Hold On

“You need to step back,” McClintock spat.

Garrett straightened, but he didn’t step back. This meant McClintock had to get out of the seat while shifting to the side to avoid hitting Garrett’s body. He did that and Garrett turned to him just as his phone in his jacket started ringing.

He wanted to take the call. With his work and a woman in his life, that woman having a son, he might even need to take the call.

He unfortunately had to get this done, so he didn’t take the call.

“We’ll see what your captain thinks of you assailing a citizen right in the reception area of the goddamned station,” McClintock threatened.

“As it’s a police station, we have cameras. Those will show I didn’t touch you. I also didn’t demand to speak to you. I didn’t show at your place of business, interrupt your pursuit of doing that business, and do it uttering slurs against a woman who means something to you. Feel free to discuss this with my captain. He’ll give you the respect of listening to you without laughing to your face. Then he won’t do dick.”

Garrett’s phone stopped ringing.

McClintock’s enraged look turned nasty. “I ca

Garrett took a step back and planted his hands on his hips, interrupting, “Listen to yourself, Justin. I did not give a ring to another woman, then go to Mia with what amounts to a dare to win her back or lose her forever. I didn’t find out she became involved with another man, happily involved, and seek her out to share I was ready, after five years, to try and resurrect our marriage. After repeated warnings that all between us was good and dead with no hope of resurrection, I didn’t go to her man’s place of business and cause a scene.”

As Garrett spoke, McClintock’s face got tighter and tighter.

He might spoil his daughter, but he wasn’t stupid. As Garrett gave him the words, he was realizing Mia had made her own bed.

But Garrett wasn’t even close to done.

“She quit her job to move to Bloomington to start her life with another man. She took her house off the market and ended her engagement; I didn’t ask her to. It might be way too late for her to learn lessons you never taught her, but I found out just this morning, when it’s important, it’s better late than never. You gotta let her sort out her own mistakes. If you don’t, she’ll never learn.”

It seemed like his words had been sinking in, but his advice hit a brick wall. McClintock might not be stupid, but he was when it came to his daughter. Garrett knew this when he saw the stubborn set in McClintock’s jaw.

Not his problem.

But it was time to sum up.

“The only thing I know right now is, no matter what you say or do, your daughter and I are done. I’ve moved on in a way there is no going back. So, however this gets sorted, Justin, don’t drag me into it because, like Mia, the problems she’s created for herself have fuck all to do with me.”

“So much for ‘to have and to hold, for better or for worse, until death do you part,’” McClintock sniped.

Garrett sighed, not about to get into explaining the concept of divorce to a stubborn man.

He was done.

“If that’s all you got, Justin, I got a killer to catch.”

“When you come to your senses, Garrett, and try to get my daughter back, do not expect me to be your champion,” he warned.

Garrett very nearly rolled his eyes, and he didn’t think he’d rolled his eyes since he was about twelve years old.

“Consider me informed,” Garrett muttered.

They stared at each other and Garrett did it with his face set studiously blank.

He did this to hide the fact that he didn’t like this because he’d always liked Mia’s father.

He spoiled the girls in his life, but he was a good guy. Fu

That chat had gone entirely differently than this one.

Garrett hadn’t relented then when McClintock had shown him patience and respect.

He didn’t relent now either, and it wasn’t because McClintock had not shown patience or respect.

It sucked that the vague but benign ending to Justin McClintock being in his life had turned malignant.

But it was what it was, and frankly, the way father and daughter were behaving, he didn’t give a fuck.

His phone beeped with a message and Garrett decided the staring contest was over.

“Be well, Justin,” he muttered, turning as he reached into his jacket to pull out his phone.

He’d taken one step away from McClintock when the man called his name.

Garrett drew in a calming breath and turned back.

“She loves you,” McClintock said quietly. “Loves you like you wouldn’t believe.”

Out of respect for a decent man, just a shit father, he replied quietly, “If she did it the way we both needed it, Justin, she would have weathered the storm.”

McClintock flinched.

That got in there.

Yeah, he wasn’t stupid. He’d raised a weak daughter. One who had no idea how to fight her own battles. One who had no idea how to hold on.

Not all McClintock’s fault. Mia was an adult.

But he hadn’t helped.

“Like I said, and I meant it, be well,” Garrett repeated, then he turned and jogged up the steps so McClintock couldn’t suck any more of his time.

As he went, he saw the voicemail was from Ta

He put the phone to his ear, moving to his desk to nab the car keys.

“Merry, brother, don’t know what you’re doin’ but need you at my office as soon as you can get here. Found Ryker, or I should say, Ryker found me. He’s got company. They’ve all got a story to tell and these stories are ones both you and Mike are not go

While listening, Garrett had stopped not only because he got the news that the vanished Ryker had resurfaced and all the other things his brother-in-law had shared, but because Ta

It sounded like he was close to laughing.

He took the phone from his ear and looked to his partner.

“Ryker’s at Ta

Up from his desk, ready to go, Mike’s brows rose. “No shit?”

“They’ve got someone with them and Ta

“Then let’s go.”

They headed to the front stairs, Garrett texting Ta

“Things go okay with Mia’s dad?” Mike asked as they moved down the steps, both their eyes sca

“No. But it went,” Garrett answered.

Mike didn’t reply. Then again, there wasn’t much more for Garrett to say.

On the sidewalk, as they hoofed their way down the block toward Ta

This being after Mike and Ta

They hit the door next to Mimi’s that had a brass plaque next to it that read Ta