megan threw him a violent look.
“I’m sorry, Outlaw. If you want me to, I’ll call and apologize to her. I’m so envious of her. All I hear from you is her, her, her. You love her so much. You’re devoted to her.”
Just when Megan started to soften and Christopher’s thoughts began to clear, Torie said, “If you didn’t want me, you wouldn’t have gotten an erection when I touched you. And I know you’re calling me now because she told you and said things about me that wasn’t true.”
“Ha!” Megan spat. “I didn’t say anything about you. You told on yourself.”
