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Harlan
“You son of a bitch!” Cormac’s outraged voice screams through the station.
“You can’t go back there.” I hear Bett try to stop Cormac and stand, turning to Maisie before I hand Audra back to her.
The angry yell barks through the bullpen of the station making it past the cracked door of my office.
“Sunshine. It’s about to get ugly in here. You should probably go.”
Maisie nods, and she pulls the door open just as Cormac hits the threshold. Her eyes jump to mine and widen at the rage on his face. But I was expecting this. Expecting him. His rage-filled gaze narrows on Maisie, and my body tenses, about to jump between them.
“Excuse me,” she murmurs before skirting by him. She makes her way through the bullpen while I let Cormac stew in his own anger.
The same anger that I saw time and time again in school and the academy when I beat him at some imaginary goal post he set.
“Sorry boss. He just barged back here.” Betty’s just barely visible behind Cormac in the door way. But the glare she aims at him could incinerate steel.
“It’s fine, Bett. What can I do for you, Cormac?” I keep my tone steady despite the anger that wants to meet him head on. To give him a piece of my mind for putting Maisie and Audra in danger.
Instead of finding him and knocking the smug smirk that’s perpetually smeared across his face off, I decided to fight fire with fire.
Cormac wants to come after my job. Fine. But the second he dragged people I care about into this Cold War between us was the second I lost my patience for him.
A quick call to the mayor and an email was all it took to take him out of the running.
The veins in Cormac’s forehead start to bulge, his face going ruddy with his anger.
“You sicced the fucking mayor on me.” His jaw clenches like he can’t quite get the words out, and I let the smug smile I’ve been holding back curl my lips.
“I’m not sure I know what you’re talking about,” I say.
Cormac scoffs, drawing my attention back to him. “You know exactly what I’m talking about.”
“If you’re talking about the file containing the complaints against you as an officer of the law, and you leaving your position as a cop before an internal investigation could be launched against you for said complaints… I still don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You son of a bitch.” Cormac’s back to spitting anger.
“You already said that. But let me make one thing perfectly clear. This situation. The whole thing? That’s your fault. You put Stacey up to running that story with no thought to how it would affect others, and when I hit back you want to come at me? Go right ahead.” I snarl. “But I’ll fight just as fucking dirty as you do, and I promise I’ll have better results.”
Cormac glares at me, the muscle in his jaw jumping.
I continue. “You want to come at me for making the mayor aware of your history when that history not only concerns this office but the citizens of this town, that’s your choice, but I won’t let the town of Everette suffer because you never learned to hold your temper or treat your fellow officers with the respect due to them.”
I watch as the color drains from Cormac’s face. “Yeah. I know all about the excessive force complaints, the harassment of not only citizens but your fellow female officers. Sure, you left before anything formal could be put in your file, but not before there were notes. You’re insubordinate, and you don’t deserve to protect and serve a county dumpster in my opinion — and it seems the mayor and town council agree with me.”
“And you are?” He spits incredulously. “You’re in a relationship with a fucking accident vic. Moved her into your place the day she got out of the hospital, and you want to preach moral superiority at me? You’re a fucking hypocrite is what you are. I bet you don’t even know that’s her MO.”
My own rage ignites like a thunderclap. “You want to be real careful what you say next.”
“What? You’re telling me that you were too busy investigating me to look into your little girlfriend there? How about the fact that she was dating a cop back in Tulsa and about the time she takes off in that fucking camper, he loses his job and now has a warrant out for his arrest.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” I grit out.
“I know that she’s playing you for a fool, and I hope to get front row seats to the show of her breaking your damned heart.” He grins then, a nasty little thing covering his face. “Maybe I’ll show her what a real man is like.”
I’m up and around my desk before I realize what I’m doing. Grabbing Cormac by the collar of his shirt, I shove him against the door. My vision goes red at the thought of this ass clown going anywhere near her. Of being anywhere near her.
“You’re going to stay the fuck away from Maisie and Audra.”
